A simple Card of the Year spread

I developed this spread a few years ago and wanted to re-share it here. I used Katy Flowers’ New Year Ahead Spread as inspiration, but decided on a simpler approach with just one central card and 4 positions around it. For each position you can use 1-3 cards depending on how you like to read. You can do this reading at various times of year: late in the preceding calendar year, early in the new year, or near your birthday.

Watch me demonstrate this spread in a sample reading.

To do this reading, first pull out the triumphs from your deck and shuffle them*. As you shuffle, ask “what is likely for the next year” or simply “what card represents my upcoming year”. Draw a card but leave it face-down for now in the center of your table. Thoroughly shuffle the other triumphs back into the pack, then draw 4 more cards (or sets of cards) for positions A, B, C, and D. After you have drawn all the cards, lay them out and turn them face up.

Center Card: Your card of the year.

A – Upper left corner: What aspect or energy of the card of the year is likely to be most dominant?

B – Upper right corner: How can I best use this energy?

C – Lower left corner: What obstacle is likely to come up this year?

D – Lower right corner: What advice is there for working with or overcoming this obstacle?

Note: I prefer to choose a card of the year by shuffling rather than calculating a “value” based on the number of the card and a birth or other significant date. Using a calculated number feels too much like using astrology, as those numbers will always appear in the same sequence (i.e. your Chariot year will always follow a Lovers year, etc.) and life generally doesn’t feel that ordered and predictable. Choosing a card of the year by synchronicity feels more accurate, and this has been reflected in the experiences that friends have had when I’ve done readings for them.

Decks shown: The Crystal (Glass) Tarot by Elisabetta Trevisan; Mara Lunne Tarot by L.S. Grainne, aka Clary Moon Sage