A Dead Man's spread

The death of a loved one can leave a lot of questions. People with whom we have shared a part of our life are hard to let go, while we long for them with our thoughts and heart. The questions are multiplied when the person who left us committed suicide. Why did she do it? Why did no-one see it coming? How can we make sense of our grief and of the acceptance of another one's gesture as the expression of his or her will? There are the thoughts that gave birth to the spontaneous tarot spread that I am presenting in this post. It is a tarot spread which makes maximal use of intuition. In some way, it is a form of mediumship such as automatic writing. Here is how it works.



Chose a tarot deck you feel comfortable with, and operate at a time when no one is around your house, and you know you will not be disturbed while you operate. You may light a candle if you think this is appropriate, or do whatever operation you do before tarot readings. It is a good idea to have your notepad with you, or anything on which you will write what you see in the cards. An incense with a base of styrax resin and copalm may help.


Sit down at the table in a comfortable position and breath deeply, while shuffling the deck. Think about your loved one, if you have her picture position it on the table and light a candle beside it. Let go of your thoughts, shuffle the cards in the back of your mind, relax your mucles and breath regularly. You should reach a state where you channels are opened, but you do not want to go into a trance, as you have work to do with the cards.

Think of the person, while shuffling the cards. Try to visualize his or her face, to think of her person, her presence, the perfume she used or that particular accent she had.   A card will jump out of the deck, and you will position it on the table, to your right-hand side. Keep on shuffling. When another card slips out of the deck position it on the table, right-hand side, below the first one. The first card you have drawn is the signifier of the spread, the essence of your question and your link to the person. From the second on, going to the left, you will position the other cards that successively slip out of your deck. Muscle relaxation and deep breathing is fundamental in this exercise, in order to allow communication with the spirit and to keep the shuffling real but loose enough for the occasional card to slip out. You will stop after the eight card, and your spread will look like this.

                                                                                                                                                      #0#

#7#6#5#4#3#2#1#

Again, card 0 is the signifier. Card 1 represents the moment of death, while card 7 represents birth. Card 6 stands for childhood, 5 for adolescence, 4 adulthood, 3a nd 2 may represent old age and pre-death circumstances if it is about people who died at an old age. In case of a person who died younger, card 2 and 3 specify the circumstances that lead to their dead. Once you have finished noticed the spread in you book, put the card back and say thank you and goodbye to the spirits you feel have helped you.