Bad Question, Worse Answer

it's all in the asking

Photo by Denis Bayer on Unsplash

The Question

In the world of tarot, the most common questions start with ‘Will I?’ Will I get the job? Will I find a partner? Will I be happy? On the surface, these seem natural. We use tools like tarot because we are anxious about the future and we want a glimpse behind the curtain.

However, from a Tarot Lab perspective, ‘Will I’ is the lowest-meaningful question you can ask. It treats the person asking the question as a passive observer. It turns you into a passenger waiting to see if the bus arrives on time.

The Anatomy of a Low-Quality Inquiry

When you ask a ‘Will I’ question, you are essentially asking for a yes/no answer from a tool built to show patterns, not verdicts. Consider this common scenario:

• The Question: ‘Will I get the promotion?’

• The Data: You pull the Seven of Wands (a card I’m pulling often these days!)

• The Muddled Interpretation: Well, the Seven of Wands is about defense and standing your ground, so... maybe? If you fight for it?

This reading isn’t helpful. It provides no strategy because the question provided no entry point for action. When a client asks ‘Will I’ they’ve surrendered their agency to the fate of the cards. What do you say we move away from a fortune teller mindset?

Continue to see the specific technical protocol for rewriting these questions and access the Tarot Lab Protocol.

The Tarot Lab Protocol

To get the most accurate data, we have to stop asking if something will happen and start asking how it works. Do this by swapping out ‘Will I?’ for The Three Operational Hooks.

1. The Assets

• Instead of: Will my new business be successful?

• Ask: What is the strongest asset I am currently under-utilizing?

• Why it works: It forces the cards to show you a tool you already have but aren’t using effectively.

2. The Obstacles

• Instead of: Will I ever find a partner?

• Ask: What behavioral pattern is creating the most friction in my current social interactions?

• Why it works: It moves the focus from luck to mechanics. It looks for the glitch in the system that you can actually fix.

3. The Structure

• Instead of: Will I be happy in this new city?

• Ask: What real life support is missing from my current transition plan?

• Why it works: It treats happiness as a result of a stable environment rather than a random gift from the universe.

Applied Exercise: The Conversion Table

Look at your journal or your recent thoughts. Take any ‘Will I’ question and run it through this table before you pull a card:

Low Input/Low Output

• Will I win the contract?

• Will they like me?

• Will things get better?

High Input/High Output

• What technical detail am I overlooking in this proposal?

• What specific trait do I need to lead with to build professional rapport?

• What is the first domino I need to tip to change the current momentum?

Tarot can be such a valuable navigational tool. But we need to stop using it like a cute card coming out of a fortune-telling machine. Yeah?