Yes/No questions and the Tarot

[JSNYC]

This is a topic from another thread. But I think the topic in the other thread has taken on significance beyond that thread, so I started this thread to address it.

First the background, I created a Yes/No/Why spread for use with the Tarot. And the most pervasive question has been; why doesn't the Tarot "correctly" answer my yes/no questions?
The spread in the Spreads forum can be viewed by clicking here.
And examples of the spread in the Reading Exchange forum can be viewed by clicking here.

I believe the answer is that the Tarot simply cannot answer yes/no questions (correctly, all the time). The Tarot cannot predict the future, nor can it accurately answer (all) concrete questions about the present or past. The Tarot can only tell us about our current situation in order to help us to better understand the issue and potential ramifications to enable us to decipher the answer ourselves. Thus my goal in creating the above spread was simply to create a spread, like any other spread, that provides information about a question, but which also provides some sort of clear bias while doing so. And I really like this spread simply because I think it allows the Tarot to provide information in a new and unique way. And even sometimes in a humorous way! (At least for me.) But I did not create this spread to accurately answer verifiable questions because, as I stated, I don't believe the Tarot is capable of doing that.

I didn't feel totally comfortable addressing this question in the spread forum (only) because I felt like I was attempting to indoctrinate people with my view of the Tarot under the guise of answering questions about a spread. So I wanted to give everyone else, particularly more experienced Tarot users (as I am still fairly new) a chance to opine on this fairly systemic topic.

SunChariot just posted in another thread a post that I think is very relevant. She says much more, and says it much better than I could.
Click here to view the post in the thread: general reading question

 

[Sinduction]

I do believe the tarot can answer yes/no questions. The biggest hurdle, IMO, is the process in which it does so. In my own experimentations, I have yet to decipher what constitutes a yes and a no from my deck. For me, it is more than if a card is more positive/negative, whether a card is upright or reversed. I haven't quite gotten it right.

Another possibility, and this is why it's so difficult, is that the things I am asking about have no concrete answer yet. When I ask mundane things, such as, "Is this package in my mailbox right now?" or "Will it arrive today?" I get accurate readings. When I delve into things that have not yet even started, "Will I ever get married?" etc. the answers are all over the place.

What I haven't looked at yet is how the readings correspond to the path I am currently on. For instance, if I ask my cards if I will ever get married but I am single, how is it supposed to answer that? I obviously am not on the path to marriage. So, in order for me meet my future husband in order to get married, I'd have to change my current path. (I use this as an example because my cards have already told me I am with the man who will be my husband but we have not yet married so I can't count that as a correct prediction.)

But still, how do we even know if the answers we get today are correct until the time has passed and these things have come to be. We simply cannot know without experimentation.

Does that makes sense?

 

[Grizabella]

Well, a good many times when you ask a yes/no question, aren't you asking the Tarot to predict? Of course you are. So if you don't believe it's possible for Tarot to predict, then you wouldn't be asking yes/no questions. Like Sinduction, I do believe Tarot can answer yes/no questions but I think the answers are much harder for us to sort out than asking them something else. For instance, I've been married before. So asking Tarot, "will I ever get married?" might give me a "yes" but may be referring to my past marriage for all I can tell. Or it could give me a "yes----but" answer and leave me to figure it out by doing some further readings and that's a little hard to decipher, too. At least for me it often is.

If I ask a yes/no question, then sometimes the best I can do is tell the sitter "it looks favorable/not favorable", as the case may be considering the cards.

"When?" is another tough one and invariably seems to come after you tell the sitter "yes". Especially "yes, you will be married." But if you work out a system of your own, you can read the answers pretty clearly. I think nisaba said she's got a system worked out where she relies on one of her decks that she uses exclusively for certain answers instead of relying on just the deck she's doing the reading with. Maybe she'll chime in and tell us about it here if she sees the thread.

Lenormand is easier to read clear answers like this with.

 

[Muir Aingeal]

I've answered yes/no questions with the tarot by using the method in the Power Tarot book pg. 188 majors only.

Yes, I believe you are asking the tarot predict so along those lines you are fortune telling.

 

[JSNYC]

I do believe the tarot can answer yes/no questions. The biggest hurdle, IMO, is the process in which it does so. In my own experimentations, I have yet to decipher what constitutes a yes and a no from my deck. For me, it is more than if a card is more positive/negative, whether a card is upright or reversed. I haven't quite gotten it right.

Another possibility, and this is why it's so difficult, is that the things I am asking about have no concrete answer yet. When I ask mundane things, such as, "Is this package in my mailbox right now?" or "Will it arrive today?" I get accurate readings. When I delve into things that have not yet even started, "Will I ever get married?" etc. the answers are all over the place.

What I haven't looked at yet is how the readings correspond to the path I am currently on. For instance, if I ask my cards if I will ever get married but I am single, how is it supposed to answer that? I obviously am not on the path to marriage. So, in order for me meet my future husband in order to get married, I'd have to change my current path. (I use this as an example because my cards have already told me I am with the man who will be my husband but we have not yet married so I can't count that as a correct prediction.)

But still, how do we even know if the answers we get today are correct until the time has passed and these things have come to be. We simply cannot know without experimentation.

Does that makes sense?

I feel like I pretty much agree with you. However, in the middle of your post, when you mentioned marriage, I would flip that upside-down. I think the Tarot could answer whether you are ever going to get married (if you could hear it). But I don't think it can answer concrete, mundane things, at least not, concrete, mundane things that you (personally) cannot possibly know. If I were to ask someone (on this board) to read a spread telling me what I had for lunch today (no hints, no guessing, first person, and first attempt). I don't think the Tarot could answer that type of question accurately (at least not more than random chance).

And about the marriage; I think the Tarot can predict that because... many, if not the vast majority of our choices are made because of who we are. I am a believer that we all choose our own paths in life, and where we end up is where we chose to be. Even though you may not be on the path to marriage yet, someone that really, really, really knew you, could predict if you will be on that path eventually, just based on who you are. Just like when someone looks at a child and says, "oh, they are going to grow up to be a ...". (However, that is a faulty person saying that, not the Tarot, so the Tarot is likely to be more accurate!)

One last thing, I have a habit of being way too verbose so after this then I will shut up (for a while ). I look at the Tarot like flipping a coin. But not the way it is commonly done, like I do it. I don't really pay attention to the result as much as I pay attention to my reaction to it. For example, if I call heads I then pay attention to my first, immediate, instinctive reaction to the result. If it comes up heads and I feel a pinch of excitement (or whatever), a feeling of "OK! Let's go!" Then that is the right choice. However, if my first, instinctive reaction is "Ah! Best out of 3?" Then tails is the right choice. (I don't flip the other two times. Of course, that is unless I still couldn't really tell... it doesn't always work.)

As a thinker, I really think that is stupid (and I feel kind of stupid posting it). I know what I want to do, but I have to trick myself to find out what I want to do? That is absolutely not logical. But that is how I think the Tarot is, at least for me, at least for now... I am able to see inside myself by seeing myself reflected in front of me.

(I love that name btw, Sinduction.)

 

[JSNYC]

I've answered yes/no questions with the tarot by using the method in the Power Tarot book pg. 188 majors only.

Yes, I believe you are asking the tarot predict so along the those lines you are fortune telling.

Yes, that Yes/No spread in the Power Tarot was one of my many sources of inspiration for the spread I created! Although I never used that spread, I was just inspired by it. )

 

[Sinduction]

I feel like I pretty much agree with you. However, in the middle of your post, when you mentioned marriage, I would flip that upside-down. I think the Tarot could answer whether you are ever going to get married (if you could hear it). But I don't think it can answer concrete, mundane things, at least not, concrete, mundane things that you (personally) cannot possibly know. If I were to ask someone (on this board) to read a spread telling me what I had for lunch today (no hints, no guessing, first person, and first attempt). I don't think the Tarot could answer that type of question accurately (at least not more than random chance).

I disagree, how are you going to see food in a card? Fool= gyro? As I stated, these mundane readings were accurate per my experimenting whereas those involving others were less accurate. Which could mean also that it has to do with their paths as well.

For instance, what if I'm to meet my future husband on a train. Only I decide not to take the train that day. This would set me on a whole other path. Perhaps my future husband then meets a woman he later marries on that same train that I missed. Perhaps then I must wait until they divorce 15 years later where I then run into him and we finally marry.

The whole point of tarot reading is figuring out what the cards are trying to say!

And about the marriage; I think the Tarot can predict that because... many, if not the vast majority of our choices are made because of who we are. I am a believer that we all choose our own paths in life, and where we end up is where we chose to be. Even though you may not be on the path to marriage yet, someone that really, really, really knew you, could predict if you will be on that path eventually, just based on who you are. Just like when someone looks at a child and says, "oh, they are going to grow up to be a ...". (However, that is a faulty person saying that, not the Tarot, so the Tarot is likely to be more accurate!)

I disagree completely. Although marriage is rather ridiculous because pretty much everyone gets married. The odds are in favor of marriage.

 

[t.town.troy]

I tried a yes/no question for a woman a few months back with only one card. The question was "will I ever have children?". The deck was Bohemian Gothic and the card was The Moon. Seems a pretty negative card (illusions and fantasy, and all); but since the moon rules menstruation and the wolf has blood on its mouth, I thought it may mean "you may, if you are healthy enough to be able to". Not the best answer, but she understood that I'm still new at all this.
So, I guess that I'm trying to say that maybe you don't/won't get a yes/no answer, but that there may be 'some' answer.

 

[RiccardoLS]

I believe that, even before asking if Tarot can answer a yes/no question, one should think why should it.
I usually try to look at Tarot not for his ability to be accurate, rather for his ability to be useful.
When I find myself confronted with a yes/no question, more often then not, it is the querient that is trying to force out a simplification of a certain situation. Should I and Tarot indulge her?
Example... "Is this the man of my life? Answer with a yes/no". I would refuse to anser such a question in this way, as I can't see any good coming out of it.
Other times yes/no questions are just to test Tarot out.
"Is the letter from the school in my mailbox". Go and look. Easier.

What I try to say is that forcing a yes/no answer introduce a powerful, often violent, most times unnecessary framing to a situation.
And what I perceive as the main focus of Tarot (mirroring, opening different perceptions, exploring the subjective with the objective, etc...) is mostly lost. (like trying to use a barometer to measure length. It is not inaccurate, simply not the correct tool).

I usually try to turn out from yes/no question with alternate Spreads, like:
- Card 1. Yes, IF...
- Card 2. No, IF...
- Card 3. What has been left out of the yes/no answer

In this way I try to make the anwer useful. At least to what I perceive as the empowering on the querient.
She should find herself answering the question. And she would - at the same time - think out the limit of her own question and answer.

While this approach is not really good with questions that are objective in their nature (like "is the thingy in the box?"), I find it interesting when the questions are subjective. (please note that I don't believe Tarot to be useful when dealing with objective. Same as barometer and length).
A yes/no question like: "do I love her?" is VERY interesting and complicated to answer. And even if it's definitely yes/no (being subjective) falls into the realm of Tarot, and also (imho) excapes the traps of prediction (as it may have been one the OP main interest in these topic)

ric

 

[Alta]

A yes/no question like: "do I love her?" is VERY interesting and complicated to answer. And even if it's definitely yes/no (being subjective) falls into the realm of Tarot, and also (imho) excapes the traps of prediction (as it may have been one the OP main interest in these topic)

This framed yes/no question is perfect for tarot. So often I see readings mostly focused on the partner (real, hoped for, past) but often I think that the true question is this one.

When I watch courtroom scenes on TV (and I have to trust they mirror real life, though the televised Simpson trial was often this way) a lawyer might insist that someone on the witness stand reply yes or no to a question. You can see the witness is unhappy because every situation is surrounded by conditions, issues, possibilities. The answer might be 'true' but it is often far from making the situation clear and even ultimately projects a 'false' image of what happened or might have.

Alta