How many cards are you comfortable with in a spread?

I'm just curious how many cards other people are comfortable working with.

For me, I can't stand to read with less than four or more than ten cards (not counting clarifier cards - and I'll only draw two or three of those). My "ideal" number is 6 or 8 cards. The only time I'm comfortable with 10+ is when I'm doing a Celtic Cross spread. I can't do "horoscope" spreads - partly because I don't know anything about astrology, partly because 12 cards seems like so much to me. I can't do calendar spreads either - once in a while, I'll do one, but it's hard for me to interpret what one card means for a whole month.

Have you become more comfortable with bigger spreads as time goes on? Or do you stick with smaller numbers? What's the biggest or smallest spread you feel comfortable doing?

Blessings,
Taylor

Depends on a number of factors for me.

If I'm using the Transparent Tarot (I use two decks together for 156 cards), I use 3 cards for each position. So if I were doing a 10 card spread, I'd use 30 cards. And I've created spreads specifically for the deck. One has 21 positions, so 63 cards.

I've created a Career Spread that has 16 positions. Each time I've used it (4, I believe), I've gotten great feedback about how insightful it was.

One day I hope to do a full-deck spread. Main thing holding me back is floor/table space, both of which are at a premium at my place.

Rodney

Depends. It's not so much that I am UNCOMFORTABLE with larger spreads, more like...much of the time, I don't feel like investing the time it would take to reading a 10-20 card spread...the few times I've done it, went quite well, but I had to take breaks lol... attention/focus cannot last through reading that many cards in one sitting.

Like Rodney said, I think it depends on what I wish to know or explore. For me, having too more information can be just as frustrating as too little information. (I'm the same with menus and books.)

I have no problems modifying spreads and that includes deleting positions or adding new ones to tailor the spread to fit my needs. Sometimes I will find that within one spread there are really a few mini spreads and I can break it down that way.

In general, I prefer spreads that are under 10 cards.

When I create my own spreads they are usually under than 10 too (I just glanced at my index and a lot of them seemed to be around 5). I put a lot of work into deciding exactly what I want each position to answer and I really try to weed out repetitive or unnecessary positions.

However, I don't let the numbers game deter me from asking specifically what I want to know either so I don't worry if they go over that number. Relationship spreads often have more cards than other types of spreads because there are so many aspects to cover.

But for some reason I tend to shy away from spreads by others that have a ton of cards and are very complicated and would take me hours and hours to figure out. For instance, I spotted one today that was like 19 or 20 cards, with a complicated layout (I would probably have to use the floor to lay it out), and many of the positions were repetitive and moved the spread away from the topic of the spread. Then, to top it off there was a specific order for laying them out and another specific order for reading them.

One is good. Up too three is comfortable I can do more but often find things start to get muddy....

gregory said:

One is good. Up too three is comfortable I can do more but often find things start to get muddy....

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Hey, you just gave me an idea for a new spread, gregory! What about a four card spread about comfort zones and encouraging one to stretch those wings? Or maybe 5 cards would be better in terms of layout - four cards laid out in the shape of a box and one outside of it. Or would 5 cards be pushing it into the danger zone?

Oh I've DONE a 42 card spread. And I just did a CC. I just prefer fewer. But - nice idea, yes

When doing a free-throw, I tend to stick to 2 or 3 with a base card.

Free-throw predicting, I tend to do 5 or 7 cards.

Spreads- 10 cards or less is ideal, but will do more.

Free-throw with an oracle, 4 cards per deck (4 tarot cards + 4 oracle cards- one for each tarot card).

gregory said:

Oh I've DONE a 42 card spread. And I just did a CC. I just prefer fewer. But - nice idea, yes

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A 42 card spread! That is beyond MY comfort zone! hahaha

Glass Owl said:

A 42 card spread! That is beyond MY comfort zone! hahaha

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Mine too - but it was for World Towel Day. I did it with the Power Animals. Worse than the 42 card bit, that !