How to Design Your Own Tarot Spreads

Designing your own tarot spreads can be fun and rewarding, and it's not as difficult as you might think. It's okay to use a spread (layout of tarot cards) that someone else has designed, such as one you find in a book, but creating your own can make your readings much more personalized.

Identify the Objectives of Your Tarot Spread

First, consider the objective of your spread. Do you want a spread to reveal your inner fears or blockages? Do you need a good relationship spread? How about a spread to highlight the major external influences at work in your life? Your tarot spread can be general in purpose, or you can make it narrowly defined to focus on a specific topic.

Create a List of Questions

Once you know the objective of your spread, come up with a list of questions you want the reading to answer, and then create positions for the tarot cards that will represent each answer. Some good questions would be, "What is my current status with this situation?" "What am I not aware of with this situation?" "What outside influences may be affecting this situation?" "Am I hindering this situation in any way?" "Which actions can I take to make this situation better?" "Are other people interfering with this situation?" "What can I do to lessen their impact?" and so on. Basically, any question you have about any situation can be integrated into your tarot spread.

Designing the Layout of Tarot Cards in Your Spread

You can get as creative and complex as you want with your tarot spread, but it's best to choose a layout that is simple and makes sense to you. It should be easy to memorize so you don't have to keep referring to a diagram as you're performing a reading. When you're first starting out, consider keeping the layout pretty plain. For example, have 3 rows of cards, with 3 cards in each row. Or just lay the cards out in one continuous row.

Let the Tarot Cards Tell You a Story

I love to design "intuitive spreads," which means I don't designate a category for each card. Rather, I lay the cards out and let them tell me a story. Here's an example of a Past, Present and Future spread that can tell a great story: lay out 3 cards in 3 rows, each row above the other. The bottom row of 3 cards represents the Past. The middle row of 3 cards represents the Present. The top row of 3 cards represents the Future. Once you have the cards laid out, begin at the bottom left of the spread, at the first card in the first row. Then read across the two cards to the right in the same row, and then move up to the middle row and do the same thing, and again with the top row. After using this spread a few times, you'll notice that the cards seem to connect together, and build upon one another so you see a "story" being revealed. Spreads like this are also great for understanding how our past experiences influence our present and future.

The most important point to remember about designing your own tarot spreads is to have fun and experiment with it. Don't feel that you have to strive for perfection. Just like anything else in life, the more you do it, the better you'll get at it.