My Go-To Tarot Spreads for Any Occasion
Tarot spreads involve stringing cards together to tell a full story. When you see tarot readers working with several cards spread across a table in rows or elaborate configurations, they’re usually working with spreads.
As a tarot reader, I’m not very creative when it comes to spreads. I normally stick to the traditional Celtic Cross, or do Mind-Body-Spirit, Past-Present-Future. I assign one card for each “position,” and then look at all the cards together as a whole to see if any patterns pop up. I try to see where Major Arcana cards show up, or if certain numbers or suits dominate the full spread.
Sometimes, I freestyle it and just pull cards without assigning any meaning to each one! When I read for people using this method though, I always get the question, “But what does *insert card name* mean?” It gets a little tedious to have to explain that when you do freestyle spreads, no card means just one thing… so I usually just reserve this method for myself or my close friends.
Today, I’m sharing three of my go-to spreads and why I like them. If you’re getting bored with one-card draws and feel you’re ready to step up your tarot reading game, you may want to try these three methods! Enjoy :)
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Issue Advice Outcome
I learned the Issue / Advice / Outcome from the Sakki Sakki Tarot Workbook, and I find it particularly useful for a number of reasons:
Issue. Sometimes, you just want to pull the cards but don't really have a question. Regardless of what's going on in your life, whether you're having an amazing time or having the worst time ever, you've got an issue. This spread puts the spotlight on something and gives you a framework to lean on.
Advice. We could always use some advice. When you don't want to hear it from your friend or your mom or your coworker, you can pull a card and know that it's not going to take any of your BS. This is an exercise in humility.
Outcome. While I always advise clients to have an open mind, it's always helpful to consider future possibilities. If you're in a really bad place, the hope of being elsewhere is something to lean on. I like how the spread leaves things open too—we could modify and pull three different cards for three different "outcomes."
This spread works for any aspect of life—work, money, relationships, purpose, etc. I like how flexible it is; and it helps break down the foggy, nebulous unknown into bite-sized, chewable pieces that we can grasp one step at a time.
Learn more about these cards through the PM Starter Deck companion guide here.
Do Stop Continue
Do / Stop / Continue is one I learned from the Wild Unknown Spirit Cloth (it's the "Three Gems" spread) and is useful when I'm at a tarot event and need to give quick five-minute readings, or just feel the need for self-reflection but haven't got a lot to journal about.
Do provides us with an actionable step. This becomes the "homework"—the follow through someone needs after all the self-reflection and catharsis that comes up at a reading.
Stop sheds light on behaviors that someone needs to quit.
Continue is a nice reminder that you're doing something right. When you end with a "Stop" card, you can feel a little demotivated and put down. Continue cycles you back into the positive sphere and assures you that not all is lost—that you do know how to navigate your way through life (even just a little).
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The Four Bodies
One of the biggest takeaways I'd gotten from one of my yoga mentors, Dona Tumacder-Esteban, was the Four Bodies meditation. Before class, we would have a sit, and she would ask us to imagine a body of water for every aspect mentioned: Mind, Heart, Body and Spirit. Dona attributes the guided meditation to Angeles Arrien, a cultural anthropologist who wrote "The Four-Fold Way."
We would then go through our asanas and after our final savasana (corpse mose), we would move into another sit and guided meditation, taking us through the bodies of water again. The point would be to notice if anything changes or stays the same before and after the yoga practice.
I like how the four bodies—Mind, Heart, Body and Spirit—all correspond to the Tarot's four suits: respectively, Swords, Cups, Pentacles and Wands. It's a meditation I connect with effortlessly and deeply, so when I'm strapped for time with my tarot cards, too lazy to do a full Celtic Cross spread, or am trying to help out a client who can't really figure out what questions to ask, I fall back on the Four Bodies.
It's simple enough and accessible for most people since everyone's got some idea of what their heart or head space are, or what state their body's in. And while a lot of times, spirit can be quite out of reach, it's helpful to know you can pull a single card and be guided somewhere.
This also works because numerology-wise, four is the number of stability. When we strike our own unique blend of Mind, Heart, Body and Spirit, we're able to come into a secure place, even for just a couple of minutes! Seeing how one aspect affects the other, and how we can manipulate our own energies of Mind, Body Heart and Spirit so they work together instead of oppose one another, we can (fingers crossed!) come into a better sense of balance.
I know these three spreads are all pretty basic, but I hope you picked up a lesson or two on why they’re worth a try. If you feel like playing around with these configurations (or even putting all three spreads together in one giant spread!), tag me on your posts and let me know how everything goes. :)
It should be a fun and maybe even meaningful exercise to try while we’re dealing with quarantine.
This entry is an edited version of posts I made in 2017.