How to Perform a Three Card Tarot Spread

This is the fourth or fifth time I've tried to make this post. Blogger has eaten several. I am now writing with Wordpad. So that I can save them independently before posting. Hopefully this will solve the problem.

Learning the tarot can be overwhelming for beginners. There are many meanings or supposed meanings to the cards and worse many complicated spreads which seem to be required. This can be a stopping point for beginners as some people feel overwhelmed. That is completely understandable.

There is a methodology that can help in such situations. Furthermore, it is of great use to the anyone serious about reading the tarot from a beginner to the expert. The three card spread is by far the most common practice spread than I have encountered. Over time, practicing the spread can lead to great insight into one's personal life and patterns. After all, reading the cards for yourself is very often an exercise in revealing your own patterns and in that one can find great personal power.

As is my personal pattern, I tend to teach by sharing my own experience. In that process I hold very little back. This attitude arose from a creative writing class I once took in which it was said that the more personal a thing is the more universal. So in keeping with that pattern, I will share a spread that I did Friday.

Preliminaries

I hate to tease you with a header like that but I'm going to cover the preliminaries in another post. I bring them up here to let you know that I will be sharing on that topic soon.

Positions of the Cards

Knowing the import and meanings of the various card positions in the spread the you are using is critical. The positions are vital to understanding the entire spread and even any particular card. Again, the rational behind that will be covered in future posts.

The three card spread is very versatile and therefore many meanings can be attributed to the three cards. For instance, they can be read as past, present and future. They can be the thesis, antithesis and synthesis. They can be many other things. However, those are little bit more difficult to use on a consistent basis. So for the spread, we will use morning, afternoon and evening.

It is important that you clearly define what those terms mean for you. In my case, morning means from rising until noon. Afternoon is from noon until 5:00 PM the usual time I cease my workday. I will even use that definition on weekends or days off because that definition fits within the way I normally think of my day. Evening is from 5:00 PM until I fall asleep. That does not mean to imply when I go to bed. It means when I fall asleep. The reason for that is that periods of insomnia or late night phone calls causing stress would not be included in the reading should I use the definition of going to bed.

Your definitions may vary as they should. You should not hesitate to change them to meet your needs. Though in the beginning I would advise that you stick with consistent meanings over time. Until you become so familiar with the cards and the spread that variations in meaning do not take you out of the proper headspace.

Interpretation

Many beginners get all wrapped up in interpreting their spreads. They read definition after definition on various discussion lists, web sites and books. After dropping the cards, they then try to fit these definitions into what they think the day will be like. This is usually not helpful. It can even be discouraging because the interpretations turn out to be wrong. The art of tarot reading does not use such analytical processes in the beginning.

My suggestions begin with the idea of a writing down your question. The cards will always respond to your direct question. There is a great difference between the following queries. What will today be like? What will my day be like today? The former may result in a tarot version of CNN. The latter will be more pertinent to yourself.

Once that is done, shuffle and drop your cards. How you shuffle and how you select your three cards is completely up to you. I shuffle the deck and bridge them as if I were about to deal a hand of poker. Some tarot enthusiasts would be upset by this method, viewing it as disrespectful to the cards. I do not. However, if you do, you should use a different method. It is important to stay within what you feel is the right and proper way to do things. Otherwise one has the tendency to take oneself out of the proper mindset.

After you've dropped your three cards simply write down how you feel about them. Use words like happy, sad, enthused, fearful, strange, angry, and any other one or two word phrase this seems to capture the feeling you see within the card. Simply write down the card position, that card and those simple phrases. It is also important that you date this record so you know which reading applies to which day. Trust me on this, you will save yourself a great deal of frustration if you get into the habit of dating your readings.

At the end of the day, without looking at your paper, write down your emotional states at various times in the day. They should be things that created the most intense emotions, even if those emotions, only lasted for a moment. Alternatively, they should include emotions that lasted for a considerable period time. For instance you might have had a brief feeling of panic when a car made a left hand turn in front of you on the way to work and have felt a bit lazy for most of your morning. Both of these should be written down. Most of the time, people remember to write down the latter but forget the former, which is why I include first in these notes.

It is very important that you do your best not to find the emotions that match your interpretation of the cards. It is very easy to convince yourself through preconceived notions and subtle forms of personal delusion. It is almost impossible not to but we should all strive to prevent this as much as possible. The more tarot readings you do and thus the more mistakes you make will over time lessen the danger but it never goes away completely. The good tarot reader is an attentive tarot reader, attentitive to the cards and herself.

Using this method on a consistent and long-term basis you'll begin to find your emotional links to the cards.

To Those Who Have Taken My Classes

The above may seem a contradiction as I teach what appears to be a very rigid system of interpretation based upon the Holy Qabala. However these two methods interplay. For instance, if a particular reader has noted that the seven of cups makes them frightful or depressed or lustful and then learned that the Seven of Cups can be interpreted as unifying with one's vices they might gain some insights as to why that particular card elicits those feelings.

Furthermore, many readers do not use a system such as I teach. These readers are purely intuitive in nature or they have been taught without using a system or they have another system. Most methods are perfectly valid approach. They are simply not what I teach in my paid classes. . It is my goal is a teacher to present points of view that are not readily available elsewhere within your sphere.

My Three Card Spread for Friday

Position One, the morning, Two of Wands - the title of the Two of Wands is the Lord of Dominion. It is also a card of Aries. These facts are important for two reasons. First, I expected a friend to come by that morning. This friend and I have a lot of personal history. We are both fire signs and very dominant in our own ways. As dominant as we both are, our conversations have always been respectful but there is always an undercurrent of energies present. He is an Aries. That card may even be his birth card, I do not know. Therefore, it was very easy to interpret that my morning would be dominated by my friend. Indeed, even though he did not arrive until 11:00 AM, I picked up the house a little bit and took care of other tasks so I could spend time with him.

Position two, the afternoon, Five of Disks - The Lord of Worry. This card did not make much sense to me when it came up. I'm not much of a worrier at least at a conscious level. So when nothing came up for me, I didn't worry about it. After all, this is just a daily spread exercise. It turned out that during our conversation my friend and I approached topics that were once of great concern to us and those conversations took place after lunch during the afternoon.

Position three, the evening, the High Priestess - to me this card is the ultimate life mystery or at least I often see it this way. I see it this way because of its placement on the Qabalistic Tree of Life which I am sure I will discuss more in future posts. For now, let it be said that it joins the perfected personality with the highest aspect of the soul. The emotion I associate with this card is that of spiritual longing and often worship. Friday night, I spent time working on healing of another even though I was in a great deal of pain myself. This in turn fits very well into my concept of serving the divine in removing the pain of others. For within divine unity is always healing.

Final Tips

It is a bad idea to strive to be the next Edgar Cayce. Stay within yourself and be willing to learn.

This all sounds very time consuming but it can really take place within five minutes to pull the cards and five minutes in the evening to keep up with your notes. If that doesn't work for you, sit down on a Sunday, pull five spreads for the work week, one after the other. Then each night, fill in your impressions of the day. Don't even look at them. Before drawing your cards on the next Sunday, review the last week.

This should be much more fun than work. Though, some work-like tasks are involved.

First Time Spread

The other day I was doing a professional spread. By that I mean one for which I was being paid, and quite well thank you. This person asked me the most unusual questions. Some were just out of left field. Others made me feel like I should have pushed Jason Miller to share his practical tarot exercises. He claims to do very practical readings. Mine, often tend to range from the spiritual to one's own ability to create one's own life. In this case, I simply made up a couple of spreads on the fly. The results were spot on.

I've been wrestling with a question. The answer sought is a common one among magicians. What would be the result of this act of magick? I decided to do a spread I've never done before, probably the result the reading just mentioned. I've come across it in some books but glazed over it. The spread involves laying the cards out in the pattern of the The Tree of Life. If you're not familiar with that, simply refer to the picture.

I changed the question to, "How will this magic unfold?" Then, I dropped the cards.

Kether (1) - Prince of Disks - This position represents the primal energy. In this case, this is myself, taking a huge step by, in a practical matter, diving in with magick and justified confidence.

Chokmah/Wisdom (2) - Queen of Wands - (please see end note) Chockmah is "God's" reflection of Itself. What It uses to understand Itself. In this spread it reflects the Prince of Disks in a different form but serves to clarify the Prince of Disks. I've withheld power. I haven't acted, not yet and this is very positive and powerful position to be in. Some magick is about timing.

Binah/Understanding (3) - Knight of Disks - This position indicates the highest form of the magick. Manifested Creativity.

Given the cards of the three supernal sephiroth so far, this act of magick will have a huge impact.

Chesed/Mercy (4) - Six of Wands, the Lord of Victory. The mercy I am extending involves a great many other people. None of which would even know I did any magick. In this case, at least for the majority. It is a very good thing indeed.

Gebuarh/Severity (5) - five of wands Defeat. A five in the fifth sephira denotes extra emphasis should be put in this card. In fact, that makes this card so strong that I'm going to pull more cards to understand the full nature of the meaning. There is a person I will be servere with if I do this magick. That person will suffer the intended impact.

This is the sort of thing that always gives me pause. Power means making hard choices sometimes. If you impact a life the way I am contemplating, you damn well better know it is the right thing for you to be doing. You damn well better accept full responsibility for your actions. Anything else is disrespectful to the person your acting upon, the magick itself and the operator. Never should one do magick that cheapens oneself.

Tipereth/Beauty (6) - This is a place of the balance. This is living in accordance with your Holy Guardian Angel's guidance. This position is one of personal unfolding. If I was cheapening myself, it would be revealed here. Knight of Wands, this is the Universe providing an opportunity for me to create. This is important. The check here is one of arrogance. It still may blow up in my face. Just because I have the opportinity to create, just because the universe is providing me a perfect venue for magick, doesn't mean I should take advantage. See preceeding paragraph.

Netzach/Victory (7)  - This is a position that reveals my human desire. A seven here would indicate I am way off base. Eight of Pentacles. Sometimes, I can throw out all my personal meanings and just look at the card itself. The card's name is the Lord of Prudence. My desire is to protect myself and others.

Hod/Splendor (8) - This position relates to magick, thought and emotion. Knight of Swords. I want to create by separating something out. Thus, I make a new whole.  On a football team, one player change can change the entire dynamic of the offense. No news for me there but it bugs me, I will pull more cards for this.

Yesod/foundation (9)  - Yesod is the place of our fight/flight instincts. Seven of Wands, Lord of Valour. I'm trying to protect myself. There likely is no need for that. This need for my own protection is an illusion. False. However, the six of wands in the Mercy slot says my other aim is right on target.

Malkuth/Kingdom (10) - This is the final manifestation. Nine of Disks, Lord of Gain. Overall, this will be a success.

Does this answer my question? Will I make a decision based on this? No, this is one data set. I will do magick to let the universe answer the same question in other ways. Readers of DoingMagick will likely see that work posted in the future.

The point of posts like this isn't to take you through every card. It is my hope that folks will begin to see the underlying technique and attitude being employed. I don't know if a card by card post will be common on here or not. I'm still fleshing out the form this blog will take. Feel free to leave constructive feedback in the comments section. 

End Note: I have very open and generic meanings for the cards in my system. The apply to myself and those I read for. I also have some very personal meanings for the cards. When they jump out, I use them. In the case of the Queen of Wands, my meaning is this: Fire made patient. Not smoldering but power contained. When fire is not fire, power is not power, but the full potential for both making it more power/fire than even the ace. It is pre-ace but manifested.

So, Let's Talk about the Devil

The Devil what is not to love about this horny bastard?

This post, like many I anticipate in the future, stems from work done using the tarot to walk a path on the qabalistic Tree of Life. That work can be found by following the link, Walking The Path of the Devil. The first half is filled with ceremonial magick procedure and revelations that may or may not hold interest for someone primarily focused on the tarot. The second half of that post speaks directly to the card.

One of the things that struck me as a magician and a tarot reader was the perception of multiple levels of this trump. The bottom most level was fear and muck. Unfortunately, most people people live here in one form or another. This is having a one night boink to feel better about being lonely only to feel worse when you have to admit who you slept with. Worse, you do it over and over. This is walking down your own emotional dark alleys thinking it is the only way home for no other reason than this is the route you've always taken.

I used the sexual analogy because in the Thoth deck this is really the card of Pan. We tend to think of Pan as nothing but a horny guy, trying to get laid and masturbating when he can't. He is that but a larger aspect of exists as well. Pan helps to create all life. Let me move back to the Rider-Waite card before I complete the circle on Pan.

The Rider-Waite card shows a man and woman naked (GO PAN!) chained to the Devil (KINKY) but, as unimaginative authors keep pointing out, they are only loosely chained. They could step out of those chains as easily as you could take an alternate route to the nearest movie theater. These same authors will then wax poetic about how easy it is to step out of your own muck. My response to this sort of thinking is uncivilized.

Changing your path, your emotional self, your mental self and/or engrained habits of mind, heart and soul is tough. Yes, the final release is easy but that is like saying an Olympic sprinter had an easy time against a field of competitors. That fellow worked his ass to get there! In the case of this card, the querent may need, therapy, spiritual guidance, your tarot skills, maturity or some other form of personal alchemy. Walking away from those chains easy but you have to have burned away some pretty bad habits in order to do so and that is hard!

So how does our rascally Pan work into this? As I discovered in that pathworking, there is a place represented by this card that is above the muck. Getting there means releasing all that garbage that accumulates in our psyche over the course of life. This is a place where you can create your own life because you see it as it is, not as your muck deludes you into thinking it is. This is very cool indeed.

In a reading, this card may show up in a position that represents the future. This may be a warning not to sink into the muck. It may also be map pointing the way to rising above the existing garbage s/he is holding on to.

As I write about the tarot, it is unlikely I will ever delve into huge lists of meanings about the cards. Instead, I will aim to focus on some meanings in a manner that I hope makes the card more robust for you, the reader, and myself.

First Post

Greetings,

I am a working ceremonial magician and heavy blogger. My main blog is DoingMagick. That space really isn't conducive to discussions on the tarot because it focuses on magickal ritual and like discoveries. This space will stay focused on techniques and discoveries of the tarot and perhaps other forms of divination. That said, I will post links here that connect to doingmagick when anything tarot related is discussed.

Robert