Arcana Oracle

Card Spreads

A spread is a set of questions the cards answer in order. Change the layout and you change what the reading can tell you — which is why the same three cards mean something different in a love spread than in a career one. Six here are for a tarot deck, from the three-card everyone starts on to the ten-card Celtic Cross, and one is for the ordinary playing deck.

Spreads for a tarot deck

Spreads for a playing deck

Cartomancy uses the 52 cards you already own. The layouts are simpler than tarot's and the readings answer differently — circumstance and timing rather than meaning.

Which spread should I use?

Match the size of the spread to the size of the question. A decision with two clean sides wants one card. A situation you have been turning over for weeks wants the Celtic Cross. Nearly everything else is a three-card reading, and there is no shame in that — most working readers pull three far more often than ten.

The one rule that saves beginners: pick the spread before you shuffle. Choosing the layout after you have seen the cards is how a reading quietly turns into a search for the answer you already wanted.

Explore more