Advice: Predictive Over Psychological Tarot Questions?

[zedekiel]

Hi all, I was recently reading through the forum and was struck by an incredibly apt distinction user @katrinka brought up in another thread about Tarot being used more in modern times for psychological reading rather than predictive. I realized that I've been practicing much more in last while with psychological insight and introspective Tarot readings for myself, and I've gotten out of practice working with the cards in a predictive sense. I'd really love to work with predictive readings, but I think I've been a little unconsciously daunted by the idea of it for many months. I've taken some hits to my confidence this year that have resulted in me being frightened of exerting myself in a lot of areas where I have the possibility of being "wrong" or "not good enough". Because of this, I think I accidentally stopped doing predictive readings for fear that I would read it wrong and have to come to terms with the fact that im not good enough, or some kind of other nonsense mental babble. Now I'm out of touch with that style of reading! Ack!

 

So I'm looking for opinions on two fronts:
-How can I come up with good predictive questions to ask the cards? I feel like I've been brain fried as of late and thinking of questions beyond "What is the energy of this day/week/month/encounter going to be?" has been difficult. Does anyone have predictive questions they think up for themselves to practice? Or any thoughts on how to think up more concrete and direct questions, rather than broad questions? I'm trying to work on my focused intent in the wording of my questions as well, as I often end up being too broad in this regard. Examples or advice dearly appreciated.

 

-I was wondering if others ever experience a block like this, and what you do about it? As in, you *want* to read with the cards, but you're not sure what to ask, or are too afraid to do so for whatever reason. How have you overcome this?

 

Thanks to @katrinka for providing such eloquent insight into modern Tarot reading styles. I hope it's ok that I've tagged you, as I wanted to give credit where it was due, but don't worry about responding to this thread if the subject matter doesn't interest you

 

[vulprix]

Hi zedekiel,

 

For what it's worth, I have struggled with this as well.  Predictive readings can become kind of a trap, or at least, they have in the past for me--so I think it is wise that you know where you're at when you state:

42 minutes ago, zedekiel said:

I think I've been a little unconsciously daunted by the idea of it for many months. I've taken some hits to my confidence this year that have resulted in me being frightened of exerting myself in a lot of areas where I have the possibility of being "wrong" or "not good enough". Because of this, I think I accidentally stopped doing predictive readings for fear that I would read it wrong and have to come to terms with the fact that im not good enough, or some kind of other nonsense mental babble.

My struggles with predictive reading are also due to my own psychological makeup, and have been related to hits in confidence as well.  So I appreciate that you have the insight to realize that predictive readings can actually be a little spooky if you take tarot seriously!  It is the old stereotype and it is well-deserved.

 

I asked a favorite professional tarot reader in my area for advice about this very struggle one time when I was in the thick of it.  I told her about how I had become avoidant of predictive readings and that I felt pretty sad and odd about it.  She replied, "I actually only do predictive readings for myself seasonally."  So this is one approach--doing broad, longer-term predictive readings so that you don't get too caught up in minutiae that psych you out.

 

36 minutes ago, zedekiel said:

-How can I come up with good predictive questions to ask the cards? I feel like I've been brain fried as of late and thinking of questions beyond "What is the energy of this day/week/month/encounter going to be?" has been difficult. Does anyone have predictive questions they think up for themselves to practice? Or any thoughts on how to think up more concrete and direct questions, rather than broad questions? I'm trying to work on my focused intent in the wording of my questions as well, as I often end up being too broad in this regard. Examples or advice dearly appreciated.

I think the good predictive readings to start off with would be ones that you do not feel too emotionally attached to, and nothing you wouldn't want to know/experiment with.  Something light.  Maybe a prediction about the goings-on of a low-key event.

 

Let's say there is a party or other event you are already dreading.  Clearing your mind and drawing a few cards to see what to expect at the party could be a fun exercise.  Or maybe even something to bolster positivity, such as, "What can I look forward to at this event?"  This helps you to predict something, but also to change your perspective and bolster your mood at once.

 

Personally, I am working myself up to more predictive reading (again) as well, because I think it is fruitful exercise in intuition.  I will not read any predictive readings about anything that for which I do not want an answer.  I personally used to be really into daily draws, and then I found them to be rather annoying and a trap for obsession.  But your mileage may vary.  It's definitely a great practice to really know the cards.

 

No question is wrong as long as you feel that you are in your own power, and that you are within your boundaries. 🙂 That is my best advice.  I hope this hasn't been too rambly!  I would love to hear about your progress with this, and I would be willing to share more of my perspective as well if you wished.

[katrinka]

16 hours ago, zedekiel said:

So I'm looking for opinions on two fronts:
-How can I come up with good predictive questions to ask the cards? I feel like I've been brain fried as of late and thinking of questions beyond "What is the energy of this day/week/month/encounter going to be?" has been difficult. Does anyone have predictive questions they think up for themselves to practice? Or any thoughts on how to think up more concrete and direct questions, rather than broad questions? I'm trying to work on my focused intent in the wording of my questions as well, as I often end up being too broad in this regard. Examples or advice dearly appreciated.

Hi - and I don't mind the tag at all!
OK, it's actually easy - start with yes or no questions. "Will my package arrive on time?" "Will I hear from X this week?" "Will I win the ebay auction?" I'd suggest framing the question so the 'yes' answer is desirable option. "Will we have a paid day off on Labor Day?" is easier to answer than "Will we have to work on Labor Day?" since people tend to second-guess when negative cards indicate good outcomes and vice versa.

 

Smaller spreads tend to be the clearest for these kinds of questions.

And questions like that aren't fearsome. Even now, if there's something very serious stressing me out, I'll get a second opinion from another trusted reader. I think we all do that. But there's plenty of day to day stuff you can ask about, and not getting the desired outcomes on those things isn't such a big deal.

Additionally, for practice you can ask about what will happen on a TV show you're following, a book you haven't finished yet, or things in the news like world and local events.

Dailies are good, too, just remember to ramp down your interpretations. The Devil probably isn't abuse, obsession, or addiction in a daily. It's probably just something you don't like, like having to clean the grout in the bathroom.

Will you get it wrong occasionally? Of course. We're not omniscient. But most of the time you'll get it right, and that's what builds confidence. We have a better hit rate than TV weathermen, and those guys have millions of dollars worth of equipment!

Edited September 4, 2020 by katrinka

[zedekiel]

On 9/4/2020 at 2:22 AM, vulprix said:

For what it's worth, I have struggled with this as well.  Predictive readings can become kind of a trap, or at least, they have in the past for me--so I think it is wise that you know where you're at when you state:

My struggles with predictive reading are also due to my own psychological makeup, and have been related to hits in confidence as well.  So I appreciate that you have the insight to realize that predictive readings can actually be a little spooky if you take tarot seriously!  It is the old stereotype and it is well-deserved.

 

I asked a favorite professional tarot reader in my area for advice about this very struggle one time when I was in the thick of it.  I told her about how I had become avoidant of predictive readings and that I felt pretty sad and odd about it.  She replied, "I actually only do predictive readings for myself seasonally."  So this is one approach--doing broad, longer-term predictive readings so that you don't get too caught up in minutiae that psych you out.

Thank you so much for your detailed reply! And for the relatedness you include in this comment! I really love the idea of doing a longer, broad seasonal reading.

On 9/4/2020 at 2:22 AM, vulprix said:

I think the good predictive readings to start off with would be ones that you do not feel too emotionally attached to, and nothing you wouldn't want to know/experiment with.  Something light.  Maybe a prediction about the goings-on of a low-key event.

 

Let's say there is a party or other event you are already dreading.  Clearing your mind and drawing a few cards to see what to expect at the party could be a fun exercise.  Or maybe even something to bolster positivity, such as, "What can I look forward to at this event?"  This helps you to predict something, but also to change your perspective and bolster your mood at once.

 

Personally, I am working myself up to more predictive reading (again) as well, because I think it is fruitful exercise in intuition.  I will not read any predictive readings about anything that for which I do not want an answer.  I personally used to be really into daily draws, and then I found them to be rather annoying and a trap for obsession.  But your mileage may vary.  It's definitely a great practice to really know the cards.

I love this as a practice! Especially asking questions that focus on the positive aspects of something, that's like.. something i hadn't thought of before and sometimes also gives me anxiety when reading predictive spreads. Not because i am afraid of getting a "negative" message, but because i get scared i won't read a warning sign properly and feel like a fool later on. I let fear control me a lot in regards to this but actually reframing questions to focus on positive and simple stuff to begin with would make it less daunting i feel! I also did daily draws a lot for a while. It helped ground me in a way, but I'd do them in the evening for the energy of the next day, and that kept it lighter. I stopped because, I dunno, I might have been getting overwhelmed with work or something and then felt guilty about missing so many days. I feel like developing a healthier mindset about daily draws in that it doesn't necessarily NEED to be "daily" might help alleviate some stress for me aha.

On 9/4/2020 at 2:22 AM, vulprix said:

No question is wrong as long as you feel that you are in your own power, and that you are within your boundaries. 🙂 That is my best advice.  I hope this hasn't been too rambly!  I would love to hear about your progress with this, and I would be willing to share more of my perspective as well if you wished.

Your detailed response is super appreciated and I would love more of your perspective if you're willing to give it! I seriously am grateful for you taking my query seriously!

[zedekiel]

11 hours ago, katrinka said:

Hi - and I don't mind the tag at all!
OK, it's actually easy - start with yes or no questions. "Will my package arrive on time?" "Will I hear from X this week?" "Will I win the ebay auction?" I'd suggest framing the question so the 'yes' answer is desirable option. "Will we have a paid day off on Labor Day?" is easier to answer than "Will we have to work on Labor Day?" since people tend to second-guess when negative cards indicate good outcomes and vice versa.

 

Smaller spreads tend to be the clearest for these kinds of questions.

And questions like that aren't fearsome. Even now, if there's something very serious stressing me out, I'll get a second opinion from another trusted reader. I think we all do that. But there's plenty of day to day stuff you can ask about, and not getting the desired outcomes on those things isn't such a big deal.

Very glad you didn't mind to respond! Your words of wisdom are much appreciated as what you said on that other spread really hit home for me! I very much like this view of yes or no questions! It seems almost obvious, to make the "yes" the desired outcome, but it's not something I would have consciously thought of before and you're right, not doing that could muddle understanding the meaning of the card drawn. If you don't mind me asking, personally, for "yes" or "no" questions, do you usually just pull one card? You're also very right that asking about low-stakes day to day stuff is a lot less stressful because the worst that can happen really isn't that bad. I suppose my days in quarantine have really been up in the air consistently, which feels like it's harder to ask predictive things because i have no idea how my day or week is going to play out for the most part in regards to what im going to do and such. But maybe then i can really dull down the questions to make them super simple, like in regards to what i may make for dinner or if ill have a lengthy conversation with my roommate or not.

11 hours ago, katrinka said:

Additionally, for practice you can ask about what will happen on a TV show you're following, a book you haven't finished yet, or things in the news like world and local events.

Dailies are good, too, just remember to ramp down your interpretations. The Devil probably isn't abuse, obsession, or addiction in a daily. It's probably just something you don't like, like having to clean the grout in the bathroom.

Will you get it wrong occasionally? Of course. We're not omniscient. But most of the time you'll get it right, and that's what builds confidence. We have a better hit rate than TV weathermen, and those guys have millions of dollars worth of equipment!

Hehe, i suppose people do ask the tarot about the weather sometimes yes? that might work quite well for me maybe as it's something that happens everyday, and where i live the weather can be quite variant day to day. For your top point, i have never read for something fictional but i am intrigued by it? It feels like you could get a really concrete look into if you were right or wrong with something like that! And I would like to get back into dailies, at least a few times a week. As i mentioned above, i stopped because i must have got busy, and then ended up feeling guilty for not being consistent "every day" but my energy often flares up and burns out really easily so there's no use getting stuck on not being consistent with something like tarot. I am doing it purely for myself and no one else so i don't have anyone to answer to but myself, and there's no need to be so hard on me, aha

[katrinka]

5 hours ago, zedekiel said:

If you don't mind me asking, personally, for "yes" or "no" questions, do you usually just pull one card?

I usually pull three. That way I can take the card interaction into account. It's more accurate, too. Think of it this way: Let's say you ask "Will the weather be clear Sunday?" and you draw one card: The 3 of Cups. That looks like a pretty strong "yes", but you end up getting caught in a thunderstorm. But if you'd drawn three cards, you might have had the 3 of Cups + 9 of Pents + Tower. It's like a "Yes, but..." The earlier part of the day will be clear, but towards the end, a storm will blow in. So if you're planning anything that requires clear weather, you know to get it done before late afternoon.

A lot of things are "Yes, but...", lol. If everything was a pure yes or no, we wouldn't need cards. We'd just flip a coin. 😉

 

5 hours ago, zedekiel said:

But maybe then i can really dull down the questions to make them super simple, like in regards to what i may make for dinner or if ill have a lengthy conversation with my roommate or not.

Exactly. 👍

 

5 hours ago, zedekiel said:

nd I would like to get back into dailies, at least a few times a week. As i mentioned above, i stopped because i must have got busy, and then ended up feeling guilty for not being consistent "every day" but my energy often flares up and burns out really easily so there's no use getting stuck on not being consistent with something like tarot.

In my experience, "dailies" can sometimes take an extra day or so to play out, lol. So it's better not to do them every single day. (We really need a better name for those than "dailies".)

5 hours ago, zedekiel said:

I am doing it purely for myself and no one else so i don't have anyone to answer to but myself, and there's no need to be so hard on me, aha

Yes! No pressure. It should be fun.

 

[DanielJUK]

oh there was definitely a trend in the 2010's to psychological and present and self analysing tarot and fortune telling / predicting was frowned upon! I love predicting tarot and use both, there is room for everything! I notice since last year that predictive divination is very in vogue again, maybe cos everyone has such crazy lives now! It's for comfort perhaps 🙂

 

If you like reading on your own life, try predicting readings in your own life, daily / weekly/ monthly, do it at the beginning of the day / week / month. What do I need to know about this day / week / month? Read on how things will turn out in your own life. A note of caution though, I think you can become addicted to asking how things will turn out, especially if you are yes or no questions so just becareful about reading how everything will turn out, it can end up as a crutch when you are worried and not trusting life (I went through a period of this in my life). That is why I would urge caution about specific readings rather than broad general ones. The thing about seeing what happens generally is it helps you learn to look out for things in the time frame. Obviously asking how specific things will turn out is fine but just don't rely on it as a tool.

 

Predictive readings have an element of risk and failure, it might end up wrong! This is difficult for our ego and maybe part of your discomfort about it. But failure is part of it and helps you learn to get better! There are people in the world paid a lot of money to professionally predict business projects / launches and the stock markets / financial trends using astrology / tarot / divination, but I bet they get things wrong sometimes. Everyone gets predictions wrong, I honestly don't believe anyone has a 100% rate!

 

Here are my predictive reading tips based on what I have learnt.....

 

- Make it fun, take the pressure off! See how it turns out, it doesn't matter if you get it totally wrong. If you get nothing right, learn from it, be better next time!

- Keep it private if it takes the pressure off, do it yourself with a journal. I post predictions in my journal on here as a public thing but you you can keep it 100% to yourself, especially at first

- As well as reading what is coming up for you, make political / world / event predictions. I read a lot on sports, it helped me get much better at it!

- I noticed with my predictive reading that it works much better intuitively. Look at the card art and your intuition. Learnt meanings often don't help with predictive.

 

Some years ago on here, I predicted the winners of Football (soccer) World Cup Games. I posted them before the match started. What was so frustrating is that I always got something right but it was hard to get 100% of the prediction right. Like I often got the winning country correct but the story of the game wrong. Also there were patterns (or maybe clues) the cards would give me, for example Cups in a card would often come up for the country that won. Often even if the prediction doesn't come right you can see a message there in hindsight and maybe it will help you to see it next time, that is the frustrating part of it.

 

Predictive reading is really tricky and it needs confidence because it can go wrong! Keep it light and fun, I think making it serious is a mistake. Nothing is guaranteed 100%! Practice at it as much as possible, I definitely improved with practice, by the end of the World Cup I had around a 70% accuracy! I read on many world events, sports, politics, celebs, anything to see how it turns out, I also read in my own life for practice weekly and monthly, I am often totally stunned at how it turns out and often it has given me guidance before I took a wrong course of action. Keep it light and just do it as often as you can to improve 🙂

[katrinka]

2 hours ago, DanielJUK said:

and fortune telling / predicting was frowned upon!

Yes! In some cases it came off like an actual smear campaign. Fortunetellers were said to be cold readers who were bilking their clients, while ethical readers were diviners. It's ironic when you consider that many of the statements made in a psychological reading can bear a more-than-passing resemblance to those used in cold reading.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_reading#The_Forer_effect_(Barnum_statements)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_reading#The_rainbow_ruse

[vulprix]

18 hours ago, zedekiel said:

Your detailed response is super appreciated and I would love more of your perspective if you're willing to give it! I seriously am grateful for you taking my query seriously!

No trouble at all, thank you for your kind words!  Here's to the future 😉

[zedekiel]

Ack, my internet wacked out for a bit. I've now done my first and second predictive reading because of your guys' notes and encouragement so I really appreciate what everyone has put here to help me along in this! I'm gonna keep trying! Just wanted to thank you for your points @DanielJUK ! and @katrinka This is the first time I've heard of the phrase "cold reader" but after looking into the wikipedia article you listen, I understand completely what you're talking about. It's very interesting as a phenomenon that was so popular on tv for a while, but highly depressing that that was the overall view of predictive readers

 

On 9/5/2020 at 2:26 PM, DanielJUK said:

Predictive readings have an element of risk and failure, it might end up wrong! This is difficult for our ego and maybe part of your discomfort about it. But failure is part of it and helps you learn to get better! There are people in the world paid a lot of money to professionally predict business projects / launches and the stock markets / financial trends using astrology / tarot / divination, but I bet they get things wrong sometimes. Everyone gets predictions wrong, I honestly don't believe anyone has a 100% rate!

I think this nails exactly why I'm so uncomfortable about it! Failure has done a dent to my ego recently and so the possibility of it scares me for sure. But you have to fail to get better and you're right, no one's correct 100% of the time.

On 9/5/2020 at 2:26 PM, DanielJUK said:

Here are my predictive reading tips based on what I have learnt.....

 

- Make it fun, take the pressure off! See how it turns out, it doesn't matter if you get it totally wrong. If you get nothing right, learn from it, be better next time!

- Keep it private if it takes the pressure off, do it yourself with a journal. I post predictions in my journal on here as a public thing but you you can keep it 100% to yourself, especially at first

- As well as reading what is coming up for you, make political / world / event predictions. I read a lot on sports, it helped me get much better at it!

- I noticed with my predictive reading that it works much better intuitively. Look at the card art and your intuition. Learnt meanings often don't help with predictive.

 

Some years ago on here, I predicted the winners of Football (soccer) World Cup Games. I posted them before the match started. What was so frustrating is that I always got something right but it was hard to get 100% of the prediction right. Like I often got the winning country correct but the story of the game wrong. Also there were patterns (or maybe clues) the cards would give me, for example Cups in a card would often come up for the country that won. Often even if the prediction doesn't come right you can see a message there in hindsight and maybe it will help you to see it next time, that is the frustrating part of it.

 

Predictive reading is really tricky and it needs confidence because it can go wrong! Keep it light and fun, I think making it serious is a mistake. Nothing is guaranteed 100%! Practice at it as much as possible, I definitely improved with practice, by the end of the World Cup I had around a 70% accuracy! I read on many world events, sports, politics, celebs, anything to see how it turns out, I also read in my own life for practice weekly and monthly, I am often totally stunned at how it turns out and often it has given me guidance before I took a wrong course of action. Keep it light and just do it as often as you can to improve 🙂

This are some really wonderful tips to work with! Especially the intuitive point. I got a new deck recently that seems to be working exclusively as an intuitive deck and now that I took some of the others' comments to heart and tried simple predictive reading a few times with it, I see that intuitive really works the best for me for this kind of reading. Seems this deck came into my life at the right time!

 

It's also very interesting how you noted certain images/suits often correlated to messages (like cups=winning). I feel like by using the tip to write down the predictions would help a lot in noticing things like that!

[Ix Chel]

I like to do predictive readings, that was the reason when I started to learn Tarot. I often read about news events, soap television shows or celebrity. You always learn, even if you are wrong. And sometimes you can be so right, that it blows your mind. And also give you the position to look further than the cards, you can often get a lot of information out of the astrology houses. I would say, just try and have fun.