Some Thoughts About the Questions We Ask Tarot

In building tarot skills, learning to develop questions is often just as important as learning card interpretations and intuitive techniques. 

Those who read tarot for others, either professionally or casually, seem to fall into two groups. One group wants to honor their clients’ question exactly as it is asked.

The other group wants to feel free to rephrase the question, and this for a variety of reasons.

I fall into the second group. For me there are many reasons to rephrase a question. We might rephrase for clarity, or for ethics.

Beyond rephrasing, I believe that sometimes a question needs to be broken out into more than a single question.

I did a short text reading for someone recently that illustrated the need to break out questions, and the need for tarot readers to be hyper aware that the question that the seeker is asking may not be the question that needs answering.

The question my seeker asked me was if she should go do a particular thing. The cards were very clear that this thing needed to be done, so I said yes, she should do it.

She then told me that she had hired a person to do this thing, and what she was really asking was if she should be present while the person she hired was doing the thing, or if she should just let the person do it without her. Clearly, this is an entirely different question.

Adding to the situation is that the thing she had hired the person to do had a very charged energy related to her specifically, so her presence there could be problematic.

Had I considered her question more thoroughly and intuitively, or had I probed a bit to get her to make her question clearer, I might have known to break the question into several parts, as follows.

Does the thing need to be done?
If yes:

What happens if she does the thing?

What happens if she gets someone else to do the thing?

What happens if she is there while the thing is being done by the person she hired?

As it was, she eventually clarified the question, so I was ultimately able to give her the reading she needed, rather than the reading she originally requested.

This experienced served to remind me that a single question reading truly is only as good as the question asked. I need to be vigilant in making sure I am asking the right questions of the cards. For me, and perhaps for many readers, more questions in a session usually works better than fewer questions. The original single question is often more of a topic, or a line of inquiry, than an actual single question.

Pivot from the Anxious Question to Healing

A tarot reading, whether professional, casual, or self-reading, is very often about getting some questions answered, or some specific areas of concern addressed.

One of my favorite kinds of tarot reading is the one that begins without a question, when we are open to the wisdom of the universe. Even then, such a reading will usually produce questions that we need to contemplate both with tarot and within our own hearts.

One type of question that most ethical tarot readers worry about, and that scammer tarot readers use to their benefit, is the predictive questioning that is produced by trauma and fear.

There are some tarot clients, and some questions, that seem to want to repeat over and over again.

Many of us have found ourselves turning to our cards, day in and day out, asking the same question. Sometimes we even shuffle again and repeat the question in the same session.

This is not always a bad thing.

There can be times when a slight rephrasing of the question can make a repeated question worthwhile.

There are times when new information makes it worthwhile to ask a question a second or third time.

There are times when having the cards repeat an answer over and over can help us finally accept an unwelcome truth.

However, there are times when repeating the same question can lead to psychic addiction. There are times when working with tarot might increase anxiety rather than relieve it.

Many professional readers will refuse to read twice on the same question within a short period of time. Sometimes, refusing the reading may be the best policy for that reader in that situation.

Yet, there is technique that can be helpful. This technique won’t work for every reader, every client, or every question. A great tarot reader, either professional or casual, needs to have a lot of techniques in their toolbox.

Sometimes the anxious question is about love; very often about the hope for a reunion with an ex, or the reform of a partner who makes regular and repeated bad choices.

What happens when the constant question is “Will we get back together?” or “Will my partner start to treat me better?”

In a situation where we have worked with the same question several times, and the answer is consistent and not hopeful, why does a person continue to ask that question over and over?

Sometimes, as we said earlier, it is because they need time to process and accept the truth.

Does hearing the same answer over and over again help them do that? For some people, yes. For others, and especially in the professional setting, this can be expensive, frustrating and unhealthy.

Yet, the reader still has an opportunity to foster healing in a situation like this. With gentle and firm skill, sometimes the reader can pivot the question to get to the heart of the problem, and help the client discover a real path for healing.

Even in self-reading, if there is real willingness to heal, this pivoting technique can work.

The pivoting technique relies on the idea that there is something deeper causing the client to stay stuck in their thinking. It is not that they are pigheaded or blinded by love.

They are hanging on to their fantasy, or their version of this story, or their fear, for a reason.

The trick is to ask of the cards a question that will help you understand what that underlying fear or belief is.

Try asking the cards, “Why am I (or why is this person) so stuck on this situation?”

Pull a few cards and see what you see. This can very often take the reading in a direction with new questions that bring new hope.

Sometimes the client themselves will reveal a clue. They may say, “He’s a really great guy.” Then, you have an opportunity to ask the cards a question such as, “What sort of person is he?” You may discover a way to help your client, or yourself, understand that he really is not that great at all. Once that belief system is dismantled; healing can begin.

Even in self-reading, you can use tarot to examine your assumptions, and the things you believe to be fact. When you use the cards to make this examination, you may find the need and the ability to change your thinking and begin healing.

Tarot can be very good at revealing the flaw in our thinking. For the person who desperately wants a reunion with their ex, and the reader sees no reunion possible, there is a different kind of question that can break that cycle.

Ask the cards what the relationship would look like if they did get back together. Very often, the reason for the breakup is apparent in that answer. When the cards reveal that a second go-round would be nothing but more of the same heartache, healing and change can become more welcome.

There is a belief among some tarot readers and clients that the only fair question at the tarot table is the question that brought the client to the table. I believe that a good reader should know to ask the deeper questions to get the answers the client didn’t know they needed.

The key is to be quick enough, smart enough, and intuitive enough to ask the right questions of the cards at the right times. This creates an opportunity to pivot from anxiety and fear to healing and hope.

In the end, a great tarot reading can almost always provide healing and hope, even when there is no possibility that the original hope will be fulfilled.

How Tarot Brings Us Hope

A tarot reading can be a source of hope. We can find within the cards, sometimes unbidden, indications of better days ahead.

We can ask the cards specific questions which will allow them to deliver hopeful messages.

We can study the cards and find within that study wisdom that bring enlightenment and hope.

We can create specific tarot spreads which can point the way to hopeful thinking and offer advice to help move a situation toward a better direction.

Hope can be life-giving, and lifesaving. Yet, hope can also be toxic. Sometimes the most healing thing we can do is to abandon hope and walk away from a hurtful situation. Sometimes the energy we put into a hopeless situation would be better used on something else.

Tarot can help us determine which situations deserve our hope, and when we are better served by letting go of hope.

Sometimes, the more specific we are in our questions, the clearer our answers and advice will be.

When I am unsure about the outcome of a situation, and whether it is appropriate to be hopeful, a simple two-card reading can often be illuminating.

One card will show the best possible outcome. The next card will show the worst possible outcome.

These two cards can often let us know whether we should have hope or walk away.

If the cards advise hope, we can then ask another question, such as “What should I do to help create that best possible outcome?”

If we are simply feeling overburdened and downtrodden in general, we can ask a simple question like, “About what can I feel hopeful right now?”

Very often the card that appears will give us inspiration, practical advice, or both.

But what happens when the card that appears isn’t a very hopeful card?

This is a situation when a clarifying card can be helpful. Very often a difficult card in answer to a question such as this is an invitation to heal an over-arching problem.

The cards can be soothing, but they are also truth-tellers. Sometimes there can be no real hope until we tackle a significant problem. Sometimes we just can’t get what we want. In those cases, hope comes from acceptance and a change in perspective.

Reading Tarot Out of Order

Reading Tarot Out of Order

One of the best ways to become a truly efficient and effective tarot reader is to learn and practice a number of techniques. In fact, the mark of a limited tarot reader is the word ‘always’. Try to avoid ‘always’ seeing and saying the same thing for a particular card, or ‘always’ using the same spread, or ‘always’ interpreting a particular spread using the same techniques.

This past Sunday we had our monthly Tarot Meetup, Cards and Conversation, at Panera Bread in Palm City. I was thrilled that over twenty people were in attendance! Our monthly meetups are a great place to meet old and new friends, share some readings, and learn something about tarot.

Since Sunday happened to be the day of Saturn and Pluto conjunct in Capricorn, an event that won’t happen again for more than five hundred years, I decided to design a series of exercises using the three Major Arcana cards associated with Saturn, Pluto and Capricorn, which are the World, Judgment and the Devil, respectively.

One of the questions I asked folks to consider was what those three cards might mean together in a reading. People came up with some great messages. Yet, I was struck by the fact that most, if not all, of our students and readers felt the need to designate an order to the cards and read the cards in that linear order.

Reading a group of non-positioned cards is a standard tarot technique. Designating an order to the cards (usually the order in which they were pulled) and reading them in that linear fashion is also, obviously, a standard technique. And, it’s an effective technique. Typically, that linear reading becomes a timeline, which turns a non-positioned group of cards into a de facto Past, Present, Future sort of reading, or, a Situation, Obstacle or Action, Outcome sort of reading.

However, there is no rule that says that tarot cards have to be read in a linear fashion, describing  a timeline, cause-and-effect, or a situation, action and outcome. While we must be able to read this way, it’s important to know that there are other ways to treat a non-positioned group of cards. The more techniques we know, the more information we can derive from the cards.

It became very clear to me that I have been in remiss in my group leadership. I have not taught my group other methods of handling groups of cards. Guess what we will be doing in our next meeting?

In the meantime, here are some ways to handle a non-positioned group of tarot cards that aren’t linear. These techniques can work with groups of cards as small as two, or as large as five or more.

Let’s use the example of the three cards from our meetup, the Devil, Judgement and the World.

When we read these cards in a linear fashion, we see a story of empowerment that comes from acknowledging and releasing our limiting behaviors.

How else might we read these cards?

We might see the state of the actual world here, where some want to end certain behaviors or traditions (Judgment) while others want to hang on to them (Devil).

We might see a reference to the World Wide Web (World) that connects us all, where we all have a chance to be heard (Judgement), yet also can become addicted and diminished by the attention we pay and the time we waste (Devil).

You can see that when you don’t attach to the order of the cards, the number of stories we can tell expands exponentially.

Other techniques for reading groups of cards include looking at what the cards have in common, to see if there is an overarching theme. If the cards have a similar message, that message can become the overriding takeaway from the reading. If the cards express opposite messages, you may be shining a light on a conflict.

Sometimes similarities in the coloring or images of the cards will give a specific message. I saw the Magician and the Nine of Cups from a version of the Waite deck recently and was struck that both cards had a yellow background, while the Magician’s cloak and the Nine of Cup’s hat were both red. I saw these cards, then, as speaking together with a message of boldness and confidence.

Sometimes cards within a group will be completely dissimilar, sharing neither messages, coloring nor themes. A good technique for blending dissimilar cards is to consider the keywords for each card and see how those keywords can work together in a sentence.

When you release your attachment to the order in which the cards are draw or laid out, or the numeric order of the card sequence, you open yourself to many additional opportunities to receive information.

Create Your Own Tarot Spreads

Create Your Own Tarot Spreads

A tarot spread is a diagram of card positions that allows you to do a helpful and understandable tarot reading. Typically, each position asks a question. The card that falls into that position must be read in the context of the position.

It is possible to do a good tarot reading without a positioned spread. It is also possible to include numerous spreads and techniques in a tarot reading session. Not every question calls for an entire spread. Yet, a good tarot reader needs to know when a tarot spread would be helpful, and how to most effectively work with a spread.

Each tarot spread has a theme. The spread may be comprehensive in that it addresses many or all departments of life. Or, a spread may be created to address a specific concern.

How the cards are laid out graphically can matter to the efficacy of a tarot spread. Sometimes the cards are meant to form a shape that relates to the theme of the spread. Whatever the graphic shape, we tend to notice how cards that are near each other interact with each other. We often create spreads that are like trees, where a single card addresses a larger issues and multiple cards branch from that to answer questions about that issue.

There are many traditional spreads, many books of tarot spreads, and many spreads created by professionals and shared on social media. With so many available spreads, why would you want to create your own?

There are many possible reasons to create your own spreads. First and foremost, since working with tarot spreads is such an important skill, the act of creating spreads helps us become better at reading spreads.

The act of making spreads is in itself creative, and therefore, fun. It’s also fun to share the spreads we create with others.

No matter how many spreads exist in the world, there is always room for more. There are an infinite number of questions we can answer with tarot.

As we work to create new spreads, we sometimes stumble onto new ways of working with the cards, and new techniques that improve our tarot practice.

Tarot spreads can have as few as two cards, or as many as seventy-eight.

When you create your own spread, it will likely fall into one of three categories.

You might create a comprehensive spread. This would be a larger spread, perhaps ranging between six and fifteen cards. You would want each position to reflect an aspect of life. The goal of this spread would be to get as complete a picture as possible of what is going on in a person’s life. Traditional comprehensive spreads include the Celtic Cross and the Astrology Wheel.

Another type of spread is a themed spread, or a situational spread. A themed spread might be created for a specific holiday, or a specific time of astrological transition, such as a full moon or a mercury retrograde. The graphic shape made by the cards might reflect this theme.

A situational spread could be created to use to answer a specific type of question, such as how to handle a relationship problem, or how to make a career transition.

These sorts of spreads can be shared with others and can be performed when need arises or when the time is appropriate.

It’s also possible to create a spread for a single use. These spreads are often the most powerful. I will occasionally use this method when a client presents with a unique and multi-faceted problem.

A single-use spread is likely to include many cards. You may also add positions as you are performing the spread, based on what the cards reveal.

A single-use spread allows you to break a complex issue into its components, and consider all aspects of the situation in order to find guidance, understanding and direction.

You can create a spread with a pen and a piece of paper, or you can create a spread using any sort of word processing or graphic software.

Sometimes, in a tarot reading, you might create a two- or three-card spread in the moment to answer a specific question. For example, if you are deciding whether or not to do something, you might pull one card to show what happens if you do it, and another card to show what happens if you don’t.

The more you allow yourself to explore tarot spreads and tarot reading techniques, the better you will become as a tarot reader.

Tarot Techniques that go Beyond the Spread

Many people have asked me to describe some of my most successful reading techniques.  Here are some easy-to-follow bullet lists to show you the methods I use to give readings that go beyond the simple spread.

Begin the Reading
Start with a comprehensive spread, such as the Celtic Cross or the Rainbow Spread. Before you interpret individual cards in their positions, notice and interpret:

• Colors, images and cards that “jump out” at you.
• The ratio of Major Arcana to Minor Arcana.
• Which suits are present, and in what quantities.
• Which suits are missing.
• Numbers, by sets and by runs within a suit.
• Court cards, and consider who or what they may represent, and how they relate to each other.
• The ratio of reversals to upright cards.
• Where significant cards appear spatially.

When interpreting the spread, do not:

• Be confined to card-by-card interpretations.
• Struggle to fit a card’s interpretation into the position in which it falls. The position is a suggestion or a guide only.
• Pretend to understand something. If it doesn’t make sense, say so!

When interpreting the spread, do:

• Look for information about the client’s personality.
• Use it as an opportunity to get to know your client, and the situations at hand.
• Use it to develop further questions, and figure out areas you would like to further explore.
• Decide if there are cards that are most significant, and why.
• Make note of anything you do not understand to try to figure out later in the reading.

Go Beyond the Spread

• Make note of the cards in the original spread, either mentally or on paper. Then pick them up and shuffle them back into the deck.
• Address each question or topic one at a time, by asking a question and picking cards to answer it.
• Look for cards from the original spread to show up again.
• Pay attention to trends, as you did in the original spread.
• Remember key words when interpreting the cards, and pay attention to how key words make sense in light of the question. Use the key words in your answers to describe situations, people and emotions.

 Ask the Questions

• Yes or No questions, or direct questions trying to predict the future, are not as effective as asking “What is the likelihood of. . .” or “What should I expect . . .” or “How should I prepare for. . .” .
• When asked to read about a person who is not present, ask the client for some information about the person, such as name and age, and simply pull a few cards to see what shows up about this person.
• It is always helpful to ask “What about. . .” a person, idea, plan, job etc., and pull a few cards.
• If your client is shy about asking questions, remember that most people are interested in knowing about their career, family, home and spiritual purpose.

Pull the Cards

• Pick a few cards off the top of the deck and lay them on the table.
• Pick a few cards off the top of the deck and hold them in your hand in a fan.
• Spread the cards face down on the table and have the client pick a few.
• Spread the cards face down on the table and have you or the client hold a hand over them and feel the pull of the energy in the cards.
• Spread the cards face up and have the client choose the images that call to them.
• Be intuitive about the number of cards you pick, or keep picking until it feels right, or keep picking until you reach a Major Arcana card.
• Once you have a few cards on the table, move them around until you can make a sensible story of them.
• Ask the client to comment on the images, or the feelings that the cards evoke.
• If you are reading over the phone and the client cannot see the images, give the keywords or describe the images to get feedback and involve the client.
• If you are not sure about the meaning of a particular card, ask the question “What is this card trying to tell me?” and pull another card to answer it.

Incorporate Other Tools and Skills

• Use a pendulum, another oracle, palmistry or psychic skills such as psycometry to confirm your Tarot reading, or to “flesh out” your reading.
• The Tarot is limitless in the information it can give. Feel empowered to use it to aid you in spirit communication, to give information about pets, dream interpretation or past lives if the reading calls for it.

Conclude the Reading

• Ask for, and answer, any final questions.
• Recap the important points of the reading, and suggest a theme for the reading.
• Make any necessary referrals (counselor, doctor, attorney, auto mechanic etc.).
• Have the client draw a one last card or token from another oracle to give some final insight.

The Inner Dialogue

Sometimes tarot readings are amazingly smooth and clear. Other times readers can find themselves a bit at a loss for words. When reading for a friend or a client we sometimes wonder “How can I best help this person?” or “What does this person need to know?”

Sometimes we see a particular card that just doesn’t seem to fit into the story and we wonder “What does the Ten of Swords mean here?” or “In what context should I interpret the Six of Pentacles in this reading?’

When you find yourself in such a reading, wondering what to do, try this technique.

Silently pick up your cards, and ask a question about the reading (again, silently) of your Higher Power. Pull a card or two to give you an answer.

Your client won’t know that you are struggling – you client will only know that you are in communication with Spirit and seeking answers for them.

The cards will easily guide you to give the best and most helpful reading possible.