Man, let me tell you, I was so close to tossing my entire collection of decks out the window last spring. I mean, totally done. For months, I was pulling cards, trying to get clarity on this job situation I was stuck in, and honestly, the readings were just useless. Absolute garbage.
I thought the cards hated me, or maybe I was doing the spreads wrong. I started blaming the deck, blaming the books, even blaming the moon cycle. Anything but admitting the truth: I was asking utterly terrible questions.
My Messy Beginning: Why I Almost Threw My Decks Out
I had been struggling to launch my own small gig. I quit my comfortable corporate job thinking I was ready, only to find myself paralyzed by choices and absolutely zero cash flow. Every time I sat down for a reading, I was desperate. I wasn’t seeking guidance; I was seeking a magic answer. I’d shuffle, pull a layout, and ask stupid stuff like, “Will this business succeed?” or “Is money coming next month?”
The cards would give me these huge, vague spreads—lots of Courts, sometimes the Tower, sometimes just a bunch of Cups telling me to feel my feelings, which did zero for the mounting bills. I realized I was totally screwed if I couldn’t get real, actionable advice from the very tool I relied on.
The breaking point came when I spent nearly $400 on a mentorship program thinking it would fix my technique. The mentor looked at my log of practice questions and literally laughed. That stung, but it forced me to stop playing pretend and start doing the hard, tedious work of tracking what made a reading productive versus what just produced fancy wallpaper.
So, I started a rigorous practice log. I didn’t just write down the card and the interpretation; I wrote down the exact question, the clarity score (from 1 to 10), and the action I took afterward. This systematic tracking is how I nailed down the three biggest question mistakes that were sinking me.
Practice Log: Identifying the Garbage Questions I Kept Making
I hammered this process out over six weeks. Hundreds of questions logged. The pattern was so clear it was painful. Here are the three question types that produced nothing but confusion and delay:
- Error 1: The “Yes/No” or Absolute Prediction Trap.
I kept asking things like, “Will she call me by Friday?” or “Will I sign this client?” I wanted a guarantee. But Tarot doesn’t deal in guarantees. When you ask for a definitive “yes” or “no,” the cards just get fuzzy. They can’t give you certainty because certainty doesn’t exist. My clarity score for all “Will I/Will it” questions averaged about 3/10. Useless.
- Error 2: The “Blame Game” Focusing Solely on Others.
This was big when I was dealing with my partnership issues. I’d ask, “Why is my partner so distant?” or “What does my boss really think of me?” Look, the cards are for you. They can show you the energy you are bringing to the situation, or your role in the dynamic. But when you try to use them as a sneak peek into someone else’s locked-down head, you get shallow answers. They don’t exist to gossip or give you control over others. I learned to pivot: instead of “Why is he distant?” I started asking, “What perception of myself am I projecting that creates distance in this relationship?” Much better.
- Error 3: The “Fuzzy Future” Asking Too Broadly.
I used to sit down and ask, “What will my life look like in five years?” Five years? Man, I couldn’t even manage the next five hours! The cards struggle with huge, sweeping timelines. If you ask a huge question, you get a huge, vague answer. This is where I got all those big, complicated spreads that meant nothing practical. My clarity score for these mega-questions was often 1/10. The fix? I realized I needed to focus on the immediate next step. Instead of “What will my success look like?” I changed it to “What small, specific action should I take this week to move the ball forward on Project X?”
The Fix: Switching from Fortune Teller to Strategist
The minute I switched my mentality from trying to use the Tarot to predict the future to using it to map out the best strategy for my own actions, everything clicked. I wasn’t asking for results anymore; I was asking for perspective and process.
My new mantra became: The question must focus on my agency and the immediate next step.
I stopped asking questions that could be answered by a coin flip and started asking “How” and “What” questions. For instance, my financial clarity shot up when I stopped asking “Will I get money?” and started asking “How can I restructure my service offerings to better align with the value clients are willing to pay?” That question gave me the High Priestess and the 8 of Pentacles—advice to trust my intuition but also get back to mastering my craft. Specific, actionable advice.
If you feel like your readings aren’t working, stop blaming the deck or your psychic ability. Go back to your logs, or start one now. Write down those garbage questions you keep asking. I guarantee you’ll see one of these three mistakes popping up over and over. Fix the question, and the cards will stop fighting you and start guiding you instead. It’s the difference between hoping for a miracle and actually planning your escape.
