Tarot and Timing

Many querents want to know when something will happen or when a situation will be resolved. Timing is a tricky thing and most readers have their own ways of handling timing questions that they’ve developed through trial and error.

Here are some techniques:

1. Build the issue of timing into the question, such as “what can I expect in terms of my love life in the next three months?”

2. Scan the reading and use the numbers to indicate where the situation is in its development. If there are multiples of a certain range of numbers, that lets you know where the situation is. For example if there are multiple:

Aces – Threes: the situation is just beginning or in the early stages.

Fours – Sixes: the situation is in the middle.

Sevens – Nines: the situation is nearing the end.

Tens: the situation is all but over.

3. Pull a single card asking the question “when.” If you pull:

• A court card, use its astrological dates associated with that card (these are very specific, for example the King of Pentacles is April 11 – May 10).

• A Major Arcana, use either its astrological associations (just as the courts have) or say “one year or more.” I use the latter method.

• A minor card use the number and suit to determine the time…people have their own associations, but I use: wands = days, wands and swords = weeks, cups and pentacles = months. With wands, I use my intuition and the rest of the reading to determine whether it is days or weeks. The number, then, means the number of the unit of time. For example, 8 of Cups would be eight months.