Perhaps you have wondered why tarot readers love to place their cards in such strange shapes and patterns. The answer is, the pattern or spread depends on what they want to discover, so they use different spreads for different questions. Some spreads are complex, such as the Celtic Cross, others are simple, perhaps even just a single card chosen from the pack to represent the day’s vibe.
Some of the simplest spreads are based on three cards. The advantage of these is that they tend to be less confusing than, say the traditional Gypsy spread, which uses a total of 21 cards. Obviously the three card spreads are less detailed, but they are designed to be used more often.
Here are two of the easiest spreads to read and they are also ones which you can use every day. The cards are placed in a triangle shape: the first card goes at the top of the triangle, the second marks the lower left hand corner, whilst the third marks the lower right hand corner. The first card gives the general vibe of the day, the second points to any issues you may need to address and the third represents any emotional aspects which will result from the day’s events.
If you want more concrete information regarding your day, another spread might suit you better. In this one, the first card is placed upright, the second card is laid across it, whilst a third card is placed on the right of them. As with the previous spread, the first card gives you the general vibe of the day. The second card gives you insight on what is likely to hamper your progress and the last card tells you what the best outcome of your day is likely to be. Remember, even if the outcome is not perhaps all you could wish, it may show you how to improve your situation.
Talking of showing you a way forward, three card spreads are particularly good at this, although you do need to be brave enough to look in the mirror and see the bad as well as the good. Let’s assume you have a problem, you know what it is but you aren’t too sure of what to do to fix it – this simple spread can help.
You need three cards which you will place in a line with the first card on the left, followed by the second card in the middle and the third on the right. The first card shows the root of the problem, the second gives you a way of solving it (it’s up to you whether you follow this or not – nothing in the tarot is prescribed), and the last card shows the outcome if you follow the route the cards suggest.
The same spread can be used in a more general way which, although it lacks depth, can give a clear general reading. The cards are laid out as before but with a different intention. In this case, the first card represents the past, the second the present and the third the likely outcome if you follow your present course of action. Such a spread is fairly short term and usually refers to no more than the following couple of months.
It maybe that for some reason you want a Yes or No answer, the tarot can help here too. Shuffle your cards so they are a mixture of upright and reversed. Taking cards from the top as you deal, keep the face of the card visible until you get an ace, when you have an ace start a new pile until you get another one, do the same again. Now you should have three piles of cards, each with an ace on top. If all your aces are upright the answer to your question is ‘yes’, if they are all reversed the answer is ‘no’. A mixture of upright and reversed cards means the issue is undecided. If you get a mixture of cards three times in a row you should stop the reading and try again the following day.
As you will have realised there are many tarot spreads to choose from and sometimes we think that the more complex a spread the ‘better’ it must be. Yet, this is not necessarily the case, just because a spread is simple it doesn’t mean that it is worse, in fact a three card spread can be as enlightening as its most complicated counterpart.
