At the prompting of some Universal inspiration a few years ago, I devised my Daily Tarot Reading Spread. It developed a card at a time and remained at five cards for a while before I added the sixth card, which was designed to leave me with something to think about in connection with the reading.
It’s a linear spread, that is, it’s laid out into a straight line, meaning you can read the cards sequentially. It also allows you to read them using elemental dignities and card pairing too.
Let’s have a look at the positions:
- Myself – this is how I am on this day, how I’m feeling, my mindset, my energy or not.
- Theme – this is the theme for the day, be it good or bad, I will get an idea here.
- Challenges – this can represent people or situations, but either way it’s a warning.
- Responses – this is my likely response to the challenge suggested before.
- Advice – this is advice directly from the Universal Source relating to the day.
- Thought – and a final Thought for the Day, which will either confirm the reading, or ask me to expand my thinking.
If your Response is negative or unproductive, the Advice card will show you the correct response, or how to adjust your situation with an action or different way to see any issues raised. You can change Response to say “this is my suggested response”, if you prefer to prepare before acting.
You can change around the position and rename them to suit yourself – the beauty of this spread is it’s flexibility, so have a play and see what you might do differently. Don’t forget to let me know what worked for you – use the comments section to share your experiences.
Using the Daily Tarot Spread for the Week Ahead
This is such a great tarot spread that it works equally well for the week ahead. Simply replace the ‘day’ for the ‘week’ in the descriptions and you’re done! You can also use 2-3 cards per position if you’re in the mood to flex your tarot muscles, though one card in each gives lots of information particularly if you bring in other techniques to help you.
To see how amazing the Daily Tarot Spread works for the week ahead, I’ve shared my reading from this morning. This is for the coming week.
I used the gorgeous Legacy of the Divine Tarot for this reading:
- Myself – the Empress
- Theme – 7 of Cups
- Challenges – 10 of Wands
- Responses – 2 of Cups
- Advice – the Devil
- Thought – 3 of Coins
Using the Card Ratio to assess the Tarot cards in my Daily Tarot Reading Spread, I have:
- 2 Major Arcana
- 0 Court Cards
- 4 Minor Arcana
- 1 Fire
- 2 Water
- 0 Air
- 3 Earth
I’ve been in a creative mood of late and while I have lots of ideas, I need to remain focused and not lose sight of my goals or purpose, and while I’ve been growing my business, I need to keep a nice balance between work and play.
So despite a tough week of work ahead, it’s still pretty much down to me in how much effort I put in, making the right choices and just getting on with the task at hand despite how much work there really is!
A reading without any air cards can signify that I’m not considering all of my choices well, or thinking about things at all or clearly. However, it can also signify that I have thought things through enough and now I’m implementing those plans – this reading is nothing if not action packed.
If we add all numerical value of the cards in this reading, they total 40 and reduce to 4 which we can equate to the Emperor – the need to take control and see the job done, no pussyfooting around – time to crack my own whip.
Pairing the cards
You can apply this wonderful technique at the end of a reading for extra insight or more clarity. Simply take the outside cards and read them in combination, that is, read 1 and 6 together. Then pair 2 and 5, and finally, 3 and 4.
Pairing my cards looked like this:
- Empress and 3 of Coins
- Wow, both earth cards, both number 3’s, both working and productive cards. Creativity productivity, seeing results for your efforts.
- 7 of Cups and the Devil
- Delusions of grandeur, delectable distractions that can interfere with all the productivity above.
- 10 of Wands and 2 of Cups
- Sharing the load with business partners, friends and lovers. Calling in the cavalry when things get heavy.
So you can see just by pairing the cards I gained some extra information and know to be extra careful with distractions – they won’t get my work done. Giving in to my weaker side will be detrimental to my productivity this week and could be the cause of the burden I feel with the 10 of Wands. A more organised 3 of Coins would ensure a smoother operation next week and as the card in the Thoughts position, it has given me the tools I need to be more productive this week and get all my work done.
Now you can see why this is one of my favourite spreads, give it a try and let me know how you get on with it. Use it as the Daily Tarot Spread, for the week ahead or even ask a specific question – it’s really accurate at getting to the bones of an issue.
