I have personally never found this technique very accurate, but it may work very well for you. For me, the tarot has no yes/no answers. But we are all different and our psychic gifts work differently with the tarot. Therefore, just because it doesn't work for me doesn't mean it won't work for you.
The yes/no spread I learned and use most often is a seven card spread. It works like this: You ask the tarot a yes/ no question and draw seven cards from a deck that is shuffled for reversed and upright reading. In other words, there should be cards in the deck that are upright and reversed.
The seven cards are laid out, face side down if you prefer but I have always found this to be a technique used more for effect than practicality. Basically, you count 'em up and if the majority are upright, the answer is yes and if the majority are reversed, the answer is no. However, from here, you do a reading on the situation based on the cards you have drawn.
Card 1. How things started, their source, the beginning
Card 2. What fuels the situation, what perpetuates it
Card 3. A card for clear prespective on the situation, what brings it into balance, what is right/fair here.
Card 4. Who stands to lose or suffer from the outcome
Card 5. What will be gained from the outcome, what will be new or different when it is done/complete/settled/decided upon.
Card 6. What is the ideal outcome, what is most desired in this situation.
Card 7. What should be done to bring about the best overall outcome.
Even if the tarot answers wrong to the yes/no situation, it may still provide some much needed insight through the cards drawn.
The meanings ascribed to the different card positions can be changed as you please, so can the number of cards drawn (although it needs to be an odd number).
However, when you decide to create or change a spread, know clearly in advance (of shuffling and drawing) what the spread is about and what the card positions are going to represent. In order to get the clearest answers possible from the Universe, shouldn't your spread be as clear as possible?
If in doubt as to what meaning to ascribe to the different positions of a spread you are creating, then consult the tarot. Let Source now what spread you are working on and what meanings it suggests you ascribe to the positions. You might get some very good insight that way! Don't be afraid to consult the tarot in designing your tarot spreads. What tool could be better suited for it?
Feel free to practice this spread and send me your results if you want some help interpreting the cards you drew on the situation. Preferably, practice this on a real situation, take plenty of notes, then check back after the even has come to pass so you can make sense of the reading and the cards. How else will you learn if you don't take notes and look back at them after the fact? This is the ideal way to hone your skills. Upcoming elections, races, games, and the like are not a great way to practice your tarot accuracy because you are asking the tarot to tell you about the future, and the future is a constantly changing thing--difficult to predict. No, it's not cheating to try and use the tarot to predict lottery numbers, but if predicting the future were very practical, more of us readers would be quite wealthy.
Better to practice a spread like this on, say, a situation like, "Will the ____ I ordered arrive in the mail today?" It's not exactly a future prediction because your package may already be queued up for delivery to your house the day you draw. You've already ordered it, there's not much chance it won't show--it's only exactly when that's up in the air. There aren't as many factors to interfere with this future, a much clearer answer is likely.
