What is the purpose of laying out a spread?

A question:

Do you put your cards on a flat surface, face up, when you do a reading? Or do you hold them fanned out in your hand like playing cards?

If you lay them out flat, are they just jumbled up? Or do you lay them out in a line or a square or an arc?

page of wands said:

Why can't you just count out the number of cards you need to fill in the slots? Why lay them out?

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Um ... what slots?

Every spread is different. Every spread is designed to bring out different kinds of information, and work on the client's life on different levels.

Counting out cards just tells you how many cards that particular spread you're using is going to need. How can you read them like that? How can you tell whereabouts in the spread there are clusters of colours, or if cards seem to be reacting to each other or not? You really need to look at how the structure of that spread will change given the unique combination of cards that turn up in it on that ONE particular unique occasion.

nisaba said:

Um ... what slots?

Every spread is different. Every spread is designed to bring out different kinds of information, and work on the client's life on different levels.

Counting out cards just tells you how many cards that particular spread you're using is going to need. How can you read them like that? How can you tell whereabouts in the spread there are clusters of colours, or if cards seem to be reacting to each other or not? You really need to look at how the structure of that spread will change given the unique combination of cards that turn up in it on that ONE particular unique occasion.

Click to expand...

ok it's so complicated. lol! oh one time i laid out the cards and the devil was above the woman holding a wand or sword and was pointed at an angle to the left, exactly where the devil was.

If you're just reading each card individually, it doesn't matter. But spreads are laid out so that cards can also be read in relationship to one another. For example, if you had two cards with people and in one layout they have their backs to each other, you might read that differently than if you swapped positions so they were facing each other, even if the cards still kept the same position meanings. So 1 2 3 could be read differently than 3 2 1, but if you were unaware of the physical layout you might think they were exactly the same. The layout can help you understand time progressions, spatial and power relationships, it can help you spot imbalances, etc.

CrystalSeas said:

A question:

Do you put your cards on a flat surface, face up, when you do a reading? Or do you hold them fanned out in your hand like playing cards?

If you lay them out flat, are they just jumbled up? Or do you lay them out in a line or a square or an arc?

Click to expand...

i have been laying them out like the pictures suggest. for instance the celtic cross i put them like the picture shows to.

cSpaceDiva said:

If you're just reading each card individually, it doesn't matter. But spreads are laid out so that cards can also be read in relationship to one another. For example, if you had two cards with people and in one layout they have their backs to each other, you might read that differently than if you swapped positions so they were facing each other, even if the cards still kept the same position meanings. So 1 2 3 could be read differently than 3 2 1, but if you were unaware of the physical layout you might think they were exactly the same. The layout can help you understand time progressions, spatial and power relationships, it can help you spot imbalances, etc.

Click to expand...

wow! that is so interesting. i still don't know how to do that. is there a book or website that talks about that?

page of wands said:

i have been laying them out like the pictures suggest. for instance the celtic cross i put them like the picture shows to.

Click to expand...

I was beginning to get the feeling we're not on the same page as to what is or isn't a "spread." The good side of formal spreads is that they give some meaningful structure to what otherwise could just be a formless jumble of cards with no clear flow to it (at least until we start to correlate everything). The bad side is basically the same, in that blindly following a road-map can lead to missing some of the subtleties that free-form interpretation offers. I tend to "stake out the playing field" with a defined spread and then move around freely within it as the situation suggests, picking up on whatever interpretive "sign-posts" it presents. The structure is a kind of "springboard" for improvisation.

The art of tarot is in the symbology of the cards, we need to lay them out in a spread to engage our intuition in reading them, this is how we develop.

Basically understand that THERE ARE NO RULES. Not ones we ALL must follow. My old mentor used to create a spread as she laid out cards. She would ask each card where it wanted to go and lay it down there. Then read it.

When I am working fast, I sometimes just lay down 3 cards and read whatever they say. But that is working with a very SPECIFIC question and a short time period.

Other times, even when working fast, I lay out a horoscope spread of 12 cards. This lets me see what is most important to the querent. I may not read all of them, but the most important parts will pop out. And this is a case where the LAYOUT helps with the reading: job is across the circle from Career and ambition, Financial Security across from cash flow, close people from long distance.

So all ways work, it is what works for YOU that matters. At that time. Next time you may want different.

barb

Hon, you can go with whatever floats your boat.