If you’re getting tired of the daily draw and looking for ways to experiment with creating spreads, here is your guide! Tarot and divination are all about asking questions, and getting good at it means being curious and self-aware. Whether you’re a beginner or just need a refresher on tarot, in this post, I’m going to give you some ideas on how to create simple spreads so you have some short but insightful tools in your arsenal.

1. Why create a small spread at all?
2. Step One: Define the Purpose of Your Spread
3. Step Two: Giving Each Card a Job
4. Step Three: The Test Run
5. Stay Inspired!

Why create a small spread at all?

Creating a small tarot spread can be beneficial for several reasons. When starting out, smaller spreads are better as they are less overwhelming and allow for a more focused and in-depth interpretation. By using a small spread, you can also improve your intuition as it encourages a deeper connection with the cards and their meanings. My definition of a small spread is four cards or less. Five or more constitutes more details to interpret, and can add complexity and difficulty to a reading. Because you’re forced to look at the limited details at hand, smaller spreads often provide more precise and relevant answers compared to larger spreads, which can sometimes be too generalized and overwhelming when you’re just starting out or short on time.

Here are a few simple steps to go beyond the general “what do I need to know right now?” questions and have specific spreads to use on the fly.

Step One: Define the Purpose of Your Spread

You have a question in your gut, and you know you want more details than what you get from just one card. So ask yourself: what is the gist of this question? Is it about love, money, career, destiny? Figuring out the general idea of your question is the first step to creating specific questions, allowing you to have a through line of positions that bring you better clarity.

Here’s an example: let’s say we want to know more about the opportunity for a promotion. You know you’ve been working hard and checking off all the boxes at work, but it’s still up in the air whether an opportunity is going to show up, or perhaps you’re trying to create an opportunity at work for yourself. From this point, we can safely say the topic at hand is “career,” and to narrow it down even further we’re ultimately asking “How do I get a promotion?” In the next section, we’ll take this broad topic and discuss how we can turn it into a spread.

Step Two: Giving Each Card a Job

Now that you know what the main question is, how do you break it down? This is where you get even curiouser. You do this by giving each card a job to help you get to the nitty gritty. One card’s job may be to provide an overview of your situation. Another’s could represent the obstacle, or describe the action you could take.

Because the spreads are smaller, they may not seem as detailed, but small spreads can pack a punch if you’re willing to take the time to dive into each card and see how they relate to each other.

In our previous example, we know we want to find out if we can get a promotion. Let’s say we would like to put together a four-card spread. We want each card to bring us closer to the answer for our original broad question. Here are some card position ideas for the topic:

1. Overview of my current work situation.
2. Strengths and weaknesses that can affect my chances of getting a promotion.
3. Work attitude to increase my likeliness of receiving the promotion.
4. What specific actions should I take?
5. Where are some opportunities for growth in my current organization?
6. Where can I find guidance or mentorship to help me achieve this?
7. What is the potential outcome or timeline for this to occur?
8. Ways to enhance my visibility at work.
9. Obstacles and challenges.

These are just some examples and are not placed in any specific order. Taking the time to go in depth about a situation will lead to some interesting ideas, so don’t be afraid to experiment.

Step Three: The Test Run

We’ve jotted down some ideas for the spread, now we need to choose the best one for our main question. For our ongoing example, let’s pick some questions for our spread. Let’s say we choose the following questions in these positions:

1) Overview of my current work situation.

2) Where are some opportunities for growth in my current organization?

3) Obstacles and challenges to overcome.

4) What is the potential outcome or timeline for this to occur?

Once you’ve chosen a decent few questions from the pile, you can start getting creative with the visual of the spread. Card positioning can greatly affect your reading, so I encourage you to try different ways to arrange your cards in positions that make sense. If you’re creating a spread to weigh your options, perhaps you’d like to position your cards in different groups while placing a single card on top as the signifier or overall theme. If you’re doing a love reading, may be you’d like to arrange them into a heart. Or, perhaps you want to assess the state of your chakras and so you arrange them into a column representing each one. Whatever you decide to do, trust your eyes and your instincts.

Stay Inspired!

You can find spread inspiration online as well. Tarot readers across the web have created thousands of spreads that you can take from and customize to make your own. But nothing beats creating your own spread. It’s fun, creative and an invaluable part of the tarot learning process. You enhance your connection to the cards and learn about what makes you tick as a card slinger.

In a nutshell, small tarot spreads are great tool for quick, focused guidance. Whether you’re a newbie or seasoned pro, these compact layouts offer clear and specific insights into burning questions or daily concerns. Perfect for busy schedules, they provide a handy way to tap into your intuition and gain valuable perspectives on life’s twists and turns. So, if you’re all about efficiency and seeking instant clarity, small tarot spreads can be your trusty sidekick during life’s ups and downs.

Happy Reading!