How to Decide
questions beyond 'Should I?'
Do you use the Tarot to make decisions? I’m sure most of us have done this at some point. I’ve gone to my deck plenty of times with a kind of desperate plea: just tell me what to do! And very often when folks come for a reading with me, they’re at a crossroads, and trying to determine which direction to go.
My personal practice at this point in my life is mostly reflective and less directive, but there are still things I like to check in around, and so I wanted to share the questions I use both when I read for myself and for others when a decision/choice needs to be made.
Firstly, it bears mentioning that I never ask “should I do this?”. Yes/no questions in the Tarot are notoriously difficult. Not just because determining what’s a clear yes vs a no is a challenge (some cards do seem very straightforward, but there’s plenty of vague and ambiguous fence-sitter type cards too!), but because it removes agency. The Tarot, in my experience, doesn’t really want to tell you what to do. It’s about empowering you to choose what’s right for you.
Here are the type of questions that I find helpful:
What should I prioritize as I make this decision?
What is the value of this experience?
What can I focus on that will help make this decision easy for me?
What is motivating me to want this, vs what is motivating me to want that?
What part of myself should I call upon to make this choice?
What is the deeper question I need to ask myself before this decision can be made?
What is the obstacle to finding clarity in this situation? How can I move through it?
I’d love to hear how you approach decision-making with the Tarot!
I think part of why it's so tempting to ask the tarot to make our decisions for us is that it's quite nice to be in the pre-decision limbo, where everything is possible and no outcomes are unlikely. Making decisions is empowering, but also terrifying, so the temptation is to put that power in the hands of someone/something else.
What I like is to give it a "command", like: "Put me back on my path", or "Show me what I don't see regarding x". Tarot always responds with a story, movement, directions. It forces me to look at it like a mirror.