There are quite a few complicated spreads out there, counting up to 20 cards. They’re mainly suitable for sophisticated issues that require a deeper insight into life. Hopefully, most people won’t need such spreads.
For simple day-to-day activities and advice, it’s highly recommended to just keep it simple. And that’s when the standard 3 card tarot spread kicks in. There are quite a few variants for it, but let’s explore the most popular 3 card tarot spreads and what they actually mean for you.
Linear 3 Card Tarot Spreads
The linear design is by far the most popular one. All three cards go one next to another. Start on your left, then line all of them in a straight line while going to the right. Like the line clearly suggests, this spread is great when you need help with some events, reaching a small goal, cause, and effect, you name it.
Here are a few things to ask about in this classic spread:
- Past, present, and future: things that may have affected you in the past, where you are now, and where you’ll be next.
- Situation, action, outcome: the issue causing a situation in your circumstances, what you need to do, and what the outcome will be.
- Idea, action, goal: best thing to focus on in order to succeed, what you need to do to get there, and what the final goal is.
- You, path, potential: things about yourself, what path you need to follow, and what the potential outcome will be.
Balanced 3 Card Tarot Spreads
This is one of the most popular 3 card tarot spreads because it’s about a symbiotic relationship. There’s an intersection in the middle of the spread. Place cards in a clockwise position, one at 12, another one at 4 and another one at 8.
It looks like a pyramid. The concept behind this spread is easy to understand. If one card misses from it, the whole structure goes down the drain because things collapse.
Again, there are a few things you can ask about while using this spread:
- Physical aspect, emotional aspect, spiritual aspect: learn more about your health, your thoughts and feelings, as well as your spiritual path in life.
- What you think, what you feel, what you do: This spread is self-explanatory and gives you some guidance on how you’re doing in life at the moment.
- Subconscious, conscious, and super conscious: find out more about your subconscious self, your conscious aspect, and your super conscious element.
- Three random options: you can also ask about random options or ideas you need if you feel stuck at some crossroads in life.
Just like the linear spread, this one allows different questions about all aspects of life, but they need to be related somehow in order to establish a solid pyramid.
Cross 3 Card Tarot Spreads
The cross option isn’t really among the popular 3 card tarot spreads, yet it’s extremely helpful in dealing with obstacles, challenges, and conflicts in your life.
The first card is placed horizontally on the table. The second card goes on top of it, but vertically. This second card is basically the conflict you need to overcome. It’s an obstacle in your life. As for the third card, it gives you some advice on how to reach your goal.
This spread is also done with two cards only. If you’re just interested in finding the obstacle in your life, so you can only use the first two cards.
You can ask a series of different questions while using this spread:
- Goal, obstacles, guidance: optimize your goals in a more realistic manner, discover the obstacles preventing you from reaching them, and find out what you can do to overcome them.
- Opportunities in life, obstacles, outcome: this spread will help you determine the best opportunities in your life, as well as the challenges associated with them and potential outcomes.
- Situation, challenge, advice: identify a situation that may not be too obvious at first glance, discover the challenge behind it, and get some advice on how to get over it.
Foundation 3 Card Tarot Spreads
The first two cards go one next to each other. The third card goes above them, right in the middle. The first cards are situations and ideas, while the third one is seen as the result or, better said, the summary of the spread.
- Strengths, weaknesses, advice: discover what strengths you have, what’s holding you back, and what you can do in order to succeed in particular aspects of life.
- Good things in life, bad things in life, lesson: learn more about successful situations, things that didn’t work very well, and what lessons you’re supposed to figure out.
- What brings you together in a relationship, what sets you apart, and what to focus on: ideal for a love reading, this spread shows the strengths in a couple, the weaknesses, and what to focus on in order to stay together.
- Your priorities, your partner’s priorities, the middle path: again, this spread is ideal in a relationship and teaches you how to find a middle path for harmony and balance.
Simply put, this is one of the popular 3 card tarot spreads in terms of options. It shows you an option, another option, and the outcome based on these two different (sometimes opposite) things.
In conclusion, these 3 card tarot spreads are pretty straightforward, and can go in multiple directions, depending on what you need help with. More seasoned readers also develop their own spreads in order to focus on particular things in life, so feel free to experiment.
