Creating On-the-fly Spreads for Specific Inquiries

Hey all,

Recently, I was looking over a professional Tarot reader's website and I read that for their clients' specific questions for a reading, the practitioner creates spreads on the fly specific to their clients' questions. Does anybody personally do this in their readings? If so, does anybody have any suggestions for how to do this effectively?

Thanks,
Chris

I'm curious too, because I've done that for myself a few times but they're very simple 3-5 card spreads laid out in a row. I just follow my intuition as to what the positions mean after the cards are laid out... Would like to know how/if I can develop that further.

I would design the spread reflecting on how each placement can connect to one another and how you can draw parallels and contrasts.

Can also do a spread by theme.

Haven't done it in a while, but it's fun.

ThtDancerGuy said:

Hey all,

Recently, I was looking over a professional Tarot reader's website and I read that for their clients' specific questions for a reading, the practitioner creates spreads on the fly specific to their clients' questions. Does anybody personally do this in their readings? If so, does anybody have any suggestions for how to do this effectively?

Thanks,
Chris

Click to expand...

My housemate and I both do this and find it works extremely well. We look at visual patterns in the cards and place them either based on these patterns or instinct. Really enhances the reading and the meaning because you can also find meanings in the relations between the cards and the placements. Our readings for each other are done this way and are extremely accurate and j find my readings are more accurate and easier to interpret when I create the spread as I go.

I'm a beginner with the Tarot, so take what I say with a grain of salt as it might change with experience.

When I first started reading, I naturally did 1 -3 card spreads. I've tried Celtic Cross spreads and some of the more popular spreads since, but I haven't really found one that I'm mad about and want to do all the time. Every question/situation is just a little bit different so one spread doesn't really cover them for me - I've also seen readers just pull 3 cars (past-present-future) and keep pulling clarifiers to get a better picture. This also doesn't seem to work well for me.

I started designing my own spreads to get more details. I don't like big spreads personally, so they are usually between 5-10 cards depending on the question. I don't know if it's just my personality or perhaps it's the way I interact with my deck, but I've been able to get really insightful readings using this method. I'm also a very visual person, so it helps me connect when I see spreads in the shape of symbols or with a definite flow to the information (i.e. challenges to possibilities to the left, more positive opportunities to the right...something like that).

I create the spreads I need - either for a specific situation, or I use spreads that I created before and found useful.

I find the Deck of 1000 Spreads a nice tool, and the book is very helpful, too. It talks about spread structures and gives a lot of good advice.

I use the Deck of 1000 Spreads regularly and like the way it works for me. It's of course possible to craft one's own spreads without the deck. I made up some spread maps for myself, with the most successful and useful spreads I keep coming back to.

Over time, i noticed that I get along best with 4 card spreads, that's a personal preference I noticed. So most spreads I make up involve 4 cards. Others get along very well with other numbers.