3 cards – 3 separate thoughts

Sometimes you can pull some cards, and you understand each one, more or less, but they don’t quite land as a whole. They sit there in front of you as separate ideas, and this is often the point where we fall back on keywords, guidebook meanings, and interpret each card individually. Which is fine, but it doesn’t feel very fluent.

I’ve been working on a 3-card spread that has really helped me to bring the cards together with a bit more fluency. It was based initially on the idea of “if this, then that” as a way of following a thought through the cards, rather than stopping and starting with each card. It avoids sentences that start: “This card means…”

3 cards – One train of thought

The reading starts with a ‘yes’ card that points to the subject matter of the spread or what you need to know about the question or situation at hand.

The second card is the ‘and’ card, which expands on the ‘yes’ although in my experience, this is sometimes the ‘but’ card. Because often that’s what we do in a conversation when we hear something that we need to know. We say “yes, but…”. This card can show up as resistance, contraction or a simple block to the ‘yes’ card.

And finally comes the ‘so’ card. This is the ‘what next?’ card or sometimes the ‘so what?’ card.

I’ve been using it in my daily readings for a while now, and I’ve noticed that it has shifted the way that I read. It encourages a much more conversational style and produces a much more coherent ‘answer’.

Here’s the framework

Card 1: YES

What is already true?
What do I know or need to know?
What is present or unavoidable?
What is asking to be acknowledged?

Card 2: AND / BUT

What complicates or adds depth?
Is this expansion (AND) or contraction (BUT)?
Is it supportive or does it bring friction?
What shifts the meaning of the YES?

Card 3: SO…/SO WHAT?

What follows from this?
What matters now?
What is the invitation, action, or perspective shift?
So What?

Here’s how the conversation goes

First pass: A quick-fire read of the cards in one sentence
… Yes, and so… straight off the top of your head helps to identify the core thread running through the cards, finishing with some direction in the ‘so’.

Second pass: Turn the cards into a deeper conversation, at which point you can draw on card systems and meanings to illustrate and find nuance in the thought thread.

Prompt: A takeaway thought or actionable challenge that brings the reading to life and focuses on personal choice and possibility.

Here are some real examples

Yes, Wheel of Fortune, and 8 of Pentacles… so Temperance

First pass:
Yes, so much may feel chaotic and out of your control right now,
and yet you are still expected and required to show up and keep going,
so finding some calm, steady practice or focus of activity can help you stay centred while everything around you spins.

Second pass:
Yes, it can feel as though the world around you is spinning out of control. Things are happening that sit far outside your influence, and sometimes it feels as though the world is on fire while you are still expected to show up every day for work, for family, for friends, for all the ordinary roles and responsibilities of life.

Sometimes that can feel futile or exhausting, just carrying on with the job at hand while the world keeps turning. But the 8 of Pentacles suggests there is actually something grounding in continuing to focus on the work in front of you, whatever that work or that role may be. You can find calm and comfort in small acts of attention, routine, and presence. And you can make a difference.

Temperance reminds us to seek the calm at the centre of it all, like the still point at the centre of the wheel. Practising some balance, some steadiness, some conscious stillness can help us stay grounded and connected to ourselves and others, while so much around us feels uncertain or beyond our sphere of control.

Prompt:
What can you focus your energy on today that will help ground you and keep you steady, so that the chaos around you and in the wider world does not pull you completely off centre?

Yes, 2 of Swords, and 6 of Wands… so 6 of Pentacles

First pass:
Yes, it’s to come off the fence about something
and move forward with confidence and conviction, and belief in the direction you are taking…
so you need to make that choice from a place of abundance rather than fear, trusting that there is enough support, enough value, and enough goodness available to you.

Second pass:
Yes, this feels like a moment that calls for clarity and commitment – you may have been agonising for a while now. The Six of Wands is not hesitant energy. It asks you to choose a direction and stand behind it fully. Part of what gives people confidence in us is not perfection, but clarity and leadership. If you are constantly second-guessing yourself or holding back, other people feel that uncertainty too.

The Six of Pentacles suggests that if anything is holding you back, it may be a scarcity mindset. A fear that there is not enough money, enough security, enough permission, or enough worthiness for you to move forward properly. But this card reminds you that abundance flows through giving and receiving. You do not have to do everything alone. You are allowed to accept support, opportunities, kindness, and generosity, just as much as you are willing to offer them to others.

So perhaps the real shift here is not simply making the decision, but making it from a different mindset, not from fear, scarcity, or self-protection, but from openness, trust, and the belief that there is enough room for you to succeed too.

Prompt:
Where in your life are you hesitating because of fear or scarcity thinking, and what might change if you trusted yourself enough to move forward wholeheartedly?

Don’t have a Tarot deck?

You don’t necessarily need a tarot deck for this one. You could use it as a journaling exercise by simply sitting with the structure itself:

Yes…
And / but…
So…

What’s true?
What else is true?
And what follows from that?

… and see where the train of thought takes you.

Or, if you’d prefer to work with cards, you can use my online card picker here to select a card for each part of the sentence.