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
6 of Wands![]() |
Ace of Pentacles![]() |
Knight of Swords![]() |
Page of Swords![]() |
7 of Pentacles![]() |
4 of Swords![]() |
9 of Pentacles![]() |
9 of Cups![]() |
4 of Pentacles![]() |
Card 1: 6 of Wands
If you're stuck, the first step to freedom is to examine what's holding you in place.
Card 2: Ace of Pentacles
A fencing mask on a skeleton with a cadeceus over a black sun before fire. Refer to the symbolic meaning of each to find the answers you seek.
Card 3: Knight of Swords
The guillotine is the most effective method of killing ever invented. You can poison or shock or stab or shoot people but nothing is so certain to cause death as severing their head. Amazing how fast the world forgot that.
Card 4: Page of Swords
Chaos is dangerous to both belligerents. If you have all the arms and all the thorns in the world, you're just as much a danger to yourself if you don't keep track of them.
Card 5: 7 of Pentacles
'And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof'. –Rev 5:5
Card 6: 4 of Swords
Heghlu'meH QaQ jajvam!
(Today is a good day to die!)
Card 7: 9 of Pentacles
Da-Dling! Da-Dling! Da-Dling! Da-Dling! Da-Dling! Da-Dling! Da-Dling! Da-Dling! Da-Dling! Dzugdzugdzug.
Realistically, profit isn't hanging in the sky to be taken. If you take it, you're taking it from somebody. And you don't just get to smoosh them.
Card 8: 9 of Cups
A whole lot of cargo looks minimal when it's loaded onto a gigantic ship. This applies to more than one might expect.
Card 9: 4 of Pentacles
It doesn't always come out the way you wanted. That doesn't mean you can't still enjoy it.