How many spreads?

Barleywine said:

Good to hear! My main concern is not doing anything artificial-seeming that disrupts the flow of the presentation, not the least because cramming a ten-card reading into a 30-minute session is already challenging enough for someone like me who likes to talk about tarot. I will do less of the visual gymnastics for someone who's experienced at sitting for readings because they could lose patience with the "window-dressing." The thought of it reminds me of a story I told here before about a dermatologist I once went to who interrupted my examination to go into her office and pull out a medical textbook to show me a diagnosis. Not exactly a confidence-builder.

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I will say this about window-dressing though: the renfair crowd expects it. It's theater under those circumstances. I learned early on that it's the showiest presenter who gets the customers. And in the SCA it's considered a performance art. But I'm not good at hype.

In more intimate circumstances, though, I agree that window dressing probably just gets in the way.

Morwenna said:

I will say this about window-dressing though: the renfair crowd expects it. It's theater under those circumstances. I learned early on that it's the showiest presenter who gets the customers. And in the SCA it's considered a performance art. But I'm not good at hype.

In more intimate circumstances, though, I agree that window dressing probably just gets in the way.

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I'm glad you brought this up. In October I'm going to be participating in a small-scale "Halloween season" psychic fair held by the shop where I've been reading. I've been thinking what, if any, "window dressing" I should present. I will have to talk to the shop owner about her expectations. I believe that there is only one reader up for each four-hour stretch, so it won't be about luring customers away from another reader.

Barleywine said:

I'm glad you brought this up. In October I'm going to be participating in a small-scale "Halloween season" psychic fair held by the shop where I've been reading. I've been thinking what, if any, "window dressing" I should present. I will have to talk to the shop owner about her expectations. I believe that there is only one reader up for each four-hour stretch, so it won't be about luring customers away from another reader.

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Oooooh! Samhain reading!
One-day, I'll be doing that...
...You've got to have a skull at least - on your table... ??
(and call it Bob. - Re:'Harry Dresden' novels and TV series about a Wizard in Chicago)

The plastic one in the car, my husband named Yorick.

But my "crystal" (lucite) one I haven't named. And it's too new to have been on a reading table yet. But I'll have to remember that! Someday I'll have to do Samhain readings. I don't have any possible venues yet though, unless I should be invited to a party at that season.

You guys are great for giving us all ideas!

There are some really cool latex skull masks, but I would probably sound like Frank Langella trying to do Skeletor in one of those

Bwahahaha!

Ooooh... A skull spread... :

Aaaaaaand we're back to our topic.

I spent most of my tarot life using only 3 spreads that were suggested in my first tarot book. a modified celtic cross, a 5 card yes/no spread and an all-purpose 5 card spread, which basically goes thesis-antithesis-synthesis-conclusion. I felt that this was plenty for all possible situations. Over the years, I experimented with other spreads from books but found few I really liked. Now I have a handful of spreads I have written myself or found here, one is a more psychological alternative for the celtic cross, the others are for rather specific types of questions. So the first three are still my most used spreads, but it is fun and useful to have alternatives. I genreally prefer bigger spreads like the celtic cross that really tell a story but it depends on the question and purpose of the reading.
I read mostly for myself these days.

I think it would really depend on how versatile the spreads that you know are as opposed to a set number of individual spreads.
For example, you state in the original post that you only really use a 3-card spread...But you can tweak that spread to cover 90% of situations and still get enough information to answer the question.
So for me, it would be however many spreads it takes to sufficiently cover all of the subjects that you read on. This could be one spread for one person or ten spreads for another.

Hayyot said:

Greetings everyone.
I`m a Tarot fan still getting familiar with the cards, but the only spread I do so far is the common 3 card spread.
However, in time, my goal is to read for others as well.
Here comes the question: how many spreads you think one should know, when reading for other people?
Thank you.

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Personally I have only a few spreads that I use. If a situation is very very specific I will look up pre-made spreads and generate an original one fit for the circumstance. I mainly use one 4 card, one 5 card and one 7 card spread for every situation imaginable (though the 4 card spread is very psychological)

It's not how many spreads you know, it's how effective the spreads are. My 7 card Phenomenological Constellation Correlation Spread (yep quite a mouthful! lol) which you can find in my posts is fit for every situation and helps you go very in depth so that's what I use when I can read for extended periods of time. If I'm restricted by time I use a 5 card spread I found in the Fountain Tarot's LWB. The 4 card spread I use when I feel myself or the querent needs it

Sincerely

-uraszz