The Beginner's Overview of The Tarot:
I. Introduction to the Tarot
II. The Major Arcana
III. The Minor Arcana
IV. How to Read Tarot Cards
V. Bonding with the Cards
VI. Tarot Spreads
VII. Tarot Reference Works
VI. Tarot Spreads:
1) Celtic Cross:
One of the most basic spreads is the Celtic Cross or the 10 Card Spread.
The card layout is a 4 point celtic cross with a vertical line to its right
side.
http://atomicpink.masukomi.org/celticcross.jpg
The card positions:
Card 1: Present Position:
Current atmosphere influencing the questioner. Stands for the questioner.
Card 2: Immediate Influence:
Shows the influences and obstacles that lay just ahead.
Card 3: Goal or Destiny:
Shows the ultimate goal or destiny of the questioner, as well as current
ideals. It indicates what can be accomplished based on the existing circumstances.
Card 4: Distant Past:
Shows the events and influences which existed in the distant past that are
the foundation of the present events. These influences are embodied within
the questioner.
Card 5: Recent Past Events:
Indicates that which recently came into being.
Card 6: Future Influence:
Represents what will come into being in the near future.
Card 7: The Questioner:
Denotes the questioner in their present position or attitude. This card
places the questioner in proper perspective.
Card 8: Environmental Factor:
Shows how the questioner influences other people, as well as how other people
and factors affect him/her.
Card 9: Inner Emotions:
Shows the hopes, emotions, desires and fears of the questioner. This
card may also reveal secrets and motives which the questioner keeps from
others.
Card 10: Final Results:
Indicates the likely culmination and result, provided events and influences
continue as indicated.
2) Horoscope Spread:
This spread uses the aspects of life and their houses as well as the signs
that govern them. Also called the Zodiac Spread.
http://atomicpink.masukomi.org/horoscope.jpg
The card positions:
First House (Aries): Personality, outward appearances, interests
and attitudes.
Second House (Taurus): Money matters, financial situation, material
possessions.
Third House (Gemini): Communication, relationships with brothers
and sisters, travel.
Fourth House (Cancer): Birth and death, home life, mother and father.
Fifth House (Leo): Love, children, creativity.
Sixth House (Virgo): Health, service.
Seventh House (Libra): Relationships, partnerships, contracts, and
agreements.
Eighth House (Scorpio): Outside influences, death, inheritance.
Ninth House (Sagittarius): Search for truth, long journeys, dreams,
spiritual growth.
Tenth House (Capricorn): Career, profession, ambitions.
Eleventh House (Aquarius): Friends, associations, hopes, fears.
Twelfth House (Pisces): Unconscious mind, self-undoing, limitations.
3) Yes/No Spread:
For the times when you need only a simple yes or no, all you have to do
is shuffle your cards, and think of your question. Then count out the cards,
stopping when you get to the thirteenth card. Turn that one face up. Repeat
this until you have gone through the entire deck and have 6 face up cards.
Count the number of cards that are in the upright positions. If four to six
cards are upright, the answer is yes. If two to four cards are upright, the
question is is leaning in your favor but is not a definite yes. If less that
two cards are upright, the answer is no.
4) Trinity Spread:
This is called the Trinity Spread because it makes use of the number of
life, 3. Use only the Major Arcana and the Court cards. Shuffle and lay
the cards out from right to left as shown:
http://atomicpink.masukomi.org/trinity.jpg
Allow the cards to fall upright or reversed as they come up. Vertically,
the lines represent, from top to bottom, Future, Present, and Past. Horizontally,
the columns stand for Emotions, Thoughts, and Actions from left to right.
The tenth card at the very top stands for the Integration of the nine cards
below it.
Emotions:
This category includes feelings, impulses, inspirations, and intuitions,
as well as the things that manifest themselves in our dreams from deep inside
our unconscious. Hopes and fears belong here too, as do urges and right-brain
thinking. These cards give insight into the influences driving our emotions.
If Court cards turn up, consider whether they represent aspects of yourself
or of others with which you are involved.
Thoughts:
Here are your rational, logical, analytical mental processes-the way we judge
and assess, quantify, qualify, and justify. This is where our left-brain thinking
is depicted, for most of us is the dominant driving force behind our decision
making.
Actions:
This category reveals how we translate our emotions and thoughts into something
tangible.
Integration:
This single card represents forces that could come into play and affect the
picture revealed by the lower nine cards. it can reveal positive or negative
energies. Remember that when negatives appear, they give us a chance to learn,
change, and rectify.
5) Eliphas Levi Wheel:
Eliphas Levi didn't invent this spread, but it is based on his Tarot Wheel.
To do this spread, compose a question. Take the Major Arcana only and shuffle.
Draw five cards at random, one at a time, and lay them down like this:
http://atomicpink.masukomi.org/eliphaslevi.jpg
Card 1: Present Situation:
Forces and influences immediately affecting the question. Consider people,
thoughts and feelings, events and circumstances.
Card 2: Waning Influences:
Obstacles that have been overcome, aid that has come to an end, changes
in emotion, energy, outlook, goals, and such.
Card 3: Hidden or Unconscious Influences:
What we repress or fail to recognize does not disappear, but finds other
ways of expression. Here, we find the stuff that usually surfaces in dreams;
yearnings, fears, desires, our deepest and darkest secrets. These are fragments
floating in a sea of our unconscious, waiting to be reintegrated into our
waking lives.
Card 4: Emerging Influences:
New factors looming on the horizon. Again, consider people, thoughts, feelings,
events and circumstances.
Card 5: Synthesis:
What is needed to reconcile and unify the other four factors.