Episode 79: Spreads with James Wells
What makes a good spread?
- Appropriate Number of Cards
- Spread positions should follow a logical or easy to follow order.
- Symmetry
- Interesting relationships between cards that are next to each other
Spreads
1 Card
What do I most need to know about <this> right now.
2 Card Focus by Gail Fairfield from Choice Centered Tarot
- Major – The What of the Situation
- Minor – The How of the Situation
The Pro & Con Layout
- Pro-Whats the best thing about this. What are the benefits.
- Con – Whats the worst thing about this. What are the costs.
3 Card: by Zoe Matoff
2 – 1 – 3
- Whats the basic issue here
- Don’t do this
- Do this
Deeper Learning Layout by James Wells
- Larger Deeper Learning for me in this situation.
- What’s appropriate to release, exit, or leave behind?
- What’s appropriate to embrace, enter or move towards?
Reality Check Spread by James Wells
- What am I imagining on the bad side?
- What am I imagining on the good side?
- What’s the reality of the situation itself?
4 Card Psychological Spread from Tarot for Dummies
- Your subconscious or child self (reactive)
- Your conscious or adult self (intentional)
- you superconscious or wise self
- Overall comment
The Spread of Changes by James Rioux
The first card can be drawn at random or intentionally selected based on something you want to focus on and consciously pick a card to represent it. You can pick any of the position’s intentionally.
1-2-3-4-5
- The past or root cause
- Your state or attitude or how you thought about yourself before the change
- The change itself
- The after change attitude
- The result of the change or desired outcome
Elenore Greenburg from 2007 Tarot Reader
- What the client needs to learn about the current situation
- What he or she needs to learn about how it plays out in their life in general or the bigger picture or pattern revealed by the situation
- How learning the situation can further their spiritual growth
- What’s appropriate to leave behind
- What’s appropriate to move toward
Arthur Rosengarten from Tarot and Psychology
- Whats’ working for you
- What’s working against you
- What you know
- What you don’t know
- What’s needed
The Leap Across the Abyss by Rachel Pollack from the Shining Tribe Tarot
- Where do I start?
- What is hidden?
- Who helps me?
- What do I fear?
- What must I give up?
- What must I take with me?
- What will I experience?
- What will I find?
Clarifying Options by Gail Fairfield from Everyday Tarot
Layout 9 cards for each option including an option you having though of. The third card will help identify the new option. Please refer to the book Everyday Tarot for the shape of the spread
- your reason for considering this option
- what this option represents for you
- the true nature of this option
- the resources that support this option
- the obstacles that block this option
- the advantages of pursuing this option
- the disadvantages of pursing this option
- what will probably happen if you choose this option
- the Key Factor with regard to this option.
James’ 10 Card Layout
- The External Experience of the Situation.
- The Internal Experience of the Situation.
- My contribution to it.
- Other’s contribution to it.
- What challenges blocks or problems are connected with it
- What blessings, gifts or resources are connected with it.
- What does soul have to say about the situation? (Soul: Personal Sacred or Sacred Self)
- What does spirit have to say about the situation? (Spirit: Transpersonal Sacred or Sacred Other)
- What’s the wisdom emerge from me from the situation? What can I learn?
- (Optional) Based on the above information, what is the most likely way this will unfold in the <timeframe>
Freestyle Q&A
Initial question. Pull a card. Dialog. This generates another question. Pull a Card. Continue until it feels complete or resolved.
Custom Design Layouts
- Step 1: Pick a Topic (Subject)
- Step 2: Brainstorm Questions (Quantity)
- Step 3: Refine the Questions & Wording (Quality)
- Step 4: Put the Questions in an order that makes sense and number the Questions (Order)
- Step 5: Draw a Diagram (Shape)
Draw and Layout the Cards. Interpret. Finish with a summary card.
Your first step to a helpful insightful Tarot Session is ask empowering open ended questions such as:
- How?
- What?
- Where in my life?
- In what ways?
- What do I most need to learn about?
- What do I most need to know about at this time?
- What is a more evolved perspective on … ?
Avoid:
- Yes/No Questions
- Negatively worded questions
- Questions about other people’s lives
James Wells
James Wells is a Toronto-based consultant, teacher, and facilitator devoted to merging soul and strategy. Through tools and processes such as Tarot, Reiki, Council Circle, and Journal Writing, he and his clients and students are inspired to become more of who they really are.
Tarot has been a part of James’ life since 1979. His insightful, down-to-earth, proactive style makes him a popular practitioner and workshop presenter at home and abroad. James is a contributor to most of Llewellyn’s Tarot Reader almanacs. In his “me time”, he enjoys writing, reading, music, walking, and good food.
To book private consultations and to set up a workshop in your area, feel free to contact James at (416) 966 – 2685 or at evolutionary_tarot@yahoo.ca
JAMES WELLS — Merging soul and strategy through tarot, Reiki, journal writing, council circle, workshops, & classes.
Music Credits
- Opening Music: The Oracle Speaks by William Wilde Zeitler from Elegy for Atlantis
- Closing Music: The Way by Ishwish from Remember (Magnatune)
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May 18th, 2008 at 8:15 am
[...] some of my favourite tarot layouts and about how I design a tarot layout. You can listen here: http://tarotconnection.net/episode-79/ . Let’s hear your feedback on it. [...]
May 18th, 2008 at 10:03 am
I just listened to this podcast and really enjoyed it. I’ll be trying out some of the spreads today
I always learn a lot listening to you and James Wells — he’s straightforward, easy to understand, and generous in sharing his work. Thanks as always!
May 19th, 2008 at 10:32 am
I loved it! I have had some experiences and tries in order to create some spreads to best suit me during readings for friends.
One that came “instinctively” was a spread that helps understand the path one issue is taking. My friend had some doubts about whether keep a relationship or quit… anyway… I came to me that it would be interesting to suffle the cards and open them as if in a fan… so the cards are picked and turned immediately. The readee continues picking cards until a major arcana shows. Then I read the path of minors until the goal (major) is achieved. Sometimes, there are many minors before a major comes up. I feel that in these cases, the path is longer and the readee has to be more watchful in his actions or atittudes towards the issue… sometimes, however, there is only the major. If it is so, I understand that the readee is so very close to resolve the issue and by taking the advice from that major, the readee is pretty there.
I came up with that because I think that it is very important to know the path you have to go through… and I also can’t take the celtic cross… I believe that there are many more creative ways to read the cards =)
Listening from Brazil,
Pietra.
May 23rd, 2008 at 5:18 am
Enjoyed this podcast. A lot of good ideas on creating your own spread.