Introduction:
As I gradually (some might say glacially) edge my way back towards offering Tarot readings, I thought I’d share with you my interpretation of one of my own spreads. I have previously done this in my newsletter, but I’d like to intersperse those monthly offerings with occasional posts on this site, so as today’s spread was quite significant for me, it seemed like a timely opportunity to branch out and do so.
A little bit of background: I started reading Tarot cards for myself during the Covid pandemic. In an attempt to learn them in a more organic way than simply ‘by rote’, I drew one card a day and reflected on its meaning and any possible message it might have for me. This took some time, as certain cards presented themselves more frequently than others – but fast forward five years, and I am no longer learning but drawing cards as a daily practice to see what they have to tell me. In particular, following an initiation into the practice of Kundalini yoga, I have felt that my intuition has increased tremendously, and the cards are, more often than not, highly relevant to what is going on in my life.
A couple of months ago I began to feel that a single card a day was no longer enough. I became interested to see what additional insights I could gain – and to practise weaving a narrative – from drawing multiple cards at a time. I had been in the habit of using a three-card spread on a weekly basis (usually on a Sunday), to supplement my daily single-card draws, and my go-to spread was 1) Situation, 2) Challenge, 3) Way Forward. However, I’d heard that some readers use an ‘open spread’, where no particular meanings are assigned to the different card placements, and the narrative is free to unfold however it chooses.
I found myself unable to decide which of these approaches to adopt, and so I set my cards a challenge. I would pull one spread that I would interpret according to my usual formula, and a second spread that I would regard more openly; and I would choose which path to follow by which one ‘spoke’ to me most clearly. Please note: I do not mean which spread gave me the ‘best outcome’, but the one that resonated the most. I would honestly rather draw a ‘bad’ card that makes sense than a ‘good’ one that feels irrelevant or generic.
I can’t now remember the specific cards I drew (I do keep a record of all my spreads in my Tarot journal, but I am out of the house at the moment and don’t have it to hand), but I was rather astonished to see that both spreads were absolutely spot on. I found it impossible to choose between them – and so I decided that, going forward, I would do both: a ‘top row’ of three cards for Situation, Challenge and Way Forward, and a ‘bottom row’ that I would interpret more freely. It has been a game-changer! I now receive basic guidance on the main situation at hand, with further insights that tease out particular areas of focus or concern. There is so much more nuance than I used to receive with my single cards, and this approach has been enormously helpful over the past couple of months as I have been making substantial plans for my future.
So, with that rather long preamble, I would like to talk you through the cards I drew today, to show you how I go about interpreting a spread. I won’t go into any deeply personal detail (some topics and emotions are not for sharing), but I hope it will give you an idea of how I pull together a story from the disparate elements presented to me.
A photograph of the spread is at the top of this post*. (You will note that there is a seventh card to the right. I occasionally draw an extra one if I have an additional question to ask about a specific aspect of the situation; I will explain this further below.)
The cards:
Top row (structured spread):
- Situation: Wheel of Fortune
- Challenge: The Sun
- Way Forward: Page of Swords
Bottom row (open spread):
- Card 1: Ten of Cups
- Card 2: The Moon
- Card 3: The Tower
Additional card:
- The Star
My interpretation:
Some context: I am going through a phase of huge personal transition as I prepare to move away from the city I have lived in for the past seven years, which I never wanted to come to, and where I have never settled. I now find myself in a position to leave, and I know exactly where I want to go (Worthing, West Sussex), but my path there is unclear. I have not yet found anywhere to live, and my finances are somewhat wobbly after a few years of upheaval in my personal and work life. So for now I am retreating to my father’s house in rural Lincolnshire, where I will take a breather and figure out how to plan my next steps – hopefully finding my way to the seaside sooner rather than later.
The Wheel of Fortune has cropped up for me a few times recently, and it reassures me that everything is unfolding as it is meant to. This does not mean I can just sit back and wait for things to happen – I still need to make the best choices I can – but it does mean that I won’t waste time worrying about things that might not seem to be going to plan, as it may simply be that my path is different to what I can perceive at the moment. Weirdly, the Wheel of Fortune also connects me with a trip I made almost a year ago, to… Worthing. I had taken a ride on a ‘Giant Wheel’ on the seafront, and wrote an Instagram post about it afterwards, reflecting on the symbolism of life moving on, up and down. So this card’s presence in the primary position in my Tarot spread today indicates that my life is moving towards whatever future awaits me – even if it is not quite what I imagine it to be.
The Sun in position 2 tells me that I am struggling with ‘shining my light’, which is no real surprise. While I am very excited about the life ahead of me, involving (I hope) art, Tarot and a possible return to study, the difficulties of the moving process (and its inherent uncertainties) have made it challenging for me to focus on putting myself ‘out there’ sustainably in a creative context. I’m trying to keep up with certain artistic ventures, but my energy levels are very low, and realistically I don’t think I’ll be able to fully commit to new projects until I’ve completed at least the move out of Newport (if not the move to the coast).
The Page of Swords in position 3 was an odd one. After two Major Arcana cards, it seemed a little underwhelming to have this as the ‘way forward’, but – as I have increasingly been finding – after some time reflecting, the message suddenly became blazingly clear. The Page of Swords represents a person driven by the need to go out and communicate, share ideas, talk about their thoughts and projects with others – and today, astrologically, the Sun moves from Taurus into Gemini: the sign of communication. As a Leo, I am ruled by the Sun, and as we have seen above, I have recently been struggling with ‘shining’ (although at an event last night I was told I seem to be ‘sparkling’…). Although my creative prospects are theoretically exciting, I have not had the energy levels to pursue them fully due to the stress of my forthcoming move. But maybe, now the Sun is in Gemini, things will change? Maybe, instead of feeling overloaded by my artistic projects, I can use them as inspiration to help me sail through my practical challenges, to remind myself that all the hassle I am experiencing is for a purpose? I am hoping that, when I live by the sea, I will be able to go out and meet people, involve myself in creative activities, join artistic communities & networks, and truly live the life of my dreams. And I think that may be what the Page of Swords, at the beginning of Gemini season, may be telling me.
So that’s spread 1! We now come to spread 2, and I always approach this slightly differently. Sometimes I read it in a similar fashion to spread 1, to compare the two; sometimes I just look at the cards independently to see if a story emerges; and sometimes I find myself wanting to ask specific questions that follow on from my findings in spread 1. This is what happened today. At the time of reading I had not yet had the insight about the Page of Swords and Gemini season, I was still feeling very depleted, and I found myself desperately wanting to ask the cards: “Please can you show me some light at the end of the tunnel?!”
Card 1 in spread 2, in direct response to this question, was the Ten of Cups. This is one of the loveliest cards to get in a reading: it indicates ‘happy ever after’, love & romance, family, the achievement of emotional bliss. Well, thank you! Although I don’t envisage this anywhere on my horizon at the present time, it was a wonderful reassurance from the universe that this is something I will find when the Wheel of Fortune has turned and I am in a different place. I do not require a relationship to be happy (I have found this out over the past few years of turbulence), but I certainly won’t say “no” if something comes along…
I had no further questions for my cards, so the next one, The Moon, had to speak to me on its own terms. This card generally indicates difficulties seeing ‘what’s what’, wondering whether what you think you’re perceiving is true or whether you’re imagining it: shadows in the night-time… As my current situation is extremely uncertain, this one felt like a no-brainer: of course I don’t know what’s happening, where I’m going, what I will end up doing… However, The Moon’s presence in a spread alongside the Wheel of Fortune suggests that I must ride this out, to allow the turning of the wheel and the phases of the moon to take me where I need to go, and to trust that I will recognise what is true when I eventually see it.
After all this positivity and reassurance, it was slightly disconcerting to then draw The Tower! This card indicates a sudden, shocking disruption to all that is known and relied upon, to force a reappraisal of where we thought we were in life and what harsh new truths we might need to acknowledge in order to move on. It’s not a card anyone likes to see. But the one thing a Tarot reading should never do is to make the querent feel disempowered, and so it is blindingly unhelpful to say that The Tower means something dreadful is going to happen and you have no control over any of it. And so I pondered for a while, to see if there was anything in my life (a challenge? a situation? a relationship?) that I was, perhaps, trying to ignore because dealing with it at the same time as trying to move house was just too overwhelming? And I realised that there was: an uncertain situation I’d been hoping would be resolved before I left, so I could draw a line under it and move on. But it dawned on me that this probably wouldn’t happen – and that I needed to make my peace with this. This really was an extraordinary realisation: that I’d figured out the exact thing The Tower was referring to – and that it wasn’t the end of the world – was quite possibly, and somewhat oddly, the resolution I needed. It was also further insistence that the Wheel of Fortune is turning, regardless of any intentions I may set for myself, and the best thing I can do is to go with the flow and find the courage to face whatever life has to throw at me.
So this brings me to my last card: The Star. This directly follows The Tower in the sequence of the Major Arcana, so I felt I was receiving a very strong message from its appearance here. The question I’d asked before drawing it was: “Where might I seek opportunities for finding somewhere to live in Worthing?” I was really hoping for specifics – “approach such-and-such a person/organisation”, “apply for such-and-such a job”, etc – but The Star simply brought me an overall message of hope and positivity: keep the faith, and it will happen. Yet again it felt like I was being directed back to the Wheel of Fortune: trust in the universe, and it will deliver.
Conclusions:
In a nutshell, this spread helped me find peace of mind. I was reassured by multiple cards that I cannot control everything in my environment, but that this is nothing to fear. I should make an effort where I can, and not write off possibilities (such as creative ventures) as being too stressful when they might, actually, give me momentum and nudge me into the very future the universe has designed for me. Tarot is not about abdicating responsibility for my life choices, but about recognising what I can affect and what I cannot, and acting accordingly.
If you are interested in having a reading from me, please take a look at my Tarot pages on this website. I am not currently advertising readings, but I am happy to consider requests on an individual basis as my schedule permits – and as the Page of Swords suggests! Please contact me if you would like to know more.
*The Tarot deck I’m currently using is ‘The Radiant Tarot: Pathway to Creativity’ by Alexandra Eldridge and Tony Barnstone.