Using Multiple Decks in One Tarot Reading
Find out more about Danielle Noel here.
I’m now on Day 22 of quarantine and looking back on all the Instagram Stories I posted since this lockdown happened. I remember looking through my Danielle Noel card collection (it’s still incomplete btw!) and using all the decks to come up with a massive reading for myself.
I like using multiple decks in my tarot readings because they provide layers of meaning, and many windows for interpretation. Multiple decks by the same artist also means you come up with a super gorgeous spread!
In case you missed my series of IG Stories, I strung them all together into yet another (sloppily edited) lo-fi YouTube video. To supplement this, I’ll be enumerating my process in bullet points for those who’d rather see an outline instead of watching a full video.
HOW TO USE MULTIPLE DECKS IN ONE TAROT READING
Decide on your main deck. My favorite among my decks by Danielle Noel is the Moonchild Tarot, so majority of the cards in my reading come from this. You can choose your main deck for different reasons—mine is because the Moonchild is what appeals to me most, visually. If you don’t want to go by visuals, you can also choose your main deck because it’s the one you’re most comfortable with, because it’s new and you want to explore it, or because it’s the first one you pulled out of your closet!
Choose a tarot spread. Apart from the Celtic Cross, I also have a go-to spread I learned from the Tarot for the Wild Soul course by Lindsay Mack that I use for myself (I’m not sharing the particulars of this spread because I feel you’re better off just taking Lindsay’s course to learn it—I highly recommend the course jsyk!). If you’re just starting out with tarot, you can check out this blog post I wrote about different tarot spreads you can use.
Lay out the cards of your tarot spread using your main deck. I like to lay all my cards face down first. There are no rules here, but I just do it because I like to set everything up first before I flip all the cards open—this way, when I start reading, everything just flows seamlessly and I don’t have to keep having to draw cards one by one.
Use single cards from all the other decks as “punctuation marks.” I’m of the belief that too many cards in a spread can result in a really cluttered, messy reading… which is why I only pull one card from all the other decks I decide to use. I use them as “punctuations” to a reading—meaning they just go at the beginning or end of the spread I’m using. My main deck delivers the meat and potatoes of my reading, while the single cards from all the other decks serve as extra flavoring (they’re the salt and pepper!).
Journal it all. I could definitely read for myself and go really quickly without writing anything down… the problem with that is I forget everything! Even if I take a picture of my spread, I don’t really remember what it means in the exact moment I did my reading… which is why I highly recommend keeping a journal or at least writing down bullet points. It’s always helpful to look back on readings to see if anything’s changed since you pulled your cards.
Et voila! I hope this inspires you to pull your decks and start playing—whether or not you have many decks by the same artist.
I really have no plans of building a YouTube channel for now (it’s too much work! lol), but you can head over here to see all the IG Stories I uploaded so they don’t disappear into the ether.
If you do plan on doing a multiple deck reading and post it on Instagram, feel free to tag me @practical_magical—I’d love to see what you come up with ;)