When you hear about tarot spreads, you may immediately think of pulling one card to answer a quick question or think of three-card spreads, five-card or more. However, you may need to realize that many four card tarot spreads also need more attention than they should. Therefore, that is why you never hear of a four card tarot spread.
Instead, you will hear plenty of three or five card spreads as they are standard for delivering the messages you need to hear. Of course, there is also the common seven-card horseshoe spread or the ten-card Celtic Cross spread. Let’s not focus on that, as four-card tarot spreads are the focus now.
What Is The Purpose Of Four Card Tarot Spreads?
These spreads will offer the same purpose as any other tarot spread: to provide you with the insight you need regarding a particular situation. Sometimes the four card tarot spread could be an extension to any three-card spread, as the fourth card would be the clarifying card which is a tarot card that can help bring further insight into a spread (and you can use clarifying cards for any tarot spread if you need some extra insight). A four-card tarot spread is a spread that requires four cards to provide you with the intuitive information you need. Now, let’s go over some examples of four-card tarot spreads.
Past-Present-Future-Advice Tarot Spread
You can see that there are so many tarot spreads that provide you with the past, present, and future reading, and extra cards are thrown in there to help you see the situation. However, there is a four-card spread where you would place card one on the left, which is the past, card two being present, in the middle, which is the middle, then card three is on the right, which is the future. And there is another card that goes on the right of card three, which is advice. That spread is from Tarot Happy.
That kind of spread will not only show you want your situation is and was from the past, but it can help you navigate your life and situation, which is given by the advice card. And a tarot beginner can quickly learn this spread as it is pretty easy, as it is far less complex than the ten-card Celtic Cross spread or past, present, and future spreads involving more cards. Let’s look at another four-card tarot spread that can bring a lot of insight into what may be going right or wrong in your life.
The Positive And Negative Tarot Spread
Here is another tarot spread that can give you insight into your life, which is going right, what is going wrong, and what advice you need to improve your situation. You will spread the four tarot cards out the same way as you would in the past, present, and future advice spread.
The first card on the far left is the card that represents what is positive in your life. The second card on the right shows what is wrong in your life. The third card indicates the result or how it is affecting you, and the fourth card is the card that represents the advice you could use to help you deal with the negative situation that is causing problems in your life.
If you are feeling unsettled in your life even though you are not facing any unfavorable situation, this spread can give you the insight you need to help you see why you are struggling to the degree you are. It will not solve the issue, but it can provide insight into what is going on, and it may be a good idea to talk to a therapist to help solve the underlying issue. Now, let’s look at another four-card tarot spread.
Four Card Love Tarot Spread
Here is a four-card tarot spread for love from Intuitive Souls. The position is the same as the other spreads mentioned above. Card one represents your partner, and the second represents your physical connection to that person. Then the third card can represent your emotional connection to your partner.
Finally, the fourth card represents the long-term outcome of your relationship. Therefore, if you are questioning what can happen to your relationship and where you stand, this spread can help answer that. However, note that anything unexpected can happen. Let’s go over one last four-card tarot spread before going over a reading.
Financial Situation Four Card Tarot Spread
If there is a tarot spread for love, there is also one involving the same number of cards for finances. The exact position of the cards as the others would be the way to read them. the first card on the left would represent your current financial state. The second card would represent any areas of financial opportunity that could come by.
The third card represents any financial risk you may be taking, whether making an investment or looking for another job and finally, the fourth card represents how you can move forward from that risk. Let’s review a four card tarot reading involving the positive and negative spread.
Sample Positive And Negative Tarot Reading
Let’s talk about a woman named Cassie, a successful journalist working at a job she dreamed about. She also has a loving husband and two healthy kids and is financially stable, as she is the object of envy by many people. However, even though Cassie knows she is fortunate and blessed, she feels empty and unhappy and cannot understand why she feels this way, even though she has everything she had asked for and things that so many people would give their eye teeth for too. So, I am doing a positive and negative four-card tarot spread for Cassie to explain why she is unhappy despite her wonderful and seemingly charmed life.
The positive thing in Cassie’s life: Nine of Wands.
The negative thing in Cassie’s life: Nine of Cups.
How this is affecting Cassie: Four of Cups.
The best advice for Cassie: Emperor.
Okay, so let’s dissect this spread. First, the Nine of Wands represents the positive thing in Cassie’s life. That shows she has powerful determination and is willing to do what it takes to make things work. Therefore, the beautiful things she has, many of those she worked for, did not mean that come easy to her. However, it is something she can be proud of, so she accomplished a lot. Therefore, she can pat herself on the back for being determined, even in adversity. She does not give up, and her tenacity is what will get her far.
However, the negative card shows the Nine of Cups. That is the wish card, a tarot card everyone wants to see in their spread. However, what does this card mean when it is in an unfavorable position or presents itself as an obstacle? You know the saying, “be careful about what you wish for, as you may just get it.”. Cassie may have gotten all of her wishes. She earned her dream job, met her husband, and had two healthy kids. She is in good financial shape.
Who would not wish for these things? So how can this be a negative thing? The signs are right there that it is because she is not satisfied. She got everything she wanted, and yet she feels unfulfilled.
Those beautiful things did not give her the life she wanted because she must feel she was missing something. Those things did not make her life as “perfect” as she had hoped. It may be because it is human nature to keep longing for things, no matter how many blessings you have.
The third card shows how this affects Cassie, and she gets the Four of Cups. It is unsurprising after the Nine of Cups is in an unfavorable position. Cassie is bored and may even be apathetic. She may have felt she had achieved everything she wanted, yet she does not know what else she wants. There is a good chance she is passing up other opportunities because of how she feels. However, this card ties in with the Nine of Cups being in an unfavorable position as it is hard for her to appreciate everything she got.
Therefore, let’s look at the advice she needs, and the Emperor shows up. The Emperor is telling Cassie to find order and discipline within herself. Yes, she is a hard worker and would work through obstacles indicated by the Nine of Wands. However, she needs to do a better job of appreciating and acknowledging her blessings and achievements. Since she feels unfulfilled, the Emperor tells her to find it within herself to make herself understand what she has. She has a lot to be grateful for, so making a gratitude list is one way to do that. She has to take charge of her happiness.
That tells you right there that you can wish for things, but when you get them, you will always want something else. If you get those, you will keep hoping for other things. That means you are not allowing yourself to appreciate the blessings you have, which will make you unfulfilled. That is why seeking gratitude is essential to do each day, even on the bad days, without invalidating how you feel or your struggles.