When the cards are right but your questions were wrong

Merrill

Hello!
I made a reading for myself last week to celebrate my college graduation and made my own spread for the occasion, with very specific questions. As I read the cards, I could tell how they were all incredibly relevant and giving me a coherent message as they related to each other, but they weren't necessarily appropriate to the position/question they were in. Have you ever noticed this in your readings? I'd love to get more experienced readers' opinion on this!
Thank you!
M.

Barleywine

I always use positional layouts like the Celtic Cross or spreads of my own creation, but lately I've been reading them more as a seamless narrative story-line than as rigidly positional (probably because I'm reading more often "on the clock" now and don't have time for a lot of background detail). This makes sense since life doesn't (usually) come in neat little parcels, more in dribbles or torrents. I would back off from the formal question/position match-up and just let it flow in its own way. If it still seems all wrong with the question, I will shift gears, perhaps from a mundane perspective to a more psychological one, and keep at it until something clicks.

Padma

When I am asking a question about a specific thing or event, I only ever use one card. It tends to answer pretty succinctly.

Otherwise, I do as Barleywine suggests - let the cards tell you what is going on. I find something as organic and spiritual as tarot is very ill-suited to formal spreads or rigid little boxes! I also find, if one has a more pressing thing/question in queue in the subconscious, the tarot will tend to address that, rather than a preset question on some other topic.

When I read publicly, I always asked my sitters to tell me about the thing that was bothering them the most, and then we would just look at what the cards said about it, before proceeding to the next topic.

PS congrats on graduating from college!

Merrill

Barleywine said:
I always use positional layouts like the Celtic Cross or spreads of my own creation, but lately I've been reading them more as a seamless narrative story-line than as rigidly positional (probably because I'm reading more often "on the clock" now and don't have time for a lot of background detail). This makes sense since life doesn't (usually) come in neat little parcels, more in dribbles or torrents. I would back off from the formal question/position match-up and just let it flow in its own way. If it still seems all wrong with the question, I will shift gears, perhaps from a mundane perspective to a more psychological one, and keep at it until something clicks.

This is kind of the idea I got from this reading I'm referring to, like, the questions I was asking were too restrictive and the cards were telling me a broader story. I think I should try to incorporate this wisdom into my future readings, I just need to figure out exactly how!

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Merrill

Padma said:
When I am asking a question about a specific thing or event, I only ever use one card. It tends to answer pretty succinctly.

Otherwise, I do as Barleywine suggests - let the cards tell you what is going on. I find something as organic and spiritual as tarot is very ill-suited to formal spreads or rigid little boxes! I also find, if one has a more pressing thing/question in queue in the subconscious, the tarot will tend to address that, rather than a preset question on some other topic.

When I read publicly, I always asked my sitters to tell me about the thing that was bothering them the most, and then we would just look at what the cards said about it, before proceeding to the next topic.

PS congrats on graduating from college!

Thank you!

So, how do you know how many cards to draw and what kind of hierarchy there is between them if you don't use a specific spread? (Sorry if there's an obvious answer to this!)

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Padma

Merrill said:
Thank you!
So, how do you know how many cards to draw and what kind of hierarchy there is between them if you don't use a specific spread? (Sorry if there's an obvious answer to this!)

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I generally draw as many as I feel I need to tell me a story. I look at them as they come out, and I stop when the last card feels like "a wrap" to me

it's usually around the seven card mark, that always seems enough, though sometimes 5 or three is good. It depends on how chatty the cards are.

Or I will draw three, then see if that is enough. If it isn't, I take out one more at a time and read those before drawing another.

In general, I know when it is done, because if I draw another card once the story is done, it feels inane, or not connected to the story.

I think also it is personal to the reader, and you will know when enough is enough

Merrill

Padma said:
I generally draw as many as I feel I need to tell me a story. I look at them as they come out, and I stop when the last card feels like "a wrap" to me it's usually around the seven card mark, that always seems enough, though sometimes 5 or three is good. It depends on how chatty the cards are.

Or I will draw three, then see if that is enough. If it isn't, I take out one more at a time and read those before drawing another.

In general, I know when it is done, because if I draw another card once the story is done, it feels inane, or not connected to the story.

I think also it is personal to the reader, and you will know when enough is enough

Thank you! That makes a lot of sense to me, I'll try that approach in my next readings!

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UniversesCollide

Great answers given, I'm really just here to add my support to them. I also draw cards and let them tell a story rather than assign positions. The only official spread I use is the Celtic Cross spread for general info when called for. That doesn't happen much, it's usually free flow for everything.

Sassyinkpen

Padma said:
I generally draw as many as I feel I need to tell me a story. I look at them as they come out, and I stop when the last card feels like "a wrap" to me it's usually around the seven card mark, that always seems enough, though sometimes 5 or three is good. It depends on how chatty the cards are.

Or I will draw three, then see if that is enough. If it isn't, I take out one more at a time and read those before drawing another.

In general, I know when it is done, because if I draw another card once the story is done, it feels inane, or not connected to the story.

I think also it is personal to the reader, and you will know when enough is enough

I love this explanation - it make so much sense. I'm still a little tied to spreads and this is the best description of how to move into a more organic style of reading that I've come across.

FLizarraga

My usual reading style (or lack thereof) is exactly the opposite of Barleywine's: loosey-goosey and free flowing. I usually start with three cards without set places and go from there. So when I face very specific or complex questions I try to choose (or make up) a clearly set positional spread so I stay focused.

That said, I have sometimes found that the cards drawn do not correspond at all to the question asked. Which, in my experience, usually means that there was an unspoken question that was more important. A person sometimes asks me a question about his/her job, and the cards speak of matters of the heart, or the other way around.

When the cards are right but your questions were wrong

Merrill

Barleywine

Padma

Merrill

Merrill

Padma

Merrill

UniversesCollide

Sassyinkpen

FLizarraga