What spreads work for you?

casia

There are a lot of threads about interpreting the cards but few about the spreads. Many use the Celtic Cross and it works just fine. Well it has never felt comfortable for me.
I´d like to share a spread that always gives me a great general reading and it gives me a lot of information.

It is 3 rows of 7 cards, each row representing past, present and future. I read them from right to left in pairs leaving the last card of the row for the out come of whatever question the querent has. Then I throw 3 cards for every specific question from the remaining ones on the deck until the querent is satisfied. If there are a lot of cups it usually has to do with an emotional matter and so forth.

I would apreciate your suggestions so as to have other options.
 

Imagemaker

Wow, that's way too many cards for me. I like 3 to 7 card spreads, depending on the question.

One of the few larger spreads I use regularly is Rachel Pollack's work spread, with a couple of my variations:
It's laid out like:
. . . . . . . . .1 . . 2
3 . . 4 . . 5 . . 6 . . 7 . .8. . 9

1 -- being (who you are now--could be the same as a significator)
2 -- doing (what you do, or the task ahead--could be emotional and/or spiritual, besides actual physical tasks)

3 -- past
4 -- hopes and fears, or expectations

5,6,7 -- the work needed to be done, or what you can do

8 -- result of the work
9 -- advice (Rachel uses "outcome" for this, I prefer advice)
 

casia

Imagemaker

That would be a spread used in a one question situation, I suppose. But what about in a general reading?
 

Imagemaker

It kind of depends on how you see a general spread--as a picture of the person's life? Then this spread works for "what is my mission at this time?" perhaps, or "who am I and what am I here to do?"

Since the only constant is change, I always see any spread as a snapshot of the moment of a reading. Tomorrow a general spread for the querent would look different.

As an observer of life (mine and others), I'm always interested in what my focus should be in the moments ahead, related to spiritual, emotional, or actual physical work. So I use this spread a lot.l
 

kerri28

Casia, I'd just like to say that my readings are usually done in the same manner as yours unless I have a specific question to work with then I will find a "formal" spread to answer the question. Otherwise I usually work with around 10 to 15 cards paired up or in threes with one card as the probably outcome.

Each lot of pairs usually represent an aspect of the querents life eg present, querents feelings/emotions of how their life is atm, work, family, any worries etc etc. If I'm doing a reading with a querent present then i will add cards to the reading to add depth to any subsequent questions that arrive from the spread if not already answered.

Near the end of the reading I tend to do an overall interpreation which may or maynot use the intial pairs of cards which represent certain aspects of the querent's life. Basically this is when i tend to group like cards eg a dominant suit in the reading or mulitple numbered cards.

I prefer to work with a large number of cards in a reading as I find it gives much depth and transperacy. This may not work for all readers but it works for me. The only time that I will use a small number of cards is if I am given a yes/no question.

I hope that this is of assistance to you.
 

casia

Kerri28

I do my readings like you do sometimes I even play it by ear. What ever jumps at me or calls my attention I focus on. I´ve tried other 5 card readings but I find it dificult to iterpret. Sometimes I do 4 rows of 5 cards each row representing emotions, intellect, spirit and material wealth and I try to relate the reading to those concepts. But it doesn´t flow... maybe I should be more specific.
 

Trogon

Hmmm... Actually, I have quite a few different spreads that I use for different situations. However, the one I use the most for general, non-specific readings is the 5-card "PPF" (Past-Present-Future). This spread is also useful for looking at a more specific issue, but in a general way. I lay out 5 cards, dealing them in a line from the left to the right, thus;

...1...2...3...4...5

1. is the past, usually up to 3 to 4 months back.

2. is the more recent past, usually a few weeks to a couple of months.

3. is the present.

4. the near future, usually up to a month to come

5. the more distant future, usually (you guessed it) 3 to 4 months.

I have found that most of the time the reading flows pretty smothly from the past, through the present and into the future, with the interpretations of the cards frequently affected by those before and/or after it. However, I've also had the reading jump around in a more general way.

I try to remain very open to subconscious cues that the spread needs to be interpreted differently - for example, sometimes the #1 card will reveal something from much further in a person's past. I did a reading for a woman who was wondering about why she was feeling so bad an on-line friend who suddenly stopped speaking to her. The first card immediately struck me as revealing abandonment issues that stemmed from her childhood (she is in her 40's). So obviously that particular reading was very slanted towards the past. But it did reveal things she had consciously forgotten about, but needed to have brought forth.

Now, it is rather late in the day for me (being a graveyard shift worker) and I must get to bed. ;) I will share a few more spreads tonight...
 

Diana

The best best best spreads that work for me are three card spreads.

Past Present Future mostly. Because the past can mean a million things. The Present can also mean a million things. And the Future... well that can mean ten million things.

But sometimes I add an Advice card. Or a What Is Hidden card.

And one card spreads are also amazing. They speak a thousand words.

Too many cooks spoil the broth.
 

Trogon

Hi again... it's me! :D

Okay... as promised, here's a couple more spreads that I use quite frequently;

First is the Celtic Cross. When I began learning Tarot, I began with the Celtic Cross and found it very difficult to use. Then in January of '03, prompted by a thread here on A.T. I reworked the layout and now have a spread that is much easier for me to use. Now, rather than reposting that layout, I'll post a link to the Your personal version of the Celtic Cross thread. Hopefully that thread will help you out as much as it did me. (My revised CC layout is about in the middle of the 2nd page.)

There are several 3-card spreads that I also use. One that I find can be very enlightening when a person needs some insight into a particular issue is this (cards layed out in a row; 1...2...3);

1 - Issue (what the issue is - sometimes, it's not what the querrent thinks).
2 - Blockage (what is getting in the way)
3 - Advice (how the querrent can work to overcome the blockage and begin working on the issue itself).

Sometimes we need to look a little deeper into an "issue" for a querrent (or ourselves). For that I'll use my "focusing cross";

....................3
..............4....1....5
....................2

1 - Issue/Heart of the issue
2 - Basis/origins/roots of the matter
3 - Hidden or internal influences
4 - External or past influences
5 - Advice

Another 5-card linear spread that I've used a few times when a client wants some insight into a new relationship (whether the new person is just a friend, or potential romance);

......1.....2.....3.....4.....5

1 - What the querrent needs to know about the new person.
2 - The new friend's motivations
3 - How they "feel" about the querrent
4 - The querrent's feelings
5 - Outcome or advice

A while back, I developed a 9-card spread for exploring co-dependent or abusive relationships. During the ensuing discussion we came up with a couple of modifications. If it's something that might interest you, you can see it in th thread Codependency spread

I have a lot of other spreads that I use depending on the situation and/or what question the querrent has. I do hope that you have found this helpful Casia... (and anyone else who was interested enough to read through my ramblings).