What questions to ask the cards
The outcome depends on the question more than on the deck, the layout or your experience. With a precise question almost any card turns useful; with a vague one none of them help.
What makes a question work
A working question describes a situation instead of demanding an answer from outside. Compare: "what should I do about work" and "for three months I have been meaning to talk to my manager about workload and I keep not starting". The first hands the decision to the card; the second leaves it with you and gives material to work with.
Second property: the question has to be about you. "Why does he behave like that" is beyond a card, because you are not him. Same topic in a workable form: "what happens to me around him".
Third: one topic at a time. A question holding work, relationships and health at once produces an answer about nothing. Split them and take the one that is loudest today.
Ready wordings: a list by theme
Take the line closest to your situation and put your own words in. Each wording is here on one criterion: it produces material rather than a dead end.
Yourself and your state
- What is happening to me right now
- What am I actually feeling in this situation
- What is there most of in me at the moment
- Who am I in this period of my life
For when it is hard and there are no words.
Relationships
- What happens to me around this person
- What am I not saying out loud
- What role do I play in this pair
- What do I expect from them and never ask for
All of these are about you, not the other person: a card does not show anyone else's thoughts.
A choice between options
- Who am I in option A and who in option B
- What do I lose in each
- What am I not seeing in the way I framed this
The third one is often the most useful.
A stuck situation
- What keeps everything as it is
- What do I get while nothing changes
- What first step is available to me this week
Resource and support
- Where do I have strength right now
- What holds me up when it is hard
- Who am I when I am well
A good first practice of the day.
Goals and movement
- What does this goal mean to me
- What stops me going towards it
- How will I know I have arrived
Works in a layout of three or more cards.
What is pointless to ask
Three kinds of question do not work, not because they are bad but because the method is built differently.
About the future
- What will happen in a year
- Will it work out for me
- Is it worth waiting
A card shows how you see the situation now and knows nothing about what comes. Working replacement: what do I expect from this year and what do I fear.
About other people
- What does he think of me
- Does she love me
- Why did he act that way
You draw your own projection, not their thoughts. Working replacement: what am I filling in for him and what is that based on.
Yes or no
- Should I leave my job
- Move away or stay
A card does not vote. Working replacement: lay both options out with the fork and look at each separately.
How to ask well: four checks
Four checks take a minute and save the whole session.
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1
Is it about me?
The wording contains "I", or "I" can be put in without losing the sense. If the subject is another person, rewrite it.
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2
Can it not be answered yes or no?
A closed question gives a closed answer. Open it with "what", "how", "what for".
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3
Is it one topic?
If there are two or more inside, split them. The second topic will wait for its own card.
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4
Is it written down?
Keep the question in front of you throughout. Without that, the conversation drifts by the third card, and you only notice afterwards.
If the question still will not form after four checks, that is a result too: the topic has not taken shape yet. Then take one card on "what is happening to me" and start there.
How the question changes in a layout
With one card there is one question. In a layout the overall request stays, and each position carries its own follow-up; together they make a sequence.
In the five-card money scheme, for instance, the request is "my relationship with money", and the positions ask in turn: what blocks it, what to do first, second, third, and who I become once that works. None of these gives the picture alone; together they give a path.
One practical consequence: if you take a ready technique, you do not invent questions, they already sit at the positions. The only thing to word yourself is the overall request, and that is where the minute is worth spending.
Questions to the card itself
The request is a question to the situation. There is a second layer: questions you ask a card you have already drawn. They are the same for any deck and any layout.
- What do I see here – a literal description before any conclusions: who, where, what is happening
- What did I feel – the reaction arrives before the thought and is usually more accurate
- How does this resemble my situation – a link to your life, not an interpretation of the picture
- What is missing here – the question for when a card does not respond
- What will I do about this this week – the closing question; without it the work stays a conversation
FAQ
What questions should I ask metaphorical cards?
Can I ask the cards about the future?
How is this different from fortune telling with cards?
What is a request in card work?
How many questions per session?
Do I have to write the question down?
Ask your own question
Next: techniques with a ready sequence of questions, how to read the card you drew, layouts by card count, limits of the method.