….that title sounded better in my head. *ahem*

OK, so now we know what a deck is and have a general sense of the tarot cards, we know how to shuffle them, we’ve introduced ourselves to a new deck….how do we actually “do a reading”?

While you can ask a question and draw one card, you’re likely to get a super vague or incomplete answer. So we draw what’s called a spread.

A spread is just a way of laying out the cards where each one represents a different aspect of the answer/your life. The classic is the Celtic Cross spread, a 10-card layout that addresses past, present, and future.

1. The present situation
2. Obstacles or support influencing the situation
3. Past conditions in your life that led you here
4. The recent past, or the immediate kickoff of this situation
5. A possible outcome on the horizon, or what you want the outcome to be
6. What’s developing out of this situation right now
7. Your current attitude toward the situation or where you’re at with it
8. Other influences on the situation (environment or people)
9. Your hopes and fears, or shadow work you need to do
10. The outcome of the situation/where you’re headed as of now

But really, there’s an infinite number of spreads. Some come from tarot deck creators, like this one from Chris-Anne of The Light Seer’s Tarot:

Some come from tarot readers, like Emerald Lotus Divination:

You can absolutely make up your own spread to reflect upon or predict literally anything. It can be long and complex, or short and succinct.

Many, many spreads are 3 cards and follow a pattern of Past/Present/Future or Focus/Avoid/Embrace. Here’s an example of my own monthly spread:

In my monthly spreads, I pull a card each for:

• The vibe of the month
• What to let go of
• What to invite in
• How to have the best month possible
• Words of advice for me

So mine in a nutshell was: a month of acquiring new skills and the anxiety of learning something new, where I needed to let go of the burdens stifling my creativity and making me resent my obligations. I needed to deepen my intuition and look for my purpose in my subconscious, as well as make peace with change and lean into a childlike curiosity and willingness to learn for the sake of learning.

I’m thinking I’ll semi-regularly explore new spreads that I come across and share them here, to maybe inspire you to try new types of readings. I do tend to get stuck in the same routine spreads, so it gives me an excuse to dig into unusual/unique new ones.

Do you have a favorite spread?