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

Princess of Disks	5 of Swords – Defeat	7 of Disks – Failure
The Hierophant	6 of Wands – Victory	Prince of Swords
Princess of Wands	Knight of Swords	The Priestess

A voluptuous young woman stands in an Autumn forest, plunging her sceptre into the earth, symbolising the union of masculine and feminine energy. Underground, her sceptre evolves into a diamond. She wears the skull of a ram and a coat of wool. Her disk is the yin-yang inside of a rose with golden petals. Represented here is the eternally pregnant spirit of the earth.

Meaning:
A generous, kind, caring young woman.
When ill-dignified: a wasteful young woman out of touch with reality, at war with herself.

Card 2: 5 of Swords – Defeat

Venus in Aquarius

The pale blue background of this card symbolises airy weakness. A chipped sword attempts to battle four bent swords in the shape of a pentagram. A hopeless struggle, this solitary sword is the weakest of the five.

Meaning:
Weakness, loss, spite, malice, trouble, dishonour, degradation, infamy, revocation, loss, humiliation, anxiety. A driver of wedges.

Card 3: 7 of Disks – Failure

Saturn in Taurus

Seven seals linked by the rainbow bridge descend enlightenment to the bull. Ignorant and arrogant, he blocks his own path. The darkness of his own delusions repels his gift from above, scattering the light.

Meaning:
Sloth, abandoned labour, hopes deceived, promises unfulfilled, disappointment. Great effort producing little gain.
When well-dignified: charity work for no profit, growth after delay.

Card 4: The Hierophant

Taurus

The Hierophant holds the keys to the otherworld. He is the embodiment of spiritual authority and wisdom, the knower of the spiritual universe. The swastika inside the star of David represents spiritual understanding of various perspectives being used to unlock the seven seals.

Meaning:
Divine wisdom, inspiration, organisation, teaching, gaining knowledge from superiors, tradition, patience. Sometimes occult force voluntarily invoked. Respected elder, mercy, alliance, marriage.

Card 5: 6 of Wands – Victory

Jupiter in Leo

This card represents energy in its most balanced and powerful state. Six snake-rods are crossed with nine flames burning at the joints. This represents the male energy being reflected by the female in a state of perfect harmony and balance.

Meaning:
Triumph after strife. Success and gain, good news, expectations fulfilled.
When ill-dignified: excessive pride and insolence.

Card 6: Prince of Swords

2:00 – 4:00 Male
Aquarius

The Prince of Swords rides the sky in his cloudy chariot of air, pulled by three young men representing his thoughts and ideas. He symbolises purity of the intellect, but also instability. As he pushes forward with his sword, he is frustrated. His thoughts are all over the place. In his left hand he holds a sickle, symbolising his tendency to destroy his creations as quickly as he makes them, perhaps overly critical of his own ideas.

Meaning:
A pure intellectual, clever but unstable of purpose, a mind full of various contradictory ideas and opinions.

Card 7: Princess of Wands

A robust young woman stands on the mountain firing arrows. Her arrows represent the other Wands courts, Sagittarius, Aries, and Leo. She is a passionate, brilliant, and independent young woman. The tiger is a symbol of the lower animal nature that grounds her.

Meaning:
An individualistic energetic glowing young woman, impulsive in matters of love.
When ill-dignified: superficial, shallow, gossiping, unreliable, cruel, domineering.

Card 8: Knight of Swords

Gemini

The Knight of Swords rides a red horse, symbolising the fiery passion that drives his intellectual pursuits. The birds that fly beneath him symbolise quick-wittedness. He bears a great sword in his right hand while he stashes a dagger in his left, symbolising the witty two-sided personality of a Gemini.

Meaning:
An active, skilful, witty, clever, fierce man.
When ill-dignified: An indecisive, cunning, deceitful man.

Card 9: The Priestess

The Moon

The Priestess sits on her throne, queen of the heavens, the eternal virgin, and the counterpart of the Hierophant. She holds the keys to the feminine secrets of the universe.

Meaning:
Enthusiastic focus on the unconscious. A pure, exalted influence comes into play. The Priestess warns not to get too carried away.