Is this odd?

I'm moving away from using spreads almost completely, totally on accident. There are some wonderful spreads and many of my most commonly used ones are from users on this forum, but I just noticed that I haven't used a spread in about a month! I've just been doing 3 card draws or single draws and noticing that I can get just as much information this way. Plus, there's more room for interpretation as there are no "this card must apply to this" sort of thing.

Any thoughts? How often do you use spreads, or do you even use them at all?

I never use them unless I'm bored.

sometimes a spread is "born" when I do a reading, like I apply a "area of significance" to the card ate the moment, so the spread I creates as the game proceeds. Other times I use some spreads

Well, that's a good point. I do ask questions and lay cards for each one. I just make them up myself as I go, rather than using pre-made spreads. No 'positions' or questions at all usually makes for vague, confusing readings in my experience.

shemsu sutekh said:

Any thoughts? How often do you use spreads, or do you even use them at all?

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Never - using the conscious mind to assert a pattern over the cards seems to defeat their purpose.

For now, spreads are a good way for me to focus. Otherwise my mind is all over the place just staring blankly at the pile of cards scattered across the table.

I ask the question of the spread as I shuffle and draw the card - it makes me feel as though I'm adding intent to the reading and the right card will turn up.

When I get better at relating the cards to each other, the spreads may not be as much a factor - I'm hoping that the spreads are helping me learn to relate the cards to each other.

I think the way we do things evolves with us, so I don't think moving away from spreads is odd at all

I don't think it's odd. Sometimes I concentrate on a question or situation and then lay as many cards out until I feel I've had enough. It can be one,three or eight or more, all in a row and just read from left to right. I've had great readings from that and more "in tune" (or so I thought) to my particular needs/situation etc.

If what you do works for you, there's nothing odd about it!

Sometimes I use spreads, often ones I make up on the spur of the moment,
and sometimes I don't. It just seems to depend on what seems right at the time.

When I first started reading, I did a 7-card PPF----2 cards for past, 3 for present and 2 for future. Then I went to just reading the 7 straight across like a story. Then I went back to using position meanings and trying different spreads but I don't remember spreads very well, so then I went to 3-card readings and trying to make up my own position meanings. That didn't work well for me for some reason.

Now I just wing it. But for me, less is more, so it's 3, 5 or 7 cards. Usually I make up my own position meanings or else I just read straight across without any.

You'll develop your own personal way of reading as time goes on. There's nothing at all odd about whatever way you find works for you.

Exactly as you describe, I seem to accidently fallen into drawing only one card too. I was a huge fan of the horseshoe spread for several years, but waiting for the reading to be fulfilled could take many weeks, even months (don't get me wrong, analysing it afterwards was a wonderful and meaty task), and I wouldn't have regular contact with my deck as a result. I still use the celtic cross spread, when reading for others, but as I've wanted more and more contact with the tarot for personal use, I've found I like to ponder upon less cards at a time, thus gaining all the more interpretation of that one card. All in all, by using a one card method, it probably means I know my decks better!

Many spreads are too confusing and ask for non essential information that just leads to confusion. Also, trying to remember what position means what can be very distracting and tends to mess up the reading. I find it unnecessary to use any type of spread, one can get excellent results without having to wade through huge amounts of cards. I always wonder why so many beginners think that trying to read a large spread is the proper thing to do, they just end up getting lost in the details.

So, I think simple is better, no positions, just draw a few cards for an answer, if the answer needs to be expanded upon draw another.