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Spread of the Week 3: Three Card Triangulations

Writer's picture: Peter Duchemin, PhdPeter Duchemin, Phd

This week we are focusing our attention on the number three. Three represents a formal state of affairs- It triangulates three meanings to pinpoint the nature of situation. Three-card spreads are incredibly versatile. Here we will look at two applications:  “past, present & future” spreads, and “pros, cons, & compromises” spreads.


You are encouraged to come up with other three-card spread ideas and share them with me, if you like!


Past, Present, Future

This spread pattern is useful for looking at the timeline of certain experiences you are having. This is excellent for setting your mind on what you might be expecting on the horizon - what to prepare for, and what to anticipate. It is also good for calibrating your present to your past. How we frame the past is essential to how we experience the future. Past and future are like two twin turbulences caused by the state of the present. Everything happens in the present.


How do you throw this spread? Simple. Get into a meditative mindset - perhaps by lighting incense or by visualizing the deck being washed with light… focus on a situation where you would like to know about what to expect - work, love life, finances, etc…and shuffle till you feel right. Deal one card down onto the table, into position 1 (the present), deal a second card down into position 2 (the past), and deal the third card down into position 3 (the future). We now have a card to describe what has gone by, a card to describe what is present, and a card to describe what is to come.


Use this technique to lightly explore the strands of your becoming.


Pro Tip - it is wise to understand that the “future” and the “past” are in a sense, part of the present - they are not fixed like in a written script but rather “shine forth” like twin jets from out of the conditions of the present. They may be changed and reframed by a shift in how we view things in the present. For this reason, it makes sense, when you are reading for someone else to describe the past card as “The past insofar as it is now influencing the present”, and the future card as “the future insofar as it is currently made likely by the present”, and to add - “the past and the future are part of the present - change the present, and you will change the past and the future in terms of how they effect you, your plans, and your state of mind”. Everyone getting or giving a Tarot reading should know this.


Pros, Cons & Compromises


This is a simple triangulation pattern, in which we take a potential course of action and look at it in terms of its positive aspects (pros), its negative aspects (cons), and any compromises we may be able to (or have to) make in following through with this activity. Examples include - specific jobs, specific relationships, apartments, travel destinations, etc.


It is done in the same way as with the Past-Present-Future spread, but notice that the laydown order is different. Pros and Cons come first, and the Compromise is the third card you lay down.



Let the cards trigger streams of association and weave those streams together until they “click”.


For example if with the past-present-future spread, you get: 1(Three of Swords, “sorrow”), 2 (Ace of Cups, “root of emotions”), and 3 (Two of Cups, “love”), you might reflect on how heartache is felt to the degree in which you are capable of loving, and should be experienced and not numbed - what feels like it was lost will be reborn in the future. Feel your sorrow, enlarge your empathy.


If with the Pros-Cons-Compromises spread, you get: 1(The Empress), 2 (Five of Swords, “defeat”), and 3 (Five of Cups “disappointment”), you might consider that this possible relationship will be empowering in many ways, but there could be a passive aggressive, or self-defeating aspect to your partner that is hidden, and so to compromise you must lower your expectations of them.


Remember that three-card draws give us a substantial amount of information about some specific thing - a person, event, or project. In my opinion, three is the sweet-spot. You will rarely need more than three cards to explore some one single idea. Most larger spreads involve more than one idea, interwoven.


However you interpret is, this is a key workhorse pattern for divination. It is both reasonably economic, and reasonably detailed. Use it to explore the aspect of a question that are more important and central to your needs and interests.

Can you think of alternate 3 card spreads? Why not share them with me?

Tarot is a form of play! Play Lightheartedly, Play Frequently.


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