Recently I decided to apply to the Free Tarot Network to both read more, and to practice readings over email. It is an ATA operated website which provides free, one-card tarot readings to the public. I thought that sounded pretty cool, and I’m always looking to do more readings, so I signed up.
One of their requirements is that one of their established readers mentors you, examining you and your style to make sure you can actually read some tarot. My own mentor has been very friendly and supportive, and the sample questions he provided me to practice on with him were good examples of ‘difficult’ tarot questions – questions which usually get rephrased, unless you are very comfortable being asked predictive and dramatic questions.
Color coded so they can later be referred to as ‘Red’ and ‘Blue’, two of these questions were:
Red: “What is the star sign, and if possible, first initial of the man who has a romantic interest in me?”
Blue: “I’ve risked everything starting my new business. The business is struggling, my friends and family don’t support me, and we need money. My confidence in my direction is gone, and I don’t know what to do. We need a windfall.”
After one of my responses, my mentor commented my experience was evident in how I handled the questions themselves. Looking back over them, I saw that I have a somewhat systematic approach to questions when giving readings. I thought that might be helpful to those looking to do readings over the web, or even just looking for approaches to ‘hard’ questions. Here I’ll lay down the basic framework of how I handled these questions and ones like them, which is particularly well suited to a medium like email where I’m not able to get feedback from the querent.
Here is that framework to help examine and refine questions in the form of Four simplified tips. Good and precise question can be the difference between a nice reading and a truly helpful one! I will look at those two ‘difficult’ questions above beneath the lens of each tip to help give a sense of how I used the suggestions.