3 Card Tarot Spreads

Gord Hall

All 30 and When to Use Each

Three-card spreads are the workhorses of tarot. Fast, focused, and genuinely useful for most situations. If you’re new to spreads, start here. If you’re experienced, you’ll probably come back to them anyway. There are 30 of them here, each for one specific question, and they’re all on this page with their three positions written out so you can pick one and go.

Three tarot cards laid out in a row, a three card tarot spread

How to read a 3 card tarot spread

Decide the spread before you shuffle. Lay the three cards left to right. For each one, look at the picture first and say what you see, out loud if you can, before you reach for a meaning. Then ask what that has to do with the position it’s sitting in: Past, or Obstacle, or Fear. Then read the three together as one sentence. Finish with one thing you’ll actually do this week. If a position feels empty, check your question before you add a card. Better questions beat extra cards.

Checking in

Quick ways to know where you are. Morning, evening, or whenever you’ve lost track of yourself.

Past / Present / Future

For transitions, decisions, or when you want to see the pattern you’re in.

Past: what from before is still shaping this? Present: what’s around you now? Future: where do your current choices lead?

Yesterday / Today / Tomorrow

A daily check-in, morning or evening.

Yesterday: what’s still with you from yesterday? Today: what’s the energy and the situation right now? Tomorrow: where is your current momentum taking you?

Mind / Body / Spirit

For stress, feeling off balance, or starting a new routine.

Mind: what are your thoughts doing to you? Body: what does your body need right now? Spirit: what feeds the part of you that isn’t thinking or doing?

Physical / Emotional / Spiritual

For illness, sadness or feeling cut off, when you want to see how the three interact.

Physical: where does your body need care? Emotional: what feeling needs expressing or healing? Spiritual: what practice would nourish you?

Relationships / Work / Play

For juggling too much and feeling burnt out.

Relationships: how are the people in your life supporting you, or not? Work: what are the demands and ambitions costing you? Play: where’s the fun, and is there enough of it?

Above / Below / Right Here

For feeling unanchored, caught between ideals and reality.

Above: what’s the bigger perspective you keep ignoring? Below: what grounds and sustains you? Right Here: what practical thing do you do now?

Unconscious / Conscious / Superconscious

For recurring patterns that confuse you, or to go deeper in a journaling session.

Unconscious: what’s influencing this that you haven’t noticed? Conscious: what do you already know you think about it? Superconscious: what does the wisest version of you say?

Making a decision

These don’t make the decision. They lay out what’s actually in play so you can make it yourself.

Situation / Obstacle / Advice

The one for guidance on anything, when you’re short on time or energy.

Situation: what’s actually going on? Obstacle: what’s in the way? Advice: what moves you forward?

Opportunities / Difficulties / Advice

For when you feel stuck and want to see the pros and cons laid out.

Opportunities: what’s open to you? Difficulties: what do you have to get past? Advice: how do you get past it and take what’s open?

Choice 1 / Choice 2 / How to Choose

For two paths and no idea which.

Choice 1: what does the first option hold? Choice 2: what does the second one hold? How to Choose: what should you weigh this on?

Choice 1 / Choice 2 / Choice 3

For three options, or two and the one you haven’t considered.

Each card: what does this path hold, and what would it cost?

Logical / Emotional / Intuitive

For when your head, your heart and your gut all say something different.

Logical: what does the sensible view say? Emotional: what feelings are steering this? Intuitive: what does your gut already know?

Action / Reaction / Outcome

For understanding how your choices land, before or after you make them.

Action: what are you doing, or about to do? Reaction: how does it land on the people and the situation around you? Outcome: where does this path end up?

Actions / Consequences / Reward

For weighing a decision’s long-term impact and your own responsibility in it.

Actions: what are you taking on? Consequences: what follows from it? Reward: what’s the good that could come?

Good / Evil / Middle Path

For moral dilemmas and questions of what’s right.

Good: what’s the principled pull here? Evil: what’s the shadow side you’d rather not look at? Middle Path: what’s the balanced way through?

Feelings and fears

For when the problem is inside you, or at least starts there.

Emotion / Emotion’s Source / Advice

For emotional turmoil, conflict, creative blocks, or feeling numb.

Emotion: what’s the feeling that’s running the show? Emotion’s Source: where did it come from? Advice: how do you process it without it processing you?

Fear / Your Response / Better Response

For a fear that’s driving your decisions, procrastination, or defensiveness.

Fear: what exactly are you afraid of? Your Response: what do you do when it shows up? Better Response: what could you do instead?

Needs / Desires / Fears

For a tough decision, or a pattern that keeps repeating in work or relationships.

Needs: what has to be met for you to be okay? Desires: what do you actually want beyond that? Fears: what’s holding you back from it?

Desire / Conflict / Resolution

For inner turmoil and personal crossroads.

Desire: what do you truly want here? Conflict: what’s fighting it, in you or around you? Resolution: how do you make peace with it?

Think / Feel / Do

For a choice where your heart and mind send mixed signals, or a habit you want to break.

Think: what are your thoughts doing? Feel: what are your emotions doing? Do: what are you actually doing, or avoiding?

Thinking / Feeling / Doing

For when what you believe and how you behave have come apart.

Thinking: what beliefs are shaping how you see this? Feeling: what’s underneath? Doing: do your actions match your values?

Work, projects and purpose

For the stuff you make and the direction you’re going in.

Idea / Process / Goal

For the start of a project, or when you’re stuck in the middle of one.

Idea: what’s the thing driving this? Process: what steps and resources does it need? Goal: what does finished actually look like?

Passion / Imagination / Logic

For a new project, a creative block, or choosing between options.

Passion: what fuels you here? Imagination: what’s your vision for it? Logic: what are the practical steps that hold it up?

Passion / Direction / Destination

For life purpose, career choices and creative projects, and for checking your actions still match what you care about.

Passion: what inspires and energises you? Direction: where are you actually heading, and does it match? Destination: where does this course end up if you keep going?

Strengths / Weaknesses / Advice

For an honest self check-in, personal or career.

Strengths: what can you rely on? Weaknesses: where do you need to grow? Advice: how do you work with both?

You / Your Position / Your Potential

For a new venture, a career change, or your role in a relationship or project.

You: what do you bring to this? Your Position: where do you stand in it, and with whom? Your Potential: what could you become here?

Other people

Relationships of every kind, read from your side of them.

You / Relationship / Partner

For conflict, disconnection, or before a hard conversation. Romantic or otherwise.

You: what’s your part in this, your needs and what you bring? Relationship: what state is the connection in? Partner: what do you sense from them, read as your perception and never as fact?

Brings Together / Pulls Apart / Focus

For disagreements, partnerships and team dynamics, at work or at home.

Brings Together: what connects you? Pulls Apart: what’s causing the division? Focus: where do you put your energy to restore the balance?

Self / Other / Purpose

For feeling torn between pleasing people and following your own path.

Self: how are you with yourself? Other: how are you with the people around you? Purpose: what’s the bigger thing guiding you?

Looking back

What Worked / What Didn’t Work / Lessons

For the end of a project, a relationship or a chapter, while it’s still fresh.

What Worked: what went well, and why? What Didn’t Work: what didn’t, and why? Lessons: what do you take with you?

Three-card spreads for beginners

If you’re new, start with Past / Present / Future or Situation / Obstacle / Advice. The positions are questions you already understand, so all your attention goes on the card. Three cards will teach you more than ten, because you have to actually read each one instead of skimming. When one of these stops surprising you, pick a spread from the decision or feelings groups with a position you’d never have thought to ask.

Every spread above has its own page with a diagram and the questions to ask. And if you want to practise with other people instead of on your own, that’s what Simply Tarot Membership is for.

Where to start, and where to go next

There is no right order to any of this. Pick whichever one matches the thing you are stuck on, and come back for the rest when you want it. If you have never touched a deck before, What Is Tarot Reading? is the gentlest way in.