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
8 of Wands![]() |
7 of Wands![]() |
5 of Cups![]() |
9 of Swords![]() |
Ace of Swords![]() |
6 of Swords![]() |
Ace of Pentacles![]() |
Queen of Pentacles![]() |
4 of Pentacles![]() |
Card 1: 8 of Wands
The means by which you arrive are not necessarily the means by which you'll stay.
Card 2: 7 of Wands
The BLOB! The blob has taken the streets! It's reproducing, the blob will kill us all!!! THE BLOOOOB!!!!!!!!!!
Card 3: 5 of Cups
The problem with a hand of glory is that wax melts and glory fades.
Card 4: 9 of Swords
Drawn on July 4th to the sound of fireworks. Weapons and explosives are now components of ritual as often as components of battle. I suppose they always were.
Card 5: Ace of Swords
'At the east of the garden of Eden he placed the Angel and a flaming sword that turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life'. –Genesis 3:24
Card 6: 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 7: 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 8: Queen of Pentacles
You can prefer quality over quantity or quantity over quality, but both are valid for different applications. Sometimes a lot of cheap crap does the job, sometimes fewer of the finest is better. Know which is which and don't mistake the two. When in doubt, go with tons of the best.
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.