Consider these two scenarios.
Scenario #1: You ask the Tarot, “Will I ever find love?” and you draw the Hermit. Uh, no, you won’t find love and you’ll live a life of solitude. You end the reading feeling completely bummed because you really wanted to find ‘the one’ in the 12 months and now it’s not going to happen.
Scenario #2: You ask the Tarot, “What can I do to create the love life I truly desire?” Again, you draw the Hermit. Well, now. If you want to find ‘the one’ in the next 12 months, first spend some time on your own, reflecting on the type of relationship you really want. By being on your own, you will come to a deep realisation about your inner resources that will support you in finding true and authentic love.
This time, you end the reading feeling empowered and optimistic, knowing exactly what it is you need to do to find the kind of love you’ve been dreaming of.
Of those two Tarot readings, which would you prefer? I know which one I would choose.
You see, asking the right questions in your Tarot readings is absolutely critical to getting the right answers – the answers that help you to shape a path forward and manifest your goals and dreams. When we ask good questions, we get good answers. And similarly, when we ask crappy questions, we get crappy answers.
So how do we ask good questions?
Ask Open-Ended Questions
Questions that can be answered “yes” or “no” are closed-ended questions. They’re fine if you want a fast answer, but the trouble is that they don’t allow for any deep reflection or exploration of a situation – they simply state what is or isn’t going to happen.
By asking the Tarot open-ended questions, on the other hand, you get far more interesting insights.
For example, instead of asking, “Will I find a new job?” you might ask, “What has been blocking me in finding a new job, and how can I release these blockages?” The first question can only be answered “yes” or “no”. The second question invites deeper reflection and opens the space for understanding how you can manifest your goal of finding a new job.
To ask open-ended questions, avoid starting the question with Will…, When… and Should…, and instead ask What…, How… and Why.
Get to the Heart of the Question
A client starts the session with the question, “What’s my soul mate like?” Now, sure, you could launch right into that reading by drawing a few cards and seeing what comes up. You might end up with an idea of a potential soul mate, but will it really be insightful and helpful for the client?
Or, you could ask a few questions to understand what’s really on your client’s mind and how you can help. Perhaps you find out that your client is single right now and has been having trouble finding the right partner for her so she wants to know what her soul mate is like so she can recognise him when he appears.
Well now you have more information to work with and now you can start to create a reading that will be much more helpful. Instead of asking the Tarot, “What’s my soul make like?” you now ask, “What signs might I see when I have met the right partner for me?” or “What can I do to attract the right partner for me?”
Instead of taking a question on face value, explore it, unpack it and get to the heart of what’s really being asked. You’ll find that you can then address the deeper questions that exist and deliver more meaningful insight.
Ask Follow-Up Questions
Every question can be broken down into ‘follow-up’ questions that serve to explore the different elements of the original question. So, a question like, “How can I live in alignment with my soul’s purpose?” can be broken down into the following questions:
- What is coming into my conscious awareness about my soul’s purpose?
- How can I discover my soul’s purpose?
- What is my soul’s purpose?
- How am I presently living in alignment with my soul’s purpose?
- What inner work do I need to do to be in alignment with my soul’s purpose?
- What resources are available to me that will help me to live in alignment with my soul’s purpose?
- What will bring me closer to my soul’s purpose?
- What may stand in the way of me fulfilling my soul’s purpose and how can I overcome this?
…and so on.
Now, do you notice what’s happening here? As we start to break the original question down into follow-up questions, we also start to form the beginnings of your very own customised Tarot spread. You could literally draw one card for each of the questions above and you’d have an in-depth and fully customised Tarot reading.
So for your next Tarot reading, check in with yourself first – Am I asking the right question of the Tarot? Is it open-ended and does it allow for deep exploration and insight? Does it get to the heart of the matter? And are there follow-up questions I could ask?
What are your most powerful questions? I’d love to hear from you so leave your response in the Comments below.
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Excellent article, Brigit!
Once in a while, I have trouble avoiding the dreaded “Should I…” or whatnot, so if I really can’t think of another way to ask the question, I mull over the different factors and the situation itself. Then, I go in just looking for more information and perspective, or for a recommended course of action/an examination of the options, but staying clear on the fact that the tarot is NOT deciding FOR me! (Obviously, there could be some good tarot questions in these exercises like “What are the pros/cons of this potential choice?”, etc.) So I think for me, another part of asking powerful questions, is intent. When I go in with the right intent and a clear head, I receive clear and insightful answers- even for those times when I don’t have the “exactly right” words for my question.
Nicely put!
I do Tarot Card reading since 35 years. When I have a question to answer, I always see it as a Open Ended question. If he asks me “Will I find love this year?” and I get the Hermit, I will tell him/her to enclose herself and seek inside what she really wants and need. Isolating her from outside influence. And take time to really find what she really wants. The Hermit is not a card of solitude in the negative way, it is a card of Time, taking Time, giving Time, and mostly isolate yourself to inner search what YOU want. And I’d say ” you will find love this year if you know exactly what you want. If you are ready to have it. ” Any question can be read as open ended question. You have to read between the words.
“you have to read between the words” – spot on! This is what I teach in my online Tarot courses – to get behind what is really being asked. That way, you can offer the most insight and value as a reader because you’re getting to the deeper reasons of what’s being asked.
I have lots of clients who won’t be satisfied by enlightening advice such as those… as they only came for the yes/no (or “when”, or “what should I do”) question and intend to get the answer they want. It goes: “When will I meet a man?” – in accord with the client I draw cards that permit me to see the obstacle preventing her from getting in a serious relationship and to understand what she needs to learn to open herself for that – and then she asks, “okay, so that’s a yes I guess, but when?”. As if everything else in the reading was just background noise that needed to be sorted out before she gets “you will meet a tall dark stranger on October 6th”. I’m kinda at a loss because I don’t think this kind of answer is empowering at all. I’m in France, the perception of Tarot may be a little different here.
If you find that you’re attracting clients who want yes/no answers, but you’re not comfortable providing them, you might want to think about how you’re presenting yourself in your marketing materials. I am very clear in my marketing about what style I offer and sure, it means not every person will want a reading with me, but that’s OK. In fact, it’s better than OK because it means I am giving my attention to those I can help most.
So, think about where you do your best work and then make it very clear with your prospective clients about what they can expect with you. Then, they will self-select.
Hope this helps!
Thank you for the insight!
Excellent post!! Loved it for its clarity ( as always) & uncovered an important aspect we deal with. My Tarot Club! As usual you are great, the best thing about you is you keeping it simple, lucid and very clear. Uncovering major basic points we all deal with. Askibg questions in the eight way is the most important part of Tarot. Or else it turns in to a GIGO way.
Thanks for helping as always, hungry for more such posts and anticipating it eagerly as always . Please more posts… ☺
Thanks
Amit
Amit, the cheque is in the mail! *just kidding* Thanks for your positive feedback!
Thanks Brigit! This is awesome article and this is a message you have many times given to all of us to ask the right question.
I must confess that until I got associated with your site, I would always go with the yes/no spread or ask questions to know a definite answer, predict future. After joining your site, I have learnt from the various blogs and response to closed group questions that we should use cards as a guiding power to design our destiny rather than predicting future. It has done amazingly well for my readings, I get more clarity in presenting the reading and interpreting the cards.
Thanks once again, waiting for many more such insightful blogs
Wonderful! I am so glad to hear that it has opened up your world
Changing your Tarot questions can make a lot of difference in the whole reading. How you frame your question focuses your Tarot lenses. Asking closed-ended questions can give you little help; asking open-ended questions can delve you into a pool of answers you didn’t even know existed.
I loved this post, yes it is true we have to ask open ended questions and allow the real truth to flow in. Rather then just answering what the question will bring.
People usualy want to hide certain truths from the psychic ask these kind of questions for number of reasons. Anyway but this is absolutely perfect way to ask from tarot.
I love the self created spreads concept. I do that most of the time.
My pleasure!