First thing’s first: Happy New Year!

2025 was, um,… spectacular, in both good and bad ways. I have felt this personally and I think we’ve felt this way collectively, too. I’m sure there are plenty of people who would agree with the fact that 2025 was a weird year. Lots of amazing ups and tumultuous downs. I’m hoping that this year, 2026, will be a bit more hopeful and may be even give us some motivation.

Before the end of the year or on January 1st, I like to do some intention setting and draw cards for the upcoming year. I wanted to share a few tarot spreads that went beyond the typical 12-month card spread. Nothing wrong with those, but sometimes you want a little more than just a theme per month. Below you’ll find just a few of my favorite and most useful tarot spreads to divine with for the new year.

Beth Maiden’s New Year Spread

Beth Maiden is the former owner and founder of Little Red Tarot. Her blog was fundamental to my early tarot learning experience. I referenced card meanings often and discovered plenty of decks many years ago. Which means this spread is so old I had to dig it up from the Wayback machine, but it’s the spread I used the most often when I wanted something short, sweet but insightful.

The spread is one of some of New Year’s spread that Beth has created over the years, but this the one I went back to the most. It’s a 10-card spread that functions like a bigger “Past, Present, Future” plus advice but focuses on the upcoming year. If you like to keep things simple, I would go for this spread.

New Year’s Planning Spread from Labyrinthos

This New Year spread is one that makes you take a look at your past a lot more closely. Half of this 8-card spread is focused on where you’ve been, good and bad, within the past year. Once you get through the revision, you start working through how you can approach the upcoming year.

I feel like this spread calls for objective observation of your past. If you’re someone
(like me) who loves to plan and has an affinity for self-improvement, I think you might like this one.

Yoshi Yoshitani’s Tarot of the Divine Year Ahead Spread

I came across Yoshitani’s work when Tarot of the Divine was coming out. I love me some folklore, so I snatched this tarot deck as soon as it came out. I’m a fan of their art, too, and have been following them ever since. Some time in 2024, I was casually scrolling through Bluesky when I came across a graphic showing a really large spread. The year was coming to a close so I realized that this whopping 20-card spread was for the year ahead. I was intimidated yet intrigued.

This is the spread I went with for 2025, and now 2026, and I love it. I especially like the addition of cards for the quarter. I like that I can tell what the overall vibe will be for the next three months. Plus, the quarterly positions added a layer to the reading that I didn’t expect. If you still love the 12-month spread with extra detail, I would highly recommend this.

And that’s it! Those are my favorite spreads for predicting the year ahead. They’ve been my tried-and-true spreads for this time of year. I hope you find them as insightful and empowering as I do. Don’t hesitate to come back for more tips, tricks, and guidance on your journey. Here’s to a wonderful year ahead filled with inspiration and clarity.