The Secrets Of The Tarot Part 8 - The Tarot Spread

Discover The Tarot Spread And It's Importance in the reading, in focus, and in compartmentalizing the cards meanings ...

The Tarot spread is an important part of any reading. The spread is how you lay the cards out when you are answering your question, and it allows you to correlate a specific card with a specific aspect of the answer. For instance a particular position may indicate what the hopes or fears of the querent (the person asking the question) are.

The most well known spread is called the Celtic Cross (pronounced Keltic). This ten card spread is a good spread for giving a general answer which includes the past, present and future as well as mental, emotional, and physical planes covered in layers and other things that can be interpreted usefully. Unfortunately it is so well known that many people use it exclusively. This becomes a problem because not all spreads work for all questions.

The Spread Is The Foundation Of The Reading

Let's say I want to know how things are going for me in general. The Celtic Cross would be a good choice to use. But the moment I want to know about a specific time frame, especially if I am interested only in the future, the present or the past the Celtic Cross becomes a detriment.

Celtic Cross Spread Map

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There are other spreads that are better choices for answering many questions than the Celtic Cross is.

Most people are interested in the future. I interpret the word future as it relates to tarot cards as "a projected future based on variables the cards help your mind become more aware of".

A more generalized spread like the Celtic Cross includes lost of other information as well.

This can definitely be useful, but what if all I care about is how things will go for me in the next six weeks?

The Celtic Cross doesn't fit such a question well. For that, a spread such as the Six Point Line would be a much better fit.

What if I want to know about the past only?

The Six Point Line can also work there too – but not the Celtic Cross and for questions pertaining to the present only, the Compass Rose spread would be an excellent choice.

Again, the Celtic Cross falls on its face.

For questions about the next twelve months, you might want to use the Zodiac Monthly spread or the Twelve Month Line.

Not the Celtic Cross. When you need to know which of three options is the best the Crow's Foot spread comes to the rescue.

Guess which spread is useless here?

That's right: the Celtic Cross.

In time you will develop a complete comprehension of how each spread garnishes it's value and power.

Once that happens (and this only happens with practice and a will to learn every day) you will not be tethered to those spreads but rather will have the source code to develop your own spreads.

In the end the spread itself isn't where the power lay, it's in the way your mind can organize the data for certain questions.

It's a lot like how you'd ask someone a question in several ways, different tones, different emphasis on parts of the sentence- all change how the sentence data is interpreted. The layouts/spreads are the same thing.

The spread you choose will make or break the answer you get. There is no valid question you can't tackle with your cards. It's just a matter of using the right spread. Starting out the Celtic Cross spread is the easiest to figure out and practice on... as you grow and develop your awareness you will start to dynamically shift how you use your cards. They grow WITH you, after all the cards don't change- but how you use them, does!