The Year Ahead Tarot Spread

Laying this tarot spread should only take five minutes, so you can fit it in just before your New Years Kiss if you choose to do it at the start of the year. However, you can throw this spread anytime, you’ll just need to adjust the month cards according to your current date.

You can complete this spread in three easy steps:

Step 1: Deal Out the First Quarter

Shuffle your cards and focus your intention. For the Year Ahead Spread, lay one card and then three cards below it, all face-down. While laying them face-down isn’t a must, we prefer to flip the cards over at the end so that our mind stays focused on our intention as we pull from the deck.

Step 2: Repeat the Pattern

You’ll repeat this pattern three more times until you complete the four quarters of the Year Ahead Spread. Then, you’ll flip them all over to begin Step 3.

Step 3: Interpret Your Cards

Now that you’ve laid your tarot spread, you can sort through the story of your year ahead. Decide now if you want to incorporate reversed cards into your tarot reading. If not, turn any reversed cards back to the upright position.

While reversed cards can add more information to your reading, they can be overwhelming for newer tarot readers, so it’s entirely up to you whether you’d like to include them or not.

Once you can see all of your cards, take note of the themes or lessons you’ll be working with during the year ahead. For example, if the Seven of Cups was one of your top cards, you may feel overwhelmed by possibilities or unsure of your future during that quarter of the year. On the other hand, cards like the Empress could represent abundance and growth during those months.

For reference, check out our card meanings page.

If you get stuck or the story is not making sense to you, pull four more cards to see weekly themes within the month.
These would be considered clarifiers to the original month card.

You can get as granular as you would like, but this is more of a big-picture spread. I find it most helpful to pull clarifying cards at the beginning of each month, so I write down my Year Ahead reading so I can reference it throughout the year.

Want to switch it up? Check out another version of this spread, the New Year Tarot Spread!

Questions for Your Year Ahead Tarot Spread

If you’ve never thrown this spread before, you may be confused about how to get the most out of it. Ask yourself these questions as you write down your findings. They can provide clarity into your year ahead and take the stress out of the reading. Remember, by journaling your tarot spreads, you can always come back to them later if you feel like you’re missing something.

Include these questions in your notes:

• Does one Suit of tarot cards appear frequently? (For example, four or more Pentacles cards?)
• Is there a color theme working its way through the year?
• Where are your Major Arcana cards falling? Are they clustered together or evenly distributed?
• Are the Court Cards in major positions? If so, how are we are relating to their theme of authority?
• What cards are reversed, and how does this change the overall meaning?

Enjoy Your Year Ahead!

Now that you understand how to throw the Year Ahead Spread, make sure you take a moment to savor the times ahead. If you have any questions, check out our FAQ page. You can also learn how to throw other tarot spreads, card meanings, and much more by checking out our other articles.