Eight Useful Tarot Spreads
WTF Tarot Spread
for when shit is all fucked up
1. x 2. What The: The face of my challenge. The crux of what hounds me.
3. Actual: What is real about this?
4. Fuck: What is wrong about this?
5. ?: Where do I need more information?
6. !: What can I do?
NOTES
Lastly, a spread for when you can’t even. That WTF feeling rears its ugly mug in the crush of overwhelming circumstances, so I designed this spread for processing when it’s all a bit much to process.
As I’ve said before, it’s best not to attempt reading tarot when in the direct grip of strong, panicky, or desperate emotions. If circumstances have you riled up past the point where you can think clearly, practice some calming and grounding techniques before sitting down to shuffle and draw. I’ve listed a few on the Emotional Arrow Spread page if you need ideas.
Read Cards One and Two together as a cross pattern, representing the most visible or central energies of your challenging situation. I chose a cross of two cards for this position rather than one, because those challenges that inspire overwhelm tend to comprise intersecting patterns and energies. I’d usually want more information in this position than a single card carries. I’ve included other notes and options for this central cross under the variations section.
Cards Three and Four ask what is real about this situation? and what is wrong about this situation? When confronting greats challenges, especially of the nuanced persuasion, we often suffer confusion in tracing exactly what is going on. We may experience self-doubt or face gas-lighting from those who want to keep us in confusion and out of action. Conversely, we may overreact from stress and strong emotions. These two cards check areas of doubt, confirming and validating patterns that warrant attention and care. There are often many real and salient sides to our challenges. With Card Three, we ask to look at one of these facets, perhaps one that most needs our focus and vigilance at the moment. With Card Four, we ask to look at another facet, one that is particularly unnecessary or unjust, and most needs changing. Don’t be afraid to see troubling cards in these positions. This spread is built, after all, for troubling circumstances. Remember that real and wrong do not necessarily mean permanent or insurmountable.
Again, tarot is a limited tool, and it won’t give us all the answers in gritty, gory detail to complex situations and problems. There will be gaps in our inquiries that other resources, like research, specialized counsel, or community support may have to fill, and a breadth of truths to our situations that cannot possibly be uncovered in one sitting of anything.
Still, tarot and the intuitive streams it unlocks have their place. In my own experience, validation is one of the cards’ greatest gifts. There is something at once uncanny and relieving in seeing my patterns, thoughts, and concerns reflected in graphic precision through the cards’ symbols. While I don’t always get what I expect or prefer to see, when I approach tarot with serious questions, a solid attention span, and a grounding in good, common sense, it does help me speak to my intuition. I find truth there far more often than further confusion. This truth comes through tough-love and nonsense-checking as often as it comes through validation. There’s a place for both, but given the circumstances that necessitate this spread, we need and deserve a space to ask for support in the form of validation.
Card Five shows an area where we need more information. This may point to a topic for further research, or a need to get someone else’s side of the story. There are many subtle facets to all things, and many things we cannot see from any one vantage point. Areas where we’re likely to overreact or to go off half-cocked can show up here. Put a pause button on whatever patterns Card Five references. They reveal questions you need to ask for better understanding of the big picture, situations to view from a distance, and scenarios to refrain from enacting until you know more.
Card Six asks what can I do? This card may show an area where it is appropriate and constructive to take action, or it may show strategies you can use and energies you can channel to start making positive changes. Naturally, the exact message here is up to your interpretation. Look to the kind of card that comes up for clues:
Majors: Big-picture archetypes, philosophies, mysteries, and large arenas.
Majors may indicate areas of work to undertake, energies to draw on as you move forward, or concepts to contemplate in order to act better.
Minor Pips: Situations and events.
The numbered minor cards may indicate specific actions to take, or situations to get involved in or help resolve.
Minor Courts: Characters, people, personalities, and star signs.
Minor court cards may indicate character traits and virtues you can draw on for positive action, or types of work to undertake.
Reversals: Areas to avoid, tensions or imbalances to resolve, wrongs to help right.
Whatever’s up for doing, have heart, and follow through with exclamatory verve.
ELEMENTS
We’re back where we started with fire and air as our foremost elements. In this case, the world is on fire, sparking our fears, passions, and tempers. Calm down with the balancing influences of earth (grounding) and water (soothing, cooling, and emotional regulation) to temper those flames before beginning the air-based work of this spread. Attempting analysis under these conditions without inner cooling and tempering can lead to churning angst and troubled confusion—fanning the flames and spreading them farther than desired. Once in the zone to tarot, the goal is to bring fresh, cool air to chaotic, overwhelming situations through logic, rational analysis, strategy, and insight. Deep breaths.
3. Actual: What is real about this?
4. Fuck: What is wrong about this?
5. ?: Where do I need more information?
6. !: What can I do?
NOTES
Lastly, a spread for when you can’t even. That WTF feeling rears its ugly mug in the crush of overwhelming circumstances, so I designed this spread for processing when it’s all a bit much to process.
As I’ve said before, it’s best not to attempt reading tarot when in the direct grip of strong, panicky, or desperate emotions. If circumstances have you riled up past the point where you can think clearly, practice some calming and grounding techniques before sitting down to shuffle and draw. I’ve listed a few on the Emotional Arrow Spread page if you need ideas.
Read Cards One and Two together as a cross pattern, representing the most visible or central energies of your challenging situation. I chose a cross of two cards for this position rather than one, because those challenges that inspire overwhelm tend to comprise intersecting patterns and energies. I’d usually want more information in this position than a single card carries. I’ve included other notes and options for this central cross under the variations section.
Cards Three and Four ask what is real about this situation? and what is wrong about this situation? When confronting greats challenges, especially of the nuanced persuasion, we often suffer confusion in tracing exactly what is going on. We may experience self-doubt or face gas-lighting from those who want to keep us in confusion and out of action. Conversely, we may overreact from stress and strong emotions. These two cards check areas of doubt, confirming and validating patterns that warrant attention and care. There are often many real and salient sides to our challenges. With Card Three, we ask to look at one of these facets, perhaps one that most needs our focus and vigilance at the moment. With Card Four, we ask to look at another facet, one that is particularly unnecessary or unjust, and most needs changing. Don’t be afraid to see troubling cards in these positions. This spread is built, after all, for troubling circumstances. Remember that real and wrong do not necessarily mean permanent or insurmountable.
Again, tarot is a limited tool, and it won’t give us all the answers in gritty, gory detail to complex situations and problems. There will be gaps in our inquiries that other resources, like research, specialized counsel, or community support may have to fill, and a breadth of truths to our situations that cannot possibly be uncovered in one sitting of anything.
Still, tarot and the intuitive streams it unlocks have their place. In my own experience, validation is one of the cards’ greatest gifts. There is something at once uncanny and relieving in seeing my patterns, thoughts, and concerns reflected in graphic precision through the cards’ symbols. While I don’t always get what I expect or prefer to see, when I approach tarot with serious questions, a solid attention span, and a grounding in good, common sense, it does help me speak to my intuition. I find truth there far more often than further confusion. This truth comes through tough-love and nonsense-checking as often as it comes through validation. There’s a place for both, but given the circumstances that necessitate this spread, we need and deserve a space to ask for support in the form of validation.
Card Five shows an area where we need more information. This may point to a topic for further research, or a need to get someone else’s side of the story. There are many subtle facets to all things, and many things we cannot see from any one vantage point. Areas where we’re likely to overreact or to go off half-cocked can show up here. Put a pause button on whatever patterns Card Five references. They reveal questions you need to ask for better understanding of the big picture, situations to view from a distance, and scenarios to refrain from enacting until you know more.
Card Six asks what can I do? This card may show an area where it is appropriate and constructive to take action, or it may show strategies you can use and energies you can channel to start making positive changes. Naturally, the exact message here is up to your interpretation. Look to the kind of card that comes up for clues:
Majors: Big-picture archetypes, philosophies, mysteries, and large arenas.
Majors may indicate areas of work to undertake, energies to draw on as you move forward, or concepts to contemplate in order to act better.
Minor Pips: Situations and events.
The numbered minor cards may indicate specific actions to take, or situations to get involved in or help resolve.
Minor Courts: Characters, people, personalities, and star signs.
Minor court cards may indicate character traits and virtues you can draw on for positive action, or types of work to undertake.
Reversals: Areas to avoid, tensions or imbalances to resolve, wrongs to help right.
Whatever’s up for doing, have heart, and follow through with exclamatory verve.
ELEMENTS
We’re back where we started with fire and air as our foremost elements. In this case, the world is on fire, sparking our fears, passions, and tempers. Calm down with the balancing influences of earth (grounding) and water (soothing, cooling, and emotional regulation) to temper those flames before beginning the air-based work of this spread. Attempting analysis under these conditions without inner cooling and tempering can lead to churning angst and troubled confusion—fanning the flames and spreading them farther than desired. Once in the zone to tarot, the goal is to bring fresh, cool air to chaotic, overwhelming situations through logic, rational analysis, strategy, and insight. Deep breaths.
VARIATIONS
• “What The” Cross Variations: When I read these two cards together, I consider the cross as a whole and ask myself what story they tell when the two cards’ symbols intersect and meld. However, you could parse the two cards out, using the top, crossing card to represent the most visible aspects of the problem (the face of my challenge), and the base card to represent central or hidden aspects of the problem (the crux of what hounds me).
I read the horizontal cards in crosses as upright, but as always, you may designate a direction to indicate reversals. You may also simplify the center cross to a single card. That might be easier for beginning readers, or for questions about broad archetypal patterns adequately represented by a single card.
Draw Cards One and Two at random to gain fresh insights on your challenge’s visible manifestations. Choose these cards consciously before shuffling and drawing the rest to set an intended focus and represent your prior thoughts on the issue you plan to examine.
• This spread does not change significantly applied to different areas of life. In fact, it’s pretty good at bridging multiple areas of life and searching out broad patterns when several things feel shaky all at once. I could see it being quite useful for navigating imploding creative projects, damage control, and the process of scrapping and starting over.
• “What The” Cross Variations: When I read these two cards together, I consider the cross as a whole and ask myself what story they tell when the two cards’ symbols intersect and meld. However, you could parse the two cards out, using the top, crossing card to represent the most visible aspects of the problem (the face of my challenge), and the base card to represent central or hidden aspects of the problem (the crux of what hounds me).
I read the horizontal cards in crosses as upright, but as always, you may designate a direction to indicate reversals. You may also simplify the center cross to a single card. That might be easier for beginning readers, or for questions about broad archetypal patterns adequately represented by a single card.
Draw Cards One and Two at random to gain fresh insights on your challenge’s visible manifestations. Choose these cards consciously before shuffling and drawing the rest to set an intended focus and represent your prior thoughts on the issue you plan to examine.
• This spread does not change significantly applied to different areas of life. In fact, it’s pretty good at bridging multiple areas of life and searching out broad patterns when several things feel shaky all at once. I could see it being quite useful for navigating imploding creative projects, damage control, and the process of scrapping and starting over.
