Your best 4-card spreads

I am getting more and more into 4-card spreads at the moment (general, not specifically relationship spreads), and I find that generally, the most common spreads seem to be either 3-card or 5-card.

I have had a look at the index and there are quite a few spread over different categories but relatively few which use only four cards.

Here is one I found which I like (can't remember where I read this; sorry for not crediting it!);

1. key card
2. what is seen
3. what is unseen
4. Outcome.

I find that 4 card spreads feel more balanced by their very nature. You get to have a key card, an outcome card and two polarity/opposite/duality/ yin-yang-type cards.

So what are your favourite 4-card spreads? I'd like to add them to my repertoire!

Here is one I found in The Tarot Bible by Sarah Bartlett

The Secret Me Spread

1 My secret desire
2 What motivates me
3 What puts me down
4 What I can accomplish

Quite a nice one which I've used several times.

I'm exceptionally fond of my daily reading:

1--The Theme card for the day
2--My Guiding card (Advice from my Guides)
3--My Meditation card (something to keep in mind through out the day)
4--My Shadow card (Summarizes the reading, augments or fills in the empty spaces).

I usually read the cards holistically and I find the readings to be very honest. Feel free to look at my website link to see the reading in action (I post everyday).

Paul

I suppose there is also the Decisions/choices spread;

1. The issue
2. If I follow X path
3. If I follow Y path.
4. Outcome (the way things are going...)

Here are a few of mine...

Pulling The Covers Over My Head Spread by Glass Owl

1-4
2-3

1. The Sleepyhead (you in your current state)
2. Good reason for staying in bed (the problem you don't want to face, what has got you down)
3. Good reason for getting out of bed (motivation)
4. The chicken noodle soup, cup of coffee, or comfort food that will make you feel better (the nourishment)



Who are you when you're in love? spread by Glass Owl

3-----4
-------
--1-2--

1. Who have you been, in the past, when in love?
2. Who are you right now? Where do you stand currently in regards to love?
3. Who you would like to be when you are in love?
4. How can I best embrace the love that the universe is offering me?


The Storybook Relationship Spread by Glass Owl

2-3
1-4

1. The Past (How the story begins)
2. The Present (Where your bookmark is currently located)
3. The Future (What comes next)
4. The Happily Ever After (Advice for finding it, whether it is in this book, its sequel, its spin offs, etc.)


The Moulin Rouge Spread by Glass Owl

Like the movie "Moulin Rouge" this spread is about truth, beauty, freedom but above all things, love.

---4---
1-----3
---2---

1. Truth - Acknowledge this.
2. Beauty - Be in awe of this.
3. Freedom - Set this free.
4. Love - Embrace this.

1. the problem
2. the moral of the problem
3. the solution to the problem
4. the outcome

A Fresh Start Spread (4 Cards)

--2--
3---4
--1--

1. This needs a fresh start in your life.

2. Why a fresh start would be beneficial.

3. Letting go of this would assist you in having a fresh attitude.

4. Embracing this would assist you in having a fresh attitude.

Actually, after creating the spread (in the link below) I realized that I didn't have any 4-card spreads in my repertoire! But I really like this spread, so now I do! And upon seeing your thread I figured I had to post it.

Click here to view the thread: Four Noble Truths spread

this spread is also by Sarah Bartlett.

What I need to resolve spread.

1. What no longer matters
2. What has been fulfilled
3. What will carry me forward
4. The change I must embrace

I haven't tried it myself yet.
lyn

cross spread

the cross spread...
All French Tarot books have this spread... Some have ONLY this spread... because it is the basis to the larger spreads should they be needed. It is directly related to astromancy and it's use is vast, and one of it's true strengths is it's use alongside astrology.
For instance, you can ask a question while noting the time you asked (or faced) the question. Then concurrently (or seperately, later) you can do a horary chart (astrology) and usually the match between the two is almost perfect, although some things may be clearer from the astrology side, others from the tarot side, but they BUILD on each other.

The position meanings are quite similar to your introduction spread:

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

There is a yin/yang relationship of sorts between 1 and 2 as well as bet. 3 and 4... as in astrology.
The positions correspond to the 1st house (1) , 7th house (2), 10th house (3) and, 4th house (4) in astrology.

1 is east, 2 is west, 3 is south , 4th is north, as though you are facing south (all are reversed if it is the Medicine Wheel instead of the Zodiac)
1 represents the querent, his strengths and weaknesses with respect to the question (as in astrology)
2 represents others (as in astrology) but also all that stands before him in adversity or in complementarity.
3 (MC in astrology) is that which is in favor or against the situation from outside influence, destiny or a sense of destiny, unknown luck or adversity... it's the highest card, thus, represents "the Most High"...
4 is the outcome (the 'end of things' in astrology), how things will end.
(needless to say, card 3 is an all powerful card that oversees the whole question always.)
This spread is done with Majors only, because in French Tarot the Majors have an incomparably higher status than Minors (minors mean 'minor influences'), and Majors act above the elements and are not subjected to them (all minors have an element associated to them while Majors do not).

With these 4 simple cards there is endless stuff that you can get because you can derive into so many possibilities (using the rules and correspondences of astrology of course)... for instance, you may want to understand how a person that is before you may be seeing you... card 2 is that person while card 1 is the "other" facing them, YOU!! (THEIR card 2)... while card 4 becomes THEIR 3rd card (the MC in astrology) and 3rd becomes THEIR 4th, the outcome card for them, etc... You can calculate timing in the same way as horary astrology (astrology uses the cross points which corresponds already to the cross spread itself)
As in astrology, you can get for instance a sense of their friends with respect to the question(total of cards 4+2) or your friends (cards 1+3) because your house of friends (the 11th) in astrology lies between 1 and 3 ( or 2 and 4 for the other person)... same for their health or yours... their intelligence... their workplace... all as they may be pertinent to the question in the present. It's a stunningly intuitive spread.

Ganaca