Welcome to Jan's Spreads section of Learning the Tarot. Here we cover the range of spreads available to the tarot reader. If there is anything you would like to know, please mail us or go and have a chat on our forums.

We hope you enjoy this section - come back often as more spreads will be appearing frequently.

The way you spread the cards is quite important - each spread (whilst having similar types of position) yields differing information.  The Celtic Cross (a ten card spread) is quite a good broad based spread, which will give a good deal of info on a specific situation. 

There are other layouts that do things like give you a year view, or an astrological perspective or whatever. Some spreads answer specific questions better than others (I've personally never found the Celtic cross good for this - it's almost as though you get too much information.)

Any spread should give you the same overview, but one spread will highlight - for instance - emotional matters, whereas another might pick up outside influences better.

Current Spreads:

Five Card Spread

The Ellipse Spread

The Celtic Cross

The Mirror Spread

The Mandala Spread

The Relationship Spread

A Tarot spread for determining a course of action

You could try this spread for determining a course of action - it's a Five Card Spread:

Card 1:   The present or general theme of the reading
Card 2:   Past influences still having effect
Card 3:   The future
Card 4:   The reason behind the question (this will probably shed light on 2)
Card 5:   The potential within the situation.

This is a very useful spread when trying to decide a given course of action. Card 4 will often reveal a subconscious impulse - perhaps a blockage which is stopping you from achieving your desired result. Card 5 shows the possible results from taking a given course of action. The spread works best if, whilst selecting the cards, you concentrate on one aspect of the decision, rather than either/or type questions.

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