Learn Tarot: Your First Own Spread in Five Steps

Step 1: Arriving – mindset and place

A spread doesn’t take much effort, but it does take a little attention. It’s most like a short meditation: you take a moment in which nothing else counts.

Your inner mindset

Four attitudes help with tarot – none of them is a requirement:

• Openness: Look at what’s in front of you before you judge it. That’s how new perspectives on stuck thoughts come about.
• Calm: When you settle down, you hear thoughts and feelings again that have gone quiet in everyday life.
• Focus: The clearer your question, the more the cards can reflect back to you. If you’re distracted or dodging a question, you’ll usually read the cards in a scattered way, too.
• Respect: Handle your cards with care. It isn’t about superstition, but about taking seriously the ritual that helps you pause.

At the beginning you don’t need to bring all four. Simply concentrate on openness. The others grow with practice.

Your outer setting

• A place where you can settle: bright, tidy and, if possible, without screens in view. A fixed spot that you use again and again helps you arrive faster. It can be just a corner of the living room.
• A simple setup: a small table, a cloth, perhaps an object that means something to you. Less is more here, so that nothing distracts you.
• Your own deck: To start with, a deck in the Rider-Waite tradition is a good choice, because most learning materials refer to it. Keep it complete and undamaged. A box protects it, including when you travel.

Reflection question: When and where is it easy for me to really be with myself – and how could I set up my tarot spot there?

Step 2: Asking a good question

Everything starts with a question, and the way you ask it partly decides how helpful the spread will be. Tarot doesn’t take a decision off your hands. The cards usually show several perspectives at once, which is why plain yes/no questions don’t get you very far (more on this in Tarot for decisions).

An example:

• „Should I change jobs?“
• „What perspectives open up if I change employers?“

The first question hands an important decision over to the cards. The second gives you material for your own decision – and you learn to trust your own judgment instead of being steered from outside.

Five tips for your question:

1. Phrase it openly: ideally starting with „What“, „Which“ or „How“.
2. No yes/no questions, no dates: „When will I get married?“ is something tarot can’t reliably answer.
3. The right altitude: not too specific, not too global.
4. Constructive rather than accusing: not „Why do I never get a job?“ but „What can I change to receive more offers?“
5. Stay with yourself: The question should be about you and your options for action, even if someone else is involved.

Write your question down exactly as you mean it. Even single words change how you read the cards. You can also lay cards with no question at all (free laying) and simply ask yourself: „Which theme wants attention right now?“ This works especially well during big changes such as a move, a job change or the birth of a child.

Reflection question: How would I phrase my question if I weren’t looking for an answer, but for more clarity?

Step 3: Shuffling and laying the cards

Before you lay the cards, hold the deck in your hands for a moment and silently repeat your question in your mind. It’s a small ritual that gathers you. The cards themselves don’t need it, but sometimes you do.

How to shuffle

There are many techniques. A simple one:

1. Split the deck into two piles and let the cards fall into each other bit by bit.
2. Lift off a smaller pile and place it to the left of the rest. Repeat this once.
3. Put the piles back together. Which one you take first is up to your feeling.

Choosing the right spread

There are spreads with one card and spreads with all 78. The more complex the question, the more cards it needs. To start with, one to three cards are enough:

• One card: the daily card – ideal for building a routine.
• Three cards: the three-card spread – flexible, because you choose the frame yourself.
• Ten cards: the Celtic Cross – very popular, but more demanding. Try it once you feel confident with the first two.

Here are common frames for the three-card spread. Decide on one before you draw, not afterwards:

How to lay the cards

Draw the top card and place it in position 1, then continue in the order of your spread. Pay attention to your first reactions as you do. Sometimes the first card is enough to clarify a question, and then you give it the most weight. If cards appear reversed, you can turn them upright at the beginning. Reversed cards have a meaning of their own that you can add later.

Once all the cards are down, let them sink in for a moment and ask yourself:

• Which thoughts and feelings come up when I look at the cards?
• Which card surprises me?
• How does each position relate to my question?

Jot down a few keywords. They’ll help you later when you interpret.

Reflection question: Which spread suits my question today – and why exactly this one?

Draw your first card

You learn best by trying things out. Draw a card now and read its meaning while you go through the following steps.

Step 4: Interpreting the cards

Interpreting means moving back and forth between two viewpoints: the single card and the overall picture of the spread. Over time you’ll recognize meanings almost as you turn the cards over. Until then, a fixed routine helps.

The four levels of a single card

1. The first impression: What do you feel as you turn the card over – tension, relief, resistance? This first impulse is very personal and depends on your own history. It often shows which card touches you most.
2. The card meaning: Meanings aren’t standardized and differ from one interpretation system to another. Choose a system and stick with it. On Tarot Secret you’ll find all the cards under the Major Arcana and in the tarot cards section. Memorizing happens almost by itself with practice.
3. The position: The same card can say something different depending on its position. Take the Five of Swords in a question about a romantic relationship: In the „past“ position it can show that someone held on to a relationship too tightly. In the „present“ position it can point to a conflict that is about winning. In the third position it can suggest that conflicts might be brewing, or warn against trying to win someone over at any cost. These examples are deliberately vague – your specific case decides.
4. Question and life situation: In a brand-new relationship, the same card can mean that too much energy is flowing into something fresh. In a long-term relationship it can show that the way you deal with each other has become too conflict-ridden. And someone with little relationship experience reads it differently than someone with a lot.

Relating cards to each other

Single cards are only half the story. A picture emerges only when they work together. Because there are far too many combinations (for three cards alone there are 456,456), there is no fixed interpretation for each – but a few patterns help:

• Major and Minor Arcana: Two cards can sound similar, such as The Hermit and the Eight of Pentacles. But the Major Arcana usually stands for a theme with longer-lasting significance, the Minor Arcana more for the concrete dynamics of everyday life. If a position shifts from a Minor to a Major Arcana card when you revisit the same question later, that can show a development.
• Opposing pairs: When two cards with opposite meanings appear, such as The Magician (activity) and The High Priestess (waiting, intuition), it’s tempting to reshuffle. Resist. Pairs like these often show that you’re torn between two poles and that both sides belong together.
• Reinforcing pairs: Similar cards strengthen each other. They can encourage you to follow a path, or point to an aspect you’ve overlooked so far.

For a quick orientation on arcana and suits, see the tarot overview.

An example from practice

A friend wanted to understand why her relationships never lasted long. She laid three cards: past, present, possible direction.

• Past – Three of Swords: The card stands for heartache. She had to take a deep breath. She remembered how often she had been left, and that this was why she had often ended relationships early herself later on.
• Present – Queen of Cups: She recognized herself: She takes a lot of care of others and sometimes overlooks her own needs in the process.
• Possible direction – The Star: The card reminded her of hope and inner strength. Later she said she had sensed this strength before, but only dared to accept it after the spread.

The cards didn’t predict anything for her. They helped her name a pattern she already knew. As a beginner you may experience only single words or a vague feeling. That’s a good start, too. It’s best to begin with a daily card and check in the evening where the theme showed up.

Reflection question: Which card from my last spread touches me most – and what does that say about me, regardless of its standard meaning?

Step 5: Closing and keeping at it

Closing your spread

A conscious ending helps the spread not spill over into the rest of your day:

1. Write it down: Note the cards in their exact positions before you take them away.
2. Look once more: Pick up the cards in reverse order and look at each one briefly. What did it show you?
3. Say thanks, if you like: Some people thank the cards. It isn’t a must, but it’s a nice point at which to end consciously.
4. Tidy up: Shuffle the deck once more, put it away and clear your spot.
5. Let it settle: Breathe consciously a few times, stretch or meditate briefly.

Sometimes thoughts and feelings from the spread stay with you through the day. That’s normal. If they get in the way of everyday life, tell yourself: „I’ll come back to this later“ – and then do it, for example with 10 to 15 minutes of attention in the evening.

The tarot journal

A journal is the most effective way to sharpen your intuition. You see how your questions and interpretations change, and you notice cards that keep coming back. Here’s what you can record:

• Context: Date, place (if it isn’t your usual spot) and spread. Important events on your mind at the moment belong here, too.
• The question: as close to word for word as possible.
• Cards and impressions: each card in its position, upright or reversed, plus your thoughts, feelings and bodily sensations.

You’ll find matching tarot journals to write in with us.

Where to go from here

• Regular rather than a lot: Once a week is plenty at the beginning. More important than frequency is that the routine becomes second nature over time.
• From simple to complex: Start with the daily card, then the three-card spread, later the Celtic Cross. For the longer view there are the weekly, monthly and yearly card.
• Practice by theme: For example relationship tarot, career, finances and health.
• Reading for others: Once you know the meanings well, you can lay cards for people close to you. Talk through the interpretations together and keep a journal for this, too. Important: Don’t make diagnoses, don’t take decisions away from anyone and don’t state anything as a predicted fact. You’re opening up perspectives together, nothing more.

Learn tarot in the LearnTarot app

If you’d like to keep learning in a structured way: The LearnTarot app for Android offers 15 courses from the basics to advanced interpretation, Claire as a companion and a quiz with over 500 questions. The first course is free and needs no registration.

Reflection questions for your learning path

Questions that look inward:

• What do I hope to get from tarot – and what would already feel like a gain to me?
• Where am I looking for an answer from outside, even though I may already know it inside?

Questions about your practice:

• Which small framework (place, time, journal) can I create for myself this week?
• Which simple spread will I start with, and when will I lay it for the first time?

Would you like to talk through your practice spreads instead of only looking them up? Claire connects the meaning of your drawn cards with your question – further down on this page.