Best Questions to Ask Tarot Cards
Twenty questions for the reading you do with a decision in front of you: a job, a move, a relationship, a thing you have been putting off choosing. Each one is written to compare the paths and name what each costs rather than to ask the cards for a verdict. If nothing in particular is on the table, the general set under Questions to Ask Tarot Cards ranges more widely across work, money, home and family.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What is the decision I am actually facing?
Why ask it
Worth drawing first, because people often lay cards for the visible choice when the real one sits behind it. If what comes up reframes the question, stop and rewrite the question before you read anything else.
What do I already know about this that I have not admitted?
Why ask it
Most people arrive at a decision reading after the decision has quietly been made. If you find yourself arguing with what comes up, the argument tells you more than the card does.
If I stay on this path, where does it lead?
Why ask it
Conditional phrasing keeps the reading a description of a trajectory rather than a fixed forecast. Draw it alongside the next question so you are comparing two options instead of waiting for a ruling.
If I change course, what am I choosing to give up?
Why ask it
Every option has a cost, and readings that only look at the upside of change are the ones people regret following. Naming the cost in advance is what makes a choice something you can live with.
What would I choose if nobody would be disappointed?
Why ask it
Strips the obligations out for one draw so you can see the preference underneath. The answer is not automatically the right call, but you should know what you are trading away for other people's comfort.
What is the fear underneath the option I keep rejecting?
Why ask it
Dismissing an option quickly usually means you have already imagined it going badly. Name the specific bad version and it often turns out ordinary rather than unthinkable.
Which option am I picking to avoid a conversation?
Why ask it
A surprising number of decisions are really about not having to tell someone something. If this one lands, the next step is the conversation rather than another spread.
What am I treating as fixed that is actually negotiable?
Why ask it
Start dates, salaries, locations and other people's expectations are more movable than they feel while you are choosing between them. Look for the constraint you have never actually tested.
What would I need to find out before this gets easier?
Why ask it
Separates a decision that is genuinely hard from one that is only under-researched. If the answer is a fact you could establish in an afternoon, the reading has done its job.
Who is this decision really for?
Why ask it
Useful when you cannot tell whether you want the thing itself or want to be seen choosing it. An answer that names an audience rather than a need is worth sitting with.
What will the version of me in five years wish I had weighed?
Why ask it
Distance changes what looks important, and most of what feels urgent now will not survive the trip. Keep the answer to one sentence so you can carry it out of the reading.
What does waiting another three months cost me?
Why ask it
Delay is a choice with a price, and it is the only option that never gets read as one. If the cost turns out to be nothing, waiting is a legitimate answer rather than a failure of nerve.
What would make this reversible?
Why ask it
Reversible decisions deserve less deliberation than permanent ones, and people routinely treat the two the same way. Ask what a trial period, a sublet, a secondment or a fixed term would look like here.
What am I hoping the cards will give me permission to do?
Why ask it
Answer this honestly and half of all decision readings resolve on the spot. Where the hoped-for answer and the spread agree, be more suspicious of your interpretation rather than less.
Which option can I explain honestly to the people it affects?
Why ask it
A test of conduct rather than outcome. If one path needs a version of the story you would not say out loud to the person concerned, that is information about the path.
What is the smallest version of this I could try first?
Why ask it
Large choices often contain a small one you could make this month. If nothing comes up that fits inside a month, the decision may genuinely be all or nothing, which is itself worth knowing.
What would I tell a friend standing exactly here?
Why ask it
Advice given outward tends to be clearer and kinder than advice given inward. Say it in the second person, out loud, and notice what you would refuse to accept from yourself.
What am I afraid the easier choice would say about me?
Why ask it
Pride keeps people in situations long after the reasons have gone. Separate what a choice costs from what you think it signals, since only one of those is real.
What has to be true for this to be the right call?
Why ask it
Turns the reading into a list of conditions you can check afterward. It also exposes a decision resting on something you have assumed rather than confirmed.
How will I know in six months whether I chose well?
Why ask it
Ask it last and write the answer down with the date. Without a stated test you will judge the decision by how you happen to feel in six months, which mostly tracks the weather.
Reading on a Decision
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Setting Up a Decision Reading
Name the options in writing before you shuffle
Two or three options, one line each, including the option of doing nothing. A reading that has the alternatives written down in front of it produces comparisons; one that does not tends to produce atmosphere.
Turn will I into what and how
Will I get the job carries one bit of information and no guidance. What should I weigh before accepting, or how would I know this was wrong, gives you something to interpret and something to do afterward.
One decision per spread
Asking about the job and the relationship in the same layout leaves you unable to tell which position answered which. If a second decision surfaces, finish this reading and shuffle again.
Keep the subject yourself
Questions about what the other party secretly intends, or how to make them choose differently, are both unreliable and uncomfortable territory. Ask what your part is and what you would do in either case.
Set the date the decision has to be made
By the end of the notice period, before the lease ends, by the time the offer expires. Without a date, any card can be explained as something that has not happened yet, and the choice drifts.
Checking the Decision Afterward
- Record the date, the options as you wrote them, the cards drawn and your first reaction before you look anything up.
- Write down what you were hoping to hear, since that is the only real check you have on reading what you want to see.
- Note the conditions the reading rested on, then diary a date to check whether they held.
- Come back after the decision has played out and mark which parts you got right and which you talked yourself into.
- Notice whether your readings consistently favor the option that avoids a difficult conversation, because that pattern outlives any single spread.
Common Pitfalls
Re-asking until you like the answer
Repeating the same question in one sitting produces a mess of contradictory draws and usually ends with you selecting the one you preferred. If you want to ask again, wait until something in the situation has actually changed.
Reading for a decision that is not yours
Pulling cards about whether a friend should leave their marriage puts you in the position of holding conclusions about a person who never asked. Ask about your own conduct toward them instead.
Using a reading in place of advice you need
Contracts, tax, debt, medical treatment and anything with legal exposure need a professional. A reading can help you decide to make the appointment, and it cannot stand in for the appointment.
Deciding by spread rather than by reasoning
Cards are a way of getting your own thinking onto the table, not a coin toss with better production values. If you could not defend the choice to someone who does not read, you have not finished.
Reading while too upset to be honest
In the middle of a bad night most people read the cards as confirmation of whatever they already fear. Note the question, put the deck away, and come back when you can hear an unwelcome answer.