Decision Spread (A or B)
5 cards · Beginner · about 10 minutes
Most decisions that keep someone awake are not short of information. They are short of permission — to want one option more, or to admit what the other one would cost. This spread is built for that. One card for the heart of the matter, one for each path, one for the thing your lists leave out, and one for advice. It does not choose for you. It makes the choice you are already leaning toward visible, so you can check whether you agree with it.
The layout
When to use it
When you are stuck between two real options and have already listed the pros and cons. Name both options before you draw.
The positions
- 1
The Heart of It
What this choice is really about, underneath the practical details.
- 2
If You Choose A
The energy of the first path — what it gives and what it asks.
- 3
If You Choose B
The energy of the second path — what it gives and what it asks.
- 4
What You Are Not Seeing
The factor missing from your weighing. Often a fear dressed as a reason.
- 5
Advice
How to make the choice well, whichever way you go.
How to read it
- ✦Write down which option is A and which is B before you shuffle. Deciding afterwards lets you assign the nicer card to the option you already wanted.
- ✦Compare cards two and three as a pair. A harder card is not a 'no' — it may be the path that asks more and gives more.
- ✦Card four is the one to sit with. If it surprises you, that surprise is the reading.
- ✦Read the advice card as how to choose, not what to choose.
Pull it now
Draw all 5 cards into these positions and get a reading written for this spread.
Draw your 5 cards ✦Questions about this spread
What if both paths get difficult cards?
Then neither option is the easy one, and the reading is telling you to stop looking for one. Choose the difficulty you would rather grow through.
Can I use this for more than two options?
Narrow it to two first. With three or more, run the spread on the two strongest, then put the winner against the third.
Should I let the cards make the decision?
No. Use them to see your own leaning more clearly. A decision you understand is one you can stand behind when it gets hard.
Other spreads
Three-Card Spread
Past, present, future — the spread every reader starts with.
Celtic Cross
The ten-card classic: the full anatomy of a situation, from its root to its outcome.
Love & Relationship Spread
Five cards on the two of you: what each brings, what binds, what strains, where it goes.
Career Path Spread
Where you are, what blocks you, what you have, what to do, where it leads.
One-Card Yes or No
One card, one answer, and the honesty to say when it is a maybe.
Year Ahead Spread
One card a month — the shape of the coming year, laid out as a wheel.
Month Ahead Spread
A theme for the month and a card for each week — plan around the weather.