Eight Useful Tarot Spreads
Project Kindling Tarot Spread
for sparking the pilot flame at the heart of a project
- Spark 1
- Spark 2
- Spark 3: Three key elements that must combine to spark my project to life.
- Internal Influences: How do my own patterns and approaches affect my project? What do I bring to the table?
- External Influences: How do outside patterns and circumstances affect this project? What do others bring to the table?
- Let Go Of: Something to resolve or leave behind to serve this project’s forward momentum.
- Move Towards: Something to aim for or develop as I forge ahead in this project.
NOTES
This spread is one of my favorites. I originally wrote it to tackle creative projects and work questions, and I use it all the time. Its structure is so simple that it applies to different areas of life with minimal alterations. This makes it a strong go-to spread to have in your general repertoire, and quite useful for resistance work.
Direct the spread outward to brainstorm and plan specific projects, like protests, political art pieces, zines, teach-ins, fund-raisers, spiritual gatherings, and so on. Direct the spread inward to reflect broadly on your personal approach to resistance work. What key traits or patterns within yourself can you strengthen and draw on to contribute well? How do outside influences affect your approach compared to your internal influences and values? What might you leave behind or resolve to do better, and what might you pick up or explore further to grow?
The heart and soul of this spread is a simple triangle. The number three is critical here. Three is dynamic. You need at least three of anything to spin a good story: three brothers, three pigs, three bears; three acts: a beginning, a middle, and an end. Projects are stories. To successfully navigate any project, or realize any idea, we must draw on a number of elements and strategies. No single tool can get a complex job done. A blend of two approaches gives more to work with, but often defaults to a polar or binary dynamic. A combination of three energies, however, can synthesize in all kinds of interesting ways, without giving us too much to handle at a time. That’s more fuel for the fire, but not so much that it smothers out. Think of juggling—you need at least three balls to make an act, but keeping anything more in the air requires advanced skill and concentration.
When you draw your center triangle, first consider each card individually. How does each card apply to your project on its own? Minor pips may represent strategies to use, skills to apply, or conditions to turn to your advantage. Majors and court cards often represent energies to channel, archetypes to work with, or aspects of your personality to enhance or lean on. Remember that most court cards (knights, kings, and queens) have astrological associations. If you know astrology, consider the personality traits and strengths associated with any star signs referenced by courts, and look at where those signs sit in your birth chart, and any planets or points you have there.
Once you have a feel for each individual part of the central trio, consider them as a whole. What do they say to each other? If each of these cards were a living member of a team contracted to realize your project, how would they get along, and how might they delegate different responsibilities? When you look at the cards all at once, do any pictorial, geometric, elemental, or color patterns jump out? These questions can help you glean more information from your reading and add more bullets to your project brainstorm list.
ELEMENTS
Fire and earth guide this spread. The goal is to blend the passion, inspiration, initiatory spark, and forward momentum of fire, with the slow and steady, practical, grounded qualities of Earth that allow our projects to manifest in the material world. The fire is the spark, and the Earth is the fuel. Think of the inner triangle as that fiery, inspirational, motivational half of the equation—the pilot flame or tinder flash in the center of our kindling. The four outer cards represent the earthy, material, practical side of the equation—the logs and the stones or bricks beneath. Together, they should generate the excitement to get us moving, as well as the solid steps needed to sustain a slow burn and see things through.
Project Kindling involves both brainstorming and planning. Brainstorming means generating ideas, and ideas create excitement. Ideas live in the center triangle of fire, and like fire, they’re energizing but trickstery. They’re not hard to generate once you learn how, and we stir up lots of them in our creative endeavors. The trouble with ideas is most of them are alluring, and most of them are half-baked, if not flat out bad. They’re safe to look at, but if you try to grasp them all at once, you’ll burn out. The Earth side of the spread helps us shape, contain, and direct all that energy from our ideas, like a hearth below and a chimney around and above. The Influence cards should help us discern which ideas are most viable to execute. The “Let Go Of” and “Move Towards” cards give us shaping strategies for our building and editing processes.
VARIATIONS
• Quick Draw: Try a quick draw of the center triangle, without the four outer cards. I do this frequently for projects that are already in the works, kind of like stoking a fire that’s already going. Ask, “what does my project need right now?” Interpret the three intersecting archetypes, and use them as a spring-board for a quick brainstorm or bullet list.
• Triangle Reversals: While I’m a big fan of reversals in general (more info, more fun), I find it easiest to read all three center cards upright no matter how they fall, as you might when reading a cross pattern in certain spreads. There’s already a degree of complexity in viewing each card simultaneously as an individual and part of a whole. I get enough nuance from the way the three cards interact in a triangle without adding reversals. That said, you can opt to include reversals, and there are two approaches for doing so:
If laying the spread out pictorially, as shown in the diagram above, card three is tilted horizontally. Pick a direction to designate as upright vs. reversed before you draw your cards. The other option is to lay the spread out linearly, as I described in the intro notes here. In that case, lay cards one through three, representing the central triangle, vertically oriented in a neat row at the top of your reading area. Read them upright or reversed as they fall.
• Progress Reports: Projects change as they develop. The strategies and ideas you start with may not be the same you end with, and that’s a natural part of any creative process. Repeat this spread at different stages and iterations of your project. Journal your results to track how your tarot readings reflect the ways your project morphs over time.
• Creativity & Career: Use this spread as is to map out creative and work projects. Nothing changes significantly when pointed at different project-based areas of life. Focus your mind as specifically or broadly as you like. Ask about individual projects. Check in on your approach to an artistic medium or career path. Reflect on your story with big concepts, like Artistry and Meaningful Work.
• Relationships: What three key elements need to come together for your partnership to thrive? The center triangle may express pre-existing energies you each bring to the table, or it may draw a symbolic picture how your relationship transcends the sum of its parts, and the fresh energies born between you.
If reading alone, Card Four (Internal Influences) will stand for something you bring to the pairing, and Card Five (External Influences) will stand for something your partner brings. In Cards Six and Seven, ask for patterns you can move away from and towards to strengthen your part in the relationship.
If reading together with your partner, decide amongst yourselves who gets to be Card Four or Five. In Cards Six and Seven, and ask for patterns or phases you can move away from and towards to strengthen your relationship together.
Spreads like this can examine either romantic or platonic relationships, or a particular aspect of a relationship. For example, in platonic relationships you might ask for guidance in keeping in touch with a friend who’s moved far away, reconnecting with an estranged relative, or any other question that deals with strengthening and maintaining a bond. What needs to come together to make it work? What are some areas to watch out for or avoid, and some areas to embrace?
In romantic relationships, you might ask about specific areas like intimacy, chemistry, trust, and adventuring together. Just remember that the cards can’t speak for other people, especially when those people are not present, and that there are many ways to interpret each card. You and your partner may find you interpret things very differently if you draw readings together. Always speak to your partner and negotiate before implementing any ideas you generate on your own, especially when those ideas involve things like intimacy, trust, sex, and boundaries.
• Quick Draw: Try a quick draw of the center triangle, without the four outer cards. I do this frequently for projects that are already in the works, kind of like stoking a fire that’s already going. Ask, “what does my project need right now?” Interpret the three intersecting archetypes, and use them as a spring-board for a quick brainstorm or bullet list.
• Triangle Reversals: While I’m a big fan of reversals in general (more info, more fun), I find it easiest to read all three center cards upright no matter how they fall, as you might when reading a cross pattern in certain spreads. There’s already a degree of complexity in viewing each card simultaneously as an individual and part of a whole. I get enough nuance from the way the three cards interact in a triangle without adding reversals. That said, you can opt to include reversals, and there are two approaches for doing so:
If laying the spread out pictorially, as shown in the diagram above, card three is tilted horizontally. Pick a direction to designate as upright vs. reversed before you draw your cards. The other option is to lay the spread out linearly, as I described in the intro notes here. In that case, lay cards one through three, representing the central triangle, vertically oriented in a neat row at the top of your reading area. Read them upright or reversed as they fall.
• Progress Reports: Projects change as they develop. The strategies and ideas you start with may not be the same you end with, and that’s a natural part of any creative process. Repeat this spread at different stages and iterations of your project. Journal your results to track how your tarot readings reflect the ways your project morphs over time.
• Creativity & Career: Use this spread as is to map out creative and work projects. Nothing changes significantly when pointed at different project-based areas of life. Focus your mind as specifically or broadly as you like. Ask about individual projects. Check in on your approach to an artistic medium or career path. Reflect on your story with big concepts, like Artistry and Meaningful Work.
• Relationships: What three key elements need to come together for your partnership to thrive? The center triangle may express pre-existing energies you each bring to the table, or it may draw a symbolic picture how your relationship transcends the sum of its parts, and the fresh energies born between you.
If reading alone, Card Four (Internal Influences) will stand for something you bring to the pairing, and Card Five (External Influences) will stand for something your partner brings. In Cards Six and Seven, ask for patterns you can move away from and towards to strengthen your part in the relationship.
If reading together with your partner, decide amongst yourselves who gets to be Card Four or Five. In Cards Six and Seven, and ask for patterns or phases you can move away from and towards to strengthen your relationship together.
Spreads like this can examine either romantic or platonic relationships, or a particular aspect of a relationship. For example, in platonic relationships you might ask for guidance in keeping in touch with a friend who’s moved far away, reconnecting with an estranged relative, or any other question that deals with strengthening and maintaining a bond. What needs to come together to make it work? What are some areas to watch out for or avoid, and some areas to embrace?
In romantic relationships, you might ask about specific areas like intimacy, chemistry, trust, and adventuring together. Just remember that the cards can’t speak for other people, especially when those people are not present, and that there are many ways to interpret each card. You and your partner may find you interpret things very differently if you draw readings together. Always speak to your partner and negotiate before implementing any ideas you generate on your own, especially when those ideas involve things like intimacy, trust, sex, and boundaries.