The New Year Tarot Spread Explained
Amber Is a Certified Astrologer from the Portland School of Astrology. She Is Also a Graduate of the Popular Tarot for the Wild Soul Program by Lindsey Mack...
A is one of the most popular spreads that a practitioner can do. The general idea of the New Year spread is to explore the energies of the upcoming year for the querent.
No one spread works best for everyone when doing a New Year reading, but for most, it is best that this be a larger, more detailed spread. A lot can happen in 12 months, and just pulling a few cards around these energies won’t provide sufficient expectations for the year to come.
The purpose of this guide is to have the New Year tarot spread explained and to help you develop your own New Year spread rather than plug into an already developed spread. Spreads that are created and developed by the person doing the reading always have more accurate results, as they are imbued with the energy of the reader and their style, and even personalized to the querent if need be.
When developing your New Year spread, be sure to put your own personal twist on it. You’ll be amazed at the results!
The Focus of the New Year Spread
There are a few options when it comes to the overall focus and purpose of a New Year spread. Some may choose to use it as an outlook for the upcoming year and what energies and themes may be present. Using to look into the future can be a tricky thing, as there is no fixed future that can be divined through . Therefore, the energies that will appear will be where things stand as they are now. It is up to you to keep track of your progress and check in with your spread as you progress throughout the year to see what needs to be refined or revisited.
You may also choose to use the New Year spread to clarify lessons and themes from the that you may integrate into your life in the year ahead. Since these things have already happened and you are familiar with the events of the previous year, this may be a more effective way to do a New Year spread.
You may also choose to use a mixture of the two, where the first part of your spread speaks to the lessons to be integrated from the previous year, while the next part speaks to what you may have ahead of you.
Remember that there is no right or wrong way to do a New Year spread – do whatever feels intuitive to you!
When to do a
Aside from the beginning of the Julian calendar year, beginning on January 1st, a New Year Spread can be done other times of the year. While we generally use the Julian calendar to mark our days and years, many pagan societies of old considered the new year to start in the fall, when the bounty of the harvest had been reaped, and trees and plants began to die and decay, to provide fertile soil for the following year.
For these nature-reliant people, the New Year began around , what we now call Halloween. Many people who follow a pagan or witch’s path (including me) choose to do a New Year Spread on eve when the veil between this world and the Spirit World is the thinnest. I find that ancestors, spirit guides, and even deities are most active at this time and willing to speak through the .
Other cultures also have New Year’s apart from the traditional Julian New Year. For instance, in the Jewish culture, the New Year starts at Rosh Hashanah – a different day each year, but generally during the of September. As the as we know it borrows heavily from Jewish mysticism, Rosh Hashanah would be a potent time of year to do a New Year reading. Other cultures also use a Lunar Calendar, so doing a during any Lunar New Year will work as well.
Another good time to do a New Year reading is on the querent’s birthday. The solar return marks the beginning of a new year, and readings done for the year ahead during this time can be useful as they are personalized to the querent as well.
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