Yes or No?

GoddessArtemis

I know, yes or no questions are so unreliable with tarot.

But if you want to find out if a situation is a yes or no, and pull two cards...one for if a situation is true (or yes), and one for it being untrue (or no)...what do you do when you get courts in both instances? :confused:

I'm going back and forth on which is a yes (King of Swords) and which is a no (Knight of Wands).

Here's how I'm processing this: King of Swords is decisive, saying "all the facts are there", therefore yes. Or him being swords, is it more negating the "yes" aspect of the question, therefore "no" is his response? Is the Knight of Wands "flakey," hence a no...or is this Wand court a "yes"?

I can't figure out courts in yes/no situations.

Any help would be great. Merc retro is messing up my thinking... :laugh:

GA
 

punchinella

Hi GoddessArtemis,

I don't know how this method of pulling two cards, one for yes & one for no, will tell you which is correct. What you've set up seems more suited for questions like "what is the implication if yes?" and "what is the implication if no?" If you pull two cards, one for each option, how are you going to identify which card is correct? Are there predetermined criteria? (Like, the more positive-feeling card is the right one? The even-numbered?) This method seems misty to me.

What I like to do is pull one card only, designating in advance that if it is odd-numbered, it means no; if even, yes. Of course, this is arbitrary. And, of course, even doing it my way, a court card would still patently not answer!!
 

GoddessArtemis

punchinella said:
Hi GoddessArtemis,

I don't know how this method of pulling two cards, one for yes & one for no, will tell you which is correct. What you've set up seems more suited for questions like "what is the implication if yes?" and "what is the implication if no?" If you pull two cards, one for each option, how are you going to identify which card is correct? Are there predetermined criteria? (Like, the more positive-feeling card is the right one? The even-numbered?) This method seems misty to me.
Well, the way this system works is, if the card is positive in general (example: ace of cups), then it's a yes. Even courts are fairly easy in this instance, but not the King of Swords, unfortunately. And if I could figure one or the other out, in this instance, I'd know the alternate court card means a No...but alas, both of them are confusing. LOL.
What I like to do is pull one card only, designating in advance that if it is odd-numbered, it means no; if even, yes. Of course, this is arbitrary. And, of course, even doing it my way, a court card would still patently not answer!!
That's the problem...if it's a court, it could be a toss up. Hence, the dilemma. :)

GA
 

punchinella

GoddessArtemis said:
Well, the way this system works is, if the card is positive in general (example: ace of cups), then it's a yes. Even courts are fairly easy in this instance . . .
Hmmn, this is interesting. I wouldn't have thought of it but I'll have to try it. So, you just go with the one that feels more positive, as being correct? I suppose this might eliminate some of the ambiguities of my method--for example, when odds are designated as "no" but the odd coming out of the deck is the Ace of Cups :laugh:

For what it's worth, I like Kn. Wands a whole lot better than K. Swords . . . but that's probably just me . . . :)
 

GoddessArtemis

punchinella said:
Hmmn, this is interesting. I wouldn't have thought of it but I'll have to try it. So, you just go with the one that feels more positive, as being correct? I suppose this might eliminate some of the ambiguities of my method--for example, when odds are designated as "no" but the odd coming out of the deck is the Ace of Cups :laugh:
Totally! That's why I don't like yes/no but sometimes, it's the only way to ask a question.
For what it's worth, I like Kn. Wands a whole lot better than K. Swords . . . but that's probably just me . . . :)
The Knight is definitely more friendly, but he's also flaky...so I wonder if he's saying "no". I still haven't figured it out...

GA :)
 

Gavriela

Mary Greer posted an old one from Fate Magazine on her blog, but the layout was a bit wonky. I reorganised it for an oracle deck I have, but it works with tarot, too. So here goes:

1. Write your problem or question on a piece of paper in such a fashion that “yes” or “no” could be the answer. Don’t ask ambiguous questions like “Should I marry Rick or Jason?” Situations such as this should be split into two questions.

2. Remove the Wheel of Fortune from the 78 card deck and place it before you face up.

3. Shuffle the rest of the deck, with your mind on the problem. Spread the cards in a fan, face down. With your left hand, draw seven cards at random. Put them face down on top of the Wheel. Set the remaining deck aside.

4. Turn the Wheel of Fortune face down like the other seven cards. Shuffle these eight cards until you no longer know where the Wheel is.

5. Deal the eight cards in a square consisting of four positions (see next), so that there are two cards in each position:

Lay Card 1 at the top left. Lay Card 2 at the top right, and make sure you’ve left enough room for two cards between them.
Lay card 3 at the bottom right, under card 2. Lay card 4 at the bottom left, under card 1.
Lay card 5 at the top left, next to card 1, in the middle of the square. Lay card 6 next to card 5, putting it next to, and on the left side of, the top right card.
Lay card 7 beneath card 6. Lay card 8 beneath card 5.

So this would be the proper answer key:

Cards 1 & 5, the top left, mean YES.
Cards 6 & 2, the top right, mean SOON.
Cards 4 & 8, the bottom left, mean DELAY.
Cards 3 & 7, the bottom right, mean NO.

6. Turn the cards over looking for the Wheel of Fortune. Its position gives you the answer.

• If the Wheel card has fallen in the first position, it indicates “Yes,” and the speedy and favorable solution of one’s problem.
• If in the second, “Soon,” position, it means: “You should not unduly press your interests.”
• If it lies in the “Delay” position, the indications are that some obstacles will have to be overcome.
• If it lies in the “No” position, it indicates adjustments have to be made and circumstances at the moment block the harmonious solution of the problem. Therefore, the wish cannot be fulfilled immediately. After changes have occurred this same wish could be answered in the affirmative.

7. If your answer is either “Delay” or “No,” then look at all the cards in the layout (the reversal of a card has no significance):

• Many Pentacles indicate a financial hitch.
• Swords show opposition.
• Wands suggest journeys and changes.
• Many Cups indicate fortunate circumstances and ultimately a happy ending, especially if the Grail [Ace of Cups] is among them.
• Many Major Arcana indicate that the situation is out of your hands: destiny is at work.
• Many Court Cards indicate that the wishes of other people determine the outcome

Have fun, kids! It's adaptable to at least some oracles as well. And it is a neat spread.
 

Thirteen

Why don't you just pull out the four Aces and use them exclusively? Decide ahead of time which is which (Cups = yes, Swords = no, etc.) shuffle them and then pull one out.

Ta-Da. Yes/no answer. Quick, easy and no other cards need be involved to muddle the issue.
 

GoddessArtemis

Gavriela - wow, thank you for that detailed answer! I will sit down and actually try it out with my cards to see how it works for me. Seems complicated on paper, but maybe in practice, it'll work? Wouldn't that be something!

Thirteen - I like the aces method; I guess I was hoping that by using the entire deck, I'd get even more insight into the situation. But maybe I will resign myself to the easy way of doing things and uses aces for such cases. :p

But does anyone not have an opinion on the King of Swords or Knight of Wands for yes/no? Even if any of you are confused by it, too, I'd like to hear it...at least I'll know I'm not the only one! :D

GA
 

Mellifluous

I think it is completely subjective, down to whether you feel a card is positive or not - based on the meanings or the artwork or a combination of the two. Your initial reaction to the card is what matters. Also, it depends on what the question is. So in one reading a card might mean yes, in another reading it might mean no.

I don't think other people can give a meaningful opinion without knowing what the question is.

As someone else said earlier, I don't see the need to pull more than one card either, but good luck.
 

silverr

GoddessArtemis said:
But does anyone not have an opinion on the King of Swords or Knight of Wands for yes/no? Even if any of you are confused by it, too, I'd like to hear it...at least I'll know I'm not the only one! :D
GA
I think the best results come when one sets the rules before laying down the cards, so in this case, the pre-set rule is to draw two cards and pick the one you (the reader) think is more "positive," if I understood that correctly(?) So whether you find the King or Knight more "positive," that would be the answer to go with.

Or...
pull two cards...one for if a situation is true (or yes), and one for it being untrue (or no)
...by this, it sounds like you've used a layout in which one position means "yes" and the other position means "no."

Instead of trying to figure out "positive/negative" (since I understand each of the cards to carry both extremes), I'd just let them pull rank, like in tarock. The cards get rank depending on their number (Magician low, World high), Majors trump pips, Fool trumps everything. (I also let Aces trump Kings, but that's my own thing.) If you make a match like 3 Swords versus 3 Wands, there's also a way of ranking the suits; I believe the order (from low to high) is Wands, Cups, Swords, Pentacles. (This would also work for any oracle that has a specific order/rank for the cards.)

By that method, King automatically trumps a Knight and that would make the answer for your reading "yes" (since the King was in the "yes" position) and then the King versus the Knight could probably be interpreted for additional insight into why the answer is yes, or what yes entails relative to the particular question.

Hope that's at least somewhat helpful. I guess my answer to your dilemma is that I'd start over by redefining the system/layout. :D