Three Paths: Katina Decision Spread

What is the Three Paths spread and when should you use it?

Three Paths is a ten-card decision spread laid with the Katina deck. The first card shows the main energy of the decision: the state of mind you are bringing to it. The remaining nine cards form three columns, each describing one option’s beginning, development and result.

It helps when you are caught between three options: three different cities, three ways of running your work, staying in a relationship, changing it or ending it. If you have two options, the tarot Decision Spread offers a simpler comparison. To see every layer of a single matter, the Katina Cross offers a fuller view of the matter, and for one emotional question, Mirror of the Heart.

What sets Three Paths apart is its use of Katina’s relationship themes. Its person and stance cards give you a language for comparing the roles, bonds and attitudes involved in three choices. Consider the people already involved in each option, the responsibilities you would take on and the approach each path asks you to examine.

How to ask a question for the Katina Three Paths spread

A three-way question needs each option named clearly.

• Define the paths. Before you draw, write path one, path two and path three in a sentence each, and do not swap which column belongs to which option afterwards.
• Ask what each path brings rather than “Which one is right?” The cards do not choose for you; they describe three paths.
• Take the people into account. Name the people already involved in each option and the responsibilities you would take on. Compare the person cards’ qualities with those roles.
• Postponing can be a path. One of the options can be “doing nothing for now”; read that as a column too.

Example questions: “What would growing the small business my brother and I started, leaving it, or putting it on hold each bring me?”, “Which of three job offers in three different cities is closest to me?”, “How do staying in this relationship, taking a break and ending it differ?”

While you shuffle, give the three paths the same attention, then draw ten cards in order.

Three Paths positions: the 10 cards explained

The first card goes at the top, in the centre. Beneath it sit three rows of three cards: 2, 3, 4; 5, 6, 7; 8, 9, 10. The cards are laid out row by row but read column by column: path one is cards 2-5-8, path two is 3-6-9 and path three is 4-7-10.

Order	Position	What it shows
1	Main energy of the decision	The feeling and need you bring to the decision
2	First path beginning	The energy that comes forward when you step onto path one
3	Second path beginning	The energy that comes forward when you step onto path two
4	Third path beginning	The energy that comes forward when you step onto path three
5	First path development	The process you would live through on path one
6	Second path development	The process you would live through on path two
7	Third path development	The process you would live through on path three
8	First path result	The direction path one leads to
9	Second path result	The direction path two leads to
10	Third path result	The direction path three leads to

The main energy (1). It sits above the three columns. It describes not the decision itself but the feeling you carry as you make it: fear, eagerness, tiredness?

The columns. Each column is a story read from top to bottom. The result cards are not a seal but the direction a path leads in if it is walked under today’s conditions.

How to read the Three Paths spread together

In this spread information flows two ways: down each column and across each row.

1. Start with the main energy. Name the feeling you bring to the decision. Consider how tiredness, enthusiasm or apprehension shapes the way you weigh the same options, then compare that starting point with each column’s themes.
2. Read each column as a story. Do the beginning, development and result support one another? Do the cards brighten or fade from beginning to result? The development card in the middle carries the everyday weight of the path: however bright the result, a heavy development card asks whether you have the strength to walk it.
3. Compare the rows. Put the three beginnings, the three developments and the three results side by side. Name the row with the sharpest contrast as a question to examine: starting conditions, continuing duties or desired goals? Weigh that contrast alongside the demands of all three options.
4. Notice the person cards. A lady, lord or sultan card introduces a person type and its qualities. Compare those qualities with each option’s relationships, responsibilities and attitudes. Name where the comparison fits what you know today.
5. Compare harmony with your priorities. Where a column’s cards support one another, name the values their shared themes emphasise. Weigh those values against your own priorities, available resources and the responsibilities you are prepared to accept.

Read a reversed card according to the situation; in a development position it can describe a delay on that path or a period of withdrawing into yourself.

Example reading: a business shared with a brother

Here a decision tangled up with a family bond separates out across three columns.

Question: “What would growing the small business my brother and I started, leaving it to go my own way, or putting it on hold for a while each bring me?”

Position	Card
1. Main energy of the decision	the Great Diamond
2. First path beginning	the Ruby of Fire
3. Second path beginning	Zara
4. Third path beginning	the Ebony Wheel
5. First path development	Valide
6. Second path development	Munzur
7. Third path development	Selena
8. First path result	the Mountain
9. Second path result	the Emerald of the Waters
10. Third path result	Mida

Main energy: the Great Diamond. Value and what lasts are the card’s themes. Consider what you value in the business and in your bond with your brother. Name where shared responsibility, recognition for your work and independence enter the decision, then carry those priorities into all three columns.

Path one, growing the business: the Ruby of Fire, Valide, the Mountain. The Ruby of Fire introduces passion and enterprise; Valide emphasises family authority and roles. In the result, the Mountain represents obstruction, distance and a demanding goal. Compare those themes with who makes decisions today and how the work of expansion would be shared.

Path two, leaving: Zara, Munzur, the Emerald of the Waters. Zara introduces a new beginning, and Munzur patience and a long road. The Emerald of the Waters emphasises renewal, calm and the wish for reconciliation. Consider your need for independence, the effort of separating the work and the terms you want to discuss with your brother.

Path three, putting it on hold: the Ebony Wheel, Selena, Mida. The Ebony Wheel brings repetition and waiting; Selena introduces matters below the surface. Mida represents a distant, cold and touchy stance in the result. Compare the pause with unresolved subjects, the length of any delay and the distance you have observed today.

Together. The first column brings enterprise, family authority and obstruction; the second beginning, patience and reconciliation; the third waiting, unspoken matters and distance. Weigh these themes against your priorities and the business’s present conditions. In one conversation with your brother, write the duties, effort and boundaries of all three options side by side, stating what each of you wants.

You can compare your three options with Three Paths in the Katina deck of the Larisa app; the reader treats the columns 2-5-8, 3-6-9 and 4-7-10 as three separate paths and weighs them against each other.