Once each card is read in its position, step back and look at the table as one picture. The patterns often say more than any single card. The summary above each reading on this site looks for these patterns for you; this lesson shows you how to see them yourself.
Five patterns
Count the Major Arcana. More than about a third of the cards and the situation is bigger than day-to-day.
Count the suits. A table full of Swords is a reading about thought and conflict, whatever the question was.
Look for repeated numbers. Two or more cards of the same number put that stage, beginning or challenge or completion, at the centre.
Count reversals. Many reversed cards can suggest energy that is blocked or turned inward across the whole situation.
Look for pairs. Some cards speak to each other: The Tower and The Star, Death and The Tower, The Sun and The Moon. A card in the Present and a card in the Outcome form a line you can read as one sentence.
One sentence
Finish by summing up the reading in a single sentence, in your own words. If you cannot, the reading has not landed yet; go back to the card that puzzles you most.
