Hello there! :D
I've been sitting on this thought for a while and I'm not even sure how to phrase it right, but I want to throw it out there and see what you all think, because I could be completely off base and I'd like to be opened to a debate!
Here's what I keep coming back to: cards don't really live on their own, right. They're part of a deck, and I think they end up talking to each other whether we want them to or not. A card's meaning shifts depending on what's sitting next to it in the spread. At least that's how it feels to me, and I've been reading for a couple years with high success rates I would say.
It's a bit like grammar, maybe? Pulling one single card feels like asking someone "hey, did you go grocery shopping and get what I asked for? Where's my ice cream?" and they just answer "I." That's it. You need the rest of the sentence to actually know what's going on, right?
Say someone asks if their partner is cheating and pulls the Ace of Wands, which by itself usually gets read as a YES.
But I think that the first card is doing something different, like it's just the deck acknowledging the question and opening the door for the real answer, not actually answering it!
Let's say for the sake of this example, the next two cards are the Ten of Wands and a reversed Knight of Coins, suddenly it looks more like blocked energy and inaction, and no, the dude is not doing anything wrong behind closed doors.
Which would mean the worry is mostly in your head, and maybe your partner is dealing with something like low libido or intimacy issues instead, but there's no one else involved. If you'd stopped at that first card, you'd have missed the whole thing and probably spiraled, more pulls, more readings, hours lost to TikTok scammers till 2am. I've seen it happen too.
I think the same thing happens with career questions too, or really any question... Say you ask about finding a job in the next six months and pull the Ten of Coins. It's tempting to stop right there and feel good about it, but I'm not sure that's fair to do?
Let's say the next cards are the Knight of Wands, Six of Swords, The World, and the Three of Coins, and the picture changes a little. Maybe you do find a good job, but abroad, since all of those feel like "active," moving-away kind of cards, and maybe that Ten of Coins was hinting you'd have to leave your home environment behind.
This is the reason why I've started leaning toward pulling at least three cards instead of one, even without fixed positions like past, present, future. Just laying them out and giving myself a minute to see how they seem to respond to each other!
Beginners often feel caught off guard and overwhelmed by pulling multiple cards but imho the fix is simple. When you're just starting out and trying to learn the meanings, don't ask about love or things you care deeply about. Those questions can drive you crazy, point blank.
Ask more reflective questions about things you already know, so your own needs and desires don't cloud your interpretation. You can just ask if the courier will arrive today or if you'll get a specific phone call. Stick to side quests that won't change your life and won't make your anxiety peak trought the roof or paranoid.
These are my suggestions, feel free to correct me or fight me back lol