Three Card Reading in Tarot: Examples of Three Card Spread

Three Card Reading with Tarot

A three card reading in the Tarot would be utilized when we want a quick view at our energy or our client’s energy.

Do you remember Polaroid’s? A Tarot three-card spread is like a Polaroid image. Not the greatest quality, but instant gratification.

Some scenarios best suited for three card readings:

Daily draws for yourself
Focusing on a triad of intentions
A quick glimpse at personality traits
Quick timeframes and summaries of upcoming events
Fundraisers, charities or other events where you’ll be doing a lot of consecutive readings

Here are some examples of three card reading in Tarot. Each example explains when best to use each three-card spread.

Basic Time Frame Spread

Three Card Tarot Reading and Meaning — Three Card Tarot Reading : Time Frame

This three card reading is great to get an aerial view of your client’s energy in terms of time. Because three-card spreads are generalized, the time frame will also be light. Figure one to three months in the past and future.

However, you can specify prior to your reading if you’d like to reach farther out in time. Nevertheless, three card spreads are designed for brevity and base understanding. Delving into deeper time frames might be better accomplished with a more intricate spread.

This past, present future spread is great for fundraisers and events because it gives a general overview of your ability to your patrons, while still allowing you to read many people (without overtaxing yourself) in short bursts.

Focused Triad and Intent

This spread is designed for a meditative focus of intention and concentration.

The “Thought” Tarot card will represent a train of thought, or thought-intent on which to focus. If you feel the card represents a negative thought, consider the card meaning asking you to retrain your thought and focus to the positive aspect.

The “Emotion” card works in the same manner. Again, if you feel you’ve pulled a card with negative connotations (i.e., the Devil speaking anger to your intuition), then the cards are asking for a softening of emotion.

The “Intent” position indicates what you may expect by working with your thoughts and emotions (as revealed in the supporting cards). The “Intent” is the focused outcome of the inner work we do with our thoughts and emotion.

Daily Encounter Spread

This is a fun three card reading you can do for yourself at the beginning of your day. The “you” card represents (obviously) you, and your energetic tone at the moment of pulling the card.

The crossing card indicates what kind of joys, fun, people, surprises, conflicts, or events you will encounter on this day.

The “outcome” card gives you a clue as to how your day will conclude. Be mindful of this outcome card because it may clue you in on how you can handle conflict more effectively.

If your goal is to handle interferences in your life better, set that intention as you pull that outcome card. The focus of that card will be more helpful and provide insight into how you can better handle interruptions in your day.

Inner Balancing Spread

I like this three card reading because it offers me ample opportunity to work on the inner self. We’ve all got strengths and weaknesses in our personality. Quite often we’re not fully aware of these.

This simple Tarot spread clarifies those aspects of our personality and points us in a direction for guidance. The “Strengths” and “Weakness” cards are obvious in representation.

The “Guidance” card is key, as it will show you how to balance your personality traits to reach a level of equanimity. Often our weaknesses are just as effective for our growth as our strengths.

The object here is not to get rid of one personality trait, or enlarge another. The idea is to balance the two to come to a common place of temperance and satisfaction in our behavior.

The “Guidance” card serves as a symbolic bridge in this reading. It will lead the way to help us balance the scales between the light and dark qualities of our personalities.

I hope you have enjoyed these samples of Tarot three card spreads.