What Questions Should You Ask a Psychic?

If you’re getting a psychic reading, you may be wondering what you’re supposed to ask. Apparently, according to the internet, you should arrive with 47 beautifully worded open-ended questions covering your love life, career, spiritual development and whether Gerald from accounting is secretly threatened by your success.

You do not need to do this.

You don’t even need to know exactly what your question is.

What you do need is some idea of what you’re actually trying to understand. Those are two different things, and figuring out the second one will get you a much better reading than obsessing over whether you’ve phrased your question correctly.

I’ve been reading professionally for years, and I’ve had people come to me with one very specific question, three related questions, an entire complicated situation they can’t make heads or tails of, and occasionally the psychic-reading equivalent of throwing everything onto my desk and saying, “Here. You figure this shit out.”

All of those can work.

The important part is getting underneath the question you’re asking and figuring out what you really want to know.

You Don’t Need the Perfect Question

There’s a lot of advice online telling people that they must ask open-ended questions during psychic or tarot readings. You’ll see suggestions like replacing “Will I get the job?” with “What opportunities for professional growth are available to me?”

I understand the reasoning, but I don’t completely agree.

If what you desperately want to know is whether you’re getting the damn job, ask whether you’re getting the damn job.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with a yes-or-no question. The problem is when the reading stops there.

If you ask me, “Does it look like I’m getting this job?” I’m interested in the answer, but I’m also interested in what’s surrounding it. Is there competition? Does the opportunity look stable? Is something slowing the process down? Is there another possibility developing that you don’t know about yet? Does getting this job even look as good for you as you currently think it does?

Suddenly we’ve gone from yes or no to information you can actually use.

The same thing applies to relationships, moves, opportunities, family situations and everything else people bring into readings. Ask the obvious question first if that’s the thing keeping you awake. We can always keep digging.

When You Know Something Is Wrong but Can’t Figure Out What

This is one of my favorite kinds of questions because it’s exactly where a reading can be useful.

You know something feels different. Maybe someone’s behavior has changed, a situation that used to feel fine suddenly doesn’t, or you’re picking up on something you can’t quite put into words. You have no concrete evidence of anything, but your internal smoke detector keeps chirping and you’d really like to know whether there’s a fire or the battery just needs changing.

This is where people sometimes make the mistake of arriving with a theory already fully assembled.

“Is my boss trying to fire me because Brenda told him something at the Christmas party?”

Maybe. But now we’ve narrowed an enormous situation down to one very specific explanation before we’ve even looked at it.

I’d rather start with something like:

“What am I not seeing clearly about what’s happening at work?”

Or:

“Something has changed in this situation. What do you see around it?”

Then we can follow wherever the reading actually goes instead of spending the entire time trying to prove Brenda did it in the break room with the candlestick.

When You Want to Know What’s Going to Happen

You are allowed to ask about the future.

I realize that shouldn’t need to be said on a psychic’s website, but here we are.

Ask whether the relationship looks like it’s moving forward. Ask whether the opportunity looks likely to happen. Ask whether the move seems to be coming together. Ask what the next few months look like.

What I wouldn’t do is treat the first answer like God came down from the mountain with a laminated itinerary.

If we’re looking at whether something is likely to happen, I also want to know what’s influencing that outcome. Does the current trajectory look strong? What could interfere with it? Is there another possibility developing? Is the situation still very changeable?

That’s where a prediction becomes useful instead of merely entertaining.

“Does this look like it’s going to happen?” is a perfectly good question.

“What do I need to understand about where this is heading?” is another.

Together, they’re even better.

When You’re Trying to Make a Decision

This is where I draw a pretty firm line between getting information and outsourcing your life.

You can absolutely bring a decision into a reading. Should you stay at the job? Take the opportunity? Move? End something? Start something? Go left? Go right? Fake your own death and open a bait shop in Maine?

Fine. Let’s look at it.

What I don’t love is, “Tell me what to do.”

A psychic doesn’t have to live with your decision. You do.

Instead, I want to look at what surrounds the choices. What happens if you stay where you are? What changes if you choose the other direction? What aren’t you considering? Is fear making one option look worse than it actually is? Are you romanticizing another option because you’re desperate to get away from the current one?

Those questions give you information while leaving the final decision exactly where it belongs: with you.

When Another Person Is Involved

This is probably where people get themselves the most tangled.

You want to know what someone is thinking, what they’re feeling, whether they’re coming back, why they’re acting differently or what the hell their problem is.

Those are understandable questions.

But there’s a point where a reading about your life can quietly become a surveillance operation on somebody else’s.

I’m much more interested in how their energy and behavior affect your situation.

Instead of spending an entire reading trying to inventory every thought another person has had since breakfast, useful questions might be:

“What do I need to understand about this person’s role in the situation?”

“What is the dynamic between us right now?”

“Is there something about this relationship I’m not seeing clearly?”

“Where does this connection appear to be heading?”

You’re still getting information about what’s happening between you without turning your psychic into the NSA with tarot cards.

When You Think You Already Know the Answer

This is where things get interesting.

Sometimes people ask a psychic because they genuinely don’t know the answer.

Sometimes they ask because they know the answer and hate it.

There is a difference.

If you’ve asked the same question repeatedly, pulled your own cards, watched seventeen collective tarot readings, consulted three psychics and are now considering a fourth because nobody has produced the answer you were hoping for, the problem may no longer be lack of information.

At that point, a much better question might be:

“What am I having trouble accepting about this situation?”

Or:

“Why am I still looking for another answer?”

Those aren’t always the questions we want to ask, but occasionally they’re the ones that finally get us somewhere.

How Much Should You Tell a Psychic?

Enough.

That’s my deeply scientific measurement.

You do not need to write a twelve-page case history before your reading. In fact, I personally prefer that you don’t give me every possible detail because I want room to read what I’m getting rather than unconsciously following the story you’ve already told me.

On the other hand, making a psychic play Twenty Questions to establish that the “complicated situation” you’re asking about is actually your divorce isn’t necessarily useful either.

Give enough context for the question to make sense.

“My relationship has felt different for the last few months and I can’t figure out what’s changed. What do you see happening here?” is plenty.

“My job has become increasingly uncomfortable and I’m considering leaving. I want to know what I’m not seeing clearly about the situation.” Also plenty.

The goal isn’t to test the psychic by withholding every detail. The goal is to get a useful reading.

What If You Have No Idea What to Ask?

Then say that.

Seriously.

You can come into a reading knowing there’s an area of your life you want to look at without having a beautifully constructed question ready.

Maybe all you know is:

“My career feels completely stuck.”

“My relationship has gotten weird.”

“I can’t decide whether I want to move.”

“I’ve been feeling like something is changing and I don’t know what it is.”

“I keep having this experience and I want to understand it.”

Those are perfectly workable places to start.

A good reader should be able to help identify where the useful question is instead of sitting there waiting for you to phrase it like you’re submitting a request to the Department of Motor Vehicles.

What Shouldn’t You Ask a Psychic?

There are questions I won’t read on, particularly medical, legal and financial matters where somebody should be talking to an appropriately qualified professional instead of asking me what the Queen of Swords thinks about their biopsy.

But beyond those obvious boundaries, I think there’s a broader question worth asking yourself:

What am I expecting this reading to do for me?

If you’re looking for another perspective, clarity, information or insight, great.

If you’re looking for absolute certainty, permission to make a decision you already want to make, reassurance that nothing bad will ever happen, or someone to take responsibility for your choices, no psychic reading can responsibly give you that.

And if somebody promises they can, I’d be considerably more concerned about the psychic than the question.

The Best Question to Ask a Psychic Is the One You Actually Care About

You don’t need to impress your psychic with your question.

You don’t need to make it spiritual.

You don’t need to say “What does the universe want me to know about my highest path?” when what you really want to ask is, “Am I getting laid off?”

Ask the real question.

Then be willing to look at what’s underneath it.

That’s where a good reading gets interesting, because the question you arrive with isn’t always where you end up. Sometimes we answer it and move on. Sometimes it opens another door. And sometimes the thing you thought you needed to know turns out to be considerably less important than the thing sitting right behind it.

If there’s something in your own life you’ve reached the point of wanting another perspective on, you can see my current psychic and tarot reading options here.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I prepare questions before a psychic reading?

You can, but you don’t have to arrive with a formal list. If there are specific things you want to make sure you cover, writing them down beforehand can be useful. Otherwise, knowing the situation or area of your life you want to explore is usually enough to get started.

Can I ask a psychic a yes-or-no question?

Absolutely. A yes-or-no question can be a perfectly good starting point. I just wouldn’t stop there when there’s useful information surrounding the answer that we can explore.

How many questions should I ask during a psychic reading?

There isn’t a magic number. One complicated situation may take considerably longer to explore than several straightforward questions. I’d rather thoroughly look at the thing you actually care about than race through twelve questions so we can say we finished the list.

Can I ask a psychic about another person?

You can ask about how another person relates to your situation, the dynamic between you and where the connection appears to be heading. Where readers draw boundaries around third-party questions varies, so it’s worth checking their policies before booking.

What if I don’t know what to ask a psychic?

That’s fine. Tell the reader what’s happening or what area of your life feels confusing, and start there. You don’t need to diagnose the situation before asking someone to help you look at it.