A yes or no reading is about as short as tarot gets. You ask one question, pull one card and look it up. The list below has an answer for each of the 22 major arcana cards.
Save to PinterestI should say up front that these answers are one common reading. Tarot has no official yes or no list, and readers disagree about a few cards, mostly the Hermit and the Moon. My advice is to pick one list and stay with it, because if you look the same card up in three places you will get three answers.
How to use it
The question has to be one a person could answer with yes or no. “Will I hear back this week” works, and “what should I do about work” does not. Shuffle, pull a single card and find it in the list. When the card says maybe, the question was usually too wide, so narrow it and pull once more.
Yes or No Tarot
There is a loose logic to the list. Cards about movement, growth or something arriving tend to be a yes. Cards about endings, fear or things falling apart tend to be a no, and the maybe cards are the ones that ask you to wait or look more closely.
| Card | Answer |
|---|---|
| The Fool | Yes |
| The Magician | Yes |
| High Priestess | Maybe |
| The Empress | Yes |
| The Emperor | Yes |
| The Hierophant | Maybe |
| The Lovers | Yes |
| The Chariot | Yes |
| Strength | Yes |
| The Hermit | Maybe |
| Wheel of Fortune | Yes |
| Justice | Maybe |
| The Hanged Man | Maybe |
| Death | No |
| Temperance | Maybe |
| The Devil | No |
| The Tower | No |
| The Star | Yes |
| The Moon | No |
| The Sun | Yes |
| Judgement | Yes |
| The World | Yes |
Reversed: Yes or No
If you read reversals, this second list is for a card that comes out upside down. A reversed card usually weakens or delays the upright answer. Plenty of readers ignore reversals altogether, and if that is you, turn the card upright and use the first list.
| Card | Answer |
|---|---|
| The Fool | No |
| The Magician | No |
| High Priestess | Maybe |
| The Empress | Maybe |
| The Emperor | No |
| The Hierophant | Maybe |
| The Lovers | No |
| The Chariot | No |
| Strength | Maybe |
| The Hermit | No |
| Wheel of Fortune | No |
| Justice | No |
| The Hanged Man | No |
| Death | Maybe |
| Temperance | No |
| The Devil | Maybe |
| The Tower | Maybe |
| The Star | Maybe |
| The Moon | Maybe |
| The Sun | Yes |
| Judgement | No |
| The World | Maybe |
The 12 Yes Cards
Twelve of the 22 cards are a yes. If you only have room in your head for one group, learn these.
| Card | Answer |
|---|---|
| The Fool | Yes |
| The Magician | Yes |
| The Empress | Yes |
| The Emperor | Yes |
| The Lovers | Yes |
| The Chariot | Yes |
| Strength | Yes |
| Wheel of Fortune | Yes |
| The Star | Yes |
| The Sun | Yes |
| Judgement | Yes |
| The World | Yes |
No and Maybe Cards
Four cards are a no and six are a maybe. People often read a maybe as a polite no, but it usually means the answer depends on something you have not asked about yet.
| Card | Answer |
|---|---|
| Death | No |
| The Devil | No |
| The Tower | No |
| The Moon | No |
| High Priestess | Maybe |
| The Hierophant | Maybe |
| The Hermit | Maybe |
| Justice | Maybe |
| The Hanged Man | Maybe |
| Temperance | Maybe |
Questions people ask
Can I use the whole deck? You can. This page covers the major arcana because those are the cards people look up most often. For the other 56, a common rule of thumb is that upright cups and pentacles lean yes and swords lean no.
What if I pull the same card twice? Then that is your answer. If you keep pulling until the card changes, you will stop believing any of them.
Is a yes or no reading accurate? It depends a lot on the question. A clear question about your own life tends to get a useful answer, while a vague one about another person rarely does.