Tips on how to ask good questions

Pick up just about any book on tarot and one of the first things it will tell you to do as part of a reading is to make sure you ask good questions. However, what I realised when I flicked back through many of the guidebooks in my extensive tarot collection is that few of the books then go on to explain what that means. My daughter told me that she finds trying formulate the question is one of the hardest things about doing a reading so I thought I’d put together a post to try and demystify the process.

Is it as important as people make out? Short answer – yes. But, the first thing I want to follow that with is the next most important thing – don’t stress about it. Learning to ask great questions is part of the learning process. In this article I have put together a few things you can keep in mind to make the process easier. I have broken the components down into sections for clarity but as you will quickly see the concepts overlap.

The basics of good questions

• Purpose

This is really important. As Kim Krans points out in the guidebook for The Wild Unknown Tarot, it’s important to clarify what you want to know and why you want to know it before you even try to formulate a question. This doesn’t have to be complicated or convoluted. A simple “I want to know (x) because (y)” is perfect. Also, asking these questions can help you to determine whether you actually should be asking the question. Sometimes, if we’re honest, we really don’t want to know.

As Barbara Moore cautions in the Tarot in Wonderland guidebook, don’t ask questions you don’t actually want the answers to. To counter this possibility consider how you’d react if you didn’t like the answer. If the answer could do more harm than good, then obviously it isn’t a question you should be asking.

• Clarity

Next, the question itself shouldn’t need to be explained. For example a question such as, “To get what I want, what do I have to do?” is unclear. Since very rarely do we only want one thing in life, if you were to ask the tarot this question you wouldn’t know what the answer was referring to. Be specific. This leads onto the next point.

• Simplicity

A good question is simple. It only focuses on one topic at a time. The antidote to the above question isn’t to ask “To get x, y and z, what do I have to do?” because they are not necessarily as interrelated as they may seem. Instead ask them individually. “To achieve (x) what do I have to do?” “What is the next step I could take to have (y)?” and “What is blocking me from experiencing (z) in my life?” may each be appropriate alternatives.

• Concise

Not every question is short but it should be concise. In other words remove any unnecessary details. This helps to ensure that the question you are asking is clear (clarity) and that it aligns with what it is you actually want to know (purpose). For example, the question, “When I was at the shops on the weekend I saw a really cute brown puppy and so now I’m wondering should I buy a puppy and what impact will it have on my life if I get one?” needs an edit. For starters, this is two questions and it isn’t clear. The concise question would either be “What impact would a puppy have on my life?” or “What impact would buying a puppy have on my life?” The latter question is more related to money than how owning a puppy would impact your life. Both are viable questions.

• Open-ended

I know not everyone will agree with me here but I am not a fan of yes/no questions. You can read why by clicking here. They definitely have their time and place but I don’t think that a reading is one of them. If I’m asking my husband if he wants a coffee I want a yes or a no answer. When I’m asking the tarot a question, I want information that empowers me in some way and that maintains my agency. Which leads on to my final suggestion for how to ask good questions.

• Actionable

Good questions ensure you own the situation. For example, asking “Why does such and such do (x)?” isn’t actionable. It might give you some information and your spread may have an ‘underlier’ position to help you understand why something is happening but if you are experiencing something that you are not comfortable with then the actionable question is, “What can I do about (x)?” Now you have some control and a way forward. Put simply, keep the questions focused on yourself. “What do I …? What can I …? How can I …? and so on.

Another tip

Write down your question

• Wording matters and it keeps you focused on the actual question you asked rather than becoming side-tracked when you are reading the spread. This is surprisingly easy to do.
• Writing down the question makes it easier to distinguish good questions from the not so good.

Good Questions Checklist

Not sure if your asking a good question? If you can honestly answer yes to each of the questions posed below then there’s a good chance you’re asking good questions.

Most importantly, as I said in the introduction, don’t stress. Asking good tarot questions becomes easier with time. This is a guide not a list of inflexible, set in stone rules. The check list above is purely intended to help you to get started.

If you have any questions or there is anything else tarot related you would like some assistance with, let me know.