The Day I Needed an Answer and Threw the Rulebook Out
I got myself into this whole Tarot thing years ago, but I’ll tell you, it wasn’t some peaceful, Zen journey. It started with a huge, messy dilemma about whether to dump my savings into this sketchy business idea my buddy had. I’d pull cards, right? I’d lay down a huge Celtic Cross, study the Swords and the Cups, and at the end of an hour, all I had was a bunch of complicated story fragments that just sounded like more work. I didn’t need a poem about my soul’s journey; I needed a simple, immediate answer: Yes or No?
The established Tarot books and guides were useless. They talk about nuance, about shades of gray. I was broke and stressed, living in the black and white. So, I grabbed my deck and sat down, determined to build my own quick-draw list, a simple tool that would just yell the answer at me. This wasn’t about mastering the deep esoteric meanings; it was about getting fast, accurate signals.
The first step was brutal. I literally tore the structure apart. I didn’t care about the traditional Major Arcana vs. Minor Arcana power dynamic for a Yes/No. I just needed to see the cards, one by one, and assign them a street-level meaning based on the energy they punched out.
Building My Own Street Guide: Three Categories of Truth
I started by pulling all 78 cards out and laying them face up on the floor. I grabbed a cheap notebook, the kind you buy ten for a dollar, and started writing. I figured I only needed three columns, not two:
- Green Light (Clear Yes): Things I knew meant go.
- Red Stop Sign (Clear No): Cards that just scream problems and blockers.
- Yellow Flashing Light (Condition/Delay): This was the genius category. The cards that mean “Yes, but not yet,” or “Yes, if you fix this first.”
I went through them all, and I didn’t stop until every single card had a designation. It was a grind. The process wasn’t reading, it was drilling. I kept pulling the same card and asking, “What does this feel like right now?” I went purely by the visual impact and my gut feeling after seeing it show up in about twenty different, real-life questions.
The Major Arcana Rule: I didn’t let The Lovers or The Star mess me up with flowery meanings. For my list, The Empress, The Wheel of Fortune, The Sun, and The World were immediate, loud Green Lights. They demand movement. The Tower, The Devil, and Death (not rebirth, just Death) were absolute Stop Signs. No negotiation. This simple act of assigning a directional command cut through all the complexity.
The Minor Arcana Rule: This is where the real work happened. I ignored the numbers at first and focused on the suits. They all have different immediate energies, right?
- Wands: Fire, action, movement. Mostly Green Lights, especially the Aces, Threes, and Eights. They say “Do it now.”
- Swords: Conflict, thought, pain. Mostly Red Stop Signs. They say “Wait” or “This will be a fight.” The Ten of Swords is not a “reversal of fortune”; it’s just a flat out, painful No.
- Cups: Emotion, feelings, waiting. Almost all Yellow Flashing Lights. They mean “You need to sort out your feelings first.” The Four of Cups, for example, is not a No; it’s a “No, you’re missing the boat.”
- Pentacles: Money, security, slowness. Also mostly Yellow Flashing Lights. They mean “Yes, but it’ll take ages” or “Yes, if the money is right.”
This process of assigning direct commands based on the suit energy made the whole thing fast. I practiced this over and over, pulling cards for stupid, simple questions like, “Should I go to the store now?” and then going and checking the results against the cards. I logged every pull, every result, and if the card lied, I adjusted its placement on my list. It was all about creating a reliable feedback loop.
Accuracy Through Relentless Simplicity
My top tip, the one that made the readings quick and accurate, wasn’t a reading strategy; it was a commitment to zero interpretation. When I pull a card for a Yes/No, I don’t look for symbols, I don’t think about the querent’s feelings, and I don’t look at the surrounding cards. I look at my list, and I read the command. If I pull the Four of Wands—Green Light, Go. That’s it.
The biggest breakthrough came with the reversed cards. I found that I was getting too caught up in reversed meanings. So I established a final, unbreakable rule for my list: Any reversed card is a definitive Red Stop Sign. Period. Whether it’s the reversed Sun or the reversed Ten of Swords, if it’s upside down, the answer is “No, and fix your foundation first.” This single rule cut the reading time down to seconds and boosted the accuracy for simple, actionable questions hugely.
Now, when someone hits me with a question that needs an immediate “Should I sign this?” or “Will this trip happen?” I can pull three cards and instantly know the direction without having to weave a twenty-minute narrative. It’s not elegant, it’s not traditional, but I built this damn list from the ground up, recording the cold, hard facts of the cards’ immediate energy, and it works. I’m sticking with what I proved in practice, not what some ancient book told me to believe.
