Question: “How Often Can I Use Tarot Cards?”

A common question beginners ask is “How often can I use my Tarot cards?”

The short answer is: Use them as much as you feel you should. 

The long answer is more nuanced:

First, there’s a general, unwritten rule that you shouldn’t keep asking Tarot cards the same question over and over again, hoping for a different answer.

It can be tempting to ask the same questions back-to-back, especially with the accessibility and speed of online Tarot readings.  Try not to hammer away at the cards with the same question though — doing this just trains your mind to project your desires onto the cards rather than carefully interpreting the meanings that are already there.

In other words, asking the same question repeatedly is really just a variation of forcing your own answer onto the cards. That’s the opposite of Tarot reading. That’s just looking for reinforcement of previously held ideas.

If you feel you must ask the same question again, at least give it a few days so that the situation may have changed in some way.

If you’re determined to ask about the same thing right away,  try asking a subtly different Tarot question. For example, if you asked the Tarot cards a common question about dating and relationships like, “Will my ex come back to me?” last time, try asking “What is preventing our relationship from resuming“, “What circumstances would enable our relationship to resume?” or “Does my ex have a new relationship?”

Another approach is of course, to use different Tarot spreads to approach the same topic. Approaching the same topic with a different spread is not the same thing as asking the same question over and over again. Different Tarot spreads can often give you a completely different perspective on a familiar subject by forcing you to think about it in a very specific way.

Lastly, there’s another concept when it comes to frequent Tarot card use that’s a little more controversial:  Your Tarot deck can start to feel “tired” or “worn out” if you use it too much. While there’s no evidence to support this concept, thousands of Tarot readers swear by it.

If you feel like your deck is just not performing as well as you know it can, try giving it a rest. Or move over to online tarot cards for a while.

The bottom line though, is that you should use your Tarot deck as much as you want and as much as you feel comfortable with. Just don’t keep asking the same thing over and over again hoping for a different result. (Which by the way, is pretty close to Einstein’s definition of “insanity”).

Good luck.