Editor’s Note: If you want to experiment with tarot cards and don’t have any, we provide a free tarot spread generator using the Celtic Wings spread, which is based on the traditional Celtic Cross spread. This article tells you how to use the spread. You can visit Sarah’s website here. –efc
By Sarah Taylor
Given that quite a few of my recent articles on tarot have focused on specific tarot cards and how to read them, I thought we could take a step back this week and look at one of the issues in approaching a tarot reading: that of coming up with — or not coming up with — a question.
This is a subject that, at first, seems relatively straightforward. But as you start to think and feel your way into it (and you will already be familiar with these if you have done readings for yourself or others) then you can find yourself facing all manner of choices, quandaries and contradictions.
The first of these being:
Not everyone knows what they want
Which means that not everyone knows what it is that they want to know — or, therefore, how to ask for it. Very often as a tarot reader, you are squaring up against this particular psychology when you embark on a reading.
If you’re reading for another person, it can take some time to really listen to what they are saying, and to crystallize a question from that. A strange but somehow fitting comparison I can draw upon comes from my days in advertising. Sometimes, the creative team that I was a part of would get reams of information from clients who knew their business back-to-front and inside-out, but who were at a loss to understand what this meant for a potential customer. They needed a “positioning statement” — something that summed the company up in a single line.
A question in tarot plays a similar role: a client may have many different threads of experience that they want to incorporate in a reading. How to frame a question so that it makes sense of who a client is and respects the complexity of their lives is a skill unto itself, and one that can prove very valuable to a client. An experienced reader will often be able to achieve this by using their perceptive abilities, intuition and a certain canniness, which beginners can hone with practice.
At other times, there will be a certain ‘not-knowingness’ that you and your client might have to sit with, and which you can then ask the reading to address directly. Although it can feel uncomfortable to be in a position where you have to place more trust in the cards than you might be used to, both of you can learn a lot about yourselves in the process, and the reading is no less do-able for the uncertainty.
If you’re doing a reading for yourself, not knowing what you want can be tricky because you have the possibility of an additional layer of fuzziness provided by the fact that you are up against your own psychology. We’ve all experienced first hand how much easier it is to see someone else’s baggage clearly while failing to notice our own. You’ll know it by a sense of resistance that can feel nearly physical — like two magnets with the same poles being pushed together. When you meet that feeling, why not try two things: first, be kind and forgiving to yourself. Just taking this step is an act of courage. Second, try opting for the ‘not-knowingness’ and see where your reading takes you. If you can stay in that state of not knowing throughout the reading, you might just find a nugget of gold you can prise out of the landscape and start to work with.
Be as detailed as possible… or don’t be detailed at all
Once you know what you want, you then have the option to refine your question so that your reading can give you as much information and direction as possible. The more you refine, the narrower the cards’ focus.
This can be a good approach when the person asking the question already has some clarity — “What will happen if I quit my job and start studying Philosophy at Columbia University?” for example. It might not be such a good approach if your client has a yen to go to university, but they’re not sure, and maybe they should just stay in their job and see what happens, but it would be great to go back to school and learn something, though perhaps this is the ideal time to cash everything in and backpack through India, and, and. You get my drift — and theirs.
There are some occasions where, no matter how detailed you have been in framing a question, the cards that appear in a reading seem to have scant bearing on what it is that you are asking. If this happens, it might be worth running with your ‘not-knowingness’ for a while and doing some investigation. Sometimes you will find that the cards are answering the question, but not in the way either you or the client had anticipated. At other times, they might be indicating something off topic but perhaps more relevant. This is where a practised intuitive ability becomes paramount — although I believe firmly that the cards, like life, never give you something that you are unable to handle.
If you want to dispense with the detail when you or your client formulates a question, then by all means do so. But make “not being detailed” a deliberate act. By this, I mean enter into the reading as one who is prepared to work actively with whatever is given to you.
Some clients will mention an area of their life that they want to look at, or a broad issue, and will leave it at that. Still others choose to ask no question at all, nor do they offer up any information. There is nothing wrong with these approaches; but it is useful to be aware of the reasoning behind them — especially the second.
If clients can work actively with the cards, then a no-detail reading can be very rewarding for both reader and client. If, however, a client is withholding relevant detail as a means to test the reader or the cards, then they are, in essence, withholding a part of themselves too. As a reader, that resistance is a psychological and psychic barrier to meaning; and it is best worked with by acknowledging it openly and discussing it with the client. This discussion — as with the earlier exercise of exploring with a client what they want — can be an enlightening experience that can add to the depth of a reading.
The no-detail/no-question approach can also be adopted by self-readers and clients to determine whether what they feel is important to them is also acknowledged as important by the cards. All well and good. The potential sticking point comes when the cards fail to validate that importance. Then the client has the choice of accepting and working with that contrast (which, let’s face it, can feel like a bugger, and I speak from much experience here); or they can refute the message that the cards are bringing them. It is at this point that you, or they, might try to sneak in a second reading… just to be sure. This isn’t a great idea for the reasons I’ve cited in earlier articles, not least of which because the cards are on to you the moment you decide to start again and they tend to booby-trap subsequent readings with all manner of ridiculousness. If you can, stay with your first reading, and try to remain open to what is being given to you to work with, rather than mourning that which wasn’t.
Yes or No questions
There is much debate in the tarot world about whether ‘yes or no’ questions (i.e. ones that limit the reading to a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response) really work, and whether they have a place in tarot reading.
My quick answers to this are: Yes, they can work. Yes, they have a place… but I don’t do them. I say this for various reasons, not least of which is that I feel they not only cheat clients out of an opportunity to know themselves better; but also because it cheats them out of their hard-earned cash for something that, more often than not, they are completely equipped to answer themselves — whether through applying their own knowledge and common sense, or by picking up a tarot deck and seeing whether a card lands upright (‘yes’) or inverted (‘no’).
So, as you can see there is much more to starting a tarot reading than simply ‘asking a question’. It can offer us the potential for self-discovery. It can bring up matters to be integrated, or which can contribute to the refining or redefining of what is being asked. It can highlight discrepancies and areas of resistance. It can also encourage us to dance with the unknown, even if only for a moment. Who knew that something seemingly mundane could hold so much potential. All it asks of us is a willingness to explore and an acceptance to embrace what we find. Are we up for the challenge?
Some interesting responses. Perhaps I stated it too strongly when I said I don’t “allow” questions. I just tell the client I don’t need a question, the meaning of the reading will make itself apparent, it doesn’t need to be preceded by a question.
Oh sure the client has their questions anyway, even if they don’t state them aloud. I think that a lot of clients want to “test” the reader, to see if they can discern their most important issues. If they don’t lead me down the path to those issues, I avoid being subconsciously influenced. Those issues will come out soon enough, as the reading progresses.
Sure there are some clients that this doesn’t work so well with, and I have adapted to those situations. And yes Amanda, beginners might want to have more focus with specific questions. Working without questions can be too open ended. Most people learn using a “positional meaning” layout, so each position has a meaning (like past, present, future, an outcome, challenges, etc.) and this can give more structure. Lately I’ve worked without layouts at all, this can be a real challenge, it’s even more open ended.
Tarot speaks at many levels, according to the ability of the reader. Many systems of instruction do much as Sarah is doing, picking one card at a time and focusing on the narrative it gives. We must learn what each card says by itself, before we listen to what they say to each other. To me, Tarot is more about the relationships between cards than about what any single card says. But even one card, drawn at random, speaks volumes. That is what Sarah is demonstrating here.
Linda – good to get another perspective on “allow”. I’m not sure I’m completely with you on that one, but it is thought- and feeling-provoking nonetheless.
ps….”allow”….hm, well considering how we “block” all the time…..anyway, this word is no power-trip in my vocabulary I use it often and it has no such intent.
“new age-y” language is full-up-to-the top with the word ‘allow’, I think this is a moment for allowing the word allow to morph out of only seeming like a power trip.
written/spoken language as we know it (especially english) s not complete and I’m glad we are re-inventing how we understand it -and each other – as we go along this journey.
Charles,
I cannot speak for Tarot, but I do best to consciously work from this perspective in all walks of my life, that is, knowing I ‘know’ – or will see – the answer if I can only allow the question/s to come through. Thanks for bringing that idea/l to the tarot discussion.
Linda
Wonderful column. Thank you. Not once have I seen a person who asked the right question first. You always have to dig to find the real question. In fact, I routinely first ask them to draw a card that tells me what do they think they need, and then draw a card that says what they really need. Then deal a full spread and go from there, informed by the answers to the first two questions.
Knowing what a querent thinks he or she needs is just as important as knowing what he or she really needs, because until you get past that barrier of thought (or pattern, or fear etc), you can’t really address the soul need. In fact, once you break through that barrier, often the deeper, true need, falls into place. It’s always amazing to me how draining such a reading can be, but wrestling with a querent’s negative or badly fitting thought pattern takes a lot of energy and gentleness. A minor course correction is much easier, of course.
Yes or no comes in handy at the end of a reading, when the querent’s perspective has been changed or modified, and the querent is deciding where to go in the “new landscape.”
I love the challenge associated with doing a reading without a question, and sometimes it can work very well with a client that has done some work on themselves and has a certain amount of self-awareness.
However, I have had some clients where this just wouldn’t work as well. Sometimes framing a question helps a client to meet the response halfway, so they can be more receptive to what the cards have to offer.
I base my question on what a client wants first – even if all they know is that they don’t know but that they would like to ask a question; then on what I feel is the best approach in the circumstances.
Charles, don’t you feel that not “allowing” a person to ask a question puts you in a position where the balance of power is out of whack? I’m interested in your wording here.
interesting approach, charles — i can totally see its merits. but i wonder: for one totally new to simply learning the cards and how to use them (like myself), would you say that beginning from a question gives something a little more tangible to apply the card’s imagery to?
i feel like sometimes when things are totally wide open, it can be a little hard to focus productively. a little structure can go a long way for me. and if the card’s imagery nudges something else into consciousness, that can still be worked with.
I almost never allow people to ask a question for a Tarot reading. The cards know what your question is, even if you don’t. A skilled reader can see the answers to questions you didn’t know you had.
There’s an old saying, something like “answers are easy, the trick is finding the right questions.” I generally approach a reading with the expectation that I will get the answer to “what questions should I be asking right now?”