Comic Strip Spread

Difficulty: Easy
Note: This spread works best with decks like the Diary of a Broken Soul or Surrealist Tarot because they display scenes rather than pips and do not use reversals.
The Comic Strip Spread is a simple nine-card chronological spread that looks like a page of a comic book. This method should be used to get a glimpse of the future as it would pan out naturally. It may be insightful to use this spread in coordination with biorhythms. The spread is easy to read as a storyboard, just like a comic strip.
The main subject is apparent in the first card, while the story plays out through the following tarot cards.
It is important to pay particular attention to the cards and the relationships with their neighbours. Notice which directions the cards are facing, and how they interact.
Your Comic Strip Reading
Queen of Cups![]() |
Ace of Cups![]() |
4 of Cups – Luxury![]() |
3 of Cups – Abundance![]() |
The Priestess![]() |
The Aeon![]() |
The Magus![]() |
8 of Disks – Prudence![]() |
Queen of Disks![]() |
Card 1: Queen of Cups
5:00 – 7:00 Female
Cancer
The Queen of Cups sits on a waterfall throne in front of a cave. In her right hand she holds a lotus and in her left she holds a silver cup. On her crown is a crab, a symbol of Cancer. In the background is a dark canyon and in the foreground her reflection is visible in the water. She represents the most passive and receptive type of person.
Meaning:
A dreamy, imaginative, tranquil, poetic, and extremely receptive woman. Generous, yet not overly hospitable. She is very dependent on the neighbour cards in determining dignification.
Card 2: Ace of Cups
The Root of Water
The cup of Kether is the holy grail. Ten rays beam from the single source of light emanating from the cup. The cup is a vessel for the light. The beginning of a new way of feeling.
Meaning:
Joy, contentment, love, fruitfulness, beauty.
Card 3: 4 of Cups – Luxury
Moon in Cancer
Four trophy cups filled with wine represent an excess of abundance.
Meaning:
Giving in to desire. Excess, luxury, insatiability.
When ill-dignified: gluttony and excessive indulgence, irritation.
Card 4: 3 of Cups – Abundance
Mercury in Cancer
Two cups combine their essence into a third cup, their offspring. This card is about creation, fertility, and pregnancy. A collaborative effort. The process of reproduction.
Meaning:
Fulfilment, conclusion, plenty, fertility, hospitality, bounty, kindness, creation.
Card 5: The Priestess
The Moon
The Priestess sits on her throne, queen of the heavens, the eternal virgin, and the counterpart of the Hierophant. She holds the keys to the feminine secrets of the universe.
Meaning:
Enthusiastic focus on the unconscious. A pure, exalted influence comes into play. The Priestess warns not to get too carried away.
Card 6: The Aeon
Spirit
In a place beyond the Universe there exists a single solitary spirit. This is the perfection that we all strive for.
Meaning:
Dawn of a new era. Perfect self-knowledge. Wisdom. Union with god. The force of nature, raw spirit, barbelo, centre of the universe, perfection, message from heaven, sign from above, god.
Card 7: The Magus
Mercury
The Magician stands on the mountain commanding the forces to obey his will.
Meaning:
Drive, willpower, skill, wisdom, craft, cunning, messages, business, creativity, wit, initiative, self-discipline. Sometimes occult wisdom or power.
When ill-dignified: knowledge interfering with the objective of the matter.
Card 8: 8 of Disks – Prudence
Sun in Virgo
This card is about the virtue of patience, or taking things in their proper times. Eight clocks are hung from Jacob's Ladder. With effort dreams will be attainable. Remember: one step at a time.
Meaning:
Industriousness, agriculture, building, construction, intelligence in material affairs.
When ill-dignified: too much care spent on details at the expense of the big picture.
Card 9: Queen of Disks
8:00 – 10:00 Female
Capricorn
The Queen of Disks sits on her throne between two rivers. She holds in her right hand the symbol of the sign of Capricorn crystalised. Her horns encase the full moon, her crown. The sun emerges from her loins. Her body shape is like the Willendorf Venus. This woman is an ancient fertility goddess in human form.
Meaning:
A practical, kind, domesticated, affectionate, charming woman. Prosperity, abundance, fertility, generosity, security.
When ill-dignified: a dull, servile, capricious fool, prone to debauchery and mood swings.