Here’s another forgotten tarot classic.
This “Yes-No Oracle” is by Irys Vorel in an article entitled “How the Gypsies Use the Tarot” from the February 1955 issue of Fate Magazine.
A version of this spread, expanded greatly by me, is now available at the commercial site Tarot.com. Check it out.
1. Write your problem or question on a piece of paper in such a fashion that “yes” or “no” could be the answer. Don’t ask ambiguous questions like “Should I marry Rick or Jason?” Situations such as this should be split into two questions.
2. Remove the Wheel of Fortune from the 78 card deck and place it before you face up.
3. Shuffle the rest of the deck, with your mind on the problem. Spread the cards in a fan, face down. With your left hand, draw seven cards at random. Put them face down on top of the Wheel. Set the remaining deck aside.
4. Turn the Wheel of Fortune face down like the other seven cards. Shuffle these eight cards until you no longer know where the Wheel is.
5. Deal the eight cards in a square consisting of four positions (see next), so that there are two cards in each position:
• Top Left: The 1st position (cards 1 & 5) signifies – YES.
• Top Right: The 2nd position (cards 2 & 6) signifies – SOON.
• Bottom Left: The 3rd position (cards 3 & 7) signifies – DELAY.
• Bottom Right: The 4th position (cards 4 & 8 ) signifies – NO.
6. Turn the cards over looking for the Wheel of Fortune. Its position gives you the answer.
• If the Wheel card has fallen in the first position, it indicates “Yes,” and the speedy and favorable solution of one’s problem.
• If in the second, “Soon,” position, it means: “You should not unduly press your interests.”
• If it lies in the “Delay” position, the indications are that some obstacles will have to be overcome.
• If it lies in the “No” position, it indicates adjustments have to be made and circumstances at the moment block the harmonious solution of the problem. Therefore, the wish cannot be fulfilled immediately. After changes have occurred this same wish could be answered in the affirmative.
7. If your answer is either “Delay” or “No,” then look at all the cards in the layout (the reversal of a card has no significance):
• Many Pentacles indicate a financial hitch.
• Swords show opposition.
• Wands suggest journeys and changes.
• Many Cups indicate fortunate circumstances and ultimately a happy ending, especially if the Grail [Ace of Cups] is among them.
• Many Major Arcana indicate that the situation is out of your hands: destiny is at work.
• Many Court Cards indicate that the wishes of other people determine the outcome.
This is not my favorite kind of spread as it seems too deterministic, but it’s worth checking out to see if it works for you. Let me know what you think.
Sample reading: Should I post this spread on my blog?
We can see that the answer is “No” (the Wheel of Fortune is in the bottom-right pair), but I decided to post it anyway. How else can we determine if the advice is good or not? There are three Major Arcana (in addition to the Wheel) indicating that the situation is in the hands of destiny, and two Cups cards, which slightly leans toward a favorable outcome over the long run. I’ll let you know if anything untoward occurs. The deck used is Le Grand Tarot Universel by Bruno de Nys.
Mary K. Greer has made tarot her life work. Check here for reports of goings-on in the tarot world, articles on the history and practice of tarot, and reviews.
22 comments
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June 3, 2008 at 2:17 am
HiC
While the Wheel card came up in the No position, which, according to this method (strictly followed) would suggest not posting, one might look to the Yes position with the Hermit and 3 of Cups and think that this is something that might be able to be used by someone for themselves (a solitary situation) to satisfying effect, but that it is perhaps not necessarily recommended to be used with others.
Just a quick thought that popped into my head as I looked at this…and one can certainly take that for what it’s worth.
June 3, 2008 at 2:35 am
Susan
I LOVE how you posted this anyway.
I am strong willed that way too. But in a good way, right?
~ Peace
June 3, 2008 at 3:44 am
marygreer
HiC – Interesting thought. I’m willing to consider any possibilities as to why the spread came out “No.”
The instructions did not include any suggestions for reading the individual cards in the spread but, of course, how could one not try to make sense of them!
Susan – I hope it’s in a good way. Still, I gotta try.
June 3, 2008 at 9:46 pm
Pedro Ribeiro
Interesting spread. Now, regarding the “no”… Can you imagine any circunstance that would make you NOT post the spread? That’s probably what the Tarot is telling you. “I will say no, since she’ll post the spread anyway”…
June 4, 2008 at 12:05 am
marygreer
Pedro – You really think the tarot was that devious? Humm. That would make me suspicious of all its answers. Good question about any circumstance that would make me not post it. I did consider copyright issues. However, it would be silly for someone to publish a spread they never wanted anyone else to ever mention (particularly when giving the correct source info).
June 4, 2008 at 11:40 pm
TarotByArwen
Not sure I’d like this spread because it is too involved. LOL I like spreads that make me examine why I do things. I think I agree with you about deterministic spreads. I’d love it if you had time to take a look at a spread I just put up on my blog. I literally designed it last night so there is some tweaking that may yet occur.
June 5, 2008 at 1:43 am
marygreer
Arwen – I looked at your spread at:
http://tarotbyarwen.blogspot.com/2008/06/spread-killing-my-muse.html
Yes, that’s the kind of spread I prefer for myself. I first learned to create spreads to help elucidate a personal issue from Gail Fairfield’s Choice-Centered Tarot (1981). She suggests going through precisely the same process you did: turn the questions you have about a situation into positions in the spread with the intent of gaining personal insight into your own process. The idea is to see what you can learn that will explore options and help you make choices that augment your own growth and well-being and are in alignment with your own values. For Gail, each querent and situation called for a unique spread to be devised, although she offered a list of basic spread positions that might come in handy.
For instance, in your spread many of the core questions can be applied to alot of different situations:
“What am I holding onto?”
“What do I need to release?”
“What do I gain from . . .?
“How do I honor . . .?
“How do I nourish . . .?
“What does _____ need from me?
“What do I need to know about . . .?
These are core questions for a very different kind of reading then the “gypsy” layout presented by Irys Vorel. However, there might be a time when you just want to see what the tarot has to say in terms of Yes, Soon, Delay and No.
June 5, 2008 at 3:38 am
TarotByArwen
The Yes/No spread I learned may have been from some person’s classic book called “Tarot For Yourself”–maybe you’ve heard of it? grin
I really like Gail’s work and need to revisit it. It’s been years since I read it and it is one that deserves rereading. Thanks for the response. I do appreciate it.
June 7, 2008 at 5:36 am
Chanah
How about – you shouldn’t have posted it because Chanah has no money just now but she dearly loves beautifully coloured Marseille decks (not quite to the level of the radioactive gold background in the Rodés-Sanchez, but still, colour is good), and now she really wants this deck and can’t afford it?
Very silly, I realise that.
Or perhaps Monsieur Lys will be suddenly so overwhelmed with orders that he cannot keep up.
Nice spread, though, and I think I may give it a whirl with the Tarot d’Eltynne, which is a redesigned Oracle Belline. It’s not a tarot, but it does have a Fortune (Hasard) card. It seems the spread might be suited to oracular use.
Thank you for posting it.
June 7, 2008 at 5:51 am
marygreer
Chanah – That’s how I felt when I first saw Le Grand Tarot Universel on the net. It has a little bit of the kids comic book feel to it which is so different from the paradoxically crude elegance of the typical Marseille. Some of the faces are kinda silly, but I find that I smile whenever I use it and enjoy the experience in a playful kind of way.
Let us know how the Tarot d’Eltynne works.
June 7, 2008 at 11:08 am
Chanah
I’ve made a page for it. And posting here to verify the date.
http://36cards.wordpress.com/the-yes-or-no-experiment/
I shall definitely let you know how it works, and thank you for the spread!
June 20, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Tony Willis
The Fate article was published in 1955. Some 2 to 3 years later I started to learn to read the Tarot. I was taught never to apply questions that revolved around the querent’s free will to any Yes/No spread. In the question you have asked, the onus is on you – “Should I . . .” Yes/No spreads, I was told, were for events one had no control over. That the writer of the article had something like this in mind is suggested by the use of expressions like “the wish cannot be fulfilled immediately”. If Jason proposed to the querent, her question to the Tarot wouldn’t be “Will my wish to marry Jason be fulfilled?” All she has to do is say yes! But if there were to be redundancies at her place of work, she might well ask, “Will I be made redundant?” as that is a decision that will be made for her. Knowing that the answer to her question was yes would allow the querent to start job hunting right away and to hopefully have no period of unemployment between leaving job A and starting job B. In short, there was a practical dynamic underlying the question.
Since you say you considered copyright issues at the time you laid the spread, I took the liberty of recasting your question in the way I was taught to do and produced a spread of my own to answer it.
The question I wrote down was: Will anything seriously damaging happen to MKG as a direct result of posting the entry about the Fate article on her blog?
The resulting spread was:
The Sun, 5 Pence 6 Swords, 7 Cups
4 Swords, 8 Cups The Wheel, 4 Pence
As you can see, the answer is no, as Trump 10 falls in the bottom right-hand quarter of the reading.
I’m publishing this in a spirit of put-your-money-where-your-mouth-is, and we can now all sit back and see what happens!
June 21, 2008 at 4:04 am
marygreer
Tony – I like your distinctions. As I take it you are suggesting this spread is best for straight predictions and not for personal advice in issues over which the querent has control. However, given the examples, the author of the article clearly was thinking of advice spreads: “Should I . . . ?” As for predictions of events outside our control, I’ve experimented with these a lot in classes and, in general, find them to be the least reliable way to work with the tarot. This is an area for which scientific experiments could be easily arranged. It is my hope that someone with the background and credentials will take it on.
Thanks for doing the spread. I’ll go with what your cards say.
October 21, 2008 at 8:07 am
Leslie Jennison
I prefer the simple yes/no spread described in your Complete Book of Tarot Reversals where you rely on upright (yes) or reversed (no) cards layed out in a straight line of three (or any odd number) combination. Is there a caveat to strictly following the advice given in this manner?
October 21, 2008 at 10:28 am
mkg
Leslie – Personally, I always take yes/no answers with a grain of salt. And, sometimes I do just the opposite of what they say. (No one is going to tell me what to do!). The two yes/no spreads are different. The one in this post was designed for advice only (not for prediction). It also offers two additional options, plus a systemized approach for obtaining a little more information. The 3-card version is quick and easy and can be used for either advice or prediction (i.e., Will xxxxx happen on Sunday?)
I rarely (extremely rarely) allow yes/no questions in a professional reading. The few times I’ve ever done them with others, I’ve counseled that it’s main use is to help you clarify what you really want.
January 13, 2009 at 4:47 pm
Kaira Sherman
Hello Mary!!
Do you remember me? A woman who hosts a radio show asked me if you were still teaching. I googled you and found this AMAZING site!
I would love to jump into this conversation about the box spread above.
Often in a reading the Tarot will give me the opposite answer to that which I’m receiving from my own intuition. I’ve realized that the Tarot gives me clues and fills in the blanks to what I’ve left out from my intuitive hit.
The Tarot never lies. I find that I can’t take the Tarot literally sometimes, and that it gives me so many layers of deeper meanings.
In February, I’m teaching a course called, “Higher Vibrational Tarot”, for students who are interested in the vastness of what the Tarot can offer.
Thank you so much Mary for all you taught me, it’s so good to see you are doing well, and I’d wish you much success, but it looks like you’ve achieved
above and beyond!
Much Love,
Kaira Sherman
p.s. – LOVE the Hanged Man Tarot Game~
January 18, 2009 at 12:53 pm
mkg
Kaira –
How wonderful to hear from you. Of course I remember you. Regarding getting the “opposite response”: I’ve sometimes found that tarot takes us down paths that might not be the “right” one, but that are necessary in order to get TO the right one. How wondrous it all is.
January 19, 2009 at 5:38 pm
Kaira Sherman
Oh my Goddess ~ I never thought of it that way. Yes, that explains so much
of the Wisdom that the advice of the Tarot can hold. The depth of the language of Tarot just keeps expanding. This leads me back to “there is no one right answer.”
Thanks Mary,
warm regards,
Kaira
January 21, 2009 at 8:17 am
Kaira Sherman
Hello Everyone,
I couldn’t figure out where or how to start a new topic. So…I’ll start here. =)
Yesterday, while watching Obama being sworn in, my husband commented about how he seemed to have some qualities that came from a high place of wisdom. A friend of mine once made the comment that Obama seemed to embody the Divine Feminine even better than Hillary Clinton.
Of course I looked up Obama’s birthday. It is August 4th, 1961. Mary, if we refer to your book, Tarot Constellations, and we add up his numbers, his base number is 1973, and if we add those across, lo and behold, we have 20, 2.
A High Priestess!!! Why am I not surprised?
Thought I’d share this fun information.
Thanks!
Kaira
January 21, 2009 at 2:50 pm
mkg
Kaira – Thanks for adding Barak Obama’s birth cards. However, it’s important to remember that Ronald Reagan was also a 20/2 (along with Elizabeth I, Henry Kissinger and John Travolta).
April 29, 2009 at 9:16 am
Lea
The cards would say not to post it because the way they fall will disprove that this is an accurate spread. But posted it because it does prove that it is correct that you should not post. lol..its like a double negative equals and positive!
April 29, 2009 at 9:18 am
Lea
Wait…I thought 3&7 were just a delay?