How to do a Year-Ahead Tarot Spread
How to do a Year Ahead Tarot Reading
There are many times of the year when one might feel the need to pull a year's worth of tarot cards; New Year's, Samhain (the witch's new year), or the Winter Solstice are all examples of great times to pull a year-at-a-glance tarot spread. These occasions are clear “beginnings” and we often jump at the opportunity to get an energetic forecast or “heads up” when entering into a new year, project or other fresh start. Let’s break down a beginner-friendly year ahead tarot spread, and dive a bit deeper into tips and tricks to gain more clarity, for the new year to come.
What is a Year At a Glance Tarot Spread?
A year-at-a-glance tarot spread is a spread that allows us to get an overarching glimpse into the 12 months of the year ahead. Depending on how complicated of a spread we are looking to create, individuals can pull one card per month or any number of cards. With divination practices, there are many different approaches, you’ve got the power, so get clear on what type of tarot spread you would find beneficial for yourself.
Why Do a Year at a Glance Tarot Spread?
Pulling a card for each of the months can give us an energetic forecast and provide us with some time to prepare, or look for creative ways to navigate the energies coming our way. Your relationship with tarot will heavily influence how you’ll use a year ahead spread, if you use tarot as a fortune-telling technique for example, you may interrupt your year ahead spread vastly different than if you do not. Here at Alchemia, we work with tarot as if it were a map of the world, a reflection of archetypes and a mirror to give us great objective insight into our current situation, relationships or other dynamics we are attempting to navigate. As we move on to sharing this approachable year at a glance spread, keep this in mind. We do not look to tarot to tell us what our future holds, but rather what to wear for the energetic weather we might be facing, before we bravely move forward. This is similar to checking the weather channel before you go on a hike.
Preparing for a Tarot Spread
Pulling a card a day doesn't involve a lot of preparation, but when you sit down to pull cards for an entire year, it can be quite daunting. The most important thing to remember is that we can stop, take breaks and come back to pulling the spread whenever we’re feeling up for it. There is a lot of stigma around the idea of ceremony or ritual needing to be flawless and we can put this insane pressure on ourselves not to mess up any incantation, order of a card pull, or our shuffling technique, please kindly throw those limiting expectations out the window. There is no wrong way to connect with ourselves, to commune with the divine, or to ask for guidance. Below are a few of our favourite ways to set ourselves up for success and create a ceremonial space for our year-at-a-glance tarot spread.
5 Tips to help you Prepare for a big Tarot Spread
Cleansing; When looking ahead, it’s helpful to not drag in all of your old baggage. Cleanse yourself, cleanse your tools (tarot cards, candles, crystals) and cleanse your space.
Set a clear intention; make sure you have a clear understanding of what sort of clarity you are asking your cards to provide you with.
Record keeping and time management; this is the least glamorous part of a ritual, but you’ll need to make sure you have some way of recording your entire spread, and that you have enough time, undisturbed or intentionally set aside to do a year at a glance tarot spread.
Take care of your body; energetic work can be taxing, to set yourself up for success and to help ensure you have enough “juice” to complete your entire spread, make sure you’ve eaten, and have brought a beverage with you.
Set the mood; anything from music, candles, wearing your favorite house coat, hair up, hair down, or twinkle lights can all add their own flare, and magick to your spread, enjoy this intentional time for yourself.
Alchemia’s Year-at-a-Glance Tarot Spread
Now that we know what a year-at-a-glance spread is, we understand why we may want to do one, and we are prepared to spend some time with our tarot decks, let’s get into Alchemia’s Year Ahead Tarot Spread.
You Will Need:
Tarot cards
Your preferred method for cleansing yourself, your tools, and your space.
Candles, incense, twinkle lights, music, altar cloth or any other intentional atmosphere-setting goodies.
A journal, your computer, or some form of record-keeping device.
The Spread:
We will be pulling 13 tarot cards, each card we pull will remain face down while we pull the entirety of the spread, once all 13 cards are pulled, we will go back and flip them over in order, while we do our reading. Shuffle your deck while you think about your intention for this spread and the “rules” of the spread. We will pull a card for each month, and a card for the theme of the entire year.
What Do You Mean by “Rules of a Spread”?
As we said at the beginning when we are doing tarot, we have the power, and we need to establish some “rules of engagement”. One rule you are most likely familiar with if you have some experience with tarot is reversals. Are you going to read reversals? If you are, what does a reversal signify to you in this tarot reading? Is it a warning, or a suggestion to look inward? Another rule we often like to establish before we start is if we are going to accept tarot cards that fall out of the deck as we are shuffling as part of the spread. If we choose to include the cards that fall out while we are shuffling, what happens if a few fall out at once? Do we only take the singles that fall out? Establish the rules of engagement while you begin shuffling your deck.
The Layout
Once we are clear about what we are and are not including in the reading, we can begin to pull cards. The first card we pull will represent a theme for our year, this card is placed in the center of our altar cloth or our space. The second card is for January and marks the beginning of the monthly forecast for the year ahead. Place the second card above the first card, we will continue to pull a card for each of the months in the year, placing them clockwise in a circle around the first card, until we finish the year off in December, back at the top of the layout to complete the circle.
How to Read the Tarot Spread
When doing such a large spread, we like to reveal a single card at a time, this allows us to stay focused and get a good grasp on the individual card's meanings and interpretations. Once we have looked at the cards individually, we “zoom out” and look at a collective story or the way specific themes and energies might be flowing through the year. This can help us to better understand “how” and “why” questions that may arise when challenging cards are present in the spread.
Turn over the Year’s Theme card at the center of the spread. This card is a broad energetic theme for the year to come and can be considered in conjunction with the individual month's tarot cards. This can add a layer of context and depth when we are looking for some deeper clarity. Move clockwise around the circle, starting with January’s card.
It is your preference for record keeping, some individuals will read the whole spread and then record the cards and their interpretations. We recommend recording your interpretations while they are fresh. We flip over a card, spend some time reading the card energetically and intuitively, and record what is coming up for us before we move on to the next card. This really enables a clear interpretation and records the first intuitive hits we get from the card before there is an opportunity for the messages and guidance to become convoluted the further we progress into the spread. Repeat these steps for the 12 months of the year and before you know it, you have completed an entire year-at-a-glance tarot spread, and are cruising into the new year aware and prepared.
3 Ways to Go Deeper with Your Year-at-a-Glance Tarot Spread
We love this simple, and to-the-point approach to a year-at-a-glance tarot spread. If you are an experienced tarot reader or are looking to add some more depth to your reading give the following a go.
Draw a card for the 4 seasons as well as the 13 tarot cards for the original year-at-a-glance tarot spread. You can divide the year into quarters and by the seasons. Winter; December, January, February. Spring; March, April, May. Summer; June, July, August. And Fall; September, October, and November. Each season gets a card that can add a new level of divination to your yearly spread.
Pull clarifying cards for any or all of the months that you are interested in or are particularly worried about. This approach allows you to hone in on specific areas.
At the beginning of each month throughout the year, use the card you pulled in your year-at-a-glance tarot spread as the significator in a more detailed spread of that month. This will help you to remember your yearly spread and incorporate it in a more consistent tarot practice.
We hope that Alchemias year-at-a-glance tarot spread can provide you with guidance, inspiration and motivation to pull out your tarot deck and dive into creating a spread for your year to come. Tarot can be such a useful tool in providing us with non-biased perspective checks as we move through our lives, it can give warnings, or inform us of new and exciting endeavours coming our way. We will leave you with a final recommendation, don’t live your life trying to fulfill a tarot spread, rather use the tarot to enable you to more fully experience all that life has to offer. However you choose to utilize this tarot spread, we hope you have a year full of magick, wonder, growth and community. Join us on Alchemia’s YouTube channel where we share our 2024 year ahead forecast, and discuss the energetics that the year ahead has in store for us!
