Tarot Spreads

18 entries. Click any to see everything it connects to.

Tarot spreads are the fixed layouts a reading is dealt into, where each position carries a defined question or role. Some are old and widely used, such as the Celtic Cross popularised by A. E. Waite; many others are the invention of individual readers or of particular decks. Each entry records the layout, the number of cards, and what each position is taken to address.

Facts

Overview

Entries in the Atlas: 18

Origins

Origin Period: Late eighteenth century: dealing the cards into fixed, named positions begins with Etteilla's divinatory decks and instructions of the 1780s. 1

Sources

A Wicked Pack of Cards: The Origins of the Occult Tarot Ronald Decker, Thierry Depaulis and Michael Dummett, 1996, on Etteilla and the first divinatory layouts

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The Layouts of a Reading

A tarot spread is the fixed layout into which the cards of a reading are dealt, each position carrying a defined question or role, the situation, the obstacle, the past, the likely outcome. The spread turns a handful of cards into a structured answer by giving each a place and a meaning.

Spreads range from a single card to elaborate patterns of a dozen or more. Some are old and widely used, the Celtic Cross, popularised by A. E. Waite, is the best known, while a great many are the invention of individual readers, designed for particular questions.

Structure and Use

A spread's design encodes an approach to the question: a three-card past-present-future line, a relationship spread with a position for each person, a decision spread weighing options. The reader interprets each card in light of the position it falls in, and often in relation to the cards around it.

The atlas records the layout, the meaning of each position, and the origin of a spread where it is known. The spreads group by size (one-card, three-card, five-card and larger), so a browser can move from the simplest layouts to the most elaborate.