Today I’ll explore how you can use tarot for making decisions. When you are faced with a difficult decision, you know that feeling when you say, “I am damned if I do and damned if I don’t,” and it is not a nice feeling. But unfortunately, one of the challenges in life you will have to face is making challenging decisions. There are many examples to choose from but let’s review a few.
Examples Of Where You Can Struggle To Make A Decision
For instance, you may be happy at your job, but the pay could be better. You suddenly receive an opportunity to get a better-paying job, but that means you have to start all over again at a job and deal with a lot of unfamiliarity. You also will have to deal with going through a probation period, which is challenging.
You also are not entirely happy with the pay that you have at your current job, but you also like your boss, you enjoy the conversations you have with your co-workers, and some are like closer friends to you. Do you want to get rid of that? You also know that the cost of living is increasing. You are scraping by with your current job, and if you take the new job, you will earn enough money to enjoy a vacation or two a year. That is a very challenging decision to make. You will again say, “I am damned if I do, and damned if I don’t,” take this new job.
However, you will run into less-strenuous situations where you will struggle to decide, such as not knowing where you want to go and eat. For example, you are craving Mexican food, but at the same time, you like Chinese food. You are in the mood for Chinese food too. You are still determining what you want more, which can also cause you to struggle to decide.
You cannot compare struggling to know what restaurant to eat at to whether to stay at the job you like or take a new one with better pay. However, both represent needing help to make a decision. And what can help you make a decision? Of course, tarot can!
Using The Tarot To Help You Make Decisions
Tarot is excellent for many purposes, as tarot can help you with self-reflection, including decision-making. There are several tarot spreads that you can use for decision-making. There are two spreads I will present to you. There is one simple three-card tarot spread and a five-card tarot spread that you can use for decision-making. The three-card spread can be used for lighter decisions, such as helping you decide where to go for dinner. The five-card tarot spread can use for making more significant decisions, such as the example regarding the job. Let’s go over those now.
Three Card Decision Making Tarot Spread
Here is one three-card decision-making tarot spread from Biddy Tarot, and it is the same type of tarot spread that you would think of the past, present, and future. Card one is on the left, card two is in the middle, and card three is on the right.
Card one presents the first option, card two represents the second option, and card three means what you need to know before making that decision. That will give you the insight you need before deciding what to do. This type of spread is better for decisions you need to make on a smaller scale. Now, let’s go over the five-card decision-making tarot spread.
Five Card Decision Making Tarot Spread
If you must make a challenging decision, check out this tarot from Tarot Avenue. Here is a five-card spread. First, you lay it out by placing card one on the left, card two right of it, card three right of card two, and card four on the right. Then you place card five sits above card two and card three.
Therefore, both cards one and two represent the first option.
Card one describes the pros of that option, and card two represents the cons of that option. Cards three and four represent the second option. Card three represents the pros, and card four represents the cons. And finally, card five represents the advice above cards two and three.
As you can see, this five card spread is best for decisions at a larger scale, which could help you with situations such as the one regarding the job. So, let’s go over a sample reading using this spread as the querent will be in a bind having to do with her family. Let’s go over this.
Sample Five-Card Decision-Making Tarot Spread
Let’s review the reading for the querent, Ashley, who needs to make a challenging decision about what to do with her toxic family. Ashley is stressed out because of them, and her parents and siblings are not overly caring about her well-being, and they expect so much out of her without them giving anything back. Therefore, she wonders if it is best to go with no or low contact, at the least with her toxic family.
Ashley knows this is not a decision she can take lightly and would like to have the five-card decision-making reading so she can gain the insight she needs based on how she will be if she decides not to do anything with her toxic family or if she decides to cut ties with them, or only to speak to them if she must.
Now that I am shuffling the cards for Ashley, I am ready to pull them out. Now, there are two options that Ashley has when it comes to what she can do with her toxic family. She will keep interacting with them or keep them at arm’s length and have nothing to do with them. Therefore the first option will represent the former, and the second option will mean the latter. Here is the spread. Let’s look at the cards.
Card one is the pros of option A, which is Ashley staying in touch with her family: Nine of Swords.
Card two is the cons of option A, which is Ashley staying in touch with her family: Hermit.
Card three is the pros of option B, which is Ashley keeping her family away for the most part: Eight of Pentacles.
Card four is the cons of option B, which is Ashley keeping her family away for the most part: Emperor.
Card five represents the advice: Four of Wands.
Here is a complex spread for Ashley for a complex issue which means this is a decision she has to make and not take it lightly.
Here is card one, which represents the pros of Ashley staying in touch with her family if she decides to do so, and that is the Nine of Swords, which is the nightmare card. How can a nightmare card like the Nine of Swords represent anything positive?
This card shows that even though Ashley is going through depression, anxiety, and other struggles by staying in touch often with her family, she has the push from that to encourage her to get professional help so she can manage her anxiety and depression, which can allow her to learn about other aspects of herself that are hindering her in any way. So that is the best type of pro you can have with this card.
The second card, which represents the cons of Ashley staying in touch with her family and the Hermit, strongly suggests that she will isolate herself. Even if she is working on herself to help manage her anxiety and depression through therapy indicated by the Nine of Swords, she will feel alone in her struggles as her family will still make her feel that way, and that will cause her to isolate herself even more.
Now, let’s go over to option B, which is Ashley deciding to cut her family out, or at the very least only dealing with them if she must. Again, the third card represents the pros of sticking to this option, and the Eight of Pentacles came up. That speaks volumes about Ashley being a work in progress, as she had the courage to strictly limit her interaction with her family. If she were to make that difficult decision to cut her family out or only speak to them when necessary, that would cause her to do a lot more soul-searching which means she would constantly need to work on herself.
Now, the cons of her decision show up in the fourth card, which indicates the Emperor. Again, another card with a positive connotation represents self-discipline and leadership but can also mean being too rigid and immature. She may develop those positive traits but could become more rigid in her ideas about creating an all-or-nothing approach. That means she could set the mindset that she will never be open to having any conversations with her family, which means she would stick to the idea of going with no contact entirely. Is that best? It is difficult to say, but developing that rigid mindset could seep into other areas where she would need to be more flexible, which would be a problem.
Finally, the last card is the advice card, the Four of Wands, which tells her whatever decision she makes, she has to be happy with herself and celebrate herself for doing what is in her best interest. If Ashley goes with option A or option B, she has to be satisfied with that and find a reason to celebrate this decision.
The advice card can be highly influential because it emphasizes how you will want to feel and your beliefs after making the best decision. For example, should Ashley stay with her family or end up cutting them out? She knows the pros and cons of both if she makes one decision over another, and it is all about weighing it. The next time you must make a difficult decision like this, that is the best tarot spread for you.