When Querents / Clients Do Not Want to Ask a Question

[Wyrdkiss]

both personally and professionally, I lean a on spread a lot. I'm big on them.

If a scheduled client does not usually ask questions with tarot, they just want sign posts on how to move forward,

how would you conduct that reading?

 

usually in the past, at public events for example, I simply say, "let's see what turns up in the cards" and do my 2 or 3 card spread regardless.

Or a simplified variant.

 

But, in the case of an appointment, it has me wondering if I could be more effective with another approach.

thoughts?

 

 

[Natural Mystic Guide]

38 minutes ago, Wyrdkiss said:

how would you conduct that reading?

I love these kinds of readings -- it does not put limitations on what information can come through.  So I just say, 'Great!  Let's see what the universe has to say to you' or 'Great!  Let's see what Guidance has to say to you.  Then I will either do a 3-Card reading (Past - Present - Future; or What you Need to Know - Advice - Outcome); or a 4/5 World Reading.  Now with a regularly scheduled client, I typically  do what I call a pre-reading before we even meet.  This is a '4-Worlds Reading' where I pull a card for each of the 4 Kabbalistic Worlds:  Assiyah; Yetzirah; Briyah and Atzilut.  I present it in this way to the client:  'This pre-reading is a snapshot of what is going on for you right now.'  I find that this can serve as a springboard.

 

Now I am planning on doing something new in the future.  I learned here, from  @PrettyMama of a new (to me) oracle deck -- The Pure Magic Oracle.  It is a 36 card deck with 9 cards for each element.  It is rare that I use oracle decks.  When I watched a couple of videos about the deck, I really like the keywords.  The deck will take a while to arrive here from the U.S. so I have not yet had a chance to play with it.  But, I bought it for exactly this type of situation.  I'm thinking that if a client and I ever need a direction to go in, I would pull one card from this deck to start us off.

[Raggydoll]

As an alternative/addition to the approaches already mentioned, you can also ask the sitter which areas of life they’d like to look into, and you can give examples of different topics. I have found that very often, there are specific areas/topics they are interested in, like love or money, even if they initially said they didn’t have a specific question. Then if they really just want a general reading then a line of cards or something like this is often what I’d go with:

            4

   1 2 3 5 7 8 9 10

            6

 

It’s a version of past/present/future. 1-3 is the past, 4-6 is the present, 7-9 is the future, and 10 sums up the outcome or acts as advice. You could also have 1-2 be the past, 3,5,7 be the present, 8,9 be the future, 10 be the outcome/advice, and then the 4 and 6 could be something like Untapped potential/Message from ancestors or guides, What to do/What not to do etc etc. 

 

Another thing that I sometimes do is that I will do a tableu with a reduced deck and look for key cards (a significator or a themed card), and then I’ll read the square of cards that surround those. I have demonstrated this with a pasyans deck in my journal but I have also done it with reduced tarot decks and other types of decks. It all depends on your style of reading and what types of decks you use. 

[DanielJUK]

I think the Querents asking this fall into two camps. Those who are confused about their current situation / where they currently are in life and those who really have no question or topic they can think to read on.

 

With the latter group, they have no desire for a focus. You can just see what comes up or give a message from the universe or something they need to know. Some readers don't like those type of readings. I am with @Natural Mystic Guide I really enjoy those type of readings because it's like a mystery or a story you have to decipher and give. They are a lot more tricky with no focus, especially with a paid for reading. I know I often have no focus in readings and like to see what comes up. I would probably do 3 cards here and just see what comes up, freestyle open reading.

 

With the first group, they are full of confusion and don't know what to ask or what they want. It's a really good idea to do a spread for them with formal positions. Maybe they can give an area of their life which is important or they are struggling with and then use a multi-position spread to help them work it out. A structured reading is important here to give them all the positions of advice.

 

 

[Raggydoll]

5 hours ago, DanielJUK said:

I think the Querents asking this fall into two camps. Those who are confused about their current situation / where they currently are in life and those who really have no question or topic they can think to read on.

I’d say there is a third camp - the ones who do know what they’d like to ask about, but who might be reluctant or too embarrassed to reveal their real question. I have seen this happen many times. Some will reveal their true question after they’ve developed trust in the reader, while others simply hope that the topic will turn up in the cards anyway. 

[DanielJUK]

35 minutes ago, Raggydoll said:

I’d say there is a third camp - the ones who do know what they’d like to ask about, but who might be reluctant or too embarrassed to reveal their real question. I have seen this happen many times. Some will reveal their true question after they’ve developed trust in the reader, while others simply hope that the topic will turn up in the cards anyway. 

 

I was going to suggest, in my post, to play around with the question and topic with a querent. Sometimes they are not asking for what they really want to know.

This is very true and it's hard to get their trust to find out what they really want to know 🙂 

[Misterei]

To me it's very dependent on the timing of the appointment.

If a client has booked only 15 mins I'm very up front saying they better give me a direct question to answer b/c we've only got 15 mins.

 

For 30, 45, 60 mins I always start general. I'm open to hearing their topics of concern ... but we have enough time to see what the cards say first. Then there is the scenario mentioned already:

 

58 minutes ago, Raggydoll said:

... the ones who do know what they’d like to ask about, but who might be reluctant or too embarrassed to reveal their real question. ...

Yep. Why I start general and also why I prefer longer readings that allow time for this to evolve if the person is very private or closed.

 

22 minutes ago, DanielJUK said:

... Sometimes they are not asking for what they really want to know ...

So common! And sometimes it's not even intentional. Like they *do* want to know about their love life ... but the cards want to say something about their father in prison in China, first [yes, this happened]. Sometimes the cards have their own agenda and will only answer the stated question *after* they've given their extra-curricular message.

Edited August 7, 2024 by Misterei

[DanielJUK]

I always read stories from Doctors who have like 10 mins with a patient and they come in with a minor problem but really have something they are seriously worried about. It's an art to coax it out of someone in a short timeframe 🙂 

[Wyrdkiss]

I will say, over some time, I now have querents with appointments write out their question, or I write it out with them as they modify with me.

 

For walk-up readings, I"ll still pull 3 and let the cards speak, but I do not prefer to. If there is any level of antagonism in the client, they can dismiss it all.  Or drill for card meanings, to test memorization. Oddly enough it has almost always been other vendors, not attendees, that act this way at fairs and event. And thankfully it has been very rare.  I appreciate the feedback.

[Delven]

On 8/4/2025 at 2:54 AM, Wyrdkiss said:

I will say, over some time, I now have querents with appointments write out their question, or I write it out with them as they modify with me.

 

For walk-up readings, I"ll still pull 3 and let the cards speak, but I do not prefer to. If there is any level of antagonism in the client, they can dismiss it all.  Or drill for card meanings, to test memorization. Oddly enough it has almost always been other vendors, not attendees, that act this way at fairs and event. And thankfully it has been very rare.  I appreciate the feedback.

Having the client nut out their question and write it down is a great idea - many don't actually know what their question is, so doing this is a great clarifier for them - you don't have to see or know the question. 

 

One way to determine the Clients area of inquiry you can attend to is: 

After shuffling and cutting the deck - before you lay the first card down - look at the card on the bottom of thr deck - the Base Card; it is the Basis of the question and of their reading.

 

It can give so much information about the client, their emotional temperature, their expectations, their real question... some still won't know what they're there to hear. 

The base card is the hidden wisdom.