How to Ask Tarot Questions
How to word a question before you lay any cards: what open questions do that yes or no questions cannot, how specific to be, when asking again is worth it, and which subjects belong with a professional instead.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What makes a question workable in a reading?
Why ask it
It has one subject, it is about something you can act on, and it can be answered by a description rather than a verdict. A quick test: if you can imagine writing the answer down as a sentence starting "so I will," the question is workable.
Why do readers steer away from yes or no questions?
Why ask it
Not because they are forbidden, but because a spread gives you images and a yes or no gives you one bit of information, so almost everything you pulled goes unused. In practice the reader supplies the answer from their own hunch and then finds a card to support it.
What is wrong with asking whether something will happen?
Why ask it
"Will" questions cannot be acted on and cannot be checked for a long time, so they tend to be asked again and again. Rewriting "will I get the job" as "what would strengthen my case" changes an unanswerable question into a to-do list.
How specific should the question be?
Why ask it
Specific about the subject, open about the answer. "What do I need to know about the conversation with my sister on Sunday" is well aimed; "what do I need to know" is too loose to interpret, and "will Sunday go well" is too closed to use.
What do I do when I do not know what to ask?
Why ask it
Start by describing the situation out loud in three sentences and notice which sentence you keep returning to. Pulling cards without a question is not useless, but it produces a reading you can bend to any conclusion, which is the main way people end up reassured rather than informed.
Should I write the question down before I shuffle?
Why ask it
Yes, in the words you would say to another person. Questions drift once cards are on the table, and a written version is the only way to tell later whether the reading answered what you asked or something adjacent to it.
How many questions belong in one sitting?
Why ask it
One main question, and perhaps one follow-up on something the cards raised. Past that, attention thins and each new question is usually a way of avoiding the first answer.
Is it acceptable to ask the same question twice?
Why ask it
Once, if the wording was genuinely poor and you can say what you changed. Repulling because you did not like the answer is a habit worth naming out loud: it does not produce a better reading, and it slowly teaches you that readings mean nothing.
How do I ask about another person without reading for them?
Why ask it
Turn it towards yourself: not what your friend is thinking, but what you are misreading, what you have not said, or what your part in it is. Third-party questions have no verification step, which is why they generate more questions rather than answers.
How do I ask about timing?
Why ask it
Ask what would move things rather than when they will move. Timing questions are the least reliable use of a reading and the hardest to be wrong about, so they can absorb months of asking. If you must date something, tie it to your own action: what would I need to do before autumn.
How do I ask about a choice between two options?
Why ask it
Ask about each option separately, in the same session, in the same number of cards. Asking which is better invites a verdict; asking what each path involves gives you two descriptions you can compare, including the one you were hoping to rule out.
How do I ask about work or money?
Why ask it
Keep the question on your own conduct and preparation: what am I avoiding in this negotiation, what am I overestimating. A reading has nothing to say about a market or an interview panel, and treating it as though it does is how people talk themselves out of doing the arithmetic.
How do I ask about a health worry?
Why ask it
This is one to take elsewhere. A reading cannot diagnose anything or tell you whether a symptom is serious, and time spent asking is time not spent at a clinic. If you want to use a reading at all, ask what is making you hesitate about seeing a doctor.
How do I ask about a legal matter?
Why ask it
Also one for a professional. Contracts, custody, immigration and tenancy turn on facts and deadlines, and a missed deadline is not recoverable. A reading can help you work out what you want from the outcome before you sit down with a solicitor.
How do I ask about something I am frightened of?
Why ask it
Name the fear in the question rather than circling it: what am I afraid of here, what would help me face it. Vague questions asked in a frightened state get read in the worst available light, so the wording is doing protective work as well as directing the reading.
How do I ask about the past?
Why ask it
Ask what you have not understood about it, rather than what really happened. The first has a use, since your reading of the past shapes what you do next; the second invites you to reassign blame with cards as evidence.
How do I write a question for a spread with several positions?
Why ask it
One question, then let the positions do the dividing: what is behind this, what is in front of it, what am I not seeing. Asking a different question of each position produces several small readings that do not add up to anything.
How do I follow up on a card I cannot make sense of?
Why ask it
Ask a narrower question about that card's position rather than restating the whole thing, and pull one card only. If the second card is just as opaque, stop: an answer forced out of three extra pulls is your interpretation with decoration on it.
How do I ask about my own reading practice?
Why ask it
Useful and rarely done. Ask what you habitually avoid seeing in a spread, or which question you keep asking in different words. Answers here are checkable against your own notes, which makes them more testable than most readings.
How do I tell whether the question was the problem?
Why ask it
Look at whether you can state the answer in one sentence and do something with it. If you cannot, the usual causes are a compound question, a question about someone else's mind, or a question about timing. Rewrite it and read again another day rather than the same hour.
Before, during and after a reading
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before you shuffle
Say the situation out loud
Three sentences, unedited. The sentence you keep returning to is usually the question, and it is rarely the one you had planned to ask.
Write the question down
In plain words, one subject, no "and." This is the single change that most improves a reading, because it stops the question moving to fit the cards.
Decide what a useful answer would look like
If no possible answer would change what you do next, either rewrite the question or accept that you are asking for company rather than guidance.
During the reading
Read the whole spread before deciding
Interpreting card by card lets the first strong image set the conclusion, and the rest gets fitted around it.
Notice what you skip
The card you find hard to talk about is worth more attention than the one that confirms your expectation.
Keep the question in view
Glance back at the written question. If your interpretation has quietly become about something else, that drift is worth noting rather than following.
Afterwards
Record the question, the cards and the date
Notes are what make a practice improvable. Without them you cannot tell which kinds of question have been useful to you.
Write one action
A single sentence about what you will do differently. Readings with no action attached tend to be remembered as moods.
Leave it alone for a while
Coming back to the same subject the next day usually means asking the same question again. Give it long enough that something has actually changed.
Questions that belong elsewhere
- Symptoms, diagnoses and medication: a doctor or pharmacist, not a spread.
- Contracts, deadlines, custody and immigration: a solicitor or an advice service.
- Whether a partner is lying or unfaithful: a conversation with them.
- Anything involving your safety: someone you trust, or a support service in your country.
- Readings about people who did not ask for one, including their relationships and health.