How our tarot readings work

If you've worked through this course, you can read the cards yourself. The tarot readings here are made from the same parts: a question, a spread, a deck, the meanings of the cards and a reader. This lesson explains what each part is doing, so you know what you're choosing and why.

Choosing a spread

Every reading starts with a spread: how many cards, how they're laid out, and what each position is for. When you pick one, a small diagram appears underneath it, with the positions numbered in the order they're laid and a note of what each one means. Open it to see it larger. It's worth a glance before you spend a credit.

Spreads are sorted into groups: daily, weekly, monthly and annual ones, and groups by subject, such as relationships or practical decisions. Groups matter in two places. Some credits cover only certain kinds of spread, so a credit meant for quick daily draws covers the short spreads rather than the large ones. And a subscription that sends you a tarot reading on a schedule picks its spread at random from its group each time, so you get some variety. In your subscription's settings you can untick any spread you'd rather not receive.

Decks, and why a card never appears twice

You can choose a deck, choose Random deck to have one picked for the reading, or choose Mix from all decks so that each card comes from a different deck.

Some decks are editions of the same cards: the three Smith-Waite decks are all versions of the 1909 designs. Decks like that belong to one family, and when they're mixed, a card drawn from one deck is never drawn again from another. You won't get two Towers in one reading, however many decks the cards come from.

Which decks you can choose depends on your account. The list shows only the decks your plan includes.

Reversals

In a reading done by hand, some cards come up upside down, and many readers give those a different shade of meaning. Here, each card has its own chance of coming out reversed, decided as it's drawn.

You can change that in your Profile, under Tarot. Choose how often cards come out reversed: Normal, Lower (about half as often), Higher (about twice as often) or Never. Or switch reversed cards off and let the reader judge from the context, card by card, whether each one leans upright or reversed.

Interpretation sets

Every card has meanings, and different writers word them differently. An interpretation set is one complete set of meanings for all seventy-eight cards. When you ask for a reading, the Interpretations list shows which sets the reader will draw on.

Our own interpretation set, written for the Smith-Waite cards, is ticked by default when you read with those decks. A deck that comes with meanings of its own starts with those instead. You can tick any combination, such as adding Waite's own meanings from The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), or tick none, and the reading will use only the deck's own meanings.

Your birth chart

If your plan includes it and we have your birth details, a tarot reading is given with your birth chart in view. The reader knows the main themes of your chart alongside the cards. The cards describe a moment; the chart describes the person living through it.

Why a note today shapes tomorrow's reading

Every reading has room for your notes. If you tick Allow my reader to use these notes to inform future readings, that note becomes part of what the reader knows next time. Past readings and your notes on them are folded into later readings, with each note kept beside the reading it was written on.

Two things are worth knowing. A note can only reach readings made after you wrote it, and scheduled readings are usually prepared in the morning, so a note you write today will usually first appear in tomorrow's reading. And notes inform readings only on plans that include it. If yours doesn't, the note screen says so and your notes stay personal. If you'd rather a particular reading started fresh, tick A standalone question — don't use my past readings when you ask for it.

Laying out your own spread

You don't have to let us draw the cards. Choose Lay out your own spread, on the phone or the web, and you get a table. Shuffle the deck, cut it, fan it out, and lay the cards yourself, either in the places of a named spread or anywhere you like on a blank table. Turn a card to lay it reversed or crossed. If your free layout resembles a known spread, the table will say what it looks like and offer to set the cards in its places.

Saving a spread costs nothing. When you're ready, ask for a reading of it, which uses one tarot credit. Asking locks the spread, so the cards, their places and your own interpretation are fixed, and the reader reads exactly what you laid. A credit that covers only small spreads will read a free layout of up to that many cards.

Photographing a real spread

If you prefer real cards on a real table, lay them out as usual and choose From a photo. First choose the deck that matches your cards, because the photo is read as that deck. Take the picture from above in good light, and the cards are named for you.

Reading a photo can take a few minutes. You can choose Come back later, and you'll be told when it's ready. Then you check the cards against your photo: correct any that were named wrongly, turn any that face the other way, remove anything that isn't a card, and set the order they're read in. What you confirm is what counts; the automatic naming is only a first draft. From there, saving and asking for a reading work just as they do on the table.

What we won't do

Our readings won't predict deaths, diagnose illness or stand in for legal or financial advice. The cards incline; they don't decree. A reading is a careful look at a situation, and everything after that is still yours.

What to take from this

• The spread diagram shows what each position asks.
• Decks in one family never repeat a card, and the decks offered depend on your plan.
• You decide how reversals work, in your Profile under Tarot.
• Our own interpretation set is the default with the Smith-Waite decks, and you can tick others or none.
• Notes you share shape later readings, from the next reading made after you write them.
• You can lay out your own spread, or photograph a real one. Saving is free; a reading of it uses one credit.