Advanced Tarot Techniques, Part 1 - Elemental Tarot Spreads

Let’s break some rules, shall we? It’s so fun!

Before we begin this lesson in tarot elemental correspondences, I would like to extend a very warm welcome to my new subscribers and followers. I truly appreciate all of you for joining my circle. Blessed Be.

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Let’s Play with Tarot - A Spread to Explore Elements

Welcome to the first installment of my new series for 2025, Advanced Tarot Techniques. Future installments will feature more advanced topics beyond the little white book. I intend on turning typical tarot spreads on their head to break as many traditions I can manage to show what tarot can do for us as we navigate life. I will be exploring elemental correspondences in this post.

You don’t need to be a mystic to do these things – there are so many ways to use tarot with no intuitive abilities whatsoever.

I am personally challenging you to pick up a deck and try throwing out a few cards and see what happens.

Let’s Begin!

Elemental correspondences are the key foundation to understanding the minor arcana – specifically air, water, fire, and earth. Elements are universal across many cultures and spiritual traditions and show us ways to navigate life. Let’s take a look at the basic foundation of the elements as they apply to the tarot.

Elements in the Minor Arcana

Air/Swords:

Air brings attention to our mind - how we think, reason, speak, and use logic. Our active thoughts and dreams are at the forefront, expressing and expanding. Themes such as ideas, how we communicate, and our intellectual processes are the focus. Sometimes this can be clear, but it also gets clouded. On the shadow side, it can show us when things are not right with our mind, such as anxiety and depression.

Water/Cups:

Water brings attention to our emotional world as we feel, experience intuition, and engage in relationships. Emotions are passive and can be either shallow or deep. Emotions are akin to an ocean which responds to the moon. In its shadow side, water can bring deep emotions. Tears may fall, causing us to feel out of control and flooded.

Fire/Wands:

Fire brings passion! This element is active in our lives and expands our world. Following our inspiration with our ambition, will, and drive gives us a proactive path in life. In its shadow side fire is a destroyer. It burns away what we do not need, yet it drives us to action leading to lasting change.

Earth/Pentacles:

Earth brings us our external world - things considered material, physical, and sensual. Earth is considered a passive element which produces and grows the world. Financial dealings are also very much a part of the earth element in the form of prosperity. Earth is our foundation of life, and everything we interact with rests upon it.

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Let’s start exploring the deck with a custom spread I created just for this post. A standard Rider-Waite Smith deck (78 cards) is required for this lesson. I will be using a simple, yet beautiful deck from Biddy Tarot. As a lover of any and all things purple, I couldn’t resist picking up this deck.

Note: I did not pre-select any of the cards that came out in this example spread. I shuffled according to the instructions provided below and the results are organic.

Just Look at that shiny purple!

We are going to prepare our deck before we lay out the spread. Sort the deck by creating 5 piles - major arcana, cups, wands, pentacles, and swords. You do not need to put them in numerical order, just make the piles.

Next give each pile a good shuffle and then place them face down. The stacks will be small. Be sure keep them all separated from one another. We are going to work with them individually in turn.

1. First, pick up your shuffled major arcana stack.

2. Draw the first three cards on top of the stack. This will be the top row of our spread. If any reversals (upside-down) cards appear, turn them right-side up.

3. Underneath that, on a second row, pull the top card of each minor arcana (swords, wands, cups, and pentacles). If any reversals (upside-down) cards appear, turn them right-side up.

Our spread is almost complete. One more row to build, and this one is a bit different than row 2.

4. Underneath that, on a third row, pull the top card of each minor arcana (swords, wands, cups, and pentacles). Turn all cards to the reversed position and place each minor arcana suite to pair with the row above.

Now that we have built the spread, let me explain what we have done and how it all goes together.

Row 1:

• Standard 3 card spread, reflecting the answer to your question. For this spread, I prefer to think of this row as the present conditions, and it is not future-oriented, or even past-oriented. The rows of cards below this will support this.

  • The Hanged Man (water), The Empress (earth), The Fool (air)

    • This can indicate a new journey (or project, or profession, etc.) a person is considering (The Fool), but they are having some reservations and need time to think things over (The Hanged Man). Despite this, they are excited to create something and bring it into the world (The Empress).

Row 2:

• This row represents each element’s light side. This is the reason no reversals are used.

  • Ace of Cups (water), 5 of Wands (fire), 7 of Pentacles (earth), Ace of Swords (Air)

    • This row details the light side opportunities and obstacles surrounding this new journey. There are two Aces, which indicate success within the water and air element. 7 of pentacles (earth) indicates harvesting your hard work successfully. Our reservations lie in the 5 of wands (fire), where one may doubt if they can be competitive with others and make it. It is self-doubt, second guessing, and looking outward to others who may present as obstacles.

Row 3:

• This row is the shadow side opportunities and obstacles of each element, which is why they are all pulled in the reversed position and paired with their light side element above in row 2.

• A note about shadow elements - they are not always “negative”, sometimes they can be “positive” in the reversed position. Regardless, they are still part of the shadow side of the element.

  • Knight of Cups Rx (water), 10 of Wands Rx (fire), 6 of Pentacles Rx (earth), 4 of Swords Rx (Air)

    • Knight of cups reversed can indicate emotions that hold too much energy, and therefore becomes unstable. 10 of wands reversed suggests that the reservations about this journey are that it may bring too much work, burnout, and the need to receive additional support to be successful. 6 of pentacles reversed indicates the tendency to hold back on supporting others or use giving as a means for manipulation to get what you want. 4 of swords reversed is another version of our Hanged Man in row 1 - the need to rest, reevaluate, and recover.

Pairing light and shadow side for each element:

• Water element - Ace of cups and Knight of cups reversed

  • Emotions surrounding this journey are positive and encouraging, but the shadow side warns not to take this too far or it will cause an emotional crash.

• Fire element - 5 of wands and 10 of wands reversed

  • Passion for this new journey is packed with reservations either way (light/shadow). Outside competition reflects in the outer world, and the inner world carries the threat of too much work, burnout, and needing more help than anticipated.

• Earth element - 7 of pentacles and 6 of pentacles reversed

  • The light side of the solidity of this journey shows that the resources will be there and will come to fruition. However, the shadow side warns against hoarding all of these resources from others and/or using it in manipulative ways.

• Air element - Ace of swords and 4 of swords reversed

  • The mind/clarity of thought is clear and sharp. However, there is a warning to rest and recover mental energy when needed.

Interesting side note: there were no fire elements from the major arcana, yet the minor arcana brought it all in. Hmmm . . . definitely a shadow element at play here.

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What do you think? Send some love in the comments!

• I’d love to know if you try this spread and how it went for you. Post a picture!

• Challenge me! I am (re)learning with you in the series by tackling topics and techniques that I want to master, brush up on, or break on purpose. What would you like to learn?

• What “tarot traditions” do you agree with, and disagree with? Why?