7 Powerful “3 Card” Tarot Spreads To Add to Your Practice

This article introduces seven easy and powerful three-card tarot spreads that can help you gain meaningful insights into your life. Each spread is designed to provide clear and simple guidance for your tarot practice.

Tarot is a powerful tool and it can feel like one card can explain the entirety of a complex situation. Sometimes that doesn’t come close to revealing all we want to know. When one card isn’t enough, but a Celtic Cross is too much, it’s a great time to see what kind of advice can be gleaned from three card spreads.

Be sure to note when Major Arcana cards make an appearance, as not only do they hint that something big is going on – but they impact how the other cards can play into that situation.  If the cards in your spread are suited, it indicates that there is a lot of energy around that suit’s subject (cups – emotions, wands – spirit, swords – mind, pentacles – physical)! If they represent three of the four suits – is there something about the missing suit that you might be ‘lacking’ in your life?

Past – Present – Future

This one’s a classic! This is a great spread to see where energy is flowing – and where it’s been stymied.

Past – This card isn’t just about what happened in the past, but what has been carried over from the past into your current situation. Are there lessons that should be revisited? How does the past influence where you are now?

Present  – Think about the energies impacting the present moment. Is there something under the surface you haven’t considered? What kind of energy was carried over from your past? Every card has the ability of showing positives and negatives – what are the challenges and opportunities you are being presented?

Future – This card holds possibilities – but it has not yet come to be. Do you like what you see in this card? If not, what could you do to change it? Depending on how you react to this card should give you a lot of insight.

You – The World – Advice

This reading starts with the energy you bring to the situation. From there it branches into seeing what energy the world brings to this moment, and a piece of advice to help you see your way through.

You – What energy are you bringing to the situation? What challenges are you facing? What kind of advantages do you have? 

The World – What energy is the world throwing at you right now? Is it to your advantage or no? How could those energies mix with yours?

Advice – How should you handle what you’re dealing with and what you’ve been given? What’s your best way to move through the world? If the card is reversed or commonly thought of as a ‘negative’ card, reframe your thoughts and feelings about it and consider what the advice would be (I’m looking at you, high swords and The Tower)? 

Opportunity – Barrier – Advice

Another classic spread! It aims to help you understand the opportunity, the barrier, and give you some advice. The distance that tarot can give might allow you to see aspects of the situation that you can’t see from being within it.

Opportunity – If the card doesn’t seem like a standard ‘yes’ answer – what opportunities does it present? Is there an angle that you can now see that you couldn’t before? 

Barrier – What are the barriers and challenges? Does seeing the barrier allow you to see a workable side to it? 

Advice – How can you make the most out of this opportunity? How can you overcome the barrier? What kind of energy do you see between the cards? Does this card give you a different perspective on the prior two? 

The Situation – Option 1 (if yes) – Option 2 (if No)

When you are facing a situation with two options, this is a great spread to use to contemplate how you feel about those options and how they might play out. 

The Situation – What insights could you gather about your situation from this card? Is there something within the card you didn’t realize was true about the situation? 

For the Two Options – Consider your initial gut reactions to the two cards. Do you prefer one over the other? Do the cards reveal something about the options and outcomes you hadn’t considered before? Does one seem to ‘feel’ like a more natural extension of the situation?  In examining the cards, have you realized there may be more options to the situation than just two?

Embrace – Accept – Let Go

Growing often means embracing things that work for us, accepting things that we must, and letting go of things that add negativity to our life. Evaluate how you feel about each of these cards and their positions.

Embrace – What should you embrace and hold close? If the card seems challenging, is there a way to reframe it to realize the positive aspects? 

Accept – There are some things in life we just have to accept – there are challenges that aren’t going anywhere.

Let Go – As much as it can hurt, there are things we must let go. It might be something you had a lot of faith in, or something that you’ve carried with you for a while. Sometimes we carry things out of habit, not because they help. 

Mind – Body – Spirit

These cards represent your intellectual, physical, and spiritual self.

Mind –  Where are your thoughts? How do your beliefs impact your current situation? What should you focus on? 

Body – What does your body have to say? Is there something that you need to know?

Spirit –  What is in your subconscious? What is a way you can grow spiritually? Where are you on your spiritual path? 

You – Them – The Relationship

This is another classic. I was taught to lay out the cards so that the first card laid down is the ‘You’ card, the second is the ‘them’ card, and the relationship card is third – but placed between the two. 

You – Where is your mind in all of this? What are your challenges? Your hopes? Your fears? What’s your angle? 

Them – Where are they in all of this? What are their motivations – their hopes and fears? What challenges might they be facing? What do the two have in common? What are the differences?

The Relationship – What’s the energy between the two? Where is the relationship now? What are the challenges? The opportunities?