Spreads: one card, three cards, ten

A spread is a layout with a meaning assigned to each position.

• One card. A daily draw, a single question, a focus for writing. Start here.
• Three cards. The most useful spread there is. Try past · present · future, or situation · obstacle · outcome, or what you want · what is in the way · what would help.
• The Celtic Cross. Ten cards: the heart of the matter, what crosses it, what is above and below, past and future, then the querent, the environment, hopes and fears, and the outcome. Save it for when you have practiced the smaller ones.

The skill is not reading ten cards separately; it is finding the story that runs through them. Look for repeated suits, numbers, and images. Look for a turn.