There are tons of types of tarot spreads. Today I’ll show you a super popular one – the five card tarot spread, including a sample reading.
Are you new to the tarot? It can be confusing when you are beginning to learn the tarot, as you may need help knowing where to start. Or, you have dabbled into enough of it to the point that you have mastered the three-card spreads, as there are so many. If that is so, are you ready to up your game? Have you also mastered some four-card spreads? If so, then let’s challenge you more and begin to learn about some five-card tarot spreads.
Like there are plenty of variations of three tarot card spreads, there are several five-card spreads you will want to know about as there is more than one. So let’s now delve into some of them that many tarot readers use.
Five Tarot Card Spreads Are Similar To Three-Card Spreads
There are similarities between the five-card spread and the three-card spread. The only difference is that you will get much more information and detail from a five-card spread than from a three-card spread. You know that reading tarot is based on tapping into your intuition, but having some extra cards in the spread will provide you with the necessary information.
There is no difference between pulling a five-card spread and a three-card spread other than pulling two extra cards and placing them into different positions. For example, you shuffle your cards and then pull five cards you are drawn to pull and place them down. T
Here are five-card spreads that can provide you with the insight you need about relationships, careers, love, family, and life in general. You can also use the five-card tarot spread with decision-making and find spreads that can help you heal.
You can lay the cards out in a line, a horseshoe, or a cross where three are laid horizontally; one card is on top of the second card, and the other is below that same card. Sometimes you can place cards four and five on top and beneath the third card (card four goes on top and card five goes on the bottom).
Now, let’s go over some five tarot card spreads.
Past Present Future Five Card Tarot Spread
When you think of the past, present, and future tarot spread, you will think of three cards laid out horizontally. However, you will be adding two additional cards. Those other cards will give you the understanding you need with your or a client’s situation if you are reading for clients. Therefore, you will lay out three cards horizontally, from left to right. The first card on the left is the past, the second card in the middle is the present, and the last card on the right is the future.
You will place the fourth card underneath the first, representing the issues holding you back. And the fifth card is the card you will place underneath the third card, meaning what you need to do to push forward. Therefore, this spread indicates that there is shadow work that you need to do to attain things. Now, let’s go over the love spread.
The Love Five Card Tarot Spread
Here is a love spread that consists of five cards, whereas you are creating a cross of three cards laid out horizontally, and then you have card four on top of card two and card five beneath card two. The first card on the left represents you, the second card represents your partner, and the third card represents your relationship.
The fourth card shows your strengths in the relationship, and the fifth card represents the challenges that need work. Now, let’s go over the career spread.
The Career Guidance Five Card Tarot Spread
The career spread is laid out the same way as the love spread. This is a good spread if you are looking for a career change. The first card in the spread indicates your current situation in your career. The second card represents your attitude about your job, and the third means what could hold you back. The fourth card shows what you need to work on when making a career transition, and the fifth indicates the next step. Finally, there is one more crucial five-card spread, the horseshoe spread.
The Horseshoe Five Card Spread
The horseshoe spread can guide you on anything you are explicitly facing, whether it has to do with love, career, or other personal situations. This spread is very popular because it is so versatile. First, you will place the cards in a horseshoe shape, whereas card one is on the left and the bottom. So card two is above and further right to card one.
Then card three is on the top. Then card four is on the right of card three but slightly below as it is on the same line as card two, and then card five is on the right and below card four, on the same line as card five.
The first card represents past influences. The second card represents what is happening in the present, and the third card represents any unexpected issues that could come up. The fourth card represents your best course of action, and the fifth indicates the outcome. Now, let’s do a horseshoe spread reading.
Sample Horseshoe Tarot Card Reading With Five Cards
I will do a sample horseshoe spread with five cards, and the issue will be the hesitancy to live a healthy lifestyle. I will talk about how the querent knows they need to eat better, exercise more, sleep better, and change their thoughts for the better. However, something is holding them back from doing that.
So let’s do a horseshoe spread on the issue where the question will be asked by the querent “Why am I struggling to change my lifestyle for the better?”.
Let’s shuffle the cards and lay the chosen five out:
Card one is the past influences, and the Seven of Pentacles represents this card.
Card two is the current situation, and the Three of Swords represents that.
Card three is any unexpected issues that may arise, and the Knight of Pentacles represents this card.
Card four is the best course of action, and the Ace of Cups is that card.
Card five is the outcome, and the Three of Cups is that card.
Now, let’s pick apart this five card spread reading. I will start by looking at the first card, which represents past influences of the Seven of Pentacles. That tells me that the querent has been hesitant to create a new healthy lifestyle because of not being patient for it to manifest.
All they think about is how the effort they have put into living a healthy lifestyle has yet to provide them the benefits they wanted quickly enough. The querent logically understands that living a new lifestyle will take time to show the benefits, but they don’t have the patience for it, which is the past influence they are facing. That is the main crux of why the querent struggles to change their lifestyle.
So, if I look at the second card, which represents their current situation. It is the Three of Swords. That is a sure sign that the querent is highly depressed, unhappy, and intuitively knows they are only betraying their mind, body, and spirit by living an unhealthy lifestyle.
They eat plenty of processed and junk foods, are not active, and maybe get three or four hours of sleep each night. And is why they are wondering why they are hesitant to make that change. They are not mentally, physically, and emotionally in a good place and feel conflicted about the whole situation, even though they know they need to make positive changes deep down.
The third card represents unexpected issues that could come up, and the Knight of Pentacles shows up for that position. This is the slowest action-oriented Knight in the deck. There is a suggestion that the querent will only make progress if they finally accept that they need to put the work into it to get results.
This is common knowledge, but the querent will find that they will need to put a lot more concentration and focus than expected to make the changes and to accept that a healthy mind, body, and spirit will take time and work to manifest.
The fourth card indicates the best course of action to take, and the Ace of Cups comes up for that. That boldly suggests falling in love with getting into a new lifestyle instead of seeing it as hard work that will take forever to manifest, falling in love with the process and the journey and documenting it. Falling in love with embarking on a healthy journey and sticking to it will make all the difference in the world. That will require a change in perspective.
Finally, the last card represents the outcome, showing the Three of Cups. That is a happy card, and it is a card of celebration. That is also a card that represents new creations and friendships. Therefore, changing their lifestyle will cause the querent to gain new friends who will support them through the journey. And they are creating a new them!
So, that is how the horseshoe spread can give you the insight you need. The querent wondered why they could not get into a healthy lifestyle, and they learned that their struggle with patience for manifesting it was the influence behind their issue. But they are looking into it because they intuitively know they need to make a positive change. After all, they feel terrible.
Of course, they will find that the new lifestyle will take more work than expected, but they need to change their perspective by falling in love with the process instead of dreading how much work and how long it will take for it to work. And when they can fulfill it, they will love their new version of themselves and find themselves having new supportive and loving friends.
So why not practice a five-card tarot spread, choose the one that best suits your situation, or use the horseshoe one to look into anything specific? What did you learn by doing the spread?