Spiritual Guidance Spread

What is the spiritual guidance spread and when should you use it?

The Spiritual Guidance Spread is a six-card tarot spread for exploring inner growth, awareness and personal change. Its positions cover your spiritual lesson, what needs release, what is being learned now, your source of strength, inner guidance and a practical step. Use it to examine the habits you question, the beliefs you hold onto and the behaviour you want to change in a particular situation.

It helps when a cycle in your life has closed, when you want to get to know yourself again, or when you feel you keep meeting the same lesson. If you are after a solution to a concrete problem, the Five Card Situation Spread suits better, and if you want to reach down into a feeling you have pushed away, Shadow Work is the better choice. For a daily focus, a single card is enough.

The reading ends with Practice step, where you choose an action related to the preceding five cards. If your question concerns other people’s expectations, name one decision you want to make on your own terms. Write down the behaviour you intend to try and the card theme behind it.

How to ask a question for a spiritual guidance reading

In this spread the question looks inward, not outward. Ask what you are learning, not what will happen.

• Name the chapter. A question like “What lesson am I living through in this part of my life?” puts every position of the spread to work.
• Ask about yourself. Be curious about your own place in the process, not about other people changing.
• Stay open. When a card raises an unexpected thought, compare it with the question you asked. Note the symbol behind that interpretation and the experience it reminds you of.
• Choose a quiet moment. Leave time to study all six positions and record your interpretation. Before drawing, note any feeling or expectation you already bring to the question.

Example questions: “I’ve been living by other people’s expectations for a long time; what do I need to learn now?”, “What is this breakup teaching me?”, “What should I let go of to hear my inner voice more clearly?”

Before you draw, take a few deep breaths and repeat the question in your own words. Shuffle and draw six cards in order.

Spiritual guidance spread positions: the 6 cards explained

Place the first card at the top, with cards 2, 3 and 4 in a row beneath it from left to right. The fifth card sits below the third and the sixth below the fifth, so the spread runs down a vertical axis.

Order	Position	What it shows
1	Spiritual lesson	The main learning theme to examine in your question
2	What needs release	A habit, rule or attachment you are questioning
3	What is being learned now	What you are trying to understand in this situation
4	Source of strength	An inner or outer resource you can lean on
5	Inner guidance	Your own assessment and a feeling you have overlooked
6	Practice step	One concrete action you want to try in everyday life

The row (2, 3, 4). Compare a habit or belief in card 2, a learning theme in card 3 and a resource in card 4. For a question about approval, consider how the rule you are questioning relates to a skill you want to develop and a resource you already have.

The vertical axis (1, 3, 5, 6). Connect the first card’s theme with the learning explored in the third. Use the fifth to consider your own view of that theme, then the sixth to choose a behaviour to try. Reading these four cards in sequence links the main question with your everyday choices.

You can also turn the position names into questions: What am I learning, what am I releasing, what can I lean on? Ask yourself these before turning the cards over and note your first answers. Afterwards, compare those notes with the card themes: which interpretation fits your first thought, and which opens a new question? Relate those differences to the situation you asked about.

How to read the spiritual guidance spread as a whole

Read this spread like a journey: from top to bottom, from lesson to step.

Name the lesson in one sentence. The Spiritual lesson card is the title of the reading. Think about the card’s archetype: is it a teacher, a traveller, a healer?

Compare what you release with what you learn. Set the habit or belief explored in card 2 beside the learning theme in card 3. Do the two themes conflict or support one another? Relate that contrast to the situation you described in your question.

Make the source of strength concrete. It can point to a person, a habit, a place or one of your own qualities. Read this card as the answer to “What can I lean on?”

Look at feelings and symbols in Inner guidance. Study the fifth card’s symbols, colours and figures, and note the first feeling it stirs in you. Consider that response alongside the card’s traditional meaning and the question you asked.

Keep the step small. Turn the Practice step card into one behaviour to try this week. Where Major Arcana cards appear, relate their themes of choice, change or commitment to your question. Examine a reversal for delay, inward focus, resistance or excess alongside the neighbouring cards.

Example reading: living by other people’s expectations

In this example, six positions connect a question about other people’s expectations with the beliefs, resources and daily behaviour you want to examine.

Question: “I feel I’ve been living by other people’s expectations for a long time. What do I need to learn now?”

Position	Card
1. Spiritual lesson	The High Priestess
2. What needs release	The Hierophant
3. What is being learned now	Eight of Cups
4. Source of strength	The Sun
5. Inner guidance	Judgement
6. Practice step	Ace of Cups

Spiritual lesson: The High Priestess. In the Larisa deck, she sits with closed eyes between black and white pillars, holding a scroll. The Golden Dawn tradition pairs her with the Moon, linking the card with intuition and knowledge not yet put into words. In this position, examine your own judgement rather than treating other people’s approval as the answer.

What needs release: The Hierophant. Tradition, accepted rules and attachment to established teaching are this card’s themes; its Golden Dawn attribution is Taurus. In this example, consider which inherited rules you still value and which you no longer want to follow.

What is being learned now: Eight of Cups. A traveller walks away from a group of cups along a rocky path in moonlight. The card describes dissatisfaction and leaving something behind. Examine the cost of living by other people’s expectations and the behaviour you no longer want to continue.

Source of strength: The Sun. A child rides a white horse among sunflowers in the Larisa image. Relate the card’s vitality and self-expression to activities you enjoy for their own sake. Choose one you want to make time for.

Inner guidance: Judgement. Figures raise their arms towards an angel’s trumpet, an image of a call and a reckoning with the past. Here, examine the standards behind your decisions and the place other people’s approval holds in them.

Practice step: Ace of Cups. In the Larisa image, a dove hovers above a golden cup overflowing into water. Read its emotional openness as a theme to explore through an activity you enjoy or a feeling you want to express. Give that activity or expression a small place in your daily routine.

Together. Read the High Priestess’s inner knowing beside the Hierophant’s established rules, and the Eight of Cups’ departure beside Judgement’s reckoning. For one week, give a little time each day to something you choose for its own sake, and note it down.

The Spiritual Guidance Spread is in the Larisa app too: you write the question in your own words, and after reading each position the reader ties the lesson to a step you can put into practice.