Asking and looking · Lesson 1 of 5

A question any card can answer

Turn “Will I…?”, “When…?” and “Does he…?” into open questions that every one of the 78 cards can meet with something you can use.

6 min read

Why closed questions break

A reading starts before the shuffle, with the words you choose. Ask “Will I get the job?” and you have given every card the same small task: to say yes or no. Most cards cannot do that task, so each one becomes a vote. A soft card sounds like a yes, a heavy card like a no, and the rest turn into noise you try to explain away.

That is what makes a closed question brittle. One card decides the whole reading, and a card that surprises you simply feels wrong. An open question does the opposite. It asks what to look at, what is yours to shape, what one step is within reach, and it leaves room for whatever arrives, including the card you would never have chosen.

The any-card test

A good question for the cards is open, beginning with “What…” or “How…”. It is in the first person and about your own part. It keeps to one topic. It is specific enough that you would recognise its answer on an ordinary Tuesday. And it aims at understanding or a next step rather than a result.

Two quick tests check all of this at once. The any-card test: could every one of the 78 cards give a usable answer? “Will I get the job?” fails at once. “What can I bring to this application that I’m underplaying?” passes, because a quiet card, a bright card and a difficult card all have something to say about it. The surprise test: if the card you least want turns up, is it still useful, or only unwelcome? If it is only unwelcome, rewrite the question before you shuffle.

Turning the question round

You rarely need a new question, only the same concern turned towards you. “When will I meet someone?” becomes “What would help me be open to connection right now?” “Should I leave?” becomes “What do I need to understand before choosing whether to stay or go?”, or, with both paths named, a reading in At a crossroads. “Will it work out?” becomes “What would help this go well, and what is within my reach this week?” The worry stays; the timing and the verdict go.

Questions about another person need the most care. “Does he still love me?” and “What is she hiding?” ask the cards to read a mind, and no card can. Turn them towards what you know, what you feel, and what you would like to ask the person directly. That last part matters: the conversation belongs with them, not with the deck.

If a question is vague rather than closed, climb it like a ladder. “I’m stuck” becomes “I’m stuck on my thesis”, then “What makes the next chapter hard to begin?” That third rung is the question for your spread. A fourth rung, “What one condition would make it easier to begin tomorrow morning?”, makes a good last position.

What the cards should not carry

Some questions belong with other kinds of help. Medical, legal and financial decisions, including investments, need someone qualified to look at the facts, and questions about pregnancy, death, another person’s private life or anyone’s safety are not ones a card can hold well. A symbolic answer there could stand in the way of real help.

You can still bring the feeling behind them. Next to “Is this illness serious?” sits a question the cards can meet: “What support would help me through this period?” Ask that one, and take the other to a doctor, a lawyer or an adviser. If your question speaks of self-harm or danger, Olivia shows local crisis lines whatever the reading says, and a thoughtful human reader would stop the reading there.

Olivia’s question guide

Beside the question box, Olivia offers an optional guide, “Help me shape my question”. You pick an angle, such as understanding a situation, thinking through a decision or preparing for a conversation, and it shows a suggested wording and the three positions that wording would give your reading. The suggestions are prepared in advance, and nothing is sent while you look.

The guide never blocks you and never corrects you. Use its wording, borrow a phrase from it, or choose “Keep my question” and read on in your own words. The question stays yours.

A worked example

One question, three cards

Imagine you ask “Will I get the job?” and draw the Four of Cups, The Star and the Knight of Pentacles. On the Four of Cups a seated figure looks down at the grass while a hand from a cloud holds out a cup marked with a gold star; against a yes-or-no question it reads as a flat no, or as nothing. The Star, a kneeling figure pouring water into a pool and onto the bank, sounds vaguely hopeful. The Knight, a rider on a standing horse with a disc held out on an open palm and ploughed furrows underfoot, just seems slow.

Now ask “What can I bring to this application that I’m underplaying?” The Four of Cups points to the offered cup you have not looked up at: a strength you keep dismissing. The Star, pouring from both jugs, asks what keeps you replenished through a long application, so you are not writing from an empty jug. The Knight of Pentacles, read as a temperament, names your steady, unglamorous reliability: the furrows you have already ploughed. Every card now has something to say.

Interactive

Question lab

Your question

Or start from an example

Try this

Write down the question you actually want to ask, exactly as it first comes to you, in your notebook.
Circle any “will”, “when”, “should” or “does he” or “does she”, and rewrite it as a “What” or “How” question about your own part.
Open three card pages: one you like, one you dislike, one you rarely think about. Read each essence and ask: could this card answer my question usefully?
If any card leaves you with nothing, climb the ladder one rung until the question names a situation you would recognise this week.
Take the rewritten question into A little clarity, open “Help me shape my question” if you want another angle, and keep the wording that feels like yours.

To remember

A closed question turns every card into a vote; an open one lets each speak.
If the card you least want would still be useful, your question is ready.
Ask about your own part and what you can do, never another person’s mind.