Joanna Viva Tarot

It started for me with the Past-Present-Future spreads. I would look at the cards and turn over one that represented my past self, or a time in the past that I dealt with something spoken of by the card. The next, center card was my present, what I was coping with in the “here and now,” or even a representation of myself, or the querent in the case of reading for another person. And finally, the third card stood for the future, and represented what is to come next. This version of the three card spread was great for introspection, and a form of therapeutic understanding of things I was overcoming or going through. However this is not the only way to read three cards.

The next spread I started using, through my tarot workshop, is what I like to call a three-card story spread. It is pulling three cards that tell a story of the querent and their question or situation, and ways to move forward through the complexities of the next steps. The cards read in a more fluid way, they don’t have to be read in sequence and can be interpreted in various ways of simplicity or complexity. This way of reading three cards is nice because if the deck is calling for more card pulls, it’s perfectly fine and easy to listen! I like this spread the most for understanding and working with others in both brief or lengthier times, and also for finding guidance on questions that are broad and open-ended.

While both versions of these three-card spreads have their own flavor, there is no saying one is better than the other: simply, they are different and hold differing meanings. Another way to look at the three-card spread is to uncover layers of consciousness for deeper meanings. The first card is consciousness, the next the sub-conscious and further the third is a super sub-consciousness; like peeling the layers of an onion, you are uncovering the layers of what the cards are trying to tell you about your situation. We can think of it like primary and secondary (and then tertiary) emotions in psychology. You might feel deeply angered by someone or something, but peel back that layer and it could be sadness that you are really covering with anger; peel even further and that sadness could be covering feelings of inadequacy from past poor relationships.

I find it fascinating how many ways and in how many different contexts a tarot reader can read her cards. Just as I was mentioning in my post about there being no wrong way to tarot when your heart is guiding you, you can find various ways to read three cards together. The key is finding patterns, noticing connections, seeing the flow between the cards and knowing how they are represented individually to guide the basis of your reading of the spread.

The other variations involve how the cards are pulled. Some people pull the top three shuffled in the deck, some might cut the deck into three piles and turn over the bottom or tops of those. Whatever it may be, practice and find the way that feels the most comfortable for you. It is about listening to your heart, intuition and spirit guides, not about being “right or wrong.”

Play around with it, and most importantly, have fun! I like to engage in my three-card story spreads for the readings that I now offer virtually: see the Book a Reading page for ways to schedule a tarot reading with me online.