Hello

So I’ve been wondering how to interpret negative cards in advice positions. Whether as something to lean into, as a warning, or something where you’ve gotta walk the line of the helpful aspects of the card and the harmful ones.

For example, my advice card of the day today was the seven of swords.

For the warning, I could see it as not to bs myself today, don’t procrastinate or run away from my problems, try to be straight with people and work together with others instead of trying to go it alone or be self interested.

For the lean into it, I can see it as maybe think strategically, look out for your own interests and self / prioritize yourself and your needs, work smart and not hard, cut corners if you have to to get the job done today, etc.

For walking the line, I guess it’d be a sort of combo of the above. Like work smart but don’t cut corners because it’ll come back to bite you later, work with others and be accommodating but look out for your needs as well and be wary of people tryna cheat or trample on you or of doing that to others. That sort of thing.

What is your approach?

Hey @zurgles , do you want to just discuss this topic in a general way or talk personally about the readings that came up for you? If you want it as a general discussion, I can move it to the main forum discussion area.

Hey @DanielJUK . I’d like to discuss it in a general way, I just wasn’t sure where to put it. Thanks.

7 hours ago, zurgles said:

So I’ve been wondering how to interpret negative cards in advice positions. Whether as something to lean into, as a warning, or something where you’ve gotta walk the line of the helpful aspects of the card and the harmful ones.

For example, my advice card of the day today was the seven of swords. ... What is your approach?

Yes, this vexes all of us, I think.

Personally I find it context dependent. Frex 7 swords i read as unfinished karma [different than the standard] so I might take it as a bit of a warning that something I thought was finished ... isn't. The advice is that I might have to go back and re-do something.

Devil as advice is particularly annoying. Ugh! But in one reading Devil was telling me that it WAS helpful and important to remain attached in the situation. I tend to let go of things and move on. Sometimes to my detriment. Devil advised me to dig in, hold my ground, and keep what was mine. In relationship context Devil might be a warning that old co-dependent patterns will rear their ugly head. Conversely, advising to explore sexual aspects of a relationship. If we take away the religious stuff with Devil ... we're left with a card that can reference sexuality and animal passions. We humans are very smart monkeys when you get right down to it. We have an animal nature.

Tower as advice? The very opposite of Devil. LET GO. B/c anything you try to hold onto will just get ripped from your bleeding hands, anyhow. Or if it's a real estate question--you're going to need to do demolition to do the repairs.

I think this touches upon the bias we want everything to be "nice" or easy. Including our advice! Life isn't like that. Sometimes we must do the difficult thing or make the hard call. Malefic advice cards often suggest that sort of scenario.

Good question, @zurgles ! As I always include an Advice card in my readings, this issue comes up a lot.

I read a negative Advice card —it can be a reversed card if it was a positive card upright, or simply a negative card itself—as 'don't do that.' You may be inclined to 'do that' —but don't! It will be warning you that certain behaviours or attitudes will be a mistake.

I think the trick is to remain calm, and realise this card is giving you advice as to how best to behave, or what attitude to take. It's not forecasting what will/won't happen in terms of the occurrence itself!

For example, if The Tower upright appears as your Advice card—especially if the overall reading is somewhat negative— it's hard not to think 'OMG terrible things are happening! Be prepared!!!' The 'advice' from the tarot will be—instead—don't behave as if a catastrophe has occurred—because that kind of behaviour will not be helpful at this time.

If the Advice card is The Tower, reversed, I'd probably read it as 'no need to worry; this is not a catastrophe.'

The first is advising you about your behaviour or attitude. It's warning you against catastrophising a situation, which can only make things worse. The second is advising you not to worry, because the issue isn't as bad as you think it is.

(If the situation IS a sudden catastrophe, there are other Advice cards that will appear, telling you what your best course of action or attitude should be. The Tower will may well have appeared elsewhere in the reading.)

And yes, I've had both the upright and reversed Tower turn up as Advice. I followed the advice, and it worked out fine. The Advice cards in my personal readings are usually the most important cards in that reading. They give me something to do, or something not to do. That always seems to work out.

Edited Friday at 06:13 AM3 days by Chariot

9 hours ago, zurgles said:

Hey @DanielJUK . I’d like to discuss it in a general way, I just wasn’t sure where to put it. Thanks.

I've moved it over to the general tarot discussion area as it's an interesting discussion to have 😀

I tend to read a negative card in advice position as the best possible manifestation of the card in question. So in the case of, say, Seven of Sword, you may actually need to be a bit sly and careful, maybe even avoid full honesty about something. For a particularly bad card, like the 10 of Swords, I might interpret it as fully accepting that something has ended and dealing with the loss, while trusting a new day will rise… and so on.

I say “best manifestation” not in a moralistic way, but in a “silver lining” sort of way. This card sucks, yeah, but if I could find something useful about it, what would it be? That tends to be my advice.

11 hours ago, Marina said:

.... For a particularly bad card, like the 10 of Swords ...

LOL the cards advise: you're totally f*cked. Might as well accept it. Practice Stoicism.

Sorry, I couldn't resist a bit of humor. I really, really hate seeing 10 swords in the advice position. But even that's better than the outcome position.

On 10/1/2026 at 9:56 PM, Misterei said:

Personally I find it context dependent. […]

I think this touches upon the bias we want everything to be "nice" or easy. Including our advice! Life isn't like that. Sometimes we must do the difficult thing or make the hard call. Malefic advice cards often suggest that sort of scenario.

I liked the examples you used. This is the way I’d been going about it but I’m not very intuitive and my tricky ADHD mind is always coming up with new angles to look at stuff at, even if it’s not particularly welcome. Like “we could look at it like this…or the complete opposite! Or this way!” Not helping brain! Doing a reflection at the end of the day on my daily advice readings has helped me trust myself more when I’m leaning towards an angle, and I feel like this style of reading offers the most flexibility.

On 10/1/2026 at 11:06 PM, Chariot said:

I read a negative Advice card —it can be a reversed card if it was a positive card upright, or simply a negative card itself—as 'don't do that.' You may be inclined to 'do that' —but don't! It will be warning you that certain behaviours or attitudes will be a mistake.

I think the trick is to remain calm, and realise this card is giving you advice as to how best to behave, or what attitude to take. It's not forecasting what will/won't happen in terms of the occurrence itself!

For example, if The Tower upright appears as your Advice card—especially if the overall reading is somewhat negative— it's hard not to think 'OMG terrible things are happening! Be prepared!!!' The 'advice' from the tarot will be—instead—don't behave as if a catastrophe has occurred—because that kind of behaviour will not be helpful at this time.

Ooh that makes a lot of sense. The example of the tower saying ‘don’t catastrophize’ makes a lot of sense to me. It kinda reminds me of cognitive behavioral therapy. You look at your automatic thoughts and label the pattern the thought seems to be part of and try to form a rational response instead. So the malefic cards in advice positions could be alerting you to unhelpful thoughts and behaviors and asks you to recognize them and respond in a different way. I feel like this style seems simple but it’s direct and clear and powerful.

On 10/2/2026 at 8:00 AM, Marina said:

I tend to read a negative card in advice position as the best possible manifestation of the card in question. So in the case of, say, Seven of Sword, you may actually need to be a bit sly and careful, maybe even avoid full honesty about something. For a particularly bad card, like the 10 of Swords, I might interpret it as fully accepting that something has ended and dealing with the loss, while trusting a new day will rise… and so on.

I say “best manifestation” not in a moralistic way, but in a “silver lining” sort of way. This card sucks, yeah, but if I could find something useful about it, what would it be? That tends to be my advice.

I like this. I feel like I’ve kinda tried to do this but I always second guess myself. It gives proper credit to the idea that there aren’t really negative cards, and whether a card is negative or positive depends on the context and position it shows up in. Sometimes you do have to be crafty, or lie, or in the case of the tower - take a sledgehammer to it, haha. I feel like this could also allow for a bit of moral grayness instead of black/white thinking.

I feel like this can be an empowering way to look at things too. Sometimes things are bad, but it’s how we respond to it that counts. It kinda reminds me of how in astrology there are benefic planets and malefic planets but even the malefics are necessary and can teach us lessons and give us gifts.

22 hours ago, Misterei said:

Sorry, I couldn't resist a bit of humor. I really, really hate seeing 10 swords in the advice position. But even that's better than the outcome position.

The 10 of swords stalked me for at least a full year, maybe longer, a while back. I even got the card “defeat” from the vessel oracle, a deck that doesn’t have a ten of swords. I was like persistent much??? Glad that’s over. Lol.

Hmm yall gave some really good answers. I’ll have to give it a good think or try different approaches out until I see what fits.

I asked my friend what he does out of curiosity since it was our hang out time and he said he asks the card and also interprets it depending on the context, and also that he thinks the answer is different per person per deck. He’s pretty spiritual and in tune with his intuition through years of practice I think, so his answer made sense to me.

Just adding another perspective to the mix, hehe

Edited Sunday at 07:08 AM1 day by zurgles

6 hours ago, zurgles said:

Ooh that makes a lot of sense. The example of the tower saying ‘don’t catastrophize’ makes a lot of sense to me. It kinda reminds me of cognitive behavioral therapy. You look at your automatic thoughts and label the pattern the thought seems to be part of and try to form a rational response instead. So the malefic cards in advice positions could be alerting you to unhelpful thoughts and behaviors and asks you to recognize them and respond in a different way. I feel like this style seems simple but it’s direct and clear and powerful.

This is one of the reasons I keep telling myself, 'this is ADVICE.' Good advice would not show you something scary and leave you dangling there. It would suggest the best way for you to deal with a situation. A malefic Advice card would warn you NOT to do something detrimental to yourself, or others. It would never suggest that you do.

A malefic card in the Advice position in your spread is not warning you that something bad will happen either. That's for another card position to illustrate. The Advice card should always be taken positively, in my opinion. That's what it's for.

Edited Sunday at 07:29 AM1 day by Chariot

On 10/3/2026 at 3:29 AM, Misterei said:

I really, really hate seeing 10 swords in the advice position. But even that's better than the outcome position.

I drew it in the outcome position for a happy marriage., My sitter totally got it !

5 hours ago, Chariot said:

A malefic card in the Advice position in your spread is not warning you that something bad will happen either. That's for another card position to illustrate. The Advice card should always be taken positively, in my opinion. That's what it's for.

Thats's how I see it too. Hence why I try to look at the best the card can offer.

I think it's important to separate "positive" from "optimistic"… in advice position, I try to see negative cards in their most positive way, which does not mean an optimistic, “everything’s gonna be alright” sort of way.

So in the case of the Tower, the advice might be "you may need to do something drastic to change your situation" or “prepare to weather the storm”. (Of course, hopefully the rest of the reading + intuition would help me at the time to make it more complex than this 😅).

Edited Sunday at 02:30 PM1 day by Marina

3 hours ago, Marina said:

Thats's how I see it too. Hence why I try to look at the best the card can offer.

I think it's important to separate "positive" from "optimistic"… in advice position, I try to see negative cards in their most positive way, which does not mean an optimistic, “everything’s gonna be alright” sort of way.

So in the case of the Tower, the advice might be "you may need to do something drastic to change your situation" or “prepare to weather the storm”. (Of course, hopefully the rest of the reading + intuition would help me at the time to make it more complex than this 😅).

Yes, these can certainly apply.

11 hours ago, gregory said:

I drew it in the outcome position for a happy marriage., My sitter totally got it !

I remember you posting on that some time ago. An interesting context. A 1% special circumstance, nec'est pas?

Mostly the other 99% 10 Swords is, shall we say, a chance to develop accept the life lesson skills 😇

14 hours ago, Chariot said:

... 'this is ADVICE.' Good advice would not show you something scary and leave you dangling there. It would suggest the best way for you to deal with a situation. A malefic Advice card would warn you NOT to do something detrimental to yourself, or others. It would never suggest that you do.

A malefic card in the Advice position in your spread is not warning you that something bad will happen either. That's for another card position to illustrate. The Advice card should always be taken positively, in my opinion. That's what it's for.

I read positional spreads--but my take is fluid. I often DO take the advice card as predictive.

I.e., 10 swords as ADVICE: a warning xyz bad thing is going to happen in spite of my best efforts to avoid it.
For example, I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt. 10 swords advice card is warning me: no there is no benefit of the doubt here. This person will betray your kindness.

Thus ADVICE is a nuance to OUTCOME. I got 10 swords as ADVICE warning me this person would betray any benefit of the doubt. Final outcome card, for example, 8 cups. After much reflection, I part company from this person because I don't wish to have in my life someone who takes advantage of my kind nature--and is predicted to continue such behavior in future.

Every spread is different, but I make what I call a card yoga between ADVICE and OUTCOME. To me they are intimately related and often [not always] ADVICE card is either a predictive or a timing card.

I often take a positive or neutral ADVICE card as advice. I often take a malefic ADVICE card as predictive. I figure if Tarot is bothering to serve a malefic card in a helpful position it's trying to warn me. None of this is 100%. It's always context dependent. Frex I have gotten Devil as straight-up advice.

Slightly off topic but related:

In one respect I've had to read ADVICE card as predictive/timing for the occasional client who has zero interest in advice. They ONLY wish to know what will happen. Not the way I usually read--most people DO want advice. I want advice when i self-read. Just something I've observed. My 2 main spreads which I use 95% of the time have an ADVICE position. I get a laugh when I start to read the ADVICE card and the client demands: nevermind all that--just tell me what's going to happen!

Edited Sunday at 10:04 PM1 day by Misterei