Tarot Tutorial: "Can Tarot Answer Yes-No Questions?"
+ Sample Readings: "Relationship Revision, Redirection, or Recovery"
Dear Reader,
This tutorial addresses a challenging question that sometimes arises during readings: will or won’t things turn out as I want? In other words, can tarot cards answer a hard ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to the questions you ask them?
Furthermore, can a psychic?
These questions will be contemplated below…including some ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ answers! Part of today’s tutorial will be examined through a three-part sample Relationship Reading on "Relationship Revision, Redirection, or Recovery". The sample readings in this post will not apply to everyone, as the topics range from communicating needs in relationships to healing from breakups. These examples can also be applied to non-romantic relationships. I chose this topic as an example because the yes-no questions I’ve been asked most in readings over the years are related to relationships. The second most asked yes-no questions involved career, but this is just from my personal experience.
Beneath these questions is another subject that often comes up: how can I make my life meaningful? How can I make the most of the time I have? What is my calling; what are my callings? Once I identify my calling, where and how can I use my gifts? Everyone has a gift to share, and sometimes those gifts are spread amongst more than one undertaking.
I find that the subtext in many yes-no questions can often be diluted to who we choose to spend our time with and what we want to spend our time on. Perhaps these concerns sum up a lot of what matters to us in the long term. The good things we do and who we choose to do them for; the good things others do for us and who shows up for us…these are clues about what and who matters most. Facing the reality of these answers is not always easy. However, it can offer insight into how we want to spend our time and energy, and who values that time and energy. When I say “who” I am also thinking of non-human companions, who are an important part of families, too.
When taking a step back from questions about specific relationships, careers, activities, and events, getting a yes or no answer may become less important. A broader perspective enables an exploration of how we can bring meaning to ourselves and others, thereby rendering the specifics as less essential. If pursuing and expressing a spiritual life are essential values, you might be more flexible about accepting outcomes beyond your control. Some circumstances can be particularly challenging to accept and confusing to understand. In those cases, the cards often offer insight and guidance.
This post can be a resource for tarot readers (whether you do this recreationally or professionally). You’ve probably encountered these questions and will likely come across them again. If you are a tarot card reader, please feel free to use any of these samples when they apply to your readings. I hope some of this may help your clients.
If you are not a reader but enjoy having psychic or tarot card readings, this post might generate or support ideas about questions you want to bring to future readings.
I’m starting to see that this pre-post is becoming more like a ‘post-post’! Although wouldn’t a ‘post’ post come after the post? Either way, without further ado, I’m going to get on with the post itself!
Happy Reading,
Kyra
Tarot Tutorial: "Yes-No Questions for Tarot"
These questions about questions are some of the most vexing meta-questions regarding psychic and tarot card readings. How can we attempt to answer them? Perhaps we can apply logic, or try to answer these questions with the cards or channeling. Ah, but if we can answer these yes/no questions with a yes or no by using cards or ESP, does that mean the answer is automatically ‘yes’ to both? Or are the cards deceiving us? As we’ll see in this post, the answers to these questions are complicated—but there is a solution!
This Article Includes:
Question 1: “Can tarot cards answer a hard ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to your questions?”
Sample Reading I: Relationship Revision
Do the Cards Offer Alternative Outcomes?
Sample Reading II: Redirection and Recovery in Relationships
Seeking Support Beyond the Cards
Extended Article For Paid Subscribers:
Essential Answers to Relationship Questions
Question 2: “Can a psychic answer a hard ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to your questions?”
Sample Reading III: Family and Career Questions
If you’d like me to pull a card for you in the comments, and to read this article in its entirety, please feel free to upgrade to a paid membership:
Tarot Tutorial: "Relationship Revision, Redirection or Recovery"
Question 1: “Can tarot cards answer a hard ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to your questions?”
I’ll start addressing this question by sharing about some of my experiences.
When someone asks a yes-no question, I’ve learned it’s more productive to seek the tarot at that point. That doesn’t mean the answer to a close-ended question can always be provided by the tarot. This approach only means that an answer can be sought there. Tarot images might help illuminate the most likely outcome of each client’s unique experience. It’s prudent to be realistic about the limitations of tarot or any spiritual tool.
Some readings will give symbolic answers or images from channeling or the cards. Imagery and symbolism are open to interpretation. There are also times when a yes or no answer is obvious. Yet if there is no clear answer to the yes or no question, I find it is better to continue with what is revealed in the cards, channeling, and astrology than force an answer before it is clear. Perhaps the answer you and your client seek isn’t a complete yes or no because it’s a complex situation. Not every outcome will be straightforward. For instance, things can go one direction, then change to another. Do the cards depict one outcome, or alluse to a series of events?
Psychic channeling may offer sensory insights into the present, past, or future. However, straying too far from astrology, tarot, predictive poetry, or other supportive spiritual tools makes it more likely that a yes-no answer may be clouded with the subjectivity of the reader. Those tools offer a second opinion, objectivity, or the increased likelihood of being free from ego interference.
Some readers say a prayer or set an intention before a reading. They may ask for their judgment or ego to be set aside from the session. At the same time, it’s impossible for a reader, or for anyone, to be 100% devoid of judgment and personal bias all the time. Subjectivity is wonderful part of the human experience, and partly based on our experience. It can help to build empathy in readings. Yet when it comes to providing yes-no answers, more objectivity heightens accuracyand can be sought in secondary tools.
The outcome for some situations will be easier to discover than for others. There are times when the story of the cards will make it clear that there is only one possible way that a situation can go. For instance, if someone is in a relationship that is causing distress, or if they suspect their partner is being dishonest, they may ask you if that relationship will work out. In these cases, it is possible to pull cards and answer that question. That doesn’t mean the answer will be clear, only that it can be sought. Which brings us to how this works for relationship readings…
Sample Reading I: Relationship Revision
If cards like The Devil, the Lovers Reversed, the 3 of Swords, and the 9 of Swords keep showing up in the future positions of a spread following a question about relationships, that could indicate someone who has been treating you in a way you don’t like will likely continue that behaviour. If you receive these cards in the position of the past, it could indicate that this partner has worked on themselves or found recovery or maturity that has enabled them to become a more honest or reliable partner.
If you ask this question and receive the Devil Reversed or the 6 of Swords (or the Lovers Reversed, which can mean either person pulling away from the relationship) in a future position, you may be given an opening of opportunity to reevaluate or move on from that connection. This can be a harsh truth to communicate to someone and it takes sensitivity to deliver this story as it unfolds in the cards.
If your client or the querent (preson asking) is emotionally attached to the person they are asking about, you may wonder if they are ready to hear what the cards have to say. If that’s the case, you can ask for their permission to deliver the news. There is no one way to ask and it’s most genuine to say what comes to you naturally. You can find your own words that work for you.
However, I can give an example. Here is one approach: “The cards are showing a message that probably isn’t the answer you’re hoping for. Sometimes a warning or insight can be helpful. I want to be sure you’re ready for me to tell you what I see. Do you want to know or would you rather wait?” I find nearly everyone is curious enough to say “Yes”.
Do the Cards Offer Alternative Outcomes?
If they do say “Yes”, the insight offered by the cards may provide a solution that helps to revise or redirect a current or desired relationship.
If the person you are reading for is not content with the outcome depicted by the cards, you or they can ask a follow-up question, such as: “If I take the following action (specify the proposed action), will that change the outcome?” The new card you draw may illuminate whether or not this action would revise the course of the relationship.
You may getting the same card or the same types of cards as an answer, in which case something may be causing this situation to move outside the scope of your control. If so, it might help to reframe part of what you’re going through as fate, a process which can initiate acceptance, followed by inner peace. I’m not sure who said this, but these words can be a comfort in situations that cannot be controlled or altered:
“If something is meant to be, you can’t stop it from happening. If it isn’t meant to be, you can’t make it happen”.
In other cases, the Devil Reversed or the 6 of Swords (or the Lovers Reversed) in a future position may indicate that one of you will mentally withdraw from the relationship or communicate discontent. It may seem that one partner is breaking off the relationship, but if the other communicated a need that wasn’t met, that helped shed a light on an incompatibility. Speaking up for a need is not something to regret, even if it changes the dynamics or reduces the longevity of a relationship. That communication quickened the emergence of a deep truth between you, which honours an authentic relationship with yourself that will then be replicated with others. It’s easier to say this than to experience it, but it is true that being true to yourself will bring you closer to the most compatible people for you.
Sometimes these conversations bring people closer. Whatever the impact is, the sooner the truth can be faced, the more quickly this can become a genuine connection, disconnection (enabling you to connect somewhere else), or reconnection.
If a conversation about an issue in the relationship results in people drifting apart, there are at least two possibilities. Perhaps one can’t meet the other’s needs, or one of the people in this couple is more interested in discussing relationship improvement that the other. Putting off the inevitable can cause delays in finding someone compatible.
Sometimes this comes up unexpectedly. Your client may ask a general question about relationships, yet one of the cards in a future position may describe a person they don’t know yet. This could mean a couple of things. First, the current relationship may be transforming to make space for a new approach with one another to develop, in which case that card describes one or possibly both partners after they work on the change.
In other cases, the card describing someone not yet in the picture may point to an altogether new relationship. Consider the unique circumstances and needs of your client, in addition to surrounding cards in the spread. Listen to them with your mind and heart. If you can pick up on it, try tuning into the kind of language and descriptions you think they will be able to handle. Each relationship is different so your own experiences and those of previous clients won’t always apply.
Sometimes seemingly baffling circumstances are the only way they can be redirected to another relationship that will align with their new expectations, or meet the expectations they already had but that they’ve discovered their current partner isn’t capable of fulfilling.
If someone ends a relationship, it can be (and often is) painful or heartbreaking to be on the receiving end of this. I don’t want to minimise that experience. Not every situation is fair, and there are times when the cards are there to comfort and offer hope more than provide information. You may find you get what you need from them in different situations and at different times in your life. They might be unable to explain the grief your client is undergoing, but an explanation is not always what everyone is seeking. Do they want to solve a problem, understand a situation, or to be heard and empathised with as they process their feelings? It will be up to you to deduce which of these approaches you want to apply as a reader, and it’s also okay to ask.
Sample Reading II: Redirection and Recovery in Relationships
In a relationship reading, the 6 of Swords combined with cards like the Devil R or Lovers R or 3 of Swords is sometimes interpreted as a reevaluation or redirection of a relationship. In some instances and depending upon the circumstances, this combination might portray a couple who is questioning their compatibility. This might not mean they are incompatible. It could just be that they are in a process of learning more about each other, or redefining how they want to approach the relationship.
In this sample reading, the 6 of Swords in a future position might be about turning one’s attention to another area of their life and not putting as much emphasis on the relationship. Perhaps the connection has been consuming and someone needs a little more space, for instance by each person finding support or activities outside of the relationship that give the couple access to additional external support.
Seeking Support in Beyond the Cards
Perhaps the conflict is due to addiction or unavailability. If the issue is alcoholism or addiction and that is affecting you (whether your partner is aware that their drinking or drug use affects you), Al-Anon can help. Nar-Anon is another resource, although Al-Anon has more meetings available, and can also help friends and family members who are affected by someone’s drug use. Counselling is another option that the cards may suggest, and sometimes counselling or group therapy resources will be used in conjunction with a 12-Step programme.
Sometimes the cards will say “Yes!” to seeking support and won’t even address the relationship you asked about. There might not be any cards alluding to the person your client is asking about.
Perhaps the issue is deeper than the relationship, and the cards are suggesting that deep work your relationships in general, and not just the person you asked about. A suggestion for seeking support is something you can control, and in that way, the relationship may be perceived in hindsight as a catalyst for self-improvement.
Another aspect of the cards that can add insight to relationships is by reading their reversed positions. If you ask about the outcome of a career position, interview, audition, or dating situation and many of the cards show up in a reversed position, it’s possible that you are being alerted to an obstacle. If you aren’t sure, ask again, and also note if the cards offer advice on how to overcome that obstace. Or if taking another direction would elicit a more favourable outcome.
If you relate to one of the readings so far in this post, there is hope! When you ask a yes-no question, at the core of the reply and beyond your specific circumstances, there are essentially a few answers you can get…