Fluently Read Tarot Card Combinations Like A Master With These 3 Keys
Introduction
Once we know the tarot card meanings, we have to learn to read them. But tarot apprentices often get stuck here because contrary cards don’t make sense or a card seems out of place for it’s meaning . No worries, there is a way to read tarot card combinations with accuracy and confidence and there are exercises to help with it as well.
In this article, I will explain this step by step process so that you can read card combinations like a fluent tarot reader. I will do this by providing examples of how to layer, or combine, the 3 essential factors necessary to reading tarot card combinations. I will also provide some of the practise exercises which you can use to develop your ability to read tarot card combinations.
Why use these 3 essential factors to read tarot card combinations?
The three essential factors to reading tarot card combinations are; spread position, card keywords and the nature of the inquiry. These three factors are called essential because beginner and intermediate tarot readers will struggle to extract the most accurate and insightful interpretations from the cards when any are omitted.
How To Read Tarot Card Combinations In A Situation, Advice, Outcome Spread
Positional combinations: let’s start with just situation + advice.
Now let’s say we pulled the 5 of Pentacles + the Sun. Some keywords for each card are; poverty, sickness, job loss, bad luck, destitution, homelessness, etc. for the 5 of swords and success, life, clarity, children, following your heart, confidence, fame, etc. for the Sun.
Now let’s look at the different keywords in the different position meanings.
When the situation is the Sun and the advice is the 5 of pentacles. Possible interpretations are;
The advice is to give up your current situation of fame and power.
The advice is to stop spoiling your children in this situation.
The advice is to take the current situation more seriously than you currently are.
The advice is do not flaunt your wealth in this current situation.
Now let us look at the question to add more context.
Tell me about my safety when I go to the bank tomorrow.
The Sun in the situation position + the 5 of Pentacles in the Advice position.
The advice is to not flaunt the wealth that you currently possess (Sun + 5 of pentacles, situation + advice) when you go to the bank tomorrow (question) . In fact, when you go to the bank tomorrow (question) you should make it appear as if you are not wealthy so as to remain inconspicuous (Sun + 5 of Pentacles + question).
When we remove unnecessary words to tidy up the interpretation, we get;
Do not flaunt your wealth during your trip to the bank tomorrow. Blend in.
But until you become fluent at tarot reading, it will help to write out the longer version and then edit down.
If we step back now we should see that the confusion of card combinations has been largely eliminated.
Through a simple process of combining the card position with the spread position and the query, we have managed to read the tarot with a high degree of insight.
Here are a few more examples. I will be drawing cards randomly to get these examples.
ALL POSITIONS IN SITUATION, ADVICE, OUTCOME
Let’s say we have a career reading. Someone wants to discover what is important for them to know about their plan to work in nursing.
8 of Cups: walking away from something which you have been emotionally invested in, emotional transformation, closure, a bold new path, a new beginning, dropping what no longer serves, unemotional introspection etc.
Queen of Pentacles: a practical yet intuitive woman who engages with nature and life in a stable way. Probably works in a human service profession. Organized and diligent in her career. Emotionally resilient and compassionate. The Water of the Earth. etc.
Moon; fear, fantasy, illusion, changeability, the past, evolution, the unconscious, soul lessons, attunement, the deep unknown, etc.
Situation – 8 of cups, advice – Queen of Disks, Outcome – Moon
In the current situation nursing will be a more emotionally suitable career for you. It seems like a good choice if you are looking for spiritual growth as well as career success (8 of Cups in current situation + Queen of Pentacles in advice + Moon in outcome).
And summarized.
Your decision at this time to take nursing is in harmony with your Soul purpose in this lifetime (Queen of Pentacles in advice + Moon in outcome).
Practise Exercises To Read Tarot Card Combinations
Reading card combinations is a skill that is developed over a long period of time. You must know card meanings (and preferably, correspondences) before you can learn to read combinations in a fluent and accurate way for either yourself or others. This skill cannot be picked up through tricks or gimmicky practises.
Here are a few simple exercises to help. Whilst you can use them in isolation, please note that these exercises were designed ideally to fit into the broader approach to learning tarot that is taken in the Tarot Apprenticeship course. This approach allows, in theory, for the art of divinatory tarot reading to be mastered (i.e. for the reader to become equivalent to an experienced professional) in as little as 3 years. See the website homepage for details.
Exercise 1: Reading specific card combinations in the celtic cross
One of the many advantages of learning the original celtic cross spread is that, to be read well, the reader must learn to interpret cards in their various combinations. Josephine McCarthy has claimed (in her Tarot Skills for the 21st Century) that the synergy of card positions is a significant part of what makes a good tarot spread. I concur. In keeping with the article’s purpose, I will give some examples of card combinations but will not give a full example reading here.
Covering (situation) and crossing (opposing influence). Crowning and beneath (root). Behind (fading) and before (emerging). Significate (7/querent) and house (environment/resources), hopes & fears and culmination. I will elaborate even though these are the more obvious pairings.
Covering and crossing. This describes the situation in general and what is opposing it. For example, the situation may be in a state of balance (Justice) but this balance may be threatened by people’s vices (Devil). These two positions are of great significance in the reading (especially when filled by Major Arcana cards). They indicate the overarching peace or discord, unity or separation, friendship or enmity (etc.) within the situation. I will say however that cards being of significance does not mean that they need to be explained in much detail. These positions tend to present an overarching view of the reading.
Crowning and beneath. Compare the root cause of the issue with the overarching lesson or focus to be gleamed from it. The card beneath the querent is about the foundation or root of the matter. It can be considered in occult terms as the causal influence or it can be consider in more psychological terms as what is below the threshold of known consciousness.
Before and behind. Compare, if you like, the “waxing” with the “waning”. Was the change dramatic or in appearance only? There is a great paradox here; things come in repeating patterns (cycles) but no cycle is ever quite the same. This shows, as just one example, whether any unhealthy patterns might be repeating themselves. It also speaks to seasons of things etc. Also, keep in mind that these cards are to be read in relation to the querent (that is, the significator itself and perhaps – to a lesser extent – position 7)
Querent (position 7) and environment. Is the querent making best use of their resources? Are they limited by circumstances? Are their unused tools at their disposal? Are they blind to opportunity? Are they being naive? The discord or agreement between these two positions may reveal things about the querent’s problem-solving ability and resourcefulness in the situation. For example, in a career reading the combination of the Sun + the 5 of Pentacles may indicate (relative) abundance (or at least an inner sense of it – optimism) despite trying circumstances.
Hopes & fears and outcome. How do expectations compare to reality? If the querent is in the wrong, do they know that they are doing something wrong or are they ignorant of their errors? For example, the Sun + the 5 of pentacles may indicate over-confidence leading to disaster. Not only this but the Sun in this case would act like it’s reverse and indicate ignorance rather than clarity and illumination (in the sense of realization of truth).
Now I will add more complex combinations.
Querent (position 7), before, behind, hopes & fears, environment and outcome. This may give the reader a deep understanding of the querent’s attitude is affecting the situation. For example, the Sun + the 5 of Pentacles + the Ace of Cups + the 6 of Swords + the Tower, Death in a love reading, may indicate a querent who is looking at a relationship through rose-tinted glasses despite all the warning signs around them.
If we break this down, we get (bear with me here) the following interpretation.
The querent is emotionally unprepared (Sun in querent, 5 of Pentacles in before, Ace of Cups in behind) for the ending of the relationship (Death in outcome, question about love) as they believe everything is fixable (6 of Swords in hopes and fears) in spite of the evidence/even when it is crumbling around them (6 of Swords in hopes and fears, Tower in environment). Thus, despite what the querent wants to believe (Sun + Six of Swords), this relationship (question) will end in a shocking – to them – manner (Tower in environment, Death in outcome).
Querent, behind, before (in front of), outcome.
This gives us a “timeline” of how the situation is gradually changing. In this combination may lie clues as to how to improve the current “timeline” that the querent is on. Or it may indicate what the querent has been doing well. For example, the Sun + 5 of pentacles + Ace of Cups + 6 of Swords in these positions and in a love reading may indicate a new relationship which nurtures the querent now that they have matured within themselves.
If we break this down we get the following interpretation.
The querent’s improved self-nurturing qualities (5 of pentacles in behind/past, Sun in querent, Ace of Cups in before/emerging) are blessing the querent with new, nurturing love (Sun in querent, Ace of Cups in before/emerging)
Root, crowning, querent, environment.
This tells us about the querent’s affinities or attunement and the nature of cause and effect in the reading (what people often call “karma”). The main affinity is position 7 (the querent) but the other positions tell us about what the querent has been in affinity with before the situation arose.
If these particular positions around the querent are Majors then the querent may be stuck in the situation or may have an opportunity to see dramatic changes in their life through working virtuously on this situation. This depends on the nature of the cards (which, remember, are always reflecting the higher realms).
There are other possible complex combinations within the celtic cross spread but I think you get the point. Also, another exercise involves coming up with card position combinations.
Exercise 2: Reading the Golden Dawn/Destiny spread
This is the 15 card spread in 5 sections of 3 card each. This spread is inherently great for reading tarot card combinations due to it’s sections (that is, the 5 sets of 3 cards) which are also supposed to be read using a technique called elemental dignities.
The 5 traditional sections of this spread are; querent, headspace, karma/destiny, path 1, path 2 OR path 1 continued. Once you are fluent, the spread should only take 5-10 minutes to read for others. However it may take much longer at first.
Exercise 3: Listing position combinations within tarot spreads
The possible combinations for the situation, advice, outcome spread are;
Situation + advice
Situation + Outcome
Advice + Outcome
and
Situation + Advice + Outcome.
All of these combinations work well together so there are none to eliminate in this example.
I recommend that you list out all of them and then cross out the ones that you think don’t work. Although tedious, it will force you to master the spread. You might want to do this again in a few years to see if your experience has changed how you see connections between cards.
Exercise 4: Combining card correspondences
I have not gone over this yet as it is an advanced exercise to be saved until you have mastered the first three.
Concerning the Rider Waite Smith deck, every tarot card has elemental, numerological, astrological (down to the decans), kabbalistic, angelic (Shem angels) and other correspondences. More information about tarot card correspondences can be found in my article on the subject Guilty By Association: Clarifying The Confused Concept of Occult Correspondences (which will be out soon as I’m currently updating it).
The exercise is simply the combining of correspondences to get information.
To stick to the exercise, what you basically need to do is cut the deck and watch for cards that catch your eye. You do not need to have memorized correspondences for this technique. Just make sure to decide which set you will be using before you start the exercise. Once some cards catch your attention, check for their correspondences, one at a time, noticing to yourself whether any themes and/or patterns stand out to you.
An example may help to explain.
I once got asked to find a lost object, a not uncommon inquiry for a tarot reader. In my pre-shuffle (pulling cards before the reading to determine any important information) I got cards which all corresponded to Saturn.
In astrology, Saturn itself corresponds to such life areas as; contracts, justice, responsibility, lessons, etc. I mention these specific correspondences because they were the ones that stood out to me. Saturn is also a taskmaster, teacher and authority figure.
Bearing both of these themes in mind then, it was clear that the object may have been lost due to, in some way, a contract or promise not being kept. Basically, someone or some thing felt that the object should not have been in possession of the querent.
If this seems like a non sequitar, consider that the job of a tarot reader, when searching for a lost object, is not just to locate the object but to discover other matters surrounding this issue such as why it is lost. Always bear this (the surrounding questions) in mind in any tarot reading. This is why I say that a tarot reader’s job is to ask questions.
Anyway, what did I do? I actually asked whether the object was properly paid for (i.e. whether the querent was in debt). The querent said that it was and I take querents at their word unless I have a strong reason not to, so I asked whether any promise made in relation to the object had been broken (i.e. broken promise). In fact, the querent admitted that it had, so we went from there. For confidentiality reasons I will end the example here, but the reading itself was quite remarkable and ended up teaching me a lot.
Conclusion
I hope that this tutorial on reading card combinations has been of great use to you. If you practise these exercises, you should have good success. Let me know of your results in the comments. Any questions or concerns, contact me via Discord (username: tarottutor). You can also contact me on there for some free mentorship one one specific tarot reading issue.