Tarot spread for a decision
A decision spread lays two choices side by side. This one uses five cards: the real question, the first path, the second path, what you aren't seeing and what helps you choose. It doesn't choose for you. It shows you what each option is asking of you, so you can.
What each card means in this spread
- The real question. What this choice is about underneath, which is often not the thing you are arguing with yourself over.
- Path one. What this option is like to live with. Name the path before you draw, and don't change it afterwards.
- Path two. What the other option is like to live with, drawn and read the same way.
- What you aren't seeing. The fact, feeling or person you have left out of your weighing so far.
- What helps you choose. How to decide, whichever way you go. It speaks to your approach, not the answer.
When to use it
Use it when you have gone round the same two options more than twice. Say each option out loud first and assign one to Path one and one to Path two. Writing them down stops your mind from quietly swapping them when the cards come up.
It works best for a real choice between two things. If you have only one option and you are wondering whether to take it, name the second path as staying as you are, because that is the option you are actually comparing it with.
Questions that suit this spread
- Should I stay in this city or move?
- This job or that one?
- Do I end this now, or give it more time?
A worked example
This is a draw made the way the form makes one, for the question: "This job or that one?"
- The real question: Two of Cups. The Two of Cups shows two people exchanging cups as equals. It is the card of connection that gives and receives in balance: a partnership, a friendship or a romance built on mutual respect.
- Path one: The Hermit, reversed. Reversed, the Hermit can mean isolation or avoidance. It asks whether your time alone is restoring you or helping you hide.
- Path two: Ten of Wands, reversed. Reversed, it can mean finally dropping a burden, or taking on even more than before. Delegate.
- What you aren't seeing: The Empress. The Empress is surrounded by growing things. She stands for care that lets something flourish: a relationship, a project, a home or yourself. Her card speaks of comfort, creativity and the pleasure of tending what you love, and of growth that comes from patience rather than pressure.
- What helps you choose: Nine of Cups. Enjoy something you worked for.
How to read it
Compare the two path cards before you read their meanings. Which one do you feel relief at, and which makes you sink a little? That first reaction is worth writing down, and many readers would call it the most useful thing the spread gives you.
A hard card on a path doesn't rule it out. Any option worth wanting costs something, and the card may just be the cost. Look at What you aren't seeing next, and let What helps you choose have the last word on how you go about it.
The cards are read in the same words as our card pages, from the Rider-Waite-Smith tradition. Each draw comes from a hash of the day and your question, so asking the same thing on the same day gives the same cards.