Stay or Transfer? Decision Crossroads (A/B) Helps You Analyze the Options

Your current job feels familiar, and the new role has something to offer too. You picture the colleagues you know and a settled routine, then wonder whether staying means another year of the same work. Both options contain something you would miss.

Decision Crossroads (A/B) suits a choice between two concrete options whose benefits and costs need to be understood together. Its six cards also give the hesitation a place of its own: which needs make this particular choice difficult?

The six positions

Before drawing, decide what A and B refer to. This identifies the options; it does not change the fixed jobs of the positions.

In Startarot, A occupies the left column and B the right, with pros above cons. Core Conflict is at the top of the middle column, with Integrating Guidance below it. Draw in the order shown in the table.

A card in a pros position is read for what it contributes; a card in a cons position is read for the demand it brings. This does not divide the deck into good and bad cards. Stability can offer reassurance or make change difficult. The position and the known situation determine which aspect matters.

An internal transfer

Imagine someone who has spent three years in the same role. They know the everyday work, can arrange most tasks in their preferred order, and usually finish on time. Lately, the work has changed very little, and completing it rarely brings the satisfaction of learning something new.

Their company has offered a specific internal transfer. Pay would initially stay the same. The new role involves working with several colleagues and learning unfamiliar tasks. At the beginning, learning the new work would overlap with handing over the old responsibilities. These arrangements have already been explained.

Their question is simply: “Should I stay in my current role or transfer?”

A means staying; B means accepting this transfer. A’s two positions concern the reassurance and repetition of familiar work. B’s concern the learning opportunities and the demands of adapting. Core Conflict explores the needs each option touches, while Integrating Guidance brings them into the same decision.

Here is the complete draw, all upright. The imagery described below is from the familiar Rider–Waite–Smith tradition.

What staying preserves

The Nine of Pentacles shows a figure in a fruitful garden, with a bird resting on one hand. It often evokes the ease and independence that come from what has already been established. In A’s pros position, it connects with knowing the work, not needing guidance at every turn, and having fairly predictable finishing times. Staying preserves a sense of competence and control.

The Four of Cups shows someone sitting under a tree, apparently uninterested in the cups before them. In A’s cons position, the repetitive work and reduced satisfaction give that image a specific meaning: the lack of interest may continue if they stay. Being good at a job and finding it interesting have become separate experiences.

What the transfer could offer—and demand

In the Three of Pentacles, a craftsperson discusses work with two other people. In B’s pros position, it suggests the possibility of learning through shared work: working with colleagues could bring together their different experiences and introduce approaches this person has not encountered in the current role.

Collaboration is already part of the described role. Whether exchanging experience becomes useful support depends on how those colleagues actually work together.

The figure in the Ten of Wands bends forward beneath a large bundle. In B’s cons position, this fits the overlap between learning and handing over existing work. New tasks may bring interest while requiring more energy; unfamiliar work is harder to handle with the ease they now enjoy. Here, the burden concerns the initial adjustment to the transfer.

The two cards in the middle

The Two of Swords shows a blindfolded figure holding crossed swords in a tense balance. In Core Conflict, it connects with two needs the person would like to retain: ease gained through familiarity, and a renewed sense of learning and progress.

The first four cards have given both options substance. Staying offers familiarity and autonomy; transferring offers a concrete chance to learn. The pause shown by the Two of Swords fits the difficulty of having both: each option meets only part of the person’s hopes.

Justice holds scales and a sword. In Integrating Guidance, it brings the decision back to weighing things fairly. The Nine of Pentacles’ ease and the Three of Pentacles’ learning both matter, as do the Four of Cups’ repetition and the Ten of Wands’ adjustment burden.

The decision-making approach here gives each option’s attractions and costs equally serious consideration. Counting only the comfort of staying and only the strain of transferring would distort the comparison. Justice connects the hesitation shown by the Two of Swords with the decision itself: which benefit matters more to this person, and which cost are they willing to accept?

Reading the whole choice

The spread gives clearer shape to the hesitation. Staying preserves autonomy and familiarity, with the possibility of continued disinterest. Transferring offers shared learning alongside the demands of becoming familiar with new work.

The Two of Swords explains why the decision feels difficult; Justice brings the attractions and costs into one act of weighing. In this example, Decision Crossroads helps reveal what draws the person toward each option and what they are reluctant to give up.