AUTHOR’S NOTE: While searching for a subject to continue my streak of daily posts, I decided to revisit one that I’ve touched on before in a less-comprehensive way.

Like many professional tarot readers, I shy away from answering direct questions about medical concerns, financial investments or legal maneuvers because of the risk that they will blow up in my face in the form of malpractice claims from clients who have been damaged by following my advice. (Personally, and for other reasons, I also try to avoid “idle curiosity” questions that are aimed at “testing” my skill, and mind-reading questions that hope to guess what an unaware third-party to the situation is thinking or feeling, but I know that many diviners will take them on as a challenge.)

Taboo inquiries come in various forms, but some of the more obvious “diagnostic no-nos” are:

Should I have surgery for this medical condition I’m suffering?
Should I put money into this business venture or financial instrument?
Should I file a lawsuit against this individual?

The unspoken postscript to each of these questions is “Will I be successful if I do?” and in all cases tarot readers are rarely qualified and licensed to address the potential for success or failure from a “protected” risk-management standpoint that will limit their liability in the event of predictive inaccuracy. We can place all the disclaimers we want in our terms and conditions, but in a highly litigious society such stopgap measures are unlikely to shelter us from legal action; at best they will provide a client-acknowledged statement of intent for the judge to take into consideration. The best way to avoid becoming embroiled in this nasty business is to not engage in the first place.

But I’m also fond of saying that the tarot can answer anything as long as the question is presented properly, and the types of query described above are no exception. Without sticking our neck out too far, we could rephrase the medical interrogatory as: “What will my state of physical and/or mental well-being look like in six months if I stay on my present course?” For an investment matter, we might ask “What is the likely long-range business or financial climate for the target of my interest?” The legal inquiry could be posed as “Where will I stand in this situation if I let it follow its anticipated trajectory?” In these examples, the consultant is not put “on the spot” to make a snap-judgment, and the client can be advised to take up the matter with a professional in the applicable field for a more precise prognosis.

Approached in this open-ended way, the cards pulled can be interpreted in more flexible language that doesn’t cast the outcome in a binary “yes-or-no” light, but instead offers optional considerations for the client regarding any actions that might be taken (or not taken as the case may be.) The idea is to place the decision squarely in the querent’s hands along with our divinatory insights rather than shouldering the burden ourselves. We might paraphrase the old observation about the “stars” in natal astrology as “The cards don’t compel, they impel” us toward the right answer. As I often say, “It’s the sitter’s reading, not mine; let them figure it out with my guidance.”