Man, I have been using tarot for years now, right? And for the longest time, I thought I was pretty good at it. I could read the symbols, I knew the major arcs, the whole deal. But honestly? For the last six months, my readings were turning into absolute junk. They were flat, useless fortune cookie messages. I kept pulling cards, getting the same vague advice, and walking away feeling totally stuck.
I hit a wall hard about three weeks ago. I was trying to figure out this big career move—whether I should jump ship to a smaller company or stick it out where I was. I asked the typical, lazy question: “Will I be happier if I take the new job?” I shuffled, I pulled, and I got the Two of Swords, followed by The Hermit. Classic standoff, classic need for self-reflection. I threw the cards back on the table, feeling utterly annoyed. Like, thanks, Captain Obvious. I already knew I was conflicted and needed to think!
That frustrating afternoon made me realize the cards aren’t the problem. I was the problem. I was treating the tarot like a Google search bar, expecting it to spit out a definitive answer to a poorly phrased query. It was giving me shallow answers because my questions were shallow.
I stopped treating it as magic and started treating it like systems engineering. If the input is garbage, the output is garbage. So I sat down and forced myself to build a protocol. I decided I needed five solid rules—five ways to phrase questions that make the universe (or maybe just my subconscious) give me something actionable. This is exactly what I did, step by step, the next time I tried a serious reading.
The Practice: Re-engineering the Input
The very first thing I did was ban the word ‘Will’ for a week. Seriously, I put a sticky note on my deck box that said: NO PREDICTIONS. This immediately forced me to move away from asking about outcomes and towards asking about processes.
1. Shift the Focus from External Events to Internal Response
I used to ask: “When will my finances improve?” That’s external. The first rule I implemented was turning the focus 180 degrees. I grabbed a pen and paper and rewrote all my questions to be about my agency. For example, instead of asking about the economy, I asked: “How can I restructure my daily habits this month to best support my long-term financial stability?” See the difference? It forces the card to comment on my actions, not the unpredictable world around me. This immediately started giving me practical advice, like Seven of Pentacles meaning I needed to stop checking the stock market every five minutes and just wait for the harvest.
2. Ban Vague Emotion and Define Actionable Metrics
My old questions were full of fluff: “How can I find true happiness?” What the heck is ‘true happiness,’ anyway? It’s meaningless to a deck of symbols. I forced myself to be specific and actionable. If I was concerned about a relationship, I didn’t ask “How can we be better?” I asked: “What is the core communication style I need to adopt this week to clearly articulate my needs to my partner?” This sharpens the result. Suddenly, Temperance wasn’t just “balance”; it was about mixing my assertive tone with more listening.
3. The “How to Support/Hinder” Split
This trick was a game-changer and immediately gave me depth. When I had a decision to make (like that job change), I stopped asking one question. I started asking two, back-to-back. I dedicated the first half of the spread to the positive and the second half to the negative. So, for the new job, I laid out four cards and asked:
- “What energy or attitude will best support my success in the new job?” (First two cards)
- “What subconscious assumptions or behaviors will actively hinder my success in the new job?” (Next two cards)
Getting the King of Pentacles for support and the Four of Swords for hindering told me exactly what I needed to know: Be authoritative and stable, but stop withdrawing and isolating myself during stress.
4. Embrace the Challenge: Questioning the Assumption
This is where things got deep. Often, we ask a question based on a faulty underlying belief. Like, “How do I convince X to do Y?” The assumption is that X needs to be convinced. The fourth step I put in place was to always write down the question, then underneath it, write down the assumption. Then I asked the tarot to critique the assumption itself. The question became: “Is the underlying belief that I must convince X accurate, or is there a more productive path I am overlooking?” This is brutally honest. I did this once about a stalled project, and the cards basically said my whole premise was wrong. It wasn’t about convincing; it was about releasing control.
5. The Scenario Testing Method
When I was completely stuck between two options, instead of asking “Which one is better?” (vague!), I created two hypothetical future scenarios. Then I asked the tarot to analyze the energy of each path. I called this my “If/Then” rule. I pulled two cards for Scenario A and two for Scenario B.
- Scenario A: “If I choose to stay at my current job, what unexpected inner lesson will I master in the next six months?“
- Scenario B: “If I choose to take the new job, what unexpected pressure point will emerge that demands my immediate focus?“
By forcing the deck to focus on the process and the unexpected costs, not just the glossy outcome, the answers became extremely practical. The difference was night and day. My readings stopped being fluffy guesswork and started feeling like real, detailed performance reviews. It’s not about magic; it’s about asking the right diagnostics. You put in a better prompt, you get a better result. Simple as that.
