Well-framed questions garner well-framed answers, but asking questions with tarot isn't always easy. Here are a few tips on asking your tarot and oracle cards questions that yield more in-depth insights.
Open-ended questions allow you to uncover more nuance and context.
Practice formulating questions! It will take time and experimentation.
There's nothing wrong with yes or no questions, but it doesn't leave a lot of room for—you guessed it—nuance or context.
Don't let yourself get stuck in a trap of binary questions, because you might be giving too much of your agency to the cards, where you could be seeking clarity and insight to empower YOU, the reader, instead.
Sometimes you can use a statement and pull a card to reflect the energy of that statement. For example: I feel unsure about this new position I'm being offered at work.
Dive deeper by asking questions like: What lesson am I learning from this experience? What is this trying to teach me? How has this experience changed me?
Try to stick to questions that involve you or are centered around your experience, since this is the only perspective you truly have knowledge of and control over. For example: "Is she mad at me?" Might be better rephrased as "Why am I feeling insecure about her reaction?"
Don't give up! The questions will evolve over time. Just like it took me a while to get used to talking with my infant daughter—someone who didn't have the capacity to respond directly in my language—it might take some repetition, practice and time to find your flow.
Transcript of the video above:
Hey, welcome to tarot tips. I'm Amber Ambrose and you can book a Tarot reading reading with me at AmberAmbrose.com/TarotReading or you can DM me for details. I will never DM you. That's a sure sign of an imposter. By the way.
Also, what I would really love is for more people to read more Tarot because it's been a life changing practice for me. It doesn't have to be everybody's cup of tea, but if you're interested, here's just a couple of tips and this one, we're going to start with learning how to ask the right questions. Thanks to my friend Mary Kathryn LeMaster who brought it to my attention that she thinks that the questions that I asked are very helpful. Well, it took me a long time to learn that because we we live in a very binary world. It feels like you know, if it's not white, it's black. If it's not cold, it's hot. If it's not something, it's something else, and that doesn't leave a lot of room for nuance or context. And so those are the two words I would say when it comes to asking questions for more in-depth answers. Because the right question will frame the answer in a way that you will understand so much more.
For example, let's ask the cards. I'm not looking for a new job by the way, but this is just an example. Obviously something coming up in many people's lives all the time. Will I get this job? That's a yes or no question. That's one way or the other. So let's see what the cards say. This is the star. I would say yes, this is a yes card. But there's so much more nuance to this. So I'm actually going to reframe the question and see how the card changes. I would like some insight. It actually doesn't even have to be a question. It can be a statement and a card to match the energy of that statement. I would like some insight into this job that I just applied for. And if I pulled the star, I would say it could be a place of refreshment. It could be what you're looking for. It could be a guiding light for you. Or it's awakening a light inside of you. It's a place like you know finding that job, lit something up inside of you.
It doesn't necessarily mean you're going to get it but it could say it helped you learn something about yourself that gave you a lot of hope and optimism. So that's to me that is so much deeper than yes or no and of course, if you're reading it wrong or if there's something in the star that wasn't binary by asking it will I get this job, and it was trying to tell you a more nuanced answer. You would if you didn't get the job you would say tarot is a big fat lie. But sometimes it's really about just getting a little more nuance and context. So here's some tips: Nuance, context. Those are your key words. You can make a statement and pull a card that matches the energy of that statement. You can use words like insight, and clarity, "help me provide some clarity." You can ask about potential factors that you aren't fully aware of that are affecting the situation that you're inquiring about. But there's no problem answering it with yes or no questions. I just sometimes feel like we're setting ourselves up for disappointment or a way to prove this doesn't work if it doesn't turn out the way that we read the cards themselves.
And also don't forget the cards will lead you to insight and awareness, and really pulling things out from inside of you that are going to help you make the best, most informed decision. But the power comes from you, not the card. So they're really here to empower you. not become your power. Your power is inside of you, these just help you see it with a picture. So asking a question that's open ended is always better, and always allows for more nuance and context.