7-card spread
Two paths
Seven cards for a choice between two options. One card for where you stand, then three for each path: what it is really offering, what it will cost you, and where it leads. The paths climb away to either side so you can look at them together.
Hover a card to see what its position means.
The positions
- 1YouWhere you stand: what you bring to the decision, and the state you are making it in.
- 2Path APath A as it truly is, beneath how it looks from here.
- 3A · costWhat Path A will ask of you.
- 4A · outcomeWhere Path A leads.
- 5Path BPath B as it truly is, beneath how it looks from here.
- 6B · costWhat Path B will ask of you.
- 7B · outcomeWhere Path B leads.
Reading it well
Name the paths first
Say out loud which option is A and which is B before you lay a card. The spread cannot tell you afterwards.
Compare like with like
Read 2 against 5, 3 against 6, 4 against 7. The reading is in the differences, not in either path alone.
A third way
If both outcomes feel wrong, look at card 1 again. Often the choice as posed is not the real one.
An example reading
“Should I stay and build, or leave and travel?”
You stand in the Seven of Cups: dazzled by options. Path A, staying, is the Ace of Pentacles, a solid opening that asks for the Eight of Pentacles, years of careful work, and leads to the Ten, lasting security. Path B, leaving, is the Fool, a leap that costs the Five of Pentacles, some lean months, and leads to the World. Neither is a trap. The question is which kind of wealth you want.
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