How to do a three-card Tarot spread

This is a spread that I came up with to assess a situation quickly, using your heart, mind, and the reality of what you are inquiring about. I call it the Heart/Mind/Reality Spread.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• tarot cards
• an interpretive tarot book

1. Shuffle the cards seven times, cut into three decks and re-stack in a different order. If reading for someone else, have them shuffle and cut the cards.

2. Draw the top card and place it face up. This is the "heart" card. This position represents where your heart is in relation to the situation. Look up the card's meaning in the book and discern how it relates to the position and what you have asked about. Also look closely at the illustration on the card. Often other interpretations will be appropriate. This card tells you where your emotions and intuition are relative to the question you've asked.

3. Draw the second card and place it face up. This is the "mind" position. This is where your rational, logical self is at this time. Sometimes it will be different from your heart. After all, what we want or need in our heart is different from what we know in our minds to be wrong for us. Use the book and illustrations to give you more insight.

4. Draw the third card and place it face up. This is the reality of the situation. This card will perhaps show you something that disagrees with both the heart AND the mind cards, or may be more in sync with one or the other. This card will give you a sense of how close or far away you are from having a realistic understanding of the situation. Again, use the book and illustrations to give you more insight.

5. Consider all the cards as objectively as you can. If you are reading for someone else, ask them to view the cards honestly. It's hard to acknowledge sometimes that what our heart believes or desires may not be the best thing, or that perhaps our mind's practicality may do more harm than good in a situation. If the reality card is in total opposition to the first two, you are either unable to see what is really happening in the situation, or you do not want to admit it to yourself. It could also be that the situation is out of your control, and nothing you can do will alter its course.

6. Keep in mind that Tarot is never a definitive answer to any question. The cards are a tool to help form your vision or to show you things that you cannot or will not see objectively. The reality card will show you a direction you should consider going. Only you or the person you are reading for can know what it all really means.

Tips & Warnings

• Take your time reading the interpretations and applying them to each position.
• Be honest with yourself.
• Look for interconnectedness among the cards.
• Do not base any important decisions solely on a Tarot reading. Many other factors may be at work, some or all may be out of your control.

[sasha5230]

on 3/15/2009 I like your spread idea very, very much. I think it would work very well using only the major arcana. I don't like to depend on the interpretations in the books that come with the cards too much. I think it is better to understand the deeper meanings of the symbols in the cards, and the personalities of the characters on the face cards, and then search your intuition for a possible meaning of each card in a particular reading. However, I do want to say that each of your steps is excellent, and you have given a good set of directions on how to do a Tarot reading. I would recommend you How-To to anyone