What kinds of questions are off-limits in your personal readings?

[Maverick]

For example, I have OCD, so I try not to use tarot to make decisions or seek reassurance regarding my obsessions.

Discussion

[ChristieFox]

Purchase decisions. This is not something I entrust to divination, because I just know it would backfire and I would talk myself into a specific interpretation that reflects what I want, and not what’s sensible.

[xxAcetylxx]

I get obsessed with how other people perceive me and have a hard time letting go of past relationships, so I don’t ask anything about “what does x think about me” or “how is y doing right now” (because there’s simply no way to know through the cards). If I’m ruminating on a person a lot I’ve previously asked “how do I *want* x to feel about me now?” which focuses more on *my* feelings, what I wish they had realized, etc which are all things I actually have access to. In general I use tarot to determine what I’m subconsciously thinking / what I want rather than for any divinatory powers, but still things that make me overthink are off-limits.

[ExistentialMedicine]

Interesting. I try to avoid love readings as much as I can. I try not to “spy” on people unless I think there is a *very* good reason to do so (like to see what the likelihood of something happening with someone as to avoid a potential danger, for example). I just don’t think it’s healthy for people. A lot of people go to tarot to spy on ex’s or crush’s. I don’t think it’s right to feed into that. It breeds a culture of disempowerment and, frankly, codependency. I would rather use divination to help people better understand the energy dynamics underpinning *their* experience of the relationship and heal any unhealthy coping strategies or ego defenses at play in the situation.

But yeah, I’m also a strong believer that it’s important for people to learn to think and choose for themselves, as scary as it can feel to do so at times. So I also try not to tell people what to do or how to think as much as I can possibly help it.

[Wyverndark]

I don’t read for things that could better be solved by logic. Tarot is more of a meditative thing for me.

[Jarnagua]

I just try not to ask the same question too many times too soon. You just muddy the waters then. Oh and I guess I try not to look into things that don’t involve me. My friend’s GF is having some medical issues for example. I’m curious but its not my business.

[theje1]

I don’t think any question is off-limits to me. Perhaps for me its more about how to question. For example I find yes/no questions unsuitable for Tarot, or question the same thing many times.

[ramonarocket]

I don’t put anything off limits because I’m not superstitious and take readings with a grain of salt. It’s a human experience and human experiences are prone to error. You can do a reading for any situation, but believing in the 100% accuracy of that reading or your own interpretation of it as 100% accurate and subsequently allowing yourself to spiral over it is, in my opinion, a sign of someone who should not be using tarot at all.

For me, self control in interpretation is more important than self control in topic of reading.

[rainydaytales]

For myself I don’t ask about things like what others are thinking of me, or anything else that my anxiety tends to fixate on. Even if the cards give me a great answer, I’ll just keep cycling it in my head.

[sydann6]

I stopped doing readings on my personal relationships, mostly cause they weren’t productive and it just sucked looking back and seeing that the cards were right

[Fairwhetherfriend]

I don’t ask anything that isn’t centered on me. I don’t believe in divination. The cards don’t have knowledge beyond what I have. They’re just cards. They don’t know what will happen. The only reason they have meaning in the first place is because *I* am the one interpreting them, and therefore they can only provide answers that *I* already have. The cards only help me to find those answers.

So I don’t ask questions about what will happen, or about other people. Questions like “Will I get the job?” won’t produce a helpful or accurate answer. If I were to ask a question like that, the answer would probably be more about my perception of how the interview went, or about what I *hope* will happen, or what I *fear* will happen. The same is true of questions like “How does so-and-so feel about me?” or whatever. But since I’m not being honest about what the answer actually means, my interpretations will be skewed and it makes it much more difficult to be aware that I’m twisting the results with my own hopes and/or fears.

Instead, I’ll ask questions like “How did the interview go?” or “How is my relationship with so-and-so?” – when I ask questions like this, it’s always with an implied “from my perspective.” This way, the cards can drive me to be honest with myself. If I’m winding myself up with anxiety over an interview that went great beyond a single tiny flub that actually wasn’t a big deal, the cards can give me perspective and force me to calm down. If I’m pushing myself to believe that the interview went great even though it obviously didn’t, then the cards can help me face that.

And I find this works even if the reading seems like it would reinforce what I’m already feeling, I think partly because this idea that “they’re just cards and they’re about my feelings” impacts my interpretations. If I’m obsessing over how I messed up one interview question and I come home to ask about the interview and pull a 3 of Swords, I’m probably going to read that as evidence that I’m overreacting. If I pull the Tower, maybe it’ll cause me to check in with myself about why I’m freaking out so badly over one small flub – maybe this represents a bullet dodged, because the interviewers were unforgiving of the mistake and I maybe don’t want to work at a place where mistakes are worthy of derision instead of correction.

Point is, it’s always about me, because information about myself is the only information the cards can offer. The cards cannot give me information I don’t already have.

[TamarsFace]

I don’t use tarot to spy on others/pry into the lives of others/ask about their karma and etc. I basically just use tarot as a tool to empower my decision making.

[tiawyn]

I guess if either I’m not ready to hear that answer or I’m too biased or invested in the question.

[AureliaDrakshall]

I don’t ask questions about other people unless they’ve explicitly asked me too.

That doesn’t mean I won’t ask questions about how things are going with someone that I am entangled with (friend, lover, etc) but that involves me and makes it fair game.

Also I’ve decided to stay away from “hard” future questions like “will we be able to buy a house next year” because I was fishing for the answer I wanted every time.

[Canuckaoke]

I don’t really have any questions that are off limits, but I do keep an assumption that my interpretation of the cards may not be correct (even if assuming that the cards themselves somehow ‘know’), and then I remain curious to see if there is any evidence that my interpretation is correct. I might look back and say, oh *that’s* what the cards were saying! I feel that this feedback is hopefully building my intuition and ability to read. For this reason I actually kind of like predictions, because then I may have subsequent feedback about the correctness of my interpretation. For the same reason, questions about other people tend to be fruitless, if there is no likelihood that I will receive any confirmation. Decision making is really prediction, and therefore difficult unless you have confidence in your intuition (because really, you have to wait for the future to arrive in order to know it).

[wishuponanempanada]

If a crush likes me and in general, question about predictions. I use the tarot just to ask for advice.