Collecting Your Best Tarot Questions!

Satori

Do you supply your querents with a question idea if they sit down and say, "I don't have a question....."

My metaphysics teacher TinaMichelle always tells her clients, "The more specific your question, the more specific your answer. Ask a general question, get a general answer."

So, what are the best questions you've heard over the years, including the questions you may have helped your sitter devise. I have heard and created so many different questions, many of which sort of get created on the spot. I definitely have edited the yes/no questions into a more specific but more open-ended question. And boy do I wish I had written them all down.

My most used question? I ask everyone when we start a reading, What do you want/need to know? And so begins the process of creating a question for the reading. I don't like to spend more than 3 minutes on question formulation, but I can tell you, that when the question is right, the reading sings.

I can also tell you that when someone has no question I abandon my more free form reading style and adopt a spread. I do not use spreads that often, but if someone has no question I find that having the positions all nicely labeled ahead of time gives me a framework to work from.

Now does this mean I never ask Tarot a yes/no question? Course not. In fact, when I ask yes no questions I am usually doing a reading for myself! But I don't use them exclusively. My own personal favorite questions for Tarot are Show Me questions.

So in the spirit of sharing I might do this:

Show me the Sitter in this situation: Card 1.
Show me the influences around the Sitter in this situation: Cards 2-3-4
Show me the conflict: Card 5
Show me what is hidden: Card 6
Show me the best outcome: Card 7
or alternately
Show me the two best outcomes/courses of action for my client: Cards 7 and 8 (Giving the client a choice is important, right?) ;)

So you see, this is not a question, this is a spread in a way. This is a conversation, and usually I don't say out loud to the sitter, Show ME.......I am asking the Tarot after all, so I do this sometimes silently. And I answer the sitter out loud telling them what I am being shown.

Thank you for sharing your method and your questions with me!!!


Please be advised, I am working on an ebook/book of Tarot questions, and I may either A)use your question in the book, or B)rework it and use the idea. You posting a question in this thread means you don't mind if I do either! :)
 

SunChariot

No,

If they don't have a question, I just ask "What does X (querent's name) most need to know right now?" and I then have faith that the answer will be what they most need to know.


To me if there were a specific question I was meant to ask for them, then the querent would have been guided and it would have popped into their mind. If it did not, asking what they most need to know will automatically look at the most important issues they need info on.

If they just need a general answer, cards will come up that just lead me to see something general. If they need a very specific answer, cards will come up that inspire me to see something specific in them.

I have faith that when we sit down to help someone with a reading the universe knows this and sends us just what we need. And that we live in a universe that wants us to help each other and that will help us to do so if we try. To that end, when we sit down to do a reading, the right cards will come up and we as readers will see what we are meant to in them. I just let it go and have trust in that.

Babs
 

bluecaffeine

when there is no special question, I would draw 3 cards and if most cards are court cards I would ask, if the person has a question about a special person in his/her life. If there are more pentacle cards I would ask, if we shall look deeper into financial things.
 

Sophie

It's very rare that someone doesn't have any aspect of their life that they want to know more about - out of concern, curiosity, fear or hope. Not all will have a fully formed question, however. Their concern might be very vague at that point, and I see it as part of my job to help them identify precisely what they want to know or explore.

I don't say - "do you have a question?", but rather - "is there an area of your life you want to know more about?" Generally, that provokes an answer. Sometimes it's a fully formed question: "yes, I want to know if my book is going to be accepted for publication, and if so, under what circumstances". Sometimes it comes as a more general subject, and we'll work together to frame the question. I find that framing the question is half the work ;). They might say - "yes, my daughter" At that point, I'll ask a few questions, and we'll talk about the daughter, what the querent is concerned about, and - most of the time together - arrive at the questions the querent wants answered, as well as a question about how the querent's own role in the situation at hand. The reading itself will suggest other questions naturally, as any normal conversation would.

In the reading, I would try and answer the querent's true concerns (e.g. "I'm worried about my formerly anorexic daughter alone her new university accommodation, is she going to feed herself properly? is she really recovered and strong enough to withstand this big change?") as well as asking the cards for advice for the querent in such a situation - in such a scenario, how she can best support her daughter's new life, and how she can deal with her own fears. There might be other issues linked to such a situation. Family questions tend to throw up constellation dynamics and depending on the time available and what the querent wants to know, I would go more deeply into those, again, trying to frame precise questions for the cards to answer.

Querents are individuals, each with their own stories, families, current issues and greater myths. As much as possible, I try and get a feel for the story that's at the front of their mind and frame questions so as to illuminate that story, indicate how it will develop, and give advice so it can unfold as happily as possible.

I also find that querents from different cultures and at different ages have very different concerns about similar subjects. Framing a question for them will require understanding as much as I can their background and culture. The question "should I leave home?" means something totally different in Iraq and in England; and when the querent is 18 and 48.

So - no particular "best question" in my toolbox, Satori, just a flexible method for arriving at a question.


Very occasionally, a querent might be so cagey that they won't even mention an area of life. In that case, I will do a general reading, and use the first few cards to define the topic (something like bluecaffeine' 3 cards).

Most confusing of all - but fairly common - are those querents who want to know one thing, but are scared or embarrassed about asking it, so mention another topic. Nearly always, it is the unsaid pregnant question that is answered by the cards. Presenting that fact to the querent is delicate. My default way of explaining it - when I don't know the person well enough to say outright "you asked about your job, but the cards are talking about your father's cancer" - is to say - "I know you mentioned work, but the cards seem to show another subject, which might be more often on your mind at the moment." And slowly lead into the issue indicated by the cards. Only once have I had someone refuse to continue the reading, saying they were not comfortable discussing that other subject. Most people are quite relieved to be able to ask about what they really want to know!