Dream Interpretation Tarot Spreads
There are so many psychological and spiritual theories on why we dream. Maybe a true answer will never be known.
What we do know is that they show us hidden messages from our subconscious that can give us insight into the happenings in our life.
Dreams and Tarot cards have a lot in common: they both use symbolism and imagery to express something deep within us. Just like Tarot readings, dreams provide clarity about the path we are on.
The difficulty is that dreams tend to be cryptic. There can be many confusing aspects to a dream that make it hard to understand what the meaning is. That’s why a number of tools exist for interpreting dreams.
There are a lot of books on deciphering dreams. However, symbols, words, and people’s environments are very personal, and there’s no one meaning that goes across every person. Working with a magical tool like tarot can help you bring more clarity because it provides insight specific to you, not just a uniform statement.
The Information of Dreams
Dream Interpretation tarot spreads are simply a mechanism to convert hidden meanings from your subconscious mind and translate them for your conscious mind. You are constantly having experiences and feelings in the waking world of your everyday life that your subconscious mind absorbs and processes.
Combined with the information you receive from the intelligence of the Universe, dreams involve an incredibly powerful information transfer that offer insight from your unconscious mind. The absurdity of dreams is part of what makes them so profound. The seemingly illogical nature is because the dimensions of the spiritual realm are much more complex than what we can logically process.
This is also why a dream may sometimes resemble a walking life environment from a past event. As a final note, being a vivid dreamer is linked to strong intuitive abilities. So you may notice that as your Tarot readings increase in accuracy, your dreams become more lucid. Connection to the higher intelligence of the Universe, as well as innate intuition, are the basis for both.
Something that recently happened may be weighing on your unconscious mind. Or, there may be common themes you've noticed throughout your life that draw from your relationship with your higher self. Regardless, Tarot spreads for dream interpretation help you understand a different aspect of things to gain clarity. A dream is a message from your subconscious mind, and Tarot is a tool to translate it.
Emotions
Keep in mind while going through the dream interpretation Tarot spreads below that the things you feel are as, if nor more, important than the visuals you see. Consider if you felt fear, or joy, or were having fun in your dream. What were the most prominent feelings you experienced?
When you deploy the forthcoming Tarot spreads to find answers to the meaning of a dream, keep these emotions top of min. Focus on the feeling and transfer it to your Tarot deck (you can learn more about the energy relationship with your cards here). When you are shuffling your Tarot deck, make sure you take a deep breath and focus clearly on the energy of the dream.
Furthermore, take a moment to consider the big picture of dream interpretation. Remember that in centuries before Tarot cards were used to interpret dreams, other divination techniques had to be used, and they were typically much less visual. So if a certain card comes up in your reading that immediately shows you the meaning, be thankful you have such a helpful deck to refer to!
A clear focus on and access to the emotions of the dream will be a vital aspect of uncovering the best interpretation of the dream. As always, trust your intuition.
Tarot Spreads for Dream Interpretation
Single Card Pull
A straightforward way to gain some insights into the dream you had is through the draw of a single card and meditation on it. Pull a card and take a very close look at it. Immerse yourself in the imagery and symbolism. What do you feel it’s saying to you? What elements of this card do you see in your waking life vs in your dreams. Understand that interpreting dreams requires you to be equally as conscious of your waking life environment and waking life emotions as the dream environment, in order to understand the dream messages.
Major Arcana and Minor Arcana Cards
Some people like to use only the Major Arcana, or Trump cards, since they represent the more significant, archetypal themes in our lives, lessons, and milestones. This is not a best practice, as a major arcana card may not give granular enough information about the meaning of your dream world environment. So, since the dream might relate to something in your day-to-day life, we recommend you include the Minor Arcana cards as well.
Here is some guidance depending on which of the four suits the minor arcana card is:
Wands are pointing you towards discovering the meaning associated with your creative side. When they appear, pay attention to the areas of your life that became dormant.
Cups are there to inform you about your emotional state and inner wisdom. In addition, they draw your attention to your heart’s desires in matters of love.
Pentacles relate to material wealth and knowledge. It highlights your pursuit of success in the career world. First, however, you must put effort into achieving the promise it holds.
Swords are there for action-oriented matters and the thirst for knowledge. These show the hardships we face daily and how to rise above them.
The four Tarot suits of wands, cups, pentacles (or coins) and swords . They act as four elements of comprising any current situation you may experience, and matter greatly in making sense of its meaning. Pay special attention if a court card emerges. Court cards carry greater energy of any particular suit and, while not as impactful as major arcana cards, still represent important energies in a tarot reading.
3 Card Spread
Past
Present
Future
As the first Tarot spread for dream interpretation, the 3 Card Spread spread focuses on the past, present, and future. All you need to do is place the cards next to each other in this order.
The first card will describe the past. You can ask the deck what events or causes are the roots of your dream. What stories, habits, or possible mistakes have you overlooked that now need resolving. What are those old issues that are trying to get your attention?
The second card represents the present. It shows you the current state of the situation and your current state of mind. The areas of your life that are related to the dream.
The third card represents the future. This one is about guidance and advice. It shows what outcomes the dream is pointing to.
As mentioned before, you can separate the Tarot cards into major Arcana cards and by minor arcana suits if you already have a more defined idea about the topic. But it is nice to use all of them and let your intuition speak to you through the whole deck.
4 Card Spread
Place the first Tarot card on the top, the second on the left side, the third on the right, and the final card on the bottom, like a circle.
Cause of the dream
Spiritual message
Psychological message
Moving forward
The first Tarot card is quite self-exploratory; it is the leading cause of why you had the dream in the first place. It describes the main event or thought that triggered you.
The second Tarot card tells you about the message your spirit guide wants you to have and understand regarding the dream.
The third Tarot card is the message from our subconscious, showing us the fears and desires we need to look at.
Finally, the fourth Tarot card gives hints and tips on real life application. It gives you advice about the actions to make in your waking life.
All four cards in this spread together can give you some of the most important takeaways of your dream. Plus, it is relatively quick and simple. So if you have a mysterious dream that you believe is trying to convey something significant to you, it's easy to perform this Tarot spread right after waking up while the dream and its associated feelings are still fresh in your head.
7 Card Spread
What emotion/event/situation caused the dream?
What is your dream life like?
What is your waking life like?
What is your emotional state in your dream?
What is your emotional state in your waking life?
What lesson is the dream trying to teach you?
What is blocking you from learning this lesson?
The concepts in this dream interpretation Tarot spread are more intricate. It starts again by allowing your Tarot deck to provide the root cause of the dream. Then it divides the interpretation between the dreaming and the waking state. It helps to reveal specific fears, hopes, and desires. Next, it presents the lesson the dream is about, and the final Tarot card indicates what is holding you back from harvesting all knowledge it might contain.
The 7 card Tarot spread focuses on giving you a thorough sense of these unconscious feelings, not just a a vague general understanding. The message that is trying to make it to you will most clearly surface in this spread, as opposed to a 3, 4, or 5 card tarot spread.
Writing Down Your Dreams
The Tarot spreads you learned here are only half the battle. To get the most out of your dream interpretation tarot practice, make sure you put some effort into expanding the lucidity of your dreams. To start, write down your dreams every day when you wake up. This will accomplish two things: for one, your brain will start making an effort to remember your dreams. For two, you can begin to see patterns that occur across your dreams.
As mentioned earlier, Tarot and dreams have a lot in common when it comes to delivering spiritual messages. Both practices go hand and hand and can bring you incredible insights. In fact, learning to read Tarot and learning dreaming techniques are pretty similar processes. Plus, performing a dream interpretation Tarot reading for someone else will make them wonderfully happy.
Final Thoughts on Dream Interpretation
It might be challenging to understand what your Tarot cards are trying to tell you. But with deep thought and contemplation, things will soon become more precise. Plus, some Tarot decks make work better for you than others. If you find yourself getting confusing results, give your Tarot deck a cleanse/charge as well.
You will find it profound how Tarot links to the dream world. With these dream interpretation tarot spreads, you should uncover profound insights from your subconscious mind and even notice things in your waking life.