Tarot and Work: Using the Cards to Think About Career, Projects and Conflicts

Tarot can be a useful tool for thinking about work: whether to change jobs, how to approach an interview, why a project is stuck, or how to handle a difficult colleague. It does this by helping you see your situation more clearly: what motivates you, what blocks you, what you have yet to consider. The most useful work readings end with a concrete step you can take.

They also have limits. Recruiters and managers make their own decisions, and a reading is never a substitute for HR, legal or medical advice. This article covers how to ask good questions about work, how to use readings for career decisions, projects and conflicts, with worked examples, and when to turn to someone qualified.

What a work reading can offer

Work takes up a large part of life, and questions about it are often layered. They mix money, identity, relationships, ambition and fatigue. A reading can help untangle these threads.

In practice, a work reading can:

• Clarify what you actually want. Many career questions start as “should I leave?” but turn out to be about recognition, autonomy, meaning or pace. Cards can bring that underlying need to the surface.
• Show what is holding you back. Fear of failure, loyalty to colleagues, financial worries, or a habit of saying yes to everything. Naming the obstacle is often the first step.
• Shed light on a relationship. A conflict looks different when you consider your own part in it alongside the other person’s.
• Make a decision legible. Laying out options and their consequences side by side helps you compare them honestly.
• Prepare an important moment. An interview, a negotiation, a difficult conversation, a presentation in front of a demanding audience.

A reading leaves the outcome open, and that is its strength: it keeps the focus on what you can influence.

Questions that work for career, projects and conflicts

The principle of a good question is the same everywhere: open, centred on you, focused on one subject. See our full guide on how to ask a good tarot question. For work, here are some typical rewrites.

Common question	Question that works
Will I get this job?	How can I approach this interview so that I show what I am really worth?
Should I quit?	What keeps me in this job, and what is pulling me elsewhere?
Will I get promoted?	What could help me take on more responsibility?
Will my project succeed?	What is the main obstacle in this project, and how can I work with it?
Why does my boss dislike me?	How can I improve my working relationship with my manager?
Is my colleague trying to undermine me?	What is my part in the tension with this colleague, and what could I do differently?
Which career is right for me?	What kind of work gives me energy, and what drains it?

Timing matters as much as wording. A reading done the evening after a humiliating meeting will be read through anger or shame. If something has just happened at work, write the question down and give it a day or two. You will often find the question itself has changed: “Should I quit?” becomes “What exactly upset me so much, and what do I need in order to feel respected?” That second question is far more useful, and it is the one the cards can actually help with.

It also helps to be clear about which domain the question belongs to. Is it about the job itself (tasks, skills, workload), about people (a manager, a team, clients), about meaning (why you do this work in the first place), or about material conditions (pay, hours, security)? Each calls for a slightly different question and spread, and mixing them all into “my job” usually produces a confusing reading.

Career direction and big decisions

Career decisions are where a reading’s value as a mirror is clearest. Changing jobs, retraining, going freelance or declining a promotion involve far more than facts. Values, fears and identity play a large part.

A spread with positions for each option helps. The Path of Decision spread in the app sets out the situation, option A and its consequence, option B and its consequence. A simpler three-card version, option A, option B and what helps me choose, also works well (see our three-card spread method).

An illustrative example. You have been offered a management role. It means more pay but less hands-on work, which you enjoy. You ask: “What do I gain and what do I give up with each choice?” Option A, accepting, draws L’Empereur (the Emperor): authority, structure, responsibility for others. Option B, declining, draws Le Bateleur (the Juggler): skill, craft, the pleasure of working with your own hands and tools. The card that helps you choose is L’Hermite (the Hermit): a figure who walks alone with a lantern, seeking his own path.

The choice stays yours. What the reading does is make the trade-off visible: status and structure on one side, craft and freedom on the other. L’Hermite suggests that the answer lies in a quiet, honest look at what you actually want, perhaps away from other people’s expectations. A concrete follow-up might be to talk to someone who has made the same move, or to ask whether the role could keep some hands-on work.

Before acting on any career decision, check the practical side: your finances, your contract, notice periods, the job market in your field. The reading clarifies your motives; the facts decide what is possible.

Projects and day-to-day work

Readings can also help with smaller, more concrete questions: a project that has stalled, a workload that feels overwhelming, a loss of motivation.

An illustrative example. A project you lead is behind schedule and the reason escapes you. You use a situation–obstacle–advice spread and ask: “What is the main obstacle in this project, and how can I work with it?” You draw Le Chariot (the Chariot) for the situation: a figure driving forward, horses pulling in slightly different directions. The obstacle is La Papesse (the Popess): a seated woman with a closed book, knowledge kept to herself. The advice is Le Soleil (the Sun): two figures side by side in full light.

Read together: the project is pushing forward, but its parts are pulling in different directions. The obstacle is information kept out of circulation, whether that is something you are holding back, something the team has yet to learn, or documentation still waiting to be written. The advice is transparency and collaboration: put things in the open, side by side. The practical step might be a short meeting to share the state of every task openly.

Notice how concrete the result is. A good work reading should leave you with something you can do on Monday morning.

For daily work, some people like to draw a single card in the morning as an intention: L’Hermite might suggest a day for focused, solitary work; La Tempérance (Temperance) a day to pace yourself. Keep it light, and treat it as a prompt for the day ahead.

Conflicts with colleagues and managers

Workplace conflicts are one of the most common reasons people turn to tarot, and one of the areas where the rule “stay on your side of the relationship” matters most.

A colleague’s thoughts and plans belong to them. What a reading can do is help you look at the relationship as you experience it: your reactions, your expectations, what triggers you, what you might do differently. A me–the other–the relationship spread works well, as long as you remember that the “other” card shows how that person appears in your experience, seen from where you stand.

An illustrative example. You clash repeatedly with a colleague in meetings. You ask: “What is my part in this tension, and what could I do differently?” You draw La Force (Strength) for yourself, Le Chariot for the colleague, and La Justice for the relationship. La Force shows a figure calmly holding a lion’s jaws: self-control, but also perhaps a struggle to contain irritation. Le Chariot suggests someone driven, pushing their agenda forward. La Justice, for the relationship, points to fairness and clear rules: who decides what, and how disagreements are settled.

The reading suggests that the conflict may be more structural than personal: two people with strong drive sharing a space whose rules are still unclear. A possible step is to propose clarifying roles, or a fairer way of running meetings, so that both of you can put your energy into the work itself.

If, however, the conflict involves harassment, discrimination, threats, or a breach of your contract or rights, a reading is not the right tool. Document what happens and speak to HR, a staff representative, a union or an employment lawyer.

Limits: HR, legal and health

Some limits apply to every work reading.

A reading is not HR or legal advice. Questions about contracts, dismissal, redundancy, discrimination or pay disputes need qualified advice from HR, a union, an employment lawyer or an official advice service.

Hiring decisions belong to the recruiter. Use the reading to prepare, then prepare the interview thoroughly on its own terms: research, concrete examples, questions to ask.

Watch for burnout. If work is affecting your sleep, health or relationships, if you feel exhausted, detached or at the end of your strength, talk to a doctor. Rest and care come first, ahead of any reading about how to “push through”. In tarot terms, it is worth remembering that Le Pendu (the Hanged Man) and L’Hermite are as much a part of the deck as Le Chariot: rest and withdrawal are legitimate.

Keep readings about yourself. Decisions about trusting a colleague, hiring a candidate or dismissing someone call for fairness. Base them on facts and proper processes, the same for everyone.

Money and work are linked. If your work question is really a money question, our article on tarot and money may help, with the same caveat: no reading replaces financial advice.

Used within these limits, tarot can be a valuable companion for working life: a moment to step back, look at what is really going on, and choose your next step with a clearer head. To try it on a question about your work, do a reading and finish by writing down the one thing you will do differently this week.