Card Layouts
From Association of Independent Readers and Rootworkers
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A card layout, also known as a card spread is a pre-set pattern in which a card reader displays cards for a sitter or querent. Over the years a great many layouts have been developed and popularized in the card reading community. Some have fallen by the wayside, some were never more than novelties, and some remain as popular now as they ever were.
In addition to a deck of playing cards, tarot cards, Lenormand cards, or oracle cards, some card readers may keep a pendulum on the table, to read yes-or-no answers over specific cards.
Many, but not all, card readings begin with the selection of a Type Card or Significator card, one that is set aside to represent the querent or sitter. It may be set at the center of the layout or "at the head of the table," where it presides over the layout. If a reading is for two people, each one may be represented by a Significator, and if a reading is performed on a distant person of interest, that person's Significator may be used instead of the sitter's.
Most readings then introduce a randomization process, such as shuffling or washing. The two most popular shuffles are the riffle shuffle and the Asian (or Hindu) shuffle, which are identical to shuffles used in playing card games. Washing the cards, also known as mischling, mixing, or mingling, is a method more common among card readers than card players. All the cards are laid face-down on the table and pushed around at random, either by the reader, the sitter, or by both.
Once the cards are in random order, they are stacked into a compact deck and the selection of cards to read begins, according to the type of layout to be used and the reader's preferred methods.
Card layout patterns range from quite intricate designs like the Celtic Cross, the Cross of fFifteen, the Method of Fifteen, the Italian Method, the Wheel of the Year, or the Star and on down to the straightforward Rainbow of seven layout, the nine-card Tic-Tac-Toe layout, the Old Three Card Cut, and even the One Card Draw. Some layouts, like the Grand Tableau, use all of the cards in the deck, but most utilize only a portion of them.
The One Card Draw
The One Card Draw, also known as the One Card Pull, the One Card Cut, or Turning a Card, is the simplest layout of all. It may be employed to answer a specific yes or no question or it may be employed on a special day, such as New Year's Eve or the sitter's birthday, to predict the fortune for the coming year. For a method so rudimentary, you might think there is only one way to do it, but actually there are two popular methods.
Cut and Draw
The deck is shuffled and cut, and the card that shows its face is the selected card. The pulled card is displayed face up to be read and the remainder of the deck is reunited and laid to one side, face down.
Ribbon Spread
The deck is shuffled and then spread out across the table face down in the form of a ribbon or rainbow. The sitter is instructed to pull any card. The remaining cards are neatly swept back up and laid to one side, and the pulled card is displayed face up to be read.
The Three Card Cut
To make the Three Card Cut, fondly known as the Old Three Card Cut or Cutting Cards, the deck is shuffled and then cut twice, resulting in three stacks. The top card of each stack is turned face up on the table from left to right, and the remaining cards are reunited and laid to one side.
Past, Present, and Future
The ever-popular Three Card Cut may be used to perform a divination on the querent's past, present, and future, or to give a broad outlook at what is to come.
A separate past-present-future Three Card Cut may be performed for each topic proposed by the sitter, for instance a love question, a money question, and a health question.
Problem, Short Term Solution, Long Term Solution
If the querent wants a Three Card Cut but is unclear about what exactly is happening (for instance with a distant lover or an awaited court case), the first card can represent the problem, identifying what is actually going on. The second and third cards then represent short term and long term ways of resolving or curing the problem.
Suggestions for Rootwork Methods
The Three Card Cut can do double duty if the reader is also a root doctor, because the cards may be read to indicate which forms of conjure work, spell casting, or prayers should be undertaken.
The card suits, representing the elements Earth, Air, Fire, and Water, can be used to indicate the best type of work and the card pips may indicate the number of times to do the work or how long to wait. For example, perhaps the Three of Cups is the present or future card or short term or long term solution card. It is a happy card, not a gloomy one, so it indicates the potential for a positive resolution to the situation. The suit of cups indicates the element of Water and the card number 3 might lead to a prescription of a series of three watery spells, first with a magical or medical herbal tea, then with a traditional hoodoo bath, and finally with a thorough floor washing.
The Tic-Tac-Toe Spread
When three rows of Three Card Cuts are laid out, the result is informally known as the Tic-Tac-Toe spread. This layout can be made by shuffling the deck and cutting nine times to reveal nine cards at once, or it can be made by shuffling and dealing nine cards off the top of the deck.
Three views of One Question
This layout can be interpreted with the top row as a past-present-future reading; the middle row as a problem, short term solution, and long term solution; and the bottom row as what the spirits or the universe want the sitter to know that the reader has not asked about.
Three Separate Questions
The Tic-Tac-Toe layout can also be used to answer a series of three separate questions with three separate Three Card Cuts, for instance a love question, a money question, and a health question. When this approach is used, it is common to reshuffle the deck between each Three Card Cut, but after completing the reading on the third question, to approach an integration of all nine cards for overall information.
Suggestions for Rootwork Methods
What makes the Tic-Tac-Toe spread different than three Three Card Cuts is that it is usually read both in rows and in columns, and the balance of card suits and the repetition of card numbers found in the layout is almost always taken into consideration as well, so Tic-Tac-Toe spread can be used to suggest forms of rootwork to the client. Because there are nine cards, the reader may look at the overall balance of suits, or glance down the right-hand column for ideas. Repetitions of numbers on pip cards and repetitions of specific card suits may also present suggestions for the work to be done, and trump cards may be selected as candle labels, according to their imagery.
The Outcome Card
When using a Three Card Cut, some readers read to the end and then lay down a fourth card, called the Outcome Card. Its name derives from the 10th card in a Celtic Cross layout, and for this reason it often found as a finale to the Three Card Cut readings of those whose preferred long-form reading is the Celtic Cross.
This fourth card usually acts as a summation of what will happen if the reader's instructions as to social, medical, or magical advice is taken. In particular, the outcome card often answers the querent's question, "Would magic be of any use in this situation?"
The Rainbow or Horseshoe
The Rainboow or Horseshoe spread consists of seven cards, positioned as an A, V, or U. It may be used with playing cards or tarot cards. This layout develops as a situation-based reading, and thus it helpful to clients who know what their question is.
- Card #1: Past Influences on the situation
- Card #2: Present Circumstances surrounding the client
- Card #3: Upcoming influences Final Outcome
- Card #4: Best Course of Action for the client
- Card #5: The Attitude of Others and their influence
- Card #6: Possible Obstacles to the client
- Card #7: Final Outcome of the situation if nothing is done to change it
The Rainbow or Horseshoe is also unique in that card #4 suggests a physical, social, medical, legal, or magical course of action, and can be read in terms of card suit and card pip to indicate the best type of work to do and the number of times to do it, while card #7 tells the client what the outcome will be if no action is taken at all.
The Celtic Cross
The Celtic Cross layout employs 10 cards: a Significator, five cards to form the cross, and a column of four cards along the right-hand side to provide additional information. It is an extremely popular layout for long-form readings -- those lasting from half an hour to one hour -- and was promoted through the popularity of the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck of 1910, which included instructions for it with every deck sold.
The Celtic Cross has become so ubiquitous that special reading cloths, imprinted with the layout, can be purchased by those new to card reading.
In this reading, each of the ten cards relates in some way to the client's situation:
- Card #1: The Present situation of the client
- Card #2: What Crosses or bars the client's way
- Card #3: The Past that led to this current situation
- Card #4: The Future, expressed in weeks or months
- Card #5: Above, goals, and aspirations
- Card #6: Below, pitfalls, unknown factors, the subconscious
- Card #7: Advice; the reader's (or the Universe's) suggestions for the client
- Card #8: External Influences, family members, co-workers, politics, weather
- Card #9: Hopes and Fears; hopes if a positive cards, fears if a negative card
- Card #10: The Outcome if things continue as they are; if negative, offer suggestions for change
The advantage of the Celtic Cross spread is that it delves deeply, almost psychologically, into the client's mind. Its disadvantage is that it does not inherently frame the sitter's question -- such as, "Does my husband have an outside lover?" -- and therefore, unless the sitter states a question and the reader specifically relates each card to that question, it may only provides a general reading.
The Wheel of the Year
A Wheel of the Year consists of 12 cards laid out around the Significator in an array derived from - and positionally linked to -- a standard astrological chart of horoscope. As a large layout, it takes at least one hour to read, and is more comfortably delivered in an hour and a half. This has given rise to its alternate name, The Birthday Special -- in which the reader charges for one hour of time, but gives an extra half-hour to the sitter as a birthday present.
Starting at the position of the First House, in the East (the 9:00 o'clock position on a clock face) and proceeding counterclockwise, the 12 cards are read for their meanings according to the 12 houses of a horoscope, as predictors for the year to come:
- Card #1: Physical Appearance
- Card #2: Money and Finances
- Card #3: Communication and Short Trips
- Card #4: The Home and Its Upkeep
- Card #5: Children and Pets
- Card #6: Labour, Health, and Jobs
- Card #7: Lover, Spouse, Business Partner
- Card #8: Legacies, Birth, Sex, Death
- Card #9: Philosophy, Religion, Long Journeys
- Card #10: Fame, Career, Social Position
- Card #11: Siblings, Nieces, Nephews, Cousins, Neighbors
- Card #12: Illness, Sorrow, Confinement, Secrets
The Wheel of the Year can also be used to determine the major influences of each month of the coming year. When used this way, it is typically read on New Years Eve, with card #1 as January, #2 as February, and so forth. It can also be read on the clients birthday, with the months counted from the birth date onward.
The advantage of this reading is that it relates to every area of life. It is customary to finish the wheel and then offer the client a choice of three houses of most interest and to pull a Three Card Cut on each of those house, for further details on what the clients deems most important. The disadvantage of this reading is its sheer length.
The Cross of Fifteen
The Cross of Fifteen layout dates back at least to the 19th century. It was described by Professor P. R. S. Foli (Sir Cyril Arthur Pearson) under the name "The Wish with Fifteen Cards" in his book "Fortune Telling by Cards" in 1903 and was the best-known "cross" layout until the rising popularity of tarot cards brought us A. E. Waite's "Celtic Cross" in 1910. At one time it was certainly as popular as the Old Three Card Cut or the Method of Fifteen (three rows of 5 cards). However, unlike the Old Three Card Cut, it has fallen out of usage, which is unfortunate, because it is an excellent system and easily memorized. It was designed for use with a pack of 32 playing cards numbered 7 through Aces high, otherwise known at a piquet pack, of which only 16 cards are used, 1 for the Type Card or Significator, and 15 for the reading. The cards are laid out in a particular cross pattern to provide five Three Card Cut readings on five frames of reference. The groups on the top and left and top refer to the remote past and the immediate past, those on the right and below, to the immediate future, and the remote future. The cards at the center answer the questions which the sitter has most in mind.
- Card #0: The Significator or Type Card
- Cards #3, #8, #13: The Remote Past is the top arm of the Cross.
- Cards #1, #6, #11: The Immediate Past is the left arm of the Cross.
- Cards #2, #7, #12: The Immediate Future is the right arm of the Cross.
- Cards #4, #9, #14: The Distant Future is the bottom arm of the Cross.
- Cards #5, #10, #15: The Client's Questions
The advantage of the Cross of Fifteen reading is that it allows the sitter to see that current events are situated in a larger framework of timing and life choices, and to receive answers to specific questions. Its disadvantages are that it takes up a lot of space on a table and in its original form it uses only 32 cards (including reverses), each with a formal and traditional meaning. The first objection is solved by employing a mini-card or Patience deck; the second by simply swapping in an entire pack of 52 playing cards or 78 tarot cards for the piquet pack.
The Grand Tableau
In the Grand Tableau, all of the cards in the deck are laid out and all of them are read with respect to their relationship to nearby and distant cards. It is most o used with the Lenormand deck.
In this layout the Significator is located and then a "path" is walked through the cards to arriive at the sitter's wished-for outcome. Any card met along the course of this journey presents a help or a hindrance to the sitter., and is explained as such by the reader. Because alternative paths may be seen, the client is presented with a detailed map of possibilities, a sort of "choose your adventure" glimpse into the future.
It takes a competent, experienced, and fluent reader to present the Grand Tableau, but if it is done well, the client will be greatly impressed by the reading.
Selected Cards in the Tableau
There are also layouts in which the entire deck is placed on the table in rows, as for a Grand Tableau, but only certain cards are actually counted in the reading -- for instance the Four Aces or the relevant court cards. Their positions within the layout will tell the story of the querent's situation and whether a positive or negative outcome can be expected.
Triangles, Squares, and Stars
Other common spreads, employed when addressing a life reading or a complex situation, may involve laying out a specific number of cards in the form of a Triangle of 3, a Square of 4, a Star of 5 or 8 points, and so forth. These layouts may or may not also include a Significator card at the center or head of the layout, the rest of the deck being set aside unused.
Card Positions in the Layout
In most layouts each position that a card may occupy has a special designation or meaning of its own. For instance:
• In the Celtic Cross spread, consisting of 10 cards, the position for card #2 always indicates what the client is being challenged or blocked by, while cards #3 and #4 are the past and the future.
• In the Wheel of the Year layout, consisting of 12 cards, card #2 always represents the querent's money, while card #7 always signifies the querent's partner, lover, or spouse.
• In the Old Three Card Cut, card #1 may represent the past, card #2 the present, and card #3 the future.
Reader's Choice
Experienced card readers generally are familiar with several or many card spreads.
Some may have a favourite layout and a favourite deck of cards which they use consistently, while others vary their format for laying out the cards in order to create a spread that they feel best fits the nature of the sitter's question or current situation.
Readers often select a spread for a client based on how much time was booked: a Three Card Cut usually takes ten minutes to read but a Wheel of the Year is generally a one hour to one-and-a-half hour reading.
Finally, some readers may offer the client a choice, not only of which layout to use, but also of which card deck will be selected. This is especially true of older, more experienced readers when working with reguar clients who appreciate the suble differences that card ayouts present.
Credits
This page is brought to you by the AIRR Tech Team:
- Author: catherine yronwode
- Contributor: Miss Bri
- Images: Catherine Yronwode, Miss Bri, Sister Jean, Professor Ames, Panther Media Seller, Ronin69, Selugallego, and Unknown Artist
See Also
- Cartomancy
- Trump Cards
- Court Cards
- Pip Cards
- Card Suits
- Card Layouts
