On the previous page, I discussed and demonstrated the birth card spread, on this page the last of the new single card spreads is discussed, both spreads can be found in Your Tarot, Your Way by Barbra Moore.

The Card of the Year Spread is the last of the new spreads that I have been introduced to. On this page I am going to take a look at the spread with a little more depth.

Before You Begin...

To do this spread effectively, you will need the following:

- A Deck of Tarot Cards

- A Journal to Make Notes

- Time to Practice

Step 1: Divide the Cards

• Take your chosen Tarot Cards, and seperate the Major and Minor Decks. 

The Major Arcana have 22 cards, if you are not certain which is the major and minor, here is a good rule of thumb to go by:

- Major Deck: 22 cards starting with The Fool and ends with The World.

- Minor Deck: 56 cards featuring Ace to King in Cups, Wands, Swords, and Pentacles.

Step 2: Shuffle the Major and Discard the Minor

• Discard the Minor 56 Deck and Shuffle the 22 Major Deck

Shuffling is important for a few reasons:,

- It mixes the cards together to prevent them being in chronological numerical order, this is a purely practical reason, but it is functional and effective.

- Clears the energy from any previous card reading sessions. It is important for the cards to be clear of any influences, as you want a clear channel and a clear reading.

- Gives you time to set an intention and connect with the deck. It is important to connect with the deck, you are looking for an answer either for yourself or another, without an intention or connection, the cards will be aimless, and you'll not get a good result.

Step 3: Preparing to do the Single Card Spread

• Card of the Year Data

1. Begin by adding the Date, Month and Year.

Similar to the Birth Card Spread, it begins with adding your date, month, year together. Only this time, instead of the birth year, we use the current year. So using the date I wrote this as our working example: 05/01/2022, as a mathmatic sum it looks like this: 

0+5+0+1+2+0+2+2 = 12

The answer is above 9, so add the digits together, which as a mathematical sum would look like this:

1+2=3

The final answer should be a single digit between 1 & 9.

2. Finding the Card of the Year.

Unlike the Birth Card Spread, there is no need to locate a corresponding card. Although there maybe circumstances where two cards are required.

In our working example above, we have 3, and unlike the Single Card Draw from the previous page, its not the third card from the shuffle, but rather the third card in chronological order (see below).

3. The Major Arcana List

01: Magician

02: High Priestess

03: Empress

04: Emperor

05: Hierophant

06: Lovers

07: Chariot

08: Strength

09: Hermit

10: Wheel of Fortune 

11: Justice

12: Hanged Man

13: Death

14: Temperance

15: Devil

16: Tower

17: Star

18: Moon

19: Sun

20: Judgement

21: World

0 - The Fool: would be discarded, similar to the Single Card spread. However, the Card of the Year spread can have a variation, where the fool card maybe included.

The following is a demonstration of the Single Card Spread, it is using Llewellyn Classic Tarot, which is part of Your Tarot, Your Way.

In Practice: Card of the Year Spread

To begin with the cards have been seperated into their Major and Minor decks, the Major deck has been shuffled.

1. The cards have been divided into Major and Minor decks.

2. The Major Deck has been shuffled, to clear the energy.

3. I have worked out the Card of the Year data, and the final answer is 15. Which works out to be 6 (3+1), this means that it will be The Lovers.

Note: The image of The Lovers is from Llewellyn Classic Tarot, which is featured as part of Your Tarot, Your Way.

The last part of single card spreads is 'reading' or interpreting the card itself. There are a few ways in which you can decide to this, if you are just starting out then you can learn from the book which came with the deck itself. 

There is nothing wrong with this in the slightest, the one important thing to keep in mind is that the interpretation is from that authors understanding, you may find another author has a different idea of the cards mean to them.

Sometimes the only way to learn is by collating meaning from different authors and bringing them together. I've had a very interesting upbringing where Tarot is concerned. I'm self taught, and only decided to do Tarot Courses, in later life out of either interest or necessity.

In any case, for the purposes of this practical demonstration of the card reading, I will talk about it from my understanding, and through later posts in Tarot Playtime, I'll aim to introduce you to my understanding of what the cards from both decks mean.

Card of the Year Reading: The Lovers

The Lovers is not always about love, marriage or partnerships. It is a card of passion, which can be about what drives you, but it is also a card that represents binding agreements.

2022, is a year of authentic partnerships, either with yourself or others. It is also about entering into agreements and contracts as well.

This about comittment, and being dedicated to my goals for the year ahead. This is about preparation and passions, making promises that to the best of my ability I can keep.