Tarot Spreads for Beginners: 3 Cards

Three cards make the best first real spread. One card gives a hint, ten get you lost. Three already tell a story but still fit in your head. Most readers still use them more than any other layout. In this lesson we'll cover tarot spreads for beginners built on three cards, and learn to read them together.

Four three-card layouts

The cards themselves don't know what their position means. You give the positions their meaning, before you draw. Here are four layouts that are easy to start with:

• Past, present, future. The classic. Where the situation came from, where it is now, and where it's heading if nothing changes.
• Situation, obstacle, advice. The most practical one: what's happening, what's in the way, what to do.
• You, the other person, the relationship. For questions about a partner or a colleague.
• Option A, option B, what will help you choose. For when you have to decide between two paths.

Pick one layout before the reading and don't change it after you see the cards. Otherwise it's very tempting to bend the positions to fit the answer you like.

How to read three cards together

The typical beginner mistake is reading three meanings separately and never connecting them. Here's an order that helps:

1. Start with the middle card. In every layout above it describes the core: the present, the obstacle, the relationship.
2. Count the Major Arcana and the suits (lessons 2 and 3). Three Cups out of three cards means the question is about feelings, even if it was asked about money.
3. Look at the numbers (lesson 4). Ace towards Ten in order means the situation is developing; Ten back towards Two means something is ending.
4. Say one sentence that includes all three cards. If the sentence won't come together, go back to the middle card.

An example

Question: "What will happen with my money over the next few months?" Layout: past, present, future.

• Past: Five of Pentacles - hard times, not enough money.
• Present: Ace of Pentacles - a new opportunity, a first step towards money.
• Future: Eight of Pentacles - a lot of work, skill that pays off.

All three cards are Pentacles, so this really is about material things. The numbers climb from crisis to work. One sentence: "The worst is behind you and an opportunity has appeared, but the money will come through careful work, not by itself." No single card says that, but together they say it clearly.

Where to try it

Do a three card tarot reading on our site: the cards are drawn at random, and you apply the layout from this lesson yourself. Write the reading in the journal from lesson 7 and come back to it in a week. You can open any card and read it in full in our tarot card meanings section.

What's next

In the final lesson, lesson 10, we'll talk about reversed cards and where to go from here.