WHY I LOVE MAKING SPREADS AND HOW I DO IT :)
One of my favorite parts of learning how to read tarots is the creativity and flexibility in the spread like you can have 1 card or so so many and then where you put them matters and holds significance and I just think it’s so beautiful. I found that designing spreads is really calming and kinda meditative in some sense. I’d like to thank @hillbillyoracle bc I read through so many of their resources and they’re amazing and I use their compass kinda looking method and anyway here’s a run down of how I make spreads :)
Summarize down the prompt/situation/question What’s the big question or situation? Like what’s really going on and by the end of the reading if there’s one thing you want to really know what would that be?
This shouldn’t be the hardest part of the process at all. I start classes tomorrow for the fall semester so I’m using my beginning of semester spread as an example through out the post. My main question is what is the semester going to look like. If we want to be more specific then I’d rephrase this to “how can I have the best semester possible?”
Break it down and chunk it up We have the big picture - a successful semester summary. What contributes to that? In my sophomore year of high school, I took AP US History and my teacher always looked at argument planning as a stool. Like the seat is the big picture but the legs that hold it up and contribute to its stability are the details or smaller, integral pieces.
In most of my spreads I include like a general outlook. I’m also gonna include one in this spread. This is my first card and is like the vibe of the semester. My own personal beliefs here are that the semester is gonna fall between x and y degrees of success, so I have control but it’s limited by the best I can do and the worst I can do and other external factors. So this is a loose interpretation of the whole fall semester and will read as a vague negative or positive. This card is usually helpful to ease my deck and myself into the reading - like a warm up.
My first thought when I break down my question in this case is what would stop me from having a good semester. Then how would I get over it? Right there are gonna be two cards in my reading - a challenge card and an approach to a solution card. I prefer to define this solution card as an approach to a solution because in most cases, it’s not a quick fix, so I want my reading to reflect that.
Next, I know that personally, the habits, routines, or behaviors I have heavily influence my semester. Last fall I had a horrible semester, like mostly C’s and D’s, but this past spring semester and in the class I took for summer session were all A’s. I know that the difference wasn’t in the classes I took, but more in my habits and the people I surrounded myself with. In short these are all things I had control over. My next three cards are things I should leave behind/that won’t be helpful this semester, things that are working for me and will help, and then anything that I should add in that will benefit me. This is a release, keep, drop drawing in short.
This 6 card reading feels like enough. Sometimes I throw in a general advice card, but I think those last 3 cards are advice enough.
Compass kinda looking method This is the post that really made spreads make sense to me! If you read through it, there’s an basic XY axis you’ll see in any math class and they aspects are assigned to the extremes of each axis. This gives you a framework to hang the cards on, and it makes literally so much sense and is one of those mind blowing things that is just so simple when you really look at it.
I keep track of all my spreads in a google doc because they save automatically and I’m very forgetful. I add a new section for a spread in my doc, name the spread and then open the drawing tool. I use it because it’s easy to move things around and change whatever I think needs to be changed before and after my reading. I’d been sleeping on the drawing tool for so long, so I took a realllllly blurry screenshot of where it is in docs:
I start with a text box on the right side and list the different cards I’m using in each spread. I don’t really touch the layout of the cards too much until I’ve come up with all the cards I want. Then I make a text box that looks like a little card and number them and then lay them where I want. As I’m doing this, I kinda keep the compass in mind for the situation I’m currently reading for and lay out the cards in a way that makes sense according to the compass but in a way that also has like good flow to it.
So this is the spread I ended up with. Again, my list/key of the cards in my spread is on the right and my diagram is on the left. If we were to ascribe a strict axis to this spread, the farther up the y axis you go, the less control I have over my semester. I explained this earlier, but this is my outlook card. I have limited control but it’s not out of my hands. The more negative you go on the y axis, the more control. I put my keep card here because I’m already doing this and it’s good for me and helpful, so I’ve got whatever this aspect is like completely under wrap. The farther left you go on the x axis, the farther in the past we go. This is what to drop for a successful semester. I wanna leave whatever that sucker is behind! The card for the challenge is next because I’m encountering it with the intent to overcome and leave it behind me. In the future leaning cards are the solution approach and the what to add card. The solution approach is gonna push me into the future and is going to maybe leave me with useful skills for later in life. What to add is in a similar vein. This is gonna really have long term positive impacts for my semester ideally.
The end! That was so long, but I think it was worth doing and I’m really proud of it and myself :) Again, so much props to @hillbillyoracle !!! Amazing resources and one of the first people I started following on here :)