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 Swords![]() |
5 of Swords![]() |
The Hermit![]() |
Knight of Pentacles![]() |
6 of Pentacles![]() |
Knight of Swords![]() |
The Emperor![]() |
Ace of Wands![]() |
8 of Cups![]() |
Card 1: 6 of Swords
Something has to make the rain come down. It got up there but once there's enough of it, it falls back to Earth. It's not enough just to let it happen, if you want to understand you have to observe.
Card 2: 5 of Swords
An homage to Bosch and Bruegel, and a card symbolic of victory to the well-armed and pain to the unprepared or unwilling to defend.
Card 3: The Hermit
4:00 – Card 5
Male, Air, Virgo.
A card of loneliness, disconnection and solitude. Also, a card of hope – If you have half of something it means the other half is out there somewhere. It may be far away, you may have to wade through the nastiest slums to find it, but when you do it's brilliant.
Card 4: Knight of Pentacles
Stone is hard and sand is soft, yet one can erode the other in time and fundamentally, both are the exact same thing. Odd that the smaller of the two can destroy the larger and make it more like itself. Also note the Wolfs angle rune.
Card 5: 6 of Pentacles
Don't overlook a good solution just because it's obvious.
Card 6: 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 7: The Emperor
In this case King Sargon of Akkad. A great ruler in his own time rarely even makes the history books in ours.
Card 8: Ace of Wands
A wand is a means to a magical end. If you don't like what you're seeing, use yours to change the channel.
Card 9: 8 of Cups
D cups in this case. Don't be ashamed to enjoy your vices, and never regret the sins you enjoy.