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1001 Tarot Spreads: The Complete Book of Tarot Spreads for Every Purpose
With 1,001 spreads for every possible need, this guide—written by a master tarot reader and bestselling author—is the be-all and end-all sourcebook on tarot card layouts!
People seeking to understand themselves and their destiny have long relied on tarot cards for divination. And while finding guidance may be as simple as drawing one card randomly from the deck, over the years many other layouts have been devised—from three-card past/present/future readings to more complicated layouts that use almost the entire deck. Bestselling author and master reader Cassandra Eason will guide you through this rich variety of spreads so you can get a more precise answer to your question. Address a lingering anxiety by laying down a 10-card Celtic Cross. Buying a house? About to undergo surgery? Confused by a flighty love interest? Look to this book for 1,001 different ways to draw and place cards that will give you clues about the future, context for the present, and insight into the past.
People seeking to understand themselves and their destiny have long relied on tarot cards for divination. And while finding guidance may be as simple as drawing one card randomly from the deck, over the years many other layouts have been devised—from three-card past/present/future readings to more complicated layouts that use almost the entire deck. Bestselling author and master reader Cassandra Eason will guide you through this rich variety of spreads so you can get a more precise answer to your question. Address a lingering anxiety by laying down a 10-card Celtic Cross. Buying a house? About to undergo surgery? Confused by a flighty love interest? Look to this book for 1,001 different ways to draw and place cards that will give you clues about the future, context for the present, and insight into the past.
544 pages, Hardcover
Published July 6, 2021
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September 16, 2026Source of book: KU
Relevant disclaimers: None
Please note: This review may not be reproduced or quoted, in whole or in part, without explicit consent from the author.
And remember: I am not here to judge your drag, I mean your book. Books are art and art is subjective. These are just my personal thoughts. They are not meant to be taken as broader commentary on the general quality of the work. Believe me, I have not enjoyed many an excellent book, and my individual lack of enjoyment has not made any of those books less excellent or (more relevantly) less successful.
***
Skippable preamble on my tarot bullshit here
This is a lot of tarot spreads by any metric. And I opted out fairly early because they seemed very future-based predictive, which is simply not how I read, nor how I’m interested in reading.
Relevant disclaimers: None
Please note: This review may not be reproduced or quoted, in whole or in part, without explicit consent from the author.
And remember: I am not here to judge your drag, I mean your book. Books are art and art is subjective. These are just my personal thoughts. They are not meant to be taken as broader commentary on the general quality of the work. Believe me, I have not enjoyed many an excellent book, and my individual lack of enjoyment has not made any of those books less excellent or (more relevantly) less successful.
***
Skippable preamble on my tarot bullshit here
This is a lot of tarot spreads by any metric. And I opted out fairly early because they seemed very future-based predictive, which is simply not how I read, nor how I’m interested in reading.
December 17, 2021
Personally, these spreads are too predictive for my style, and a chunk of the spreads go against my own tarot-reading ethics (e.g. medical advice).
Further, a lot of the questions the querent should just answer themselves, like, “should you inbuild more time than usual for transits in a complicated travel schedule?“ (yes) Or, “would you like to make a few like-minded friends?” (doesn't everyone?) Or, “have you always loved singing and dancing?” Or “should you ask your friends and family if they have heard from your missing relative?” (that should be your first step). I don’t need a card (much less a spread) to tell me these things. In these cases, I think drawing a card would just muddle your understanding of the situation.
Regardless of the level of usefulness for me, the scope of the project is impressive:
“if you have always wanted to take up juggling and other circus performing arts”
“If you have a psychic child who is afraid of ghosts”
“if your neighbor’s dog constantly barks when its owners are at work or away all day”
“If you have human snakes spitting venom at you at work or in your neighborhood” (wtf?)
“If you want to live on a remote island”
“If you want to homeschool the children while you take a year driving around the continent”
“if you are offered a run-down animal sanctuary or indigenous wildlife center”
“if you have escaped from a cult and they are denying you access to your funds and assets” (not the only cult question)
“If you want to date a celebrity, singer, millionaire, or sports star”
“if you haven’t heard from a young backpacking relative in some time” (this is a 10-card spread)
“If you are competing with your horse but suffering from opposition to your joining the circuit”
I could go on--some of these spreads are hilariously specific, and I hope that some readers will feel relieved that finally someone is providing guidance on some of these questions. Though I didn’t copy down a single spread from this book, I can still appreciate that it was beautifully produced and organized with a handy index. Certainly this will be a must-have reference for some readers, especially predictive readers, or those who prefer to incorporate the zodiac, numerology, or saints.
Further, a lot of the questions the querent should just answer themselves, like, “should you inbuild more time than usual for transits in a complicated travel schedule?“ (yes) Or, “would you like to make a few like-minded friends?” (doesn't everyone?) Or, “have you always loved singing and dancing?” Or “should you ask your friends and family if they have heard from your missing relative?” (that should be your first step). I don’t need a card (much less a spread) to tell me these things. In these cases, I think drawing a card would just muddle your understanding of the situation.
Regardless of the level of usefulness for me, the scope of the project is impressive:
“if you have always wanted to take up juggling and other circus performing arts”
“If you have a psychic child who is afraid of ghosts”
“if your neighbor’s dog constantly barks when its owners are at work or away all day”
“If you have human snakes spitting venom at you at work or in your neighborhood” (wtf?)
“If you want to live on a remote island”
“If you want to homeschool the children while you take a year driving around the continent”
“if you are offered a run-down animal sanctuary or indigenous wildlife center”
“if you have escaped from a cult and they are denying you access to your funds and assets” (not the only cult question)
“If you want to date a celebrity, singer, millionaire, or sports star”
“if you haven’t heard from a young backpacking relative in some time” (this is a 10-card spread)
“If you are competing with your horse but suffering from opposition to your joining the circuit”
I could go on--some of these spreads are hilariously specific, and I hope that some readers will feel relieved that finally someone is providing guidance on some of these questions. Though I didn’t copy down a single spread from this book, I can still appreciate that it was beautifully produced and organized with a handy index. Certainly this will be a must-have reference for some readers, especially predictive readers, or those who prefer to incorporate the zodiac, numerology, or saints.
April 24, 2023
Poorly edited and not that helpful. Too specific, too many yes/no questions, little room for flexibility. Not useless but very meh.
March 25, 2022
I have been a professional Tarot reader for 8 years and I am quite impressed by this book. It took a lot of work to write this, not to mention creativity. This book contains any Tarot spread that you will ever need and even has spreads that incorporate crystal pendulums. If you are serious about using Tarot as a divination tool to guide your life I highly recommend this book.
April 23, 2022
5 out of 5 stars.
If you not only want to find new tarot spreads for extremely specific scenarios and questions but also want to figure out the underlying mechanisms of tarot spreads so that you can make up your own spreads, this is the book for you. It's very creative and impressively well-made. I'd recommend this to every tarot/oracle reader I know of and if you are one, please just try it out for size. I'm convinced there's at least one desperately needed tarot spread in here for everyone.
The following is just for my future reference but y'all can check it out if you want.
If you not only want to find new tarot spreads for extremely specific scenarios and questions but also want to figure out the underlying mechanisms of tarot spreads so that you can make up your own spreads, this is the book for you. It's very creative and impressively well-made. I'd recommend this to every tarot/oracle reader I know of and if you are one, please just try it out for size. I'm convinced there's at least one desperately needed tarot spread in here for everyone.
The following is just for my future reference but y'all can check it out if you want.
February 21, 2022
Too much nit picky kinds of readings. "A Spread if You Want Jelly or Jam." Or the kind of readings you'd pull on a psychic hotline. "What to do if You Think Your Boyfriend is Cheating."
I can imagine the 1001 Spells book. Oh, yeah, I can. I have it. It's the same way.
Silly me.
I can imagine the 1001 Spells book. Oh, yeah, I can. I have it. It's the same way.
Silly me.
December 1, 2022
I was looking for something about two layers back in terms of specificity, so this was a bad match for my needs. I wanted a lot of general layout patterns with some suggestions for the role given positions in each might play for multiple kinds of queries. The equivalent of 'this card is the immediate future' and 'this card is the biggest obstacle' levels of definition.
This book has the advantage of having a lot of different spreads. In terms of physical configuration of how the cards are laid out, I mean. I was looking for that.
It has, however, a deep disadvantage (YMMV) in that a lot of the layouts are used in ultra-specific ways, often for questions that I wouldn't consider good fits for a tarot reading.
In many of those cases, several cards connect to yes/no questions that could have been phrased not to be binary. For example, Layout 495 (p. 265) includes a card for 'Is there a special animal rescue center you know of/visit/support?' This is the sort of question that should be outside of the reading because the querant should already know the answer. A different phrasing such as "Is the animal rescue center you have in mind a good fit for finding a pet for you to adopt?" might work better as something with a lot of potential complicating factors.
The binary questions tend to be things that the querant really and truly ought to consider in the situation under discussion. They're relevant. They just don't benefit from much from nuance offered by a full (or partial) deck.
Rephrasing the binary questions will require effort for a would-be reader but isn't impossible. It also isn't impossible to look at thematic similarities in questions attached to a given card number in a given structure of layout. It's more work than I care to do, but the bones for that are there.
To sum up, this book didn't work for my needs but might be a useful tool for people who're looking for the thing it does.
This book has the advantage of having a lot of different spreads. In terms of physical configuration of how the cards are laid out, I mean. I was looking for that.
It has, however, a deep disadvantage (YMMV) in that a lot of the layouts are used in ultra-specific ways, often for questions that I wouldn't consider good fits for a tarot reading.
In many of those cases, several cards connect to yes/no questions that could have been phrased not to be binary. For example, Layout 495 (p. 265) includes a card for 'Is there a special animal rescue center you know of/visit/support?' This is the sort of question that should be outside of the reading because the querant should already know the answer. A different phrasing such as "Is the animal rescue center you have in mind a good fit for finding a pet for you to adopt?" might work better as something with a lot of potential complicating factors.
The binary questions tend to be things that the querant really and truly ought to consider in the situation under discussion. They're relevant. They just don't benefit from much from nuance offered by a full (or partial) deck.
Rephrasing the binary questions will require effort for a would-be reader but isn't impossible. It also isn't impossible to look at thematic similarities in questions attached to a given card number in a given structure of layout. It's more work than I care to do, but the bones for that are there.
To sum up, this book didn't work for my needs but might be a useful tool for people who're looking for the thing it does.
November 10, 2022
I picked this book up when it was on sale so I can't be too critical; it was worth the price I paid. I'll say this: it is ridiculously specific for so many of the spreads. I almost wondered if this was tarot sarcasm to be honest lol. But I suppose that's how she got the 1001 shoved in there. It is not the most practical book to own, but there's bound to be some spreads that you haven't thought of. That's for sure. Just a little too outrageously specific for really odd things for what I use tarot for.
May 30, 2026
I really like the zodiac, moon, and holiday spreads, and the bigger more complicated ones are very intriguing. But most of the spreads have questions that you dont need tarot for, like really obvious yes/no questions, or things that you almost definitely already know, instead of looking deeper into the situation.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 3, 2024
Comprehensive
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews