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
Adjustment![]() |
The Magus![]() |
The Priestess![]() |
The Empress![]() |
The Hanged Man![]() |
The Fool![]() |
Art![]() |
Death![]() |
The Hermit![]() |
Card 1: 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 2: The Magus
Mercury
Skill, wisdom, adroitness, elasticity, craft, cunning, deceit, theft. Sometimes occult wisdom or power, sometimes a quick impulse, a brain-wave. It may imply messages, business transactions, the interference of learning or intelligence with the matter in hand.
Card 3: The Priestess
The Moon
Pure, exalted and gracious influence enters the matter. Hence, change, alternation, increase and decrease, fluctuation. There is, however, a liability to be led away by enthusiasm; one may become 'moon-struck' unless careful balance is maintained.
Card 4: The Empress
Venus
Love, beauty, happiness, pleasure, success, completion, good fortune, graciousness, elegance, luxury, idleness, dissipation debauchery, friendship, gentleness, delight.
Card 5: The Hanged Man
Water
Enforced sacrifice, punishment, loss, fatal or voluntary, suffering, defeat, failure, death.
Card 6: The Fool
Air
In spiritual matters, the Fool means idea, thought, spirituality, that which endeavours to transcend earth.
In material matters, it may, if badly dignified, mean folly, eccentricity, or even mania.
But the essential of this card is that it represents an original, subtle, sudden impulse or impact, coming from a completely strange quarter.
All such impulses are right, if rightly received; and the good or ill interpretation of the card depends entirely on the right attitude of the Querent.
Card 7: Art
Sagittarius
Combination of forces, realisation, action based on accurate calculation; the way of escape, success after elaborate manoeuvres.
Card 8: Death
Scorpio
Transformation, change, voluntary or involuntary, in either case logical development of existing conditions, yet perhaps sudden and unexpected. Apparent death or destruction, but such interpretation is illusion.
Card 9: The Hermit
Virgo
Illumination from within, secret impulse from within; practical plans derived accordingly. Retirement from participation in current events.