Yes or no, how a one-card tarot reading works

I am asked fairly often why I don’t do the big spreads. Ten cards in a cross, or three cards for past, present and future: they look like tarot, and people expect them. The honest answer is that a wide spread gives a wide answer, and nobody comes to my table with a wide question. They come with things they need to decide. So I answer those, one card at a time, for as many as they have.

The question first

The reading is decided before the deck is cut. A question that can take a yes or a no, such as “Do I take the offer?” or “Do I get the second opinion now?”, gets a clear answer. A question that cannot, such as “What does my career hold?”, cannot be answered by anything, cards included.

So the first few minutes of a sitting usually go to sharpening the question. “Should I stay?” becomes “If I stay this year, is it the right decision?” That is a question a card can hold.

The deck

I read with the Rider-Waite deck, the one Pamela Colman Smith drew in 1909 and the one most readers in the world learn on. There is nothing exotic about it, and that is the point. The pictures are plain, the meanings are settled, and the person sitting across from me can see the card and follow what I am saying.

The card

Then one card, drawn from the major arcana. Upright or reversed, it answers the question. Then it says why, and the why is the part you take home.

Four cards come up more than the rest when a yes-or-no question is on the table, and they are worth knowing before you sit.

The Emperor. Authority and structure. Rules, plans, and the discipline to keep them. When the Emperor comes up, the question is about order: whether the ground is prepared, and whether you are keeping to the plan.

The Hierophant. Tradition and the proper way of doing things: the teacher, the ceremony, the family’s custom. It asks whether you are doing this the recognised way, with the people who should be there.

The Hermit. Time alone to think before the next step. People dislike this card, and it is usually the kindest one on the table. It says finish the thinking first.

The Tower. Sudden change. Something built on the wrong footing comes down, and the way ahead is clearer once it has. It is the card people fear most, and the one that most often tells them something they already knew.

Why no maybes

Because a maybe is not an answer. It is a way of not being wrong. You sit for thirty minutes and you should leave with something you can act on, not a mood. If the cards have nothing to say on a question, I will tell you that. I will not dress silence up as a maybe.

What people bring

There is no list of subjects. Anything you can put in one sentence can go to the cards, and most sittings cover several. Love, money and health come up often enough to be worth a word on each.

Love questions are the easiest to sharpen and the hardest to hear. The card does not know whether a person is good for you. It knows whether the thing you are asking about will hold. Ask about the decision, not the person.

Money questions are the cleanest: offers, leases, partnerships, dates. Put the month in the question and the answer will be as specific as the question.

Health questions get an answer about a decision: the second opinion, the timing, the change of routine. Never a diagnosis. That belongs to your doctor, and I will say so before the card is cut.

When the answer opens a bigger question

Sometimes a no is not the end of it. The card says no, and the real question is why this keeps being a no. That is a question about a period of your life rather than about one decision, and a birth chart is the better tool for it. Sachin reads those, in the same house, and questions often go from my table to his desk. That is the point of two readers under one roof.

Bring the question as precisely as you can put it. You will leave with an answer.