How to Create a Tarot Spread That Rocks

Image description: Title reads: “How to Create a Tarot Spread”, Subtitle reads: “A step-by-step guide to designing spreads that work”. The text is in black on a yellow background. Behind the textbox is an image of a blooming bouquet of pink, red, and white flowers, green leaves peaking out.

Whether you are building a custom spread for a client, creating a spread just for yourself, or making a spread to share on Instagram, this guide will help you confidently design tarot spreads that rock.

Preparation: Before you begin, ask yourself a couple general questions:

-What is your spread about
-How long do you want it to be
-Who is the audience for the spread

It doesn’t have to be anything concrete, but having some general ideas as a starting point will help you stay on track. You can always adjust as you go. You can write down any notes about these questions or jump in and get started.

Step One: Identify the central theme.

Strong tarot spreads are often focused on a central theme. The card positions explore different facets of that central topic. You can have focused subtopics in a spread or very open and general cards, but you want the spread to feel cohesive as a whole. If you are exploring multiple related topics in a spread, you might group them into sections so that the sections are focused. When the sections are connected, the reading is more likely feel cohesive.

If you find that you are struggling to identify a focus or are having multiple ideas coming up, you might want to design more than one spread. Try to take a step back and separate out the topics you want to explore. Especially as you are starting out with designing spreads, having a clear central theme will keep the spread focused.

Step Two: Brainstorm potential questions for the cards.

I like to start with the questions that I most want to answer with the spread. I write everything that comes up for me in a list. Be open minded as you approach this, this part should feel expansive and exploratory. Don’t overthink it. Write down whatever comes through for you as you’re thinking about it. You will edit it down as you develop the spread, these are not the final positions. So, take the pressure off and have fun with it! Write down whatever comes up. You might find that after you write a couple, suddenly more come flowing out naturally. If that happens, just let it flow!

If you get stuck, that’s okay too. It’s normal for the questions to come in bursts. If I feel stuck, I sometimes read the questions aloud to see how they sound when they are spoken. If you need more inspiration, you can ask yourself what primary associations come up for you when you think of the central topic. For instance, when I think of love, I think of romance, trust, longevity, commitment, and friendship. Those can be ideas you use to keep going.

You don’t need a hundred questions, so don’t force it. Just write what comes up and what you like the most. If you don’t like a question as you’re thinking of it, just skip it and keep going.

Note: Consider best practices for formulating the questions.

Avoid questions that have words like “should” or that have a disempowering or pessimistic tone. For example, if you are anxious about an upcoming exam and want to check in with the cards about it, asking “Am I going to fail the test?” carries an energy of worry. Some better questions would be: “What can I do to best prepare for this exam?” “What is the energy of my test prep?” “What do I need to know about the exam at this time?”

Many people like to have a variety of questions in their spreads. You can get creative with how you ask questions. Explore with what feels right for you. Everyone has a different style, with some people being more comfortable with very abstract prompts and others wanting more specificity. Experimenting with this is good practice for understanding how to formulate questions and what your reading style is.

Novelty spreads can be fun, but if it gets too abstract it can be challenging for other readers. If you’re planning to share the spread with other people, try to keep this in check. A good spread provides opportunities for self-reflection, insight, and guidance. Trying to get too cute with the theme sometimes works against that, it can feel forced.

Avoid using Yes or No questions unless you are comfortable with them and the spread is for you. They can sometimes shut down a thread that you’re exploring, and for some readers they can be challenging to interpret. I wrote a full blog on how to ask Yes and No questions with tarot available here. If you’re planning to share the spread with others, set your audience up for success and skip Yes/No.

Step Three: Edit down the questions and evaluate the flow.

Now that you have a central theme and a list of questions, it’s time to start homing in on the final spread. I like to start by highlighting the questions that really speak to me the most. Which ones jump out to me? Which ones feel like they have the most impact? If there are questions that feel redundant, I eliminate whatever is less interesting or too repetitive. While you’re eliminating questions, think about how long you would like the spread to be, so you know how many questions to aim for.

As I edit to the final spread, I like to evaluate it for a sense of balance and cohesion. Do the questions touch on different aspects? Is there enough differentiation between the questions? Are the questions all still focused or are any getting off track? Does it feel like anything is missing?

This is how I think of spread length:

Short spreads: 1 - 4 cards
Medium spreads: 5 - 9 cards
Long spreads: 10+ cards

You may choose to incorporate numerology into your spread here. For instance, if you wanted to make a longer spread focused on abundance, you could choose to use 8 cards as 8 corresponds to abundance, growth, and success in numerology.

Once you have a list for a potential final spread, read through it out loud. Identify if you want to adjust any words. For instance, you want to make a question more poetic or the imagery more evocative. Or you might want to make a question more specific. Think about the order, does it flow as you read it? I like to begin and end the reading on questions that I think are the most impactful. These final tweaks can help take your spread to the next level.

As you are refining the final spread, start thinking about what shape you’d like to lay the cards in. You can try diamonds, hills, hearts, arrows, circles, runes, you can get as creative as you want with it. You could make the center card represent the central theme. If you have sections, group the cards in that section together.

Step Four: Finalize the spread once you feel good about it. Hooray!

Step Five: Try the spread yourself and see how it feels.

Particularly if you’re going to be sharing the spread with others, try reading with your spread for yourself. Reading with your own spread is the best way to see how it feels, and it gives you ideas for how to approach the next spread you design. You might see areas you want to tweak, or questions that would be a good addition to the spread. You might discover questions that you really loved and want to use in future spreads.

Note: Best practices for designing spreads for social media

If you are building a spread to share on social media, try to make it a manageable length for people. I help run two online communities, and I’ve made tarot spreads for those communities for years. If I am making more than one spread for a holiday, I try to make sure at least one of the spreads is short. Including a shorter spread means that people who are short on time or are just beginning to use spreads have an option that is accessible to them.

Think about your audience as you build the spread. If you already know your community, think about them as you write the questions. What are they most interested in? What’s their experience level with tarot? If you are building an audience, think about the types of people you want to attract and what you have to offer them.

Always remember to put your account name somewhere in the image of the spread. That way if the image is screenshot and reshared in other places, people can still find you as the creator.

Social media platforms often flag certain words. Look through your spread and evaluate if any words could possibly be flagged, including any words you might have in an image. Make adjustments as you see fit.

If the platform you’re on has user comments, read through them after you post your spread! Feedback from your community is valuable information as you approach your future spreads. Plus, it is extremely rewarding to know that your spread is being used by people you care about. It is truly such a pleasure for me to see people using the spreads I’ve made, I love seeing their insights.

Final comments

Remember that designing spreads is meant to be fun. Experiment, play, and let yourself enjoy it! If you find that you’re not making progress, walk away and let it process it in the background of your thoughts. Or you can ask your guides to point you in the right direction. Give yourself grace and know that just like any other skill you will get better at it the more you do.

Thanks so much for reading this blog. If you have any questions about making spreads that I didn’t cover here, please feel free to reach out and ask me. I also offer one-on-one tarot mentorship for readers who are interested in developing their skills. It is my great pleasure to support clients with custom tarot readings on a wide variety of topics.

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