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How to Answer Yes / No Questions with Tarot: 4 Yes or No Tarot Spreads

By Tina Gong

Published March 02

If you’ve read one of our last posts about asking the right kind of questions for your tarot readings, you’ll know that one of the things we actually don’t recommend is asking yes or no questions. While that may be something you yourself can avoid asking the cards, sometimes those pesky yes or no questions are exactly what others may want! In fact, trying to make a decision is one of the most common reasons that people may get tarot readings. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, they are hard to avoid.

What to do with Yes or No Tarot Spreads

So what can we do? When it comes to yes or no questions, it’s all about making decisions, and our job is to help those that seek the tarot’s advice to make better ones. The following spreads are meant to do just that; they are translations of those “yes or no” questions that come up so often into readings that help your querent make a better decision for themselves. These short spreads will break down aspects of the choices so that the answer from the cards are productive, and not just flat yes or no answers. Even if the client is looking for a definitive answer, without having the context behind the “why” of the yes or no answer, they may be unsatisfied - especially if the answer is not something that they want to hear.

Common Types of Yes or No Questions

We can break down yes or no questions into several types, and different spreads will be helpful for each of these options. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list, but just the most common ones that I’ve seen.

Will [event] happen?
Does [person] like/love/dislike me?
Should I [take an action]?

4 Yes or No Tarot Spreads

The following are short spreads that can be helpful in giving your client the actionable insights that they need in order to move forward. Many of these spreads are rather flexible, they don’t necessarily need to be 3 cards, but 3 is probably the minimum that we recommend. You can often expand the reading by adding more. For details on how, read below.

Supporting / Opposing Factors Yes or No Tarot Spread

This is one of the more helpful ones I’ve found in my own practice. When it comes to yes or no questions, nothing is really ever black and white. Instead, it helps to break it down into supporting and opposing factors. This generally works for any kind of yes or no questions. Finally, this is one of the spreads that can be expanded. Want to know more how to support this thing from happening? Just add another supporting card to the mix!

Factors supporting
Factors against
What you need to know the most

Mind / Body / Spirit Yes or No Tarot Spread

When asked a “Should I?” question, this spread can be helpful in pointing out what the person really wants or desires. Each of these represent an aspect of the querent, all of which build to a bigger picture of what to do to be truly aligned with the self.

Mind
Body
Spirit

Getting to a Successful Outcome Yes or No Tarot Spread

A lot of yes or no questions revolve around a goal of some sort. When I ask “Will I get a promotion?”, the goal is obviously the promotion. This spread helps break those goals down into steps. You can expand this spread by adding more steps into the “Steps to Achievement” section for more details.

Present
Steps to Achievement
Goal

Scenarios Yes or No Tarot Spread

Most of the time, yes or no questions are asked from a place of anxiety, and one way of dealing with anxiety is to envision the scenarios that could happen and face them head on. Sometimes what we consider the most terrifying thing may not be so scary at all, and what we wanted to happen may be something that isn’t very good for us.

If Yes
If No
Guidance

Yes or No Tarot Spread Diagram

So that’s it! What else do you all do when asking yes or no questions to the tarot? How has your experience with them been? Have they helped or hindered you?