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How to Ask Tarot Questions (And What Not to Ask)

How to ask tarot questions well comes down to one swap: stop asking what will happen and start asking what you're not seeing. Open questions beat yes or no. Questions about you beat questions about other people. Questions you can act on beat forecasts.

The question does more work than the spread. Here are the rules, twenty examples, and the ones to skip.

Four rules

• Open, not closed. Start with what, how, or why. "What" questions give you material; "will" questions give you a coin flip.
• You, not them. You can only act on your own side of anything. Ask about that side.
• Specific, not cosmic. "What should I do with my life" is too big for three cards. "What's my next step at work" isn't.
• Once. Ask, write the answer down, and sit with it. Re-asking until you like the result is the most common way readings stop being useful.

20 questions that work

For a daily card:

• What should I keep an eye on today?
• What does today need from me?
• What am I bringing into this room?
• What am I avoiding?

For a decision:

• What am I not seeing about this choice?
• What would each option cost me?
• What am I hoping someone else will decide for me?
• If I already know the answer, what's stopping me?

For a relationship:

• What am I bringing to this?
• What am I not saying?
• What does this connection need right now?
• What am I hoping they'll do that I could do myself?

For work:

• What's the real reason this project stalled?
• What skill is worth my next month?
• What am I tolerating that I shouldn't?
• What would make me a stronger candidate?

For feeling stuck:

• What keeps repeating here?
• What did I already learn that I'm ignoring?
• What's one small thing I could change this week?
• What would I tell a friend in this exact spot?

What not to ask

• Medical, legal, or financial questions. Tarot is not a doctor, a lawyer, or a financial advisor. Ask a person with a license.
• What is someone secretly thinking. You'll get a story about them that you have no way to check, and you'll believe it.
• Will they come back, will they text, will they leave. Reframe to what you're holding onto and what you want to do about it.
• When exactly will this happen. Tarot is bad at dates. Everyone's tarot is bad at dates.
• The same question, again, today. If you already asked, the second answer isn't clearer, it's just newer.
• Anything you don't want a real answer to. Fine to skip the reading. Not fine to keep drawing until it agrees with you.

How to rescue a bad question

• "Will they call me?" becomes "What am I holding onto here?"
• "Will I get the job?" becomes "What would make me a stronger candidate?"
• "Should I quit?" becomes "What would I be walking toward, and what would I be leaving?"
• "Do they love me?" becomes "What is this connection giving me?"
• "What will happen this year?" becomes "What deserves my attention this month?"

Notice that every rescued version can be answered by a three-card spread and gives you something to do on Tuesday. That's the test.

Match the question to the layout

Small question, one card. Question with a shape, three cards. Big tangled thing, the Celtic Cross. The tarot spreads guide lays out the whole menu, and if you want a yes or no, read yes or no tarot first so you set the rules before you draw.

Making you write the question down first is the thing the Toe Bean Tarot app does for you: a reading won't start until there's a question, and the question is saved with the reading in your journal, so you can look back and see which of your questions were any good. It's on Google Play, with iPhone coming soon.

Quick answers

What is a good tarot question?

An open question about something you can influence, asked once. "What am I not seeing about this job offer" beats "will I get the job".

Can you ask tarot about another person?

You can ask how a relationship feels from your side or what you're bringing to it. Asking what someone else is secretly thinking gives you a story about them you can't check.

Can you ask the same tarot question twice?

Asking again the same day usually means you didn't like the answer. Change the question or wait a week, and write both readings down.

Should I ask tarot yes or no questions?

You can, if you decide the rule before you draw. Open questions give you more to work with, because a yes or no tells you nothing about why.