What a spread is: how position gives a card its job

Draw one card and you have a single word. Lay out three, or ten, each in a place with its own name, and you have a sentence. That arrangement is a spread: a set of places on the table, each asking its own question, filled in a fixed order.

The simplest way to put it: the positions are the grammar, and the cards are the vocabulary.

The same card, three jobs

Take the spread most people meet first. It has three places side by side: Past, Present and Future.

Card one, on the left, is the Past: what has shaped the situation or led up to it. Card two, in the middle, is the Present: what is most active and most felt right now. Card three, on the right, is the Future: where things are heading if nothing changes.

Now imagine the Five of Cups, a cloaked figure mourning three spilled cups while two more stand untouched behind, landing in each place in turn.

• In the Past, it's a loss that has already happened. It may explain why you're cautious now.
• In the Present, it's a loss you are still inside. The question it asks is whether you've noticed the two cups still standing.
• In the Future, it's where the present road leads if nothing changes: a disappointment you may be able to see coming, and step around.

Same picture, the same meaning at heart, three different messages. The place told the card what job to do.

That last point is worth slowing down for. A Future position doesn't announce what will happen. Most readers treat it as the direction things are moving in today, which you're free to change. That's exactly what makes it useful.

Why positions help

Joan Bunning puts it simply: when cards are related to each other in a spread, a whole new level of meaning appears. Combinations form, and a story begins, with characters, plots and themes. Without positions you have a heap of separate meanings. With them, every card arrives already answering a question.

Positions also keep you honest, gently. When something is worrying you, it's tempting to read every card as a reply to the worry. A spread asks you to read the past card as the past and the card about you as you, even when they aren't what you hoped to see.

Not every reader uses positions

There is another way, and it's worth knowing about. Yoav Ben-Dov, who learned from Alejandro Jodorowsky and reads with the Marseille deck, lays three cards side by side with no fixed roles at all. He looks at the whole picture first: which way the figures are facing, whether they look at each other or away. Only then does he decide what each card is doing. For him, the job of each place depends on the cards that actually turn up.

That is a real craft, and a later lesson looks at it. For a beginner, though, fixed positions are a gift. They give you somewhere to start when a card still means very little to you.

Choosing a spread

Spreads come in every size. Bunning notes that most have between six and fifteen cards: enough to cover a subject in some depth, few enough to keep in your head. Many are shaped to match their subject. One has twelve places arranged in a circle, like the twelve houses of an astrological chart.

A few sensible rules for choosing:

• Small question, small spread. One card or three is plenty for a daily check-in or a simple choice.
• Tangled question, more places. When several people, a history and a decision are all involved, a larger spread gives each its own room.
• Learn one well before collecting many. Bunning advises staying with a single spread at first, so your attention goes to the cards rather than the layout.

You can also design your own, and Bunning suggests trying it early. Draw the shape. Decide what each place means and the order you'll lay the cards. Write it down before you shuffle. A spread is simply a set of questions you've agreed to ask in advance.

What to take from this

• Position is the grammar, the cards are the vocabulary. The place gives the card its job.
• The same card says different things in different places. Always read the card and its position together.
• A future position shows a direction, not a verdict.

Next, the two spreads that cover most needs, three cards and the Celtic Cross, walked through one real example.