Egyptian Tarot Spreads: The 8 Ways To Read The Cards

There are several ways to read the Egyptian tarot, from a quick answer to the most expert layout. Before every reading, shuffle the 78 cards and cut them with your left hand: it is a tradition specific to the Grand Etteilla, worth honouring to stay true to the spirit of the deck.

✦

Three reading rules that belong to the Egyptian tarot

Before picking a layout, three quirks of this deck change the way a spread is read.

✦ ✦

Three-card spread: the quick answer

This is the simplest method, and the best way into the Egyptian tarot. Three cards laid left to right are enough to answer one precise question.

Level: beginner. The reading is chronological, each position playing a clear part.

If all three cards belong to the same suit, that in itself is useful: the area concerned is dominant in your question. Three Cups speak of the heart, three Pentacles of the concrete.

✦

Five-card spread: the fuller diagnosis

Same principle, with two more cards: the five-card spread gives a fuller diagnosis of a situation where three cards only give a direction. Level: beginner.

It is the right compromise when the question is clear but the context is not: the two extra cards temper the reading, showing what supports the situation and what holds it back.

✦

Line spread: the general reading

The cards are laid out in a single row and read left to right, like a sentence. The number of cards varies: this is the layout that adapts best to an open question. Level: confirmed.

What you are after here is not an answer per position but a narrative: the succession of cards traces a progression, and it is the neighbours that make the meaning. It is also the method where the two keywords of each card matter most, since a single reversed card can bend the whole line.

✦

Simple cross spread: for one targeted question

Six cards laid out as a cross. This method reveals the obstacles and the assets of a situation, to answer one targeted question. Level: confirmed.

It is the spread to favour when you are torn: it sets what carries you against what holds you back, rather than unrolling a chronology. Swords often crowd it when a decision is at stake.

✦

Pyramid spread: one precise area

Five cards laid out as a pyramid, to question one precise area — love, work, health — in more detail than a general reading allows. Level: confirmed.

The point of this shape is to rank: the base carries the concrete side of the situation, the apex what it is heading towards. Use it when you already know what you want to talk about and you are after depth rather than breadth.

✦ ✦

The Eye of Horus: the Egyptian tarot's signature spread

✦ ✦

"Temple" spread: the elaborate reading

Nine cards split into three piles of three, laid out from right to left. Level: expert.

The principle is to read each pile as a whole before setting them against one another: you get three successive lights on the same question, rather than nine separate answers. It is a demanding method, which asks you to be at ease with how cards relate.

✦

The full method: 32 cards, two passes

The most expert reading of the Egyptian tarot. Thirty-two cards laid out as a table, then read in two passes. Level: expert, for those who know the deck well.

The first pass draws the broad lines, the second refines them in the light of what the first revealed. With 32 cards on the table, how they split across the four suits becomes information in itself: this is often where you see that a question asked in material terms is really a question of the heart.

Not sure which layout fits what you want to ask? Our guide to choosing the right tarot spread walks you through it.

✦ ✦ ✦

Your questions about Egyptian tarot spreads

✦

Going further

The 4 suits of minor arcana

← Everything about the Egyptian tarot