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The Three-Card spread
The regular 3-card spread is a utility spread for all general questions. It is simple and quick, though can be expanded by adding two other cards behind each of 1, 2 and 3 to make a more complex, nine-card reading. The three cards are dealt from right to left in a single row.
Card 3 Card 2 Card 1
The three positions may be interpreted in at least four different ways, depending on the question being asked:
Question Type Card 3 Card 2 Card 1
Self Mind Body Spirit
Time Past Present Future
Psychological Sub-conscious Conscious Super-conscious
Finances Money In Money Out The State of finances
Love Love given Love received The Love Match
In all variations, the cards are read sequentially from left to right. In the last two spreads, the final card (at right) becomes the “outcome” or summary for the reading.
For a richer reading, you can deal up to three cards (or more if you like!) into each position. These nine cards will then offer more of a “story” to each position’s interpretation and introduce more points for discussion with the Querent.
Expanding the Three-Card Spread–The Matrix
An even more interesting expansion can be to deal nine positions as shown below. These can either be a single card, or as above, three cards in each position. This gives a total of nine (or 27) cards respectively.
8 6 4
3 2 1
9 7 5
First, deal cards 3, 2 and 1 as with the regular 3-card spread. Then deal 4 and 5 above and below 1; cards 6 and 7 above and below card 2 and finally cards 8 and 9 above and below card 3. As already mentioned, you can deal 3 cards to each position if you like (for a richer reading) giving a total of 27 cards.
As mentioned, this gives the reading a much more rounded and richer basis. This means you would interpret cards 3, 8 and 9 (as Mind, Past, Sub-conscious. Money In or Love given) then cards 2, 6 and 7 (as Body, Present, Conscious, The State of finance or The Love Match) and finally cards 1, 4 and 5 (as Spirit, Future, Super-conscious, Money Out or Love Received). Each block is interpreted as a question type such as Past/ Present/Future or Mind/Body/Spirit.
However, what I have recently had great success with is interpreting the 9/27 card layout described above as a matrix with two axes. This allows two of the question types to co-exist in the same spread. So decide first on what you want to explore. You could explore the sub-conscious, conscious and super-conscious features of a love relationship, or the mind, body and spirit ramifications of finances.
In this example, we’ll look at the Past, present and future of a relationship.
Having decided on your “axes” (let’s say the vertical axis represents the time and the horizontal the relationship, though this is fairly arbitrary–either question type can be assigned to either axis) you then deal the cards into the Matrix pattern. As already noted, you can deal more than one card per position and combine the groups of cards in each position if you wish, but I suggest you keep it simple for your early explorations. You will end up with this pattern:
Love Given Love Received The Whole Relationship
Past 8 6 4
Present 3 2 1
Future 9 7 5
You first do an analysis of the spread: how many majors? How many reversed? What’s the overall “feeling” of the reading?
Now, with your overview as a background, cards (or positions with groups of cards) are read individually, but with an awareness that each axis represents a progression. That is, card 8 would represent the Love Given in the Past, Card 3 would represent the Love Given at Present and Card 9 would represent the Love Given in the Future.
Likewise cards 6, 2 & 7 would represent the Love Received in the Past, Present and Future and cards 4, 1 & 5 would represent the summary of the relationship in the Past, Present and Future states.
Examples
We’ll use the same question with two examples to illustrate just how rich this technique can be. We start with a simple 3-card arrangement. The female querent’s question is “What is the true state of my relationship?
King of Pentacles The Magician The Star
Love Given Love Received The State of the Relationship
Overview:
As two of the cards are majors, this is quite an important issue on a life-stage basis, so should be approached with care. On the whole, the situation looks quite positive–all cards are upright and at least one of them (The Star) predicts the kind of energy we’d all like to see in relationships.
1st card:
The King of Pentacles almost certainly represents the male energy in the relationship. As our Querent is female (and assuming, for the moment , that the relationship is a heterosexual one) this card represents the love she gives to her partner (Love Given). According to the card, this love builds him up, gives him the control of finances and the running of their life together and makes him feel manly, kingly and in control.
2nd Card:
The Magician (using one’s skills, making “magic”, using all resources etc,) in the Love Received position, means that our Querent is receiving the kind of attention from, her partner that makes her feel valued, respected, powerful in her own right and clever. He recognizes all that she has at her disposal and his love feeds her power.
3rd Card:
The Star in the Love Match position is almost the best card for this type of reading. It represents a mixing, a combination of water (emotions) and earth (practicality) in a careful, productive blend. Even though the Querent’s partner appears to be dominant, especially in practical decisions (the King), the Querent seems actually to be in charge of the relationship as a whole because it is a woman making the bklend work in The Star.
Synthesis:
Because all the cards are positive ones, I would also add that the relationship almost seems perfect. The blend of practical energy from the King and the Magician, combining to form The Star energy seems like a wonderfully perfect combination.
And herein lies the danger in examining something as complex as a human relationship in a context as simple as a Three-Card Spread. No-one’s relationship is perfect. This picture-postcard romance is probably hiding some skeletons: after all, why is she asking a Tarot reader about it in the first place, if it’s so rosy?
If we’d added two more cards to each position, the outcome may have revealed a bit more, even if only details.
Let’s look at the same example, now a bit more complex, using the 3-card spread as a basis for the nine-card matrix, which we’ll work on the same two axes, with the same question. The initial three cards are the same, however, now they’re at the centre of a nine-card matrix, interpreted across two axes.
Having shuffled and dealt, here’s the spread:
Love Given Love Received The LoveMatch
PAST 3 Swords Lovers Reversed Five Cups
PRESENT King Pentacles The Magician The Star
FUTURE Five Swords Four Cups Death Reversed
Overview:
At first glance, this is looking a bit more interesting. The Lovers reversed in a romance spread (albeit in the Past) is not a great sign and the future containing both Death and a deceptive sword looks rather frightening. I predict this won’t be a happy Querent when this is over. The two Cups cards and the 3 swords cards tell us this has to do with both emotions (Cups) and intellect (Swords). The presence of four majors (nearly half the total cards) tells us it’s quite an important episode in the Querent’s life.
Let’s start with the past: The Querent has had a past disappointment in love. Probably she gave too much and her heart was broken (Card 8: 3 of Swords). In terms of love she receives (Card 4:Lovers Reversed) she has been very cautious ever since, to the point of refusing to see signs that are probably right before her and perhaps commitment-phobic because of her past upsets. Or perhaps her heart was broken because she failed to see the opportunities. To sum up relationships (or perhaps even THIS relationship) went in the past, it was tough (Five Cups).
In the present: The Querent is “giving out” vibes that she wants to try again and this Pentacle King energy she feeds to her partner now seems to stem from wanting to be careful to preserve what she has. She has opend herself up once again to receive the Magician’s energy from her partner and with The Star being the overall result, all is going well at present. So again, one would have to ask why she is even querying a relationship with such present power.
The answer may lie in the three FUTURE cards. Look to the future: The Five of Swords in the Future Love Given position indicates that something may come unstuck with her giving of Kingly love. Perhaps she is working to a playbook, based on her previous disappointments and is currently doing and saying the right things, but perhaps questioning whether ultimately, it is her true position?
Maybe she currently feels that she is “getting away” with it, but she may be aware she is deliberately ignoring signs to keep the relationship on an even keel.
Or perhaps she is feeling the boredom and dissatisfaction that is beginning to emerge from the Love she Receives (Card 7: Four of Cups). This card seems to say that her partner will soon become bored: failing to see the great parts of the relationship and instead imbuing it through blue-coloured glasses. There is, after all, a Trickster aspect to The Magician: perhaps she is also accepting without question the love she appears to be receiving at the moment and her desire for such love could be creating a blind-spot.
With a reversed Death in the Future LoveMatch position, this relationship could head south before either party realises it. Not only that, but both parties could be said to be resisting an honest appraisal of where they’re headed.
Synthesis:
There are no Cups cards in the Querent’s “Love Given” column, but there are two Swords. This could be interpreted to mean that the love she gives is coming from a more calculating, mental perspective rather than a truly emotional one.
Likewise, the “Love Received” column at its most cynical interpretation could be tracking a progression from reversed Lovers disappointment, to a pretence of emotion with the Magician’s “trickier” aspects and denigrate into a kind of boredom or inner dissatisfaction with the Four of Cups.
The LoveMatch itself starts with the sadness of the Five of Cups, goes through an idyllic stage with The Star, but ends up at a resistance to change. And we all know what card is generally served next (The Tower) if a need to change is resisted or drawn out.
My conclusion is that this relationship, while currently at a lovely juncture (perhaps it’s a young relationship, where the lovers are still at somewhat of a “polite” stage) will need to become more “real” to survive.
I would counsel the Querent to be open and honest about her misgivings (that have brought her already to a Tarot reader). If she denies she has any misgivings, why is she asking about it? People who are entirely happy and confident with any aspect of their lives don’t ask for help in that area!
She needs to open up real channels of communication between her and her partner to ensure the Future indicated by this reading can be avoided. I suspect there are many things they currently don’t understand about eeach other and they will need to get to the real root of who they both are and what their real needs are to strengthen the relationship into the future.
Conclusion:
You can see that The Matrix offers much more depth than a simple Three-Card Spread. The notion of having cards serve “double duty” (as in the Three of Swords being a PAST card of LOVE GIVEN) is not particularly new to Tarot, it merely juxtaposes the more usual arrangement.
You can achieve even more depth in this reading by dealing three cards to each position. In this case the trio of cards is used to tell a story about each perspective that each position represents. This can be even more revealing as it paints a richly textured story over each situation.
The “LOVE GIVEN” position usually represents the Querent’s input. The “LOVE RECEIVED” position usually indicates the other party’s contribution, but if you have ethical issues reading for people who are not there and who have not consented, you can interpret this as how the partner’s love is being received by the Querent.
I encourage you to try this spread and see for yourself, the sort of insights it offers for a range of situational questions. I would love to hear about your endeavours and If any issues, questions or problems come up for you, don’t hesitate to contact me and discuss.
The regular 3-card spread is a utility spread for all general questions. It is simple and quick, though can be expanded by adding two other cards behind each of 1, 2 and 3 to make a more complex, nine-card reading. The three cards are dealt from right to left in a single row.
Card 3 Card 2 Card 1
The three positions may be interpreted in at least four different ways, depending on the question being asked:
Question Type Card 3 Card 2 Card 1
Self Mind Body Spirit
Time Past Present Future
Psychological Sub-conscious Conscious Super-conscious
Finances Money In Money Out The State of finances
Love Love given Love received The Love Match
In all variations, the cards are read sequentially from left to right. In the last two spreads, the final card (at right) becomes the “outcome” or summary for the reading.
For a richer reading, you can deal up to three cards (or more if you like!) into each position. These nine cards will then offer more of a “story” to each position’s interpretation and introduce more points for discussion with the Querent.
Expanding the Three-Card Spread–The Matrix
An even more interesting expansion can be to deal nine positions as shown below. These can either be a single card, or as above, three cards in each position. This gives a total of nine (or 27) cards respectively.
8 6 4
3 2 1
9 7 5
First, deal cards 3, 2 and 1 as with the regular 3-card spread. Then deal 4 and 5 above and below 1; cards 6 and 7 above and below card 2 and finally cards 8 and 9 above and below card 3. As already mentioned, you can deal 3 cards to each position if you like (for a richer reading) giving a total of 27 cards.
As mentioned, this gives the reading a much more rounded and richer basis. This means you would interpret cards 3, 8 and 9 (as Mind, Past, Sub-conscious. Money In or Love given) then cards 2, 6 and 7 (as Body, Present, Conscious, The State of finance or The Love Match) and finally cards 1, 4 and 5 (as Spirit, Future, Super-conscious, Money Out or Love Received). Each block is interpreted as a question type such as Past/ Present/Future or Mind/Body/Spirit.
However, what I have recently had great success with is interpreting the 9/27 card layout described above as a matrix with two axes. This allows two of the question types to co-exist in the same spread. So decide first on what you want to explore. You could explore the sub-conscious, conscious and super-conscious features of a love relationship, or the mind, body and spirit ramifications of finances.
In this example, we’ll look at the Past, present and future of a relationship.
Having decided on your “axes” (let’s say the vertical axis represents the time and the horizontal the relationship, though this is fairly arbitrary–either question type can be assigned to either axis) you then deal the cards into the Matrix pattern. As already noted, you can deal more than one card per position and combine the groups of cards in each position if you wish, but I suggest you keep it simple for your early explorations. You will end up with this pattern:
Love Given Love Received The Whole Relationship
Past 8 6 4
Present 3 2 1
Future 9 7 5
You first do an analysis of the spread: how many majors? How many reversed? What’s the overall “feeling” of the reading?
Now, with your overview as a background, cards (or positions with groups of cards) are read individually, but with an awareness that each axis represents a progression. That is, card 8 would represent the Love Given in the Past, Card 3 would represent the Love Given at Present and Card 9 would represent the Love Given in the Future.
Likewise cards 6, 2 & 7 would represent the Love Received in the Past, Present and Future and cards 4, 1 & 5 would represent the summary of the relationship in the Past, Present and Future states.
Examples
We’ll use the same question with two examples to illustrate just how rich this technique can be. We start with a simple 3-card arrangement. The female querent’s question is “What is the true state of my relationship?
King of Pentacles The Magician The Star
Love Given Love Received The State of the Relationship
Overview:
As two of the cards are majors, this is quite an important issue on a life-stage basis, so should be approached with care. On the whole, the situation looks quite positive–all cards are upright and at least one of them (The Star) predicts the kind of energy we’d all like to see in relationships.
1st card:
The King of Pentacles almost certainly represents the male energy in the relationship. As our Querent is female (and assuming, for the moment , that the relationship is a heterosexual one) this card represents the love she gives to her partner (Love Given). According to the card, this love builds him up, gives him the control of finances and the running of their life together and makes him feel manly, kingly and in control.
2nd Card:
The Magician (using one’s skills, making “magic”, using all resources etc,) in the Love Received position, means that our Querent is receiving the kind of attention from, her partner that makes her feel valued, respected, powerful in her own right and clever. He recognizes all that she has at her disposal and his love feeds her power.
3rd Card:
The Star in the Love Match position is almost the best card for this type of reading. It represents a mixing, a combination of water (emotions) and earth (practicality) in a careful, productive blend. Even though the Querent’s partner appears to be dominant, especially in practical decisions (the King), the Querent seems actually to be in charge of the relationship as a whole because it is a woman making the bklend work in The Star.
Synthesis:
Because all the cards are positive ones, I would also add that the relationship almost seems perfect. The blend of practical energy from the King and the Magician, combining to form The Star energy seems like a wonderfully perfect combination.
And herein lies the danger in examining something as complex as a human relationship in a context as simple as a Three-Card Spread. No-one’s relationship is perfect. This picture-postcard romance is probably hiding some skeletons: after all, why is she asking a Tarot reader about it in the first place, if it’s so rosy?
If we’d added two more cards to each position, the outcome may have revealed a bit more, even if only details.
Let’s look at the same example, now a bit more complex, using the 3-card spread as a basis for the nine-card matrix, which we’ll work on the same two axes, with the same question. The initial three cards are the same, however, now they’re at the centre of a nine-card matrix, interpreted across two axes.
Having shuffled and dealt, here’s the spread:
Love Given Love Received The LoveMatch
PAST 3 Swords Lovers Reversed Five Cups
PRESENT King Pentacles The Magician The Star
FUTURE Five Swords Four Cups Death Reversed
Overview:
At first glance, this is looking a bit more interesting. The Lovers reversed in a romance spread (albeit in the Past) is not a great sign and the future containing both Death and a deceptive sword looks rather frightening. I predict this won’t be a happy Querent when this is over. The two Cups cards and the 3 swords cards tell us this has to do with both emotions (Cups) and intellect (Swords). The presence of four majors (nearly half the total cards) tells us it’s quite an important episode in the Querent’s life.
Let’s start with the past: The Querent has had a past disappointment in love. Probably she gave too much and her heart was broken (Card 8: 3 of Swords). In terms of love she receives (Card 4:Lovers Reversed) she has been very cautious ever since, to the point of refusing to see signs that are probably right before her and perhaps commitment-phobic because of her past upsets. Or perhaps her heart was broken because she failed to see the opportunities. To sum up relationships (or perhaps even THIS relationship) went in the past, it was tough (Five Cups).
In the present: The Querent is “giving out” vibes that she wants to try again and this Pentacle King energy she feeds to her partner now seems to stem from wanting to be careful to preserve what she has. She has opend herself up once again to receive the Magician’s energy from her partner and with The Star being the overall result, all is going well at present. So again, one would have to ask why she is even querying a relationship with such present power.
The answer may lie in the three FUTURE cards. Look to the future: The Five of Swords in the Future Love Given position indicates that something may come unstuck with her giving of Kingly love. Perhaps she is working to a playbook, based on her previous disappointments and is currently doing and saying the right things, but perhaps questioning whether ultimately, it is her true position?
Maybe she currently feels that she is “getting away” with it, but she may be aware she is deliberately ignoring signs to keep the relationship on an even keel.
Or perhaps she is feeling the boredom and dissatisfaction that is beginning to emerge from the Love she Receives (Card 7: Four of Cups). This card seems to say that her partner will soon become bored: failing to see the great parts of the relationship and instead imbuing it through blue-coloured glasses. There is, after all, a Trickster aspect to The Magician: perhaps she is also accepting without question the love she appears to be receiving at the moment and her desire for such love could be creating a blind-spot.
With a reversed Death in the Future LoveMatch position, this relationship could head south before either party realises it. Not only that, but both parties could be said to be resisting an honest appraisal of where they’re headed.
Synthesis:
There are no Cups cards in the Querent’s “Love Given” column, but there are two Swords. This could be interpreted to mean that the love she gives is coming from a more calculating, mental perspective rather than a truly emotional one.
Likewise, the “Love Received” column at its most cynical interpretation could be tracking a progression from reversed Lovers disappointment, to a pretence of emotion with the Magician’s “trickier” aspects and denigrate into a kind of boredom or inner dissatisfaction with the Four of Cups.
The LoveMatch itself starts with the sadness of the Five of Cups, goes through an idyllic stage with The Star, but ends up at a resistance to change. And we all know what card is generally served next (The Tower) if a need to change is resisted or drawn out.
My conclusion is that this relationship, while currently at a lovely juncture (perhaps it’s a young relationship, where the lovers are still at somewhat of a “polite” stage) will need to become more “real” to survive.
I would counsel the Querent to be open and honest about her misgivings (that have brought her already to a Tarot reader). If she denies she has any misgivings, why is she asking about it? People who are entirely happy and confident with any aspect of their lives don’t ask for help in that area!
She needs to open up real channels of communication between her and her partner to ensure the Future indicated by this reading can be avoided. I suspect there are many things they currently don’t understand about eeach other and they will need to get to the real root of who they both are and what their real needs are to strengthen the relationship into the future.
Conclusion:
You can see that The Matrix offers much more depth than a simple Three-Card Spread. The notion of having cards serve “double duty” (as in the Three of Swords being a PAST card of LOVE GIVEN) is not particularly new to Tarot, it merely juxtaposes the more usual arrangement.
You can achieve even more depth in this reading by dealing three cards to each position. In this case the trio of cards is used to tell a story about each perspective that each position represents. This can be even more revealing as it paints a richly textured story over each situation.
The “LOVE GIVEN” position usually represents the Querent’s input. The “LOVE RECEIVED” position usually indicates the other party’s contribution, but if you have ethical issues reading for people who are not there and who have not consented, you can interpret this as how the partner’s love is being received by the Querent.
I encourage you to try this spread and see for yourself, the sort of insights it offers for a range of situational questions. I would love to hear about your endeavours and If any issues, questions or problems come up for you, don’t hesitate to contact me and discuss.
