How Do You ask about Divorce (or other 'negative states/processes'?

Bonny

Hi There,

When asking a question, as an apprentice tarot reader, I tend to try to simplify the question such that the presenting cards are fairly easy to distinguish in terms of a result.

The problem arises on questions that involve 'negatives' such that the cards, in affirming the existence of that negative phenomenon seems to give the opposite result/meaning.

Here it is:

Is he getting divorced now?

If I get affirmative cards screaming YES in a traditional sense, eg, 'Sun, temperance, world'

I might say yes... but the suggestion of the good times, celebrations, patience and communication in these cards might make my head spin with, 'wait, maybe he is trying to work it out with her'?

If I get '8 swords, 9 swords, 5 coins' - these cards would paint a picture of no, taken on the calibration they imbibé in and of themselves. But should I then infer that he is trapped, stressed and excluding himself from this (divorce) process via these cards?

Helpful Suggestions welcome!

Bonny:)
 

Bonny

There's an ongoing thread on the subject that is grappling with how to read this kind of situation, and it might be useful to you.

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=271019

Thanks Barleywine,

I don't think the thread you are flagging is where I am meaning to point with my question, Sorry.
What I am asking is about the semantics or concept at issue in the enquiry, If That is negative.

So if for example I ask 'How will her party go tomorrow?' Thats a no-brainer... cards are pretty easy to read off fir that.
But if i ask 'How will her funeral go tomorrow?' The negative phenomenon of the funeral makes the cards hard to read.

It's not merely a pos+ neg+ inflection of card level I am enquiring on.
It's the linguistic and experiential complexity that makes for trickiness.
I have tended to avoid asking on things like divorce because it just gets tangled.

Thanks for your reply as always!

Bonn
 

page of ghosts

I'm just gonna be very boring and say that it can be hard to ask yes/no questions and get a clear answer so if it was me I'd rephrase it to something the deck could chat about. Maybe something like "how is his marriage going?" or break it down into several positions for a bigger picture.
 

Bonny

I'm just gonna be very boring and say that it can be hard to ask yes/no questions and get a clear answer so if it was me I'd rephrase it to something the deck could chat about. Maybe something like "how is his marriage going?" or break it down into several positions for a bigger picture.

Thats good - yes , something to 'chat' about as you say!!

The only thing is I don't like to pry - I only want to know as much as a reflection as is useful for understanding his life with me. It's none of my business , their point of contact... so asking about the positive of the relating/marriage is indulging (for me) and feels karmicly wrong.

Great recommendation though! I think like you do - Just not in these topics...

Bless
 

Barleywine

The main problem I see with asking yes-or-no questions and then trying to read too deeply into the multi-layered meanings of the cards in the spread is that you can basically make them say anything you want. That's why I've been experimenting with ways to deduce an answer without getting too literal about what each card means in an interpretive sense. This is my latest attempt, which uses elemental dignities to come up with a "probability" profile. The sample reading is a good example of how it works.

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=271096
 

decan

Thanks Barleywine,

I don't think the thread you are flagging is where I am meaning to point with my question, Sorry.
What I am asking is about the semantics or concept at issue in the enquiry, If That is negative.

So if for example I ask 'How will her party go tomorrow?' Thats a no-brained... cards are pretty easy to read off fir that.
But if i ask 'How will her funeral go tomorrow?' The negative phenomenon of the funeral makes the cards hard to read.

It's not merely a pos+ neg+ inflection of card level I am enquiring on.
It's the linguistic and experiential complexity that makes for trickiness.
I have tended to avoid asking on things like divorce because it just gets tangled.

Thanks for your reply as always!

Bonn
I think I understand what you mean.
Well, I would say to don't overthink here and to ask your question, that can be "Is he getting divorced now?" or "How will her party go tomorrow?" or "How will her funeral go tomorrow?", and then to look at the cards.

What is important will be what the cards are saying in relation to the context of your question of course!
For example if you pulled the 3 of Swords for a question like "How will her party go tomorrow?", well not a good party for sure, but the same card for "How will her funeral go tomorrow?", this latter card will be quite normal in this context!
 

Bonny

The main problem I see with asking yes-or-no questions and then trying to read too deeply into the multi-layered meanings of the cards in the spread is that you can basically make them say anything you want. That's why I've been experimenting with ways to deduce an answer without getting too literal about what each card means in an interpretive sense. This is my latest attempt, which uses elemental dignities to come up with a "probability" profile. The sample reading is a good example of how it works.

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=271096

Thanks Barleywine,

I think this will be a great help.
I just don't know hardly anything about dignities with cards so I'll have to learn.

Will see how this goes.
It isn't that this has to be a yes/no kind of enquiry that gives me this heartburn. It might be just ' How is the divorce proceeding?' But then again these two latter words are loaded (divirce and proceeding).

Will continue on this search.

Thank you !!
 

Bonny

I think I understand what you mean.
Well, I would say to don't overthink here and to ask your question, that can be "Is he getting divorced now?" or "How will her party go tomorrow?" or "How will her funeral go tomorrow?", and then to look at the cards.

What is important will be what the cards are saying in relation to the context of your question of course!
For example if you pulled the 3 of Swords for a question like "How will her party go tomorrow?", well not a good party for sure, but the same card for "How will her funeral go tomorrow?", this latter card will be quite normal in this context!


Yes, good caution there D not to the overthink it.

Maybe that's part of the problem. I'm too emotional about it... Thanks for that pick up.

But there's also this fundamental wording issue....
 

Barleywine

Thanks Barleywine,

I think this will be a great help.
I just don't know hardly anything about dignities with cards so I'll have to learn.

Will see how this goes.
It isn't that this has to be a yes/no kind of enquiry that gives me this heartburn. It might be just ' How is the divorce proceeding?' But then again these two latter words are loaded (divirce and proceeding).

Will continue on this search.

Thank you !!

Two-card combos are a fairly simple use of ED's, especially since only the "friendly" or "unfriendly" qualities are considered here, not the card meanings. There should be enough information in the text following the layout to give you the right idea.