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
The Aeon |
2 of Swords – Peace |
The Empress |
Queen of Wands |
Art |
Judgement |
10 of Wands – Oppression |
Knight of Wands |
The Magus |
Card 1: 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 2: 2 of Swords – Peace
Moon in Libra
Two swords stuck in a mound form the shape of a V, the symbolic gesture of peace like the hippies were so fond of. The owners have thrown their arms down in the spirit of harmony.
Meaning:
Contradictory characteristics of the same nature coming together. Pleasure after pain. Quarrel resolved.
Card 3: The Empress
Venus
The Empress is queen of queens, the wife archetype. Radiating warmth, she gazes at the dove, symbolic of holy love. Two cherubs overlook her and two overlook the other half. The pelican feeding her young her own blood symbolises the self-sacrifice of motherhood.
Meaning:
Graciousness, elegance, love, gentleness, beauty.
When ill-dignified: wasting time, debauchery.
Card 4: Queen of Wands
11:00 – 1:00 Female
Aries
The Queen of Wands sits on a throne of flames. She holds a torch in her left hand and grasps the horn of a white ram in her right hand. The ram's eyes glare forward, but her eyes are closed, with a look of contentment on her face. She represents a strong figure of feminine authority with a laid-back attitude.
Meaning:
A calm attractive woman. Strength relaxed. Persistent, adaptive, but intolerant of opposition.
When ill-dignified: a vengeful, domineering woman with an itchy trigger finger.
Card 5: Art
Sagittarius
Temperance or Alchemy. Creation by way of the marriage of opposites. You are what you create. An androgenous figure stirs the pot. The unity of opposite alchemical symbols (lion + eagle) has produced alchemical GOLD.
Meaning:
Realisation of objectives and goals. Successful combination of energies. A string of successful magickal manoeuvres culminating in solidification. Calculated action. Management.
Card 6: Judgement
Fire
Judgement is reserved for god. The Guardian Angel blows his trumpet. He has been sent to judge the man. This is true Judgement, all else is mere opinion. The earthling sheds all his earthly coverings and comes to naked truth. He has been X'ed out of this world. The wolf lies with the lamb.
Meaning:
Always means taking a new step. Leaving the past behind.
Card 7: 10 of Wands – Oppression
Saturn in Sagittarius
The wands have now become bars. We live in prisons of flesh. We are each our own warden and we all do our own time.
Meaning:
Brute force with no apparent spiritual source. Lies, repression, cruelty, malice. The element of fire in its most destructive form.
Card 8: Knight of Wands
Sagittarius
The Knight of Wands rides a white horse charging forward. The white horse symbolises the conscious side of awareness. It also symbolises the purity of fire, the vital energy and passion that boldly drives the organism. The Knight has his torch in his right hand and arrows on his back; bow and arrow being the weapon of Sagittarius.
Meaning:
A man of action, generosity, pride, and impetuousness.
When ill-dignified: A cruel, bigoted man without mercy.
Card 9: 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.
