Yes/No Questions

Ok people, we need to have a talk. Stop asking the tarot a yes/no question and then use a positional spread. =)

If you want to ask a yes/no question, there are ways to do so, and I will get to that in a minute. For now, we're looking at questions.

Let's take a 3 card spread as an example. And because I hate being asked to read "Does X like me?" I'm going to use that as an example too.

So, "Does X like me?" A clear yes or no answer, right? Naturally, we need a spread to answer this question. We could draw one card, or two, or heck, we could do a celtic cross! Surely we can get a yes/no answer for that! =)

So let's do a PPF for this poor girl and her crush on X.

Past ~ 2 Cups
Well, that looks like a promising foundation for a romantic relationship, doesn't it? But, this could also be speaking of their friendship as a whole. If I'm reading this as yes or no, I'd be inclined to say that X did have romantic feelings for our girl in the past.

Present ~ Temperance
Not seeing a yes/no here. But I will say that she's got to be awfully careful of how she's portraying herself to him.

Future ~ Queen of Pentacles
Perfect! What a clear yes/no answer for the future! That's most certainly a yes, or is is no? Maybe that little white booklet will help me out on this one....

Now, in all seriousness..... that was fun, but let's get back on track.

Some things we could ask instead:

How does X feel about me; How can I make myself more appealing to X; What can I do to bring real love into my life; etc......

Instead of yes/no let's see what our girl can do to further a romantic relationship with X, who, for all we know is married or has no idea who she is.

Red Light/Green Light/Yellow Light

* Red Light - Don't do this
9 Wands ~ oh that doesn't look good. Don't keep hope. Don't keep trying.

* Green Light - Go ahead and do this
8 Swords ~ lol go ahead and keep thinking he's all about you. Stay in your fantasy world.

* Yellow Light - Caution/be careful/be aware of this
Queen Cups ~ He's already taken, be aware of his wife/girlfriend/etc.

(I may have been thinking about my crush on The Rock while I was shuffling!)

But, we know that our little miss is going to pine away and think X will eventually come around and fall madly in love with her.

So, you want a yes/no answer. There are many ways to do this and I have tried several. None of them have been 100% for me.

The one I like best though, is this one. And it's a three carder! =)

First though, you must include reversed cards into your deck. So take half your deck, turn it, and shuffle it so one half of the deck is reversed. Keep doing this until you feel good about it.

Let's pull three cards:

6 Pents, 7 Swords, Hierophant

All upright, so that would be a yes answer for me.

Reversed cards (rv) count as a no, upright count as yes, and the middle card can (or not) count twice.

There is no need for me to expand further on the reading since all our little one wanted to know was yes/no. And I've just told her yes.

Does it matter that all three readings were different? Which one is correct? Who knows, who cares?

There you go. We tried this as an experiment last year I think and I had all but one or two be wrong. But, of course, we read on things that were easily answered in reality. Like, "Is that package from Amazon in my mailbox right now?" The answer was always no. *sigh*

So go ahead, use another system if it makes sense to you. Experiment. Have fun. Use a pendulum. I don't care. Just don't ask a yes/no unless the spread can give you a clear yes/no because none of the cards can give you one. Some may be more positive or negative than others, but none will give you a clear yes/no.

And, since sarcasm doesn't travel well over the net, this was all done in fun. The yes/no question and then throwing a celtic cross is probably my biggest pet peeve. =)

Read on!