A while back I posted a spread adapted from one in Josephine Ellershaw’s Easy Tarot Handbook, and I wanted to share with you what a reading using it would look like.
Basically, I read the Anchor first, and then each section in conjunction with the corresponding part of the Anchor. So we’d start with section 1 of the Life spread read with card 2 of the Anchor. Once I’ve made sense of that, I move on to the next one and read each group together, and repeat until I’ve gone through each one (section 2 with card 3, section 4 with card 4, section 5 with card 5, and section 3 with card 6). Finally, the key is read as advice from Spirit, your Higher Self, or the Divine, depending on your beliefs. This is what can help you achieve the goals in card 7, or get to (or avoid) the outcome in card 8 of the Anchor.
I’ll be using a reading I did for myself as my example here, (edited slightly to remove some more personal notes, haha). You can see the reading in its entirety here. Continue reading below for the breakdown.
So obviously to start, you’re going to shuffle and cut the cards however you do. Then lay them all out. For me, I like to go through the entire thing, making note of my initial interpretation of each card (just a brief note that may or may not end up being how I interpret the entire thing). So for the anchor, that looks like this:
Base - Hierophant: Religious undertones, the focus is on spirituality
Spiritual - Death, reversed: transformation, am I avoiding it?
Relationships- Justice: have I been wronged? What is the “right” thing?
Home - The Empress: motherhood
Career - The Chariot: moving in a new direction
Central Position - The Moon: Confusion, mixed messages
Wishes - The World, reversed: wanting to go back, do things differently
What’s to come - The Sun: Things are looking up, despite how fucking weird they seem
Then for the life spread, like this:
SPIRITUALITY
2 of Cups: good pairing, emotional connection
2 of Wands: 2 potential routes in front of me, a choice to be made
The Hierophant, reversed: stuck in my ways, cant break free of restrictive ideals
RELATIONSHIPS
10 of Wands: carrying a heavy load
Ace of Wands: New, passionate beginnings
Death: an ending
HOME
Ace of Cups: an eye-opening new beginning, new perspective
10 of Pentacles: prosperity, abundance
8 of Wands, reversed: things aren’t going as planned
CAREER
4 of Swords: take a breather
Judgment: reflect, take inventory. What are you doing?
5 of Pentacles: scary card, money trouble
CENTRAL THEME
Empress: nurturing, motherhood
9 of Wands: taking a moment to rest after a struggle
5 of Cups, Reversed: not accepting the loss, not moving on in a healthy way
KEY - Knight of Cups: trust yourself, go after what you want!
So now that that’s out of the way, I’m going to go back and look for patterns, or Majors that show up in both the Anchor and the Life spread. For this one, I’ve got death twice (once reversed), the Hierophant twice (once reversed), and the Empress twice, so those themes are all ones I’m going to pay extra attention to this reading.
Other things I’m looking out for are my stalker cards. The Moon and The Empress have been following me around of late, which holds some relevance for me (on a more personal note, not for Tumblr eyes :) )
Now the fun part, putting it all together! There aren’t specific positions for the life spread, so we’re just reading the story we get from the groups. So for example, the career group. The Chariot in the Anchor, and then 4 of Swords, Judgment, and the 5 of Pentacles. I know everyone has different ways of interpreting things so I can’t exactly give a how-to for this part, but here’s the reading I got from this group: “ With my career, I’ve got one foot out the door here, but before I jump to any rash decisions that could have me in a really bad spot financially, I need to stop and listen. Reevaluate what it is that I want and the best way to move forward.”
If you’re interested in the reading in its entirety, to see the way the other groups fit together, you can see that here.
I hope this helped a bit, I know it’s a big spread and can seem daunting. Just take your time (often, a lot of time) and go through it piece by piece.
