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

10 of Disks – Wealth	The Lovers	Prince of Cups
5 of Cups – Disappointment	Art	5 of Disks – Anxiety
2 of Swords – Peace	The Star	9 of Cups – Happiness

Mercury in Virgo

Coins of gold, silver, and copper fall to earth. The ten coins in the foreground form the tree of life, each with a symbol matching its particular sephiroth. The coins in the background represent the different pathways. This card represents something valuable.

Meaning:
Material prosperity. Completion of material building. Good health.
When ill-dignified: sloth, heaviness, dullness.

Card 2: The Lovers

Gemini

Lovers are eternally bound in Soul. A nude family holding hands in the form of a lemniscate represents natural purity.

Meaning:
Attraction, childishness, openness to inspiration, love, beauty.
When ill-dignified: shallow, superficial union. Instability, insecurity, indecision.

Card 3: Prince of Cups

5:00 – 7:00 Male
Scorpio

The Prince of Cups rides a vapoury chariot of water. His draft animal is the eagle, but the scorpion is his familiar. His cup is represented by the trident of Neptune. He is receptive to outer influences, which he twists and manipulates to his own ends. He is a ruthless man of great ambition, but he moves in secrecy.

Meaning:
A man who moves in shadows, who ambitiously lusts for great wisdom and power. His calm appearance masks an ocean of passion.
When ill-dignified: a merciless man of insatiable ambition.

Card 4: 5 of Cups – Disappointment

Mars in Scorpio

In this card the water has turned to muck and the sky has gone pink. A scorpion is in the centre of the pentagram formed by the five cups, which are represented here as tridents. Hostility or aggression turned inwards.

Meaning:
Disturbance ending pleasure. Grief, misfortune, sadness, loss, treachery, bitterness, frustration, bad marriage, expectations unfulfilled.

Card 5: Art

Sagittarius

Temperance or Alchemy. Creation by way of the marriage of opposites. You are what you create. An androgenous figure stirs the pot. The unity of opposite alchemical symbols (lion + eagle) has produced alchemical GOLD.

Meaning:
Realisation of objectives and goals. Successful combination of energies. A string of successful magickal manoeuvres culminating in solidification. Calculated action. Management.

Card 6: 5 of Disks – Anxiety

Mercury in Taurus

Sparks fly as five gears grind away. The nervous energy of the element of air has descended upon the earth plane, creating an atmosphere of great friction.

Meaning:
Intense strain accompanying a period of inactivity. Anxiety, loss.
When well-dignified: construction, building, labour, cultivation.

Card 7: 2 of Swords – Peace

Moon in Libra

Two swords stuck in a mound form the shape of a V, the symbolic gesture of peace like the hippies were so fond of. The owners have thrown their arms down in the spirit of harmony.

Meaning:
Contradictory characteristics of the same nature coming together. Pleasure after pain. Quarrel resolved.

Card 8: The Star

Aquarius

Everyone is a Star. This card suggests using your talents.

Meaning:
Clear vision, spiritual insight, hope, charity.
When ill-dignified: error in judgement, disillusion, delusions, lack of understanding.

Card 9: 9 of Cups – Happiness

Jupiter in Pisces

The water level here is the highest in the suit. The perfection of water in Yesod makes this the happiest card in the whole deck. In an ocean of paradise two dolphins playfully leap between floating cups.

Meaning:
A feeling of perfect happiness and well-being.