How to ask a tarot question that gets a useful answer

What tarot answers well

Tarot is good at describing a situation: what is going on underneath it, what you are not seeing, what you bring to it, and where it tends if nothing changes. It is good at advice. It is poor at facts you could look up, dates, and the private thoughts of people who are not there.

So the useful questions are about understanding and action. “What should I know about this job offer?” “What am I not seeing in this argument?” “How can I support my sister right now?” Each of these gives a three-card spread something to say in every position.

Ask about yourself

“Does he love me?” is the most asked question in tarot and the one it answers worst. Turn it round: “What is my part in this relationship?” “What do I need from it that I am not getting?” “What would help me see this clearly?” You can act on the answers to those. The cards will often describe the other person anyway, and when they do it is in relation to you, which is the only way you can use it.

Open questions over closed ones

“Will I get the job?” closes the reading to yes or no. “What will help me get the job?” or “What is this job going to ask of me?” opens it. Questions that start with what, how and where read better than questions that start with will, should and is.

If you want to keep a question about the future, add a time: “What is the next month likely to bring at work?” The cards read the near future more clearly than the far, and a timeframe stops the reading from sprawling.

Yes-or-no questions

You can ask them, and every card page on this site gives the card's yes-or-no leaning. Draw one card. Upright, read its verdict; reversed, lean the other way or read it as not yet. Then, and this is the part people skip, read the card's meaning too: the yes or no is the headline and the meaning is the reason, and the reason is what you came for.

Questions not to ask

Health diagnoses, legal outcomes, anything where the answer should come from someone qualified. Questions about people who have not asked to be read for, beyond your own relationship to them. And the same question again because you did not like the answer: the second spread does not know more than the first, and asking twice is a way of not listening.