What Is a Spread?

This might be obvious to some of you, but to those of you very new to Tarot, it's definitely a topic worth covering!

Once the cards are shuffled, they are turned and spread out in such a way that each position has a distinct meaning attached to it...hence, spread (states the Master of the Obvious).   For example, three cards can be "spread" in a row, with the first indicating the Past; the second, Present; and the third, Future.  The card that falls in each position is interpreted based on that position.  Say the Five of Pentacles (a cards of difficult times and limited opportunities, to oversimplify) falls in the Past position--that would tell me that the influences of that card are on their way out.  Were that card in the Present position, the client would likely be in the midst of those influences right then and attempting to push past those obstacles.  And so it goes.

Spreads can be made up of one card (a deceptively powerful spread, by the way) to as many cards as necessary.  I find spreads of more than 12-15 cards to be a bit unwieldy, but I use them on occasion. Clarification cards can easily be added to any spread to shed additional light on hazy cards as necessary; this is simply a matter of, after the initial spread is laid out, turning over a card from the top of the deck and setting it near the questionable card to be read as an adjunct.

My next topic will involve an overview of how I read reversed cards in a spread (cards that fall upside down).  I'm a big fan of reading reversals because they automatically double the possibilities of the 78 card deck...actually, they intensify the possibilities endlessely when one considers that the same card can have countless meanings depending on where it falls in a spread.  There is so much to say about Tarot!