Rainbow Tarot Spread
Inspired by the designs of Gilbert Baker, Daniel Quasar,
AVEN, Amber Hikes, & Monica Helms.
AVEN, Amber Hikes, & Monica Helms.
1. Hot Pink/Pleasure (Sex): Notes for greater pleasure and sensuality. (Optional: tips to improve my sex life.)
2. Red/Life: How to raise my passions and inspire lust for life.
3. Orange/Healing: A resource for my healing.
4. Yellow/Sunlight (Openness): Where to shine my light.
5. Green/Nature: A message from nature.
6. Turquoise/Art & Magic: A good project to exercise my arts and Crafts.
7. Blue/Serenity: How to cultivate serenity and stillness.
8. Purple/Spirit: A message from (my) spirit.
9. Gray & Purple/Ace Pride & Platonic Love:
ACE Readers: A message for my healing & celebration.
Allosexual Readers: How to be more inclusive to my ace friends. How to strengthen my platonic relationships.
10. Black & Brown/QTPOC Pride:
QTPOC Readers: A message for my healing & celebration.
White Readers: How to do better for the QTPOC in my community.
11. Blue, Pink, & White: Trans & Gender Queer Pride:
Trans & GNC Readers: A message for my healing & celebration.
Cis Readers: How to do better for the trans, genderqueer, and gender non-conforming people in my community.
NOTES:
This collection just wouldn’t be complete without a spread designed around all the Pride flags!
Gilbert Baker designed the first gay pride flag in 1978. The original flag had eight colors, each symbolic. The pink and turquoise were eventually dropped for logistic and reproduction reasons, leaving the iconic six-color rainbow flag we know and love today. I love Baker’s eight-color design, so I’ve included his intended meanings in the card descriptions above.
The only change I’ve made from Baker’s symbolism is to assign the hot pink as pleasure. Pink originally stood for sex, but that’s not relevant to everyone in our community. Draw this card as you please on the topics of sex, sensuality, pleasure, and/or embodiment.
In recent years, designers have re-envisioned the pride flag to actively include POC and asexual, trans, and gender-nonconforming folx. The final three cards mark these additions to the Pride flag, inspired by Daniel Quasar’s redesign, and referencing the ace flag, which was designed and voted into being by members of AVEN; Amber Hikes’ addition of black and brown stripes to the Philly pride flag; and the trans flag designed by Monica Helms.
For each of these identity cards, if you are a member of the represented community, draw a card for your own healing and/or celebration, whichever you need most—maybe both! You might separate into two cards here for clarity. If you are not a member of the represented community, draw a card to brainstorm how you can be a better ally. This might be an area to educate yourself, something to examine in your life and thoughts, or an action to take. I encourage readers not to skip these cards! There is always something more we could learn or do better.
VARIATIONS:
1. The More the Merrier: There are so many identities and communities within the LGBTQIA+ umbrella—more than can fit on one page! If you have close ties to a group not listed, either as a member or an ally, feel free to draw an additional card for that group. This can extend past the umbrella, too, especially for those with complex identities. For example, you might like to draw a card for celebrating your experience as a disabled or neurodivergent queer person.
2. Rainbow Squared: For next-level queering, point this spread back to your experience as a queer person, and check out how that experience colors your life across this symbolic spectrum. Like so:
1. Hot Pink/Pleasure (Sex): How does my queerness affect my sensuality?
2. Red/Life: How does my queerness affect my passion for life.
3. Orange/Healing: How does my queerness affect healing? Where has it healed me?
4. Yellow/Sunlight (Openness): How does my queerness affect what I have to share with the world, and how I deliver it?
5. Green/Nature: How does my queerness affect my relationship to nature?
6. Turquoise/Art & Magic: How does my queerness affect my art and/or magic?
7. Blue/Serenity: How does my queerness affect my peace of mind?
8. Purple/Spirit: What does my queerness have to say to my spirit?
OR, flip the script:
1. Hot Pink/Pleasure (Sex): How does my sensuality shape my queer experience?
2. Red/Life: How does my passion shape my queer experience?
3. Orange/Healing: How does my healing shape my queer experience?
4. Yellow/Sunlight (Openness): How does my openness to the world shape my queer experience?
5. Green/Nature: How does nature shape my queer experience?
6. Turquoise/Art & Magic: How does art or magic shape my queer experience?
7. Blue/Serenity: How does my level of calm shape my queer experience?
8. Purple/Spirit: How does my spirit shape my queer experience?
2. Red/Life: How to raise my passions and inspire lust for life.
3. Orange/Healing: A resource for my healing.
4. Yellow/Sunlight (Openness): Where to shine my light.
5. Green/Nature: A message from nature.
6. Turquoise/Art & Magic: A good project to exercise my arts and Crafts.
7. Blue/Serenity: How to cultivate serenity and stillness.
8. Purple/Spirit: A message from (my) spirit.
9. Gray & Purple/Ace Pride & Platonic Love:
ACE Readers: A message for my healing & celebration.
Allosexual Readers: How to be more inclusive to my ace friends. How to strengthen my platonic relationships.
10. Black & Brown/QTPOC Pride:
QTPOC Readers: A message for my healing & celebration.
White Readers: How to do better for the QTPOC in my community.
11. Blue, Pink, & White: Trans & Gender Queer Pride:
Trans & GNC Readers: A message for my healing & celebration.
Cis Readers: How to do better for the trans, genderqueer, and gender non-conforming people in my community.
NOTES:
This collection just wouldn’t be complete without a spread designed around all the Pride flags!
Gilbert Baker designed the first gay pride flag in 1978. The original flag had eight colors, each symbolic. The pink and turquoise were eventually dropped for logistic and reproduction reasons, leaving the iconic six-color rainbow flag we know and love today. I love Baker’s eight-color design, so I’ve included his intended meanings in the card descriptions above.
The only change I’ve made from Baker’s symbolism is to assign the hot pink as pleasure. Pink originally stood for sex, but that’s not relevant to everyone in our community. Draw this card as you please on the topics of sex, sensuality, pleasure, and/or embodiment.
In recent years, designers have re-envisioned the pride flag to actively include POC and asexual, trans, and gender-nonconforming folx. The final three cards mark these additions to the Pride flag, inspired by Daniel Quasar’s redesign, and referencing the ace flag, which was designed and voted into being by members of AVEN; Amber Hikes’ addition of black and brown stripes to the Philly pride flag; and the trans flag designed by Monica Helms.
For each of these identity cards, if you are a member of the represented community, draw a card for your own healing and/or celebration, whichever you need most—maybe both! You might separate into two cards here for clarity. If you are not a member of the represented community, draw a card to brainstorm how you can be a better ally. This might be an area to educate yourself, something to examine in your life and thoughts, or an action to take. I encourage readers not to skip these cards! There is always something more we could learn or do better.
VARIATIONS:
1. The More the Merrier: There are so many identities and communities within the LGBTQIA+ umbrella—more than can fit on one page! If you have close ties to a group not listed, either as a member or an ally, feel free to draw an additional card for that group. This can extend past the umbrella, too, especially for those with complex identities. For example, you might like to draw a card for celebrating your experience as a disabled or neurodivergent queer person.
2. Rainbow Squared: For next-level queering, point this spread back to your experience as a queer person, and check out how that experience colors your life across this symbolic spectrum. Like so:
1. Hot Pink/Pleasure (Sex): How does my queerness affect my sensuality?
2. Red/Life: How does my queerness affect my passion for life.
3. Orange/Healing: How does my queerness affect healing? Where has it healed me?
4. Yellow/Sunlight (Openness): How does my queerness affect what I have to share with the world, and how I deliver it?
5. Green/Nature: How does my queerness affect my relationship to nature?
6. Turquoise/Art & Magic: How does my queerness affect my art and/or magic?
7. Blue/Serenity: How does my queerness affect my peace of mind?
8. Purple/Spirit: What does my queerness have to say to my spirit?
OR, flip the script:
1. Hot Pink/Pleasure (Sex): How does my sensuality shape my queer experience?
2. Red/Life: How does my passion shape my queer experience?
3. Orange/Healing: How does my healing shape my queer experience?
4. Yellow/Sunlight (Openness): How does my openness to the world shape my queer experience?
5. Green/Nature: How does nature shape my queer experience?
6. Turquoise/Art & Magic: How does art or magic shape my queer experience?
7. Blue/Serenity: How does my level of calm shape my queer experience?
8. Purple/Spirit: How does my spirit shape my queer experience?
