A lot of new readers don’t use positions when laying their Tarot cards down, and often, as a result, do not understand the cards laid. While this can also be down to not yet having gained enough knowledge of the individual cards, it is not helped by not seeing what angle they should be viewed from. It results in the context of the cards not being seen.

If you imagine each card as being a note, as in playing a guitar, add two or three notes together and you get a chord, and so you get one sound. Add a different selection of notes and you get a different chord, thus an alternate sound.

Each card is made of many notes; no one card means just a single thing. So, one note from one card may react in a certain way with a note from another one, and with the question posed and the positions they are in independently and together, they will create a chord.

If a tarot card is seen through the lens of the combination of the well-worded questions asked, the position it is in within a spread and the other cards, you can see a bigger picture of the spread, or cards used.

To lay down five cards with no intent, no clear question, and then with no positions, they are just five cards and can only be looked at from a generalized perspective. Add positions to that and you have a different, focused perspective, especially if the questions were clear. For the experienced reader, not using spreads with defined positions is great for them. Yet, for those new, it can often help to have a more organised format to work from, especially if you’re struggling with how to read your spreads. Give them definition, give them order and tighten your reins on the reading by being able to view the cards from a defined angle. By doing that, you can see where in your life the card fits, how it interacts with the other cards, as no card is an island on its own within a spread and see a deeper truth.

It does not matter if your spread is one, two, or three cards, or even ten. You can add meaning to the cards laid by adding definition with positions. If you’re struggling or curious, find a spread with positions that suit your needs and give it a try.

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