The One Simple Thing You Can Do To Gain More Insight From Your Tarot Cards
For centuries, people have been using tarot cards as a tool to find meaning in important and challenging circumstances, to guide critical decisions, and to feel a stronger connection with the etheric and spiritual realms.
While still sometimes steeped in the stigma of witchcraft and fortune-telling, tarot serves as an increasingly important tool that helps us connect more deeply with our own intuition and energy. And in the times we're living in today, more connection, meaning, and purpose are the exact types of medicines so many of us are desperately seeking.
As with any intuitive art, I don’t believe that there are any concrete right or wrong ways to work with your tarot deck - and in fact, coming up with your own unique ways to relate to and understand the messages from your cards is one of the most fun parts of developing a tarot practice.
With that in mind though, I have learned from experience that some practices and approaches to working with my decks tend to leave me feeling more aligned, empowered, and high-vibe than others. And contrary to what I believed when first diving into the world of tarot, getting the most out of your cards has very little to do with buying a new, fancy deck or making flashcards to memorize their meanings.
I have found through hundreds of tarot pulls for myself, friends, and clients, that the number one way to gain the most insight, clarity, and revelatory meaning from your tarot deck is actually super simple: Ask better questions.
“The wise man doesn't give the right answers, he poses the right questions.”
- Claude Levi-Strauss
ASKING BETTER QUESTIONS OF YOUR TAROT CARDS
The reason we ask questions is because we are curious and because we want to KNOW. So it makes sense that oftentimes, when we consult our tarot cards, we may be asking about certain areas of our lives where we feel uncertain, stuck, victimized, or fearful.
These are all valid emotions, of course, but it’s important to not give our power away - even to intangible objects like cards - or else we will perpetuate our patterns of trusting someone or something else to direct our lives and our destinies.
I often see people unknowingly giving their power away by the way they ask specific questions of their cards: Will I ever get married? Is this the right job for me to take? Will I ever feel confident in my body? Should I move to this new city?
You’ll notice that each of these questions above has a direct yes or no answer; there isn’t any space for interpretation, deeper meaning, or gray area to feel into.
The first step in asking more empowering questions is to think of using your tarot cards as seeking an assessment of energy, and not a definitive answer.
Everything is energy, after all. And when tarot cards are used as a way to intuitively tap into and understand the energy surrounding a certain person, decision, situation, or question, that’s when this mystical tool opens up doors to limitless possibilities for us.
HOW TO ASK EMPOWERING QUESTIONS WITH TAROT
Empowering questions are ones that are open-ended and when answered, leave you with a feeling of clarity and sovereignty. It’s important to remember that even within situations that are entirely out of our control - like a global pandemic, for example - we still ultimately have agency over our perceptions, thoughts, emotions, and actions.
There's also science to back up this approach. If you're using your tarot deck as a way to tap in deeper to your intuition and the energy around you, you want to have the right side of your brain lighting up - the side that ignites our imagination, intuition and creativity.
When we ask closed-ended or yes-or-no questions, our brain tends to stay more active in the left hemisphere, which is all about logic and seeing things as black and white. When we can shift into that right-side region, our inner vision expands and we are open to seeing and sensing more possibilities.
Here’s a good, simple way to tell if you’re asking an empowering question or not:
Closed-ended, disempowering questions typically start with one of these words: Is, Should, Does, Do, Have, Was, Did, Would, Could, Can, Will, Were, Are
Open-ended, empowering questions usually start with: What, Where, How, When, If, Who
Examples of Empowering Questions:
What do I currently need to feel more satisfied in my life?
Where in my life can I step into more of my own power?
How can I feel more aligned with my soul’s purpose?
When am I most aligned with my highest self?
GIVE YOUR TAROT QUESTIONS AN EMPOWERING MAKEOVER
If you're still feeling stumped on how to ask your tarot deck more empowering questions, here are some ideas to get you started.
Instead of asking: Is this person my soulmate?
Ask this: What is the current energy of my relationship with this person? - OR - What is this relationship helping me learn?
Instead of asking: Will I ever find love?
Ask this: What is currently blocking me from finding love? - OR - What can I do to invite a loving partnership into my life?
Instead of asking: Is this the right job for me to take?
Ask this: What kind of opportunities might I have in this new job? - OR - What challenges might I experience in this new job?
I want to share a quick example of why this one simple shift in your tarot practice has such a drastic effect on the messages you can receive and on your interpretation.
Let’s say you ask Is this person I’m dating my soulmate? And then you pull the Death card. There’s not a whole lot of wiggle room for interpretation in that - it kind of seems like a ‘hell no’ response with a ‘shut the door, because the conversation is over’ kind of vibe.
Imagine also how you might feel after receiving such a doom-filled message from the universe - probably pretty disempowered and anxious.
Now imagine asking a different, more empowering question: What is this relationship helping me learn? And you pull the Death card. Suddenly, a world of potential intuitive messages and interpretations opens up. Maybe this relationship is helping to teach you the art of surrender, or how to shed old layers of yourself that were keeping you small.
Each archetype within a 78-card tarot deck contains its own world of complex energy and interpretations. And just like we as people hold dichotomous light and shadow energies simultaneously, so too do the archetypes and stories represented through the cards.
When we ask disempowering questions to the cards, we not only give away our own power to act with free will, but we also reduce the depth of meaning that our cards hold down to unimaginative yes or no interpretations.
EMPOWERING DAILY TAROT CARD PROMPTS
If you’re ever in doubt over what empowering question to ask, you can use my go-to 3-card spread:
1) What is the current energy of xyz (relationship, job, situation, etc.)?
2) What is the highest potential energy of xyz (the same relationship, job, situation)?
3) How can I shift from [card 1] to [card 2] energy?
And if you’re establishing a daily tarot practice for self-care (which I highly recommend!), here are 5 empowering prompts you can use:
What can I stay aware of to make the most of this day?
Where will my energy be best spent today?
What do I need to help me with [goal you’re working on] today?
Where am I feeling stuck that could use my attention today?
How can I best align with my highest purpose today?
Chelsea Jewel is an Intuitive + Karmic Astrologer, Spiritual Coach, and Intuitive Mentor to those waking up to their own intuitive powers. You can connect with her on Instagram or via her website, chelseajewel.com
