How to Read Tarot Cards: Part 5 - The Four-Card Spread

© Copyright 2012 Patrice Walker All rights reserved

We’ve discovered in the last four parts of this series on how to read tarot cards that the tarot deck is made up of 78 cards which are divided into two parts, the major arcana and the minor arcana. The minor arcana can be further subdivided into the pip cards (the Ace through 10 of the four suits) and the court cards. We’ve also taken a look at how one can reinforce and expand on the meaning of the cards through the one-card tarot spread.

Now it’s time to begin actually doing some readings with the tarot deck. Typically, books that teach you how to read tarot cards start off with what is known as the Celtic Cross tarot spread. This tarot spread is made up of anywhere from 10 to 14 cards, depending on which variation of the spread is being taught. While the Celtic Cross spread is extremely effective in answering questions, the number of cards it contains can be overwhelming for the first-time reader.

Therefore, I like to teach beginners a tarot card spread that consists of only four cards. Don’t be fooled by the simplicity of this spread. Its effectiveness lies in its ability to cover a wealth of situations and circumstances that form the basis of questions people typically ask during a tarot reading.

In this hub, I’m going to cover the following topics:

• The Best Questions a Tarot Card Reading Can Answer
• The Four-Card Tarot Spread
• A Simple Format for Giving a Tarot Card Reading
• The “Art” of Reading Tarot Cards.

The “right” kind of questions used in conjunction with the four-card spread will yield answers and solutions as good as the ones you’d get with the Celtic Cross spread.

Before getting into the specifics of the four-card spread, I want to focus a bit on the topic of questions, specifically what kinds of questions are going to yield the best information for yourself or the person you are doing the reading for?

Note: From here on out, I’m going to use the term, querant, to refer to the person you are doing a tarot reading for. It’s a bit of a weird term, and my word processor is telling me it isn’t really a word, but it’s the term many tarot enthusiasts use to refer to the “questioner” or the person asking the question during a tarot card reading.

When I did tarot card readings on the American Tarot Association’s Free Reading Network, I would typically get questions that fell into three main categories:

• Questions about the future, e.g., What does the future hold for me?
• Yes/No questions, e.g., Will I get the job I’m thinking about applying for?
• Questions about other people, e.g., What does my girlfriend really think about me?

Predicting the future. Not!

While there are many methods for using the tarot to predict a future event, I don’t make it a habit of answering them. Why? Because I believe the future is not set in stone. There are many futures available to an individual and which future unfolds is in his or her hands. The four-card spread that I’ll be discussing in a moment is designed to help the querant attract the most favorable future possible with respect to the question being asked.

Another problem with the first question is that it is too general. You’ll be able to provide a much more effective response if you ask the querant to narrow the question to a specific area, such as relationships, money, or health – the three main areas people want information about.

**Be careful, though.** Money and health questions are tricky because you don’t want to be giving out advice that you are not qualified or licensed to give. This is especially true if you are charging money for the tarot card readings you give. It’s a good practice to let the querant know up front that he or she should seek professional help from qualified/licensed individuals in these areas. But, you can still offer advice through the tarot cards regarding general steps an individual can take to improve health and finances.

Yes/No Questions

Yes/no questions aren’t the most effective questions to ask since there can be only one of two answers – yes or no. In this instance, I would gently help the querant “re-frame” the question, making it more open-ended, for example, “What can I do to improve my chances of getting this job I’m thinking about applying for?” This is just the kind of question that the four-card spread is made for.

But sometimes your querant will insist on a yes/no answer. I included a video in Part 4 of this series which demonstrates a very effective way of answering yes/no questions using a one-card spread. This method provides additional information beyond “yes” or “no” that may offer suggestions to the querant about how to turn a “no” into a “yes” or why the answer is either “yes” or “no.”

Questions About Other People

The third example, “What does my girlfriend really think about me?,” is asking a question about someone else. This is another type of question that I steer clear of because I don’t think it’s ethical to get information about another person without their consent (see the American Tarot Association's Code of Ethics below).

Try instead to steer the question back on the querant, suggesting an alternative like, “What can I do to improve my relationship with my girlfriend?” Getting the querant to talk a bit about the situation he wants information on will help the two of you create the best possible question for the information he is seeking about the relationship.

A Sampling of The “Best” Kinds of Questions to Answer

Take a look at the questions below to get a feel for the kinds of questions that will yield the best possible information for you or your querant.

• What can I do to improve a situation?
• What steps can I take to move toward the outcome I desire?
• How can I keep from repeating this same mistake again?
• Why am I always attracting this disagreeable situation and what can I do about it?

These are all what are called open-ended questions because they require a response that goes beyond “yes” or “no” and put the burden of achieving a desirable outcome in the hands of the querant, making them very empowering.

Finally, what you’ve all been waiting for – the simple yet extremely versatile four-card tarot spread. But it’s really a three-card spread with an additional card drawn to provide extra insight.

The Power of Three

Among other things, the number three represents the cycle of life that allows for its continuity. In simplest terms, life begins, it endures for a while, and then it ends. And that ending is always followed by a new beginning. Three also represents the concept of “wholeness” which can be seen in the geometric shape of the triangle where line number one and line number to join with line number three to create a whole, self-contained unit.

The first three cards of the four-card spread, laid out in a horizontal line, take advantage of the potential of the number three to create tarot spreads that can deal with an almost unlimited number of situations.

Here are just a few examples:

I could go on but you get the point. In order to design the best three-card spread, it’s important to have the querant tell you what information he is seeking and provide some details about the situation that is prompting the question. Then you can decide what you want each card to tell you and label it accordingly.

And yes, the first spread – Past/Present/Future – looks like a predictive spread that I suggested you not do. However, the focal point of this spread is the Present card. The Past card is an indication of what lead to the present situation and the Future card represents what will probably occur if the present circumstances remain unchanged. The querant can always decide to change his actions in the present (the true point of power) if he doesn’t want a “probable” negative future to unfold.

The Fourth Card

The fourth card in our four-card spread adds additional insight that may help the querant resolve the issues that prompted the reading.

This card represents something the querant is not aware of about the situation and is positioned directly below the first three cards. I like to leave this card face down until the three cards above it have been thoroughly explored.

There are a lot of myths and superstitions about how to give a tarot reading. Terri Meredith has written an excellent hub that dispels many of them, so I won’t go into them here. Instead, I’m going to lay out a simple format to use for conducting a tarot reading, whether it is for yourself or someone else.

The Setting for Your Tarot Card Reading

I have done tarot card readings in some wild places, including in the midst of a loud party my daughter’s housemate was giving to a posh gathering at a ritzy hotel. Both places were out in the open where people could listen to the reading, so I did my best to have people stand back so that I could offer the querant some semblance of privacy.

The best setting in which to give a tarot reading is one where you and the querant will have some privacy because information often comes up that your querant wants to be kept private.

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**A Word of Caution**

Never ever reveal the contents of a tarot reading you give to other people, unless you have express permission to do so from the querant.

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The only other things you’ll need are:

• Your deck of cards
• A comfortable place for you and the querant to sit
• Good lighting
• A flat surface on which to spread the cards ...

... and you're ready to begin.

Conducting the Tarot Card Reading

These are the steps I follow when giving myself or someone else a tarot card reading.

Step 1 – Shuffle the deck.

I call this step, clearing the deck, because it ensures that the cards are randomly spaced throughout the deck. I may have forgotten to shuffle them at the end of a previous reading and want to make sure the old reading is “cleared” from the deck.

Step 2 – Ask the querant to shuffle and cut the deck.

Next, hand the cards over to the querant and ask her to shuffle the deck, and while doing so, to think of a question she wants answered. I will usually ask the querant to verbalize the question as she is shuffling so I know what to focus on in the reading and to aid in creating a four-card spread that will provide the best answer to her question.

This isn’t a “psychic” reading where you are divining what the querant wants to know (unless you do have some psychic ability). The purpose of the reading is to provide helpful information, and the best way to do that is to have the querant tell you want she wants to know.

Once the deck has been thoroughly shuffled, I ask the querant to cut the deck, after which I lay down the four-card tarot spread.

Step 3 – Give the tarot card reading.

If you are like me and aren’t particularly psychic, then you’re going to have to come up with a way to interpret the cards in a tarot spread. I rely mainly on the following three sources.

• The “book” meaning I have memorized
• The card images
• My intuition.

At this point, you should have a couple of key words or phrases for each of the 78 cards in the tarot deck. Often, the actual image can provide additional meaning to help you interpret the card. Add to these sources the insights and intuitive guidance you receive as you are conducting the reading.

Then it is simply a matter of combining the meaning of the card with the meaning you have assigned to its position in the spread and saying something. To make this as simple as possible, focus on one card at a time. I like to say a few things about what the card means and then ask the querant if this sounds like something that’s currently happening in her life. The person can usually relate what I’ve said to the situation and provide additional insights that help me relate the card’s meaning to its position in the spread.

If they can’t see how the card relates to their question, that’s okay too. Often, moving on to the other two cards will reveal something that helps me and the querant understand what the first card represents in his life.

I like to end the reading by summarizing what has been revealed and encouraging the querant to take some positive action to move toward resolving the issue that prompted the question in the first place.

Reading tarot cards is an art that takes time, practice, and patience to learn to do effectively. The four-card tarot spread makes the learning process a lot easier than trying to tackle a 10-card spread.

Don’t be afraid to ask the querant questions and don’t be afraid to articulate any insights that “pop” into your head. This intuitive guidance is usually correct, so learn to trust it. Also, it’s okay to refer a reference book like Tarot Plain and Simple when you first start doing tarot card readings. You will probably be reading for friends and family and they will understand if you need to use a book to remind yourself of a card’s meaning.

Above all, have fun as you learn how to read tarot cards. See yourself as the Fool, embarking on a journey full of unknowns but excited nonetheless to hit the road.