Whether you read tarot cards for yourself or you seek help from a professional reader, you won’t always get a positive reading. It’s not all about milk and honey. Sometimes, you may get a message that you’re not expecting, with a negative connotation.
Figuring out what to do if you get a bad tarot reading is difficult because most people feel confused. Fortunately, nothing’s set in stone, so you can still change the outcome. Let’s see what you have to do in order to make the most out of a negative reading.
Interpret the Situation As It Is
The initial idea is to get a different reading regarding the same topic or subject. If you do it yourself, you’ll be tempted to reshuffle the deck and start all over again. If someone else does your reading, you’ll accept it, but you’ll go see someone else for a different interpretation.
That’s the wrong way to deal with a bad tarot reading.
You’re supposed to take some notes during a reading. Take a deep breath, look at the spread and note all the cards. Which card is the bad one? It could be a single card, but you might have all the cards showcasing a negative idea.
For most people, a negative reading has many swords, as well as reversed cards and even a few cards from the Major Arcana.
But just because a reading indicates a disaster, it doesn’t mean you have to give up on it. The meaning of a card must be adapted to your unique circumstances, not to mention the collaboration with other cards in the spread.
No matter how bad the card seems, you’ll need to find something constructive in the reading. Initially, you’ll have to accept the result, the go through the message. Again, no outcome is set in stone, so you have the power to change things.
In fact, if you think about it, you’d rather get this warning early. You don’t want to be hit with an unpleasant situation out of nowhere. At least this way, you’ll have time to prepare for it and maybe even prevent it.
Even if you get a card that looks bad, there might be some opportunity behind it. Moreover, as you confront this negative connotation, don’t obsess about it. Instead, make sure you’re well balanced and try to find ways to prevent it or adapt to it.
Ask More Questions
A bad tarot reading is likely to raise many question marks. The confusion associated with a bad reading will initially leave you speechless, especially if you perform this reading yourself.
When you go to a professional reader, they’ll usually interpret things for you and provide advice without you having to ask too many questions. You can still clarify things and mention anything that’s still confusing.
When you do it yourself, you need to ask more questions, whether you do it throughout the same reading or in a different one. Here are a few useful questions you may ask to get useful answers:
- How can I improve a particular situation?
- What can I do to change this outcome?
- How can I make better choices based on the reading?
The idea behind these questions isn’t just to get answers. Instead, you’ll also learn to focus on the positive part, the solution. Rather than feel sad and dwell on the bad side, you can try to change something in order to change the outcome.
Tarot isn’t fortune telling. Getting a bad reading doesn’t mean that those things will actually happen. You’re the only one responsible for your life, so you can change things with the right actions. The idea here is to identify these actions.
Furthermore, asking questions will also give you a plan of action. Once you understand the outcome, you’ll be able to dig deeper and figure out how to proceed.
If you do pull followup cards or take followup readings, you’ll only need a couple of cards. It’s tempting to pull cards until you get the answers you want, but try to resist this urge. Too many cards will most likely dilute the initial message and cause even more confusion.
Take Action
Taking action is part of the plan when not sure what to do if you get a bad tarot reading. Action equals closure. Meditate on your notes and the meanings of the cards. Do it again a few days later, you may get a different perspective. It takes time to process everything and you want to do it by the book.
Once you assess the situation, if it stays the same, you’ll need to work on it. It’s a useful piece of warning if you think about it. You need to understand how these uncontrollable forces work, but at the same time, you can also affect the outcome yourself.
Although some people believe fate is inescapable, the truth behind divination lays in the possibility to change things. Practically, you can make changes. Your decisions and choices can go in the predicted direction, but they can also change if you make a different decision.
That’s the purpose of divination and it’s not just about tarot. Different people rely on different forms of divination, only to be able to change an outcome that was predicted in the past. You need to determine the outcome and the plan. Once you have these, anything’s possible.
Sure, there are things you may have no control over. A poor relationship, a time of grieving and the list can go on. But what really matters is to understand that an ending is also a new beginning and things can get even better in the long run.
As a short final conclusion, there’s no need to panic when you don’t know what to do if you get a bad tarot reading. Negative readings are difficult to process, but you don’t need to feel helpless.
Don’t let the outcome overwhelm you either. At the end of the day, how you manage the situation is more important in the long run.
