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 Hanged Man![]() |
The Hierophant![]() |
The Moon![]() |
The Chariot![]() |
The Devil![]() |
The Empress![]() |
The Hermit![]() |
Adjustment![]() |
Fortune![]() |

Card 1: The Hanged Man
Water
Enforced sacrifice, punishment, loss, fatal or voluntary, suffering, defeat, failure, death.

Card 2: The Hierophant
Taurus
Stubborn strength, toil, endurance, placidity, manifestation, explanation, teaching, goodness of heart, help from superiors, patience, organisation, peace.

Card 3: The Moon
Pisces
Illusion, deception, bewilderment, hysteria, even madness, dreaminess, falsehood, error, crisis, 'the darkest hour before the dawn', the brink of important change.

Card 4: The Chariot
Cancer
Triumph, victory, hope, memory, digestion, violence in maintaining traditional ideas, the 'die-hard', ruthlessness, lust of destruction, obedience, faithfulness, authority under authority.

Card 5: The Devil
Capricorn
Blind impulse, irresistibly strong and unscrupulous, ambition, temptation, obsession, secret plan about to be executed; hard work, obstinacy, rigidity, aching discontent, endurance.

Card 6: The Empress
Venus
Love, beauty, happiness, pleasure, success, completion, good fortune, graciousness, elegance, luxury, idleness, dissipation debauchery, friendship, gentleness, delight.

Card 7: The Hermit
Virgo
Illumination from within, secret impulse from within; practical plans derived accordingly. Retirement from participation in current events.

Card 8: Adjustment
Libra
Justice, or rather justesse, the act of adjustment, suspension of all action pending decision; in material matters, may refer to law suits or prosecutions. Socially, marriage or marriage agreements; politically, treaties.

Card 9: Fortune
Jupiter
Change of fortune. (This generally means good fortune because the fact of consultation implies anxiety or discontent.)