Asking the correct questions

[Uncle Richie]

Hello again people
After posting my readings of my two questions, it seems as though I'm confusing not only my fellow forum users but also the cards. AAAAAAAAHHH!!!!!! Could somebody please instruct a pooly beginning tarot user as to how to form a proper questtion for the taror cards. ( I'll learn this thng yet)
Take care.
uncel Richie

[Baby Owl]

Is the forming of questions frustrating you until you cry "Uncel"????? (sorry)

This is kind of a big topic. I will just touch on one aspect. Phrasing a question beginning with "will" means the answer is "yes" or "no." There are specific spreads and methods that offer a yes/no answer. I have used these with some success. I sometimes decide ahead of time that an upright card will mean "yes" and a reversed card will mean "no." Then I draw two other cards to elaborate on the answer.

However, by its nature, a "yes/no" answer is limited. In the case of your vacation to California, you might want to ask "What do I need to be aware of in planning a trip to California?" (I don't like that one very much, but you get the idea.)

Baby Owl

[Kiama]

I think the first thing you need to think about when trying to phrase a question is: What do I want to know? I find it really useful, when confronted with a burning question, to sit down with paper and pen, and write down what I want to know about it, and why. (Knowing one's motivations can also help one find out what else one really wants to know.) After all, there's no point asking a question such as: 'How is my life going right now?' if what you really want to know is 'What will my financial situation be like in the near future?'

One question can have many surroundng issues. So, let's say you wish to ask a question such as 'What is going to happen with my relationship with my partner?' You could sit down and write what you want to know: In this case, you could write down things such as:

- Past events that have led to the present state of the relationship
- The present state of the relationship
- The future state of the relationship
- How your partner feels in the relationship
- What they want from the relationship
- What you want from the relationship
- How you feel in the relationship
- External circumstances affecting the relationship
- What you need to do to make it better/keep it good.

You could then assign each of the things you wrote down to one card, just like a normal Tarot spread, only one you've made up yourself, tailored to your specific question. So, you have the first card you deal representing 'Past events that have led to the present state of the relationship', the second card representing the second thing you wrote down, and so on.

In this way, you specifically state to yourself and the cards what it is you wish to know, which cards represent which aspect of the question, etc.

Hope this helps!

Kiama

[Astra]

I find that doing a short "What's the best question to ask?" before a reading actually gets me better readings in many cases. Sometimes I suggest that two readings be done - one to figure out what the question ought to be, and one to see what kind of answers are there.

Actually, I think a better variant may be: "what's the most useful question I can ask here?", since "best" is capable of a wide variety of interpretations, and the universe's "best" may not be the one you're looking for.

[firemaiden]

Originally posted by Astra
I find that doing a short "What's the best question to ask?" before a reading actually gets me better readings in many cases. This is very interesting, Astra, but I don't quite understand, can you give us an example of how you do this?

[wavebreaker]

I tend to start my questions with "What do I need to know about...", followed by the issue I want to do a reading about. For example: "what do I need to know about my job".

Or, if there's something specific I'd like to know about the issue, I make the question more specific as well, for example: "what do I need to know about getting further in my job" or "what do I need to know about the conflicts I have in my job".

To get an answer to different aspects of the question, I make sure those aspects are incorporated in the spread. So if I want to know about the past and the future, I use cards for the past and the future in the spread.

[alexis]

how about this site Uncel..

www.learntarot.com

that's where i learn how to form my questions :)

Alexis :)

[sagitarian]

My best readings come when I don't ask a question at all, instead, just do what I call a general reading, allowing the universe to tell me whatever message it wants me to know. This usually gives me a well rounded message, touching on all different areas of my life.

If you insist on asking a question, then I usually make a statement instead of a question, thinking of the subject matter vs asking a question about it. For example, say I want to know more about a job oppourtunity. I think of the job (say it's w/GE doing a receptionist position) I then think of the company GE. If I've already interviewed, seen the inside of it, then I picture what I can in my mind. The front desk (which would be where I'd be working) some of the people that I saw, etc. As far as words are concerned, I would just think of the words GE and receptionist. I keep things very basic, very general. The more general you keep it, I've found the more well rounded your answer will be, and easier the reading will be too.

I don't ask yes or no questions ever. I don't recommend them either, but to each their own.

I hope this has helped you.

[Astra]

Will try, firemaiden.

The most recent example I've got is actually from someone who was trying to do a reading for me. (I tend to be a bit difficult to do readings for) After four or five attempts with nothing to show but frustration, I suggested that she do a reading asking what specific question she should be asking that would end up giving me useful information.

The cards, obligingly, cooperated. The answer was, as best I can remember "what specifically should I be looking at to get around what seems to be a block". The reading went well from there.

The problem was, I think, that I had been talking about being blocked, and she'd been asking what the nature of the block was and how to get around it. There weren't any answers, because there wasn't any block. I thought there was, she assumed there was, and the readings sat there thumbing their noses at both of us.

[firemaiden]

Most interesting, Astra, thank you. It would be fascinating to see which cards were able to give you this idea for a question.

[Red Emma]

Saturday morning,

Originally posted by Astra

There weren't any answers, because there wasn't any block. I thought there was, she assumed there was, and the readings sat there thumbing their noses at both of us. [/B]

As a writer who seems to have been blocked for a very long time, I'm dying of curiosity...what was it instead of the block?

Of course, mouthy old Red Emma could be barging in where wiser humans would never tread. If you don't feel like talking about it, please forgive my nosiness.

[HudsonGray]

Ahh, I can see where you can't get an answer if you didn't have the blockage you thought was there in the first place. At that point it's best to retreat one step and just ask 'what is the problem' instead of 'what's the problem with the blockage'.

It's hard phrasing the question right, there's no many ways it can be done that won't get you the info you need. Keep reducing it down to simplify it & then work from there if you can. Asking 'where am I being held up in this' is better than 'how can I get around Jim's behavior'. Or 'tell me something I don't know or am not aware of' instead of 'why is this not working for me'. Both can seem pretty valid, but one will get a lot better answers than the other.

[Astra]

firemaiden - I'm sorry. I did in fact have a couple of emails on the specific cards within the readings, and the specific points that ended up being relevant, but I dumped them a month or so later when I was cleaning up my emails. Otherwise, I could have posted the whole correspondence (maybe with the serial numbers filed) rather than having to go for generalities.

Red Emma,

(I have this feeling I should put this in multiple posts to get more points out of it, but hey... )

In the specific case I was mentioning, I think the upshot of the reading was that I'd actually cleared out the problems, but that I needed to give things (and my mind) some time to get used to the changes those clearances had caused. I have this silly expectation, you see (still have it!) that once I've cleared out the problems, I should be able to see clearly, immediately. That's fine when it comes to seeing things that are already there, but when you're actually talking about creating a pattern for the next steps you want to take, rather than taking somebody else's predefined path, it can take a few days, or weeks, once you've finished cleaning out the creative mechanism and changing the basis its working on, before you get anything you're comfortable with.

For writer's block, all I can give you is the advice I've heard from a number of science fiction and fantasy writers - have more than one piece of work going at the same time, and if you're blocked on one, pick up another one. If you're blocked on all of them, one suggestion that has worked for me is to start writing (right after the point you got stuck, or on a separate document) about what doesn't seem to make sense in what you've already got, how you feel about the characters or the situation, what problems you're having finding the next thing to say, etc. It's amazing how often that will lead to going on with the story, since while you're doing it you're not waiting impatiently for the next brilliant idea to come up.

For what it's worth, that's my free advice. Cheers.

[Red Emma]

Astra, I'm printing out your reply and posting it above my altar, my bed and my computer!

I've been immersed lately in clearing out my past, and trying to find where to go, spiritually. creatively, and the kind of life I want to live. It's something I think about a whole lot, and have thought, now and again, of starting a thread on it.

And yes, I expect that immediately I solve some of the overwhelming problems, the ones which negatively impact my writing, "So, okay, guys. That's gone so let's get started!" I wish it did work that way.

Thanks for your insights.

Goddess Bless

[redfairy]

when you are reading for someone else, has it happened that although you have framed the question correctly, the cards all seem to be pertaining to you and your life??? However accurately the question may be framed, chances are that sometimes, the cards WANT to speak to you at that time and that's when you have to know HOW TO LISTEN to the cards, too!!!

[jujubee]

There is a post in this forum that discusses just that redfairy!
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=47094