By far, the vast majority of the tarot readings I do are about love — February or not, pandemic or not. When the querent is in a relationship — or even just has someone in mind — the Temple of Aphrodite Tarot spread is my go-to. This simplified version of the classic spread is the one I use. (Love triangles require a different approach altogether, I will cover those in a future post and add a link here.)
This spread uses a simple, symmetrical layout with one column for each person with focus points on the mental, the emotional and physical planes of the relationship.
- Your Mind. What you THINK about them
- Their Mind. What they THINK about you
- Your Heart. What you FEEL about them.
- Their Heart. What they FEEL about you.
- Your Sexual and Physical Attraction. Your sexual feelings for them.
- Their Sexual and Physical Attraction. Their sexual feelings for you.
- Where it’s going.
The simplicity of this Tarot spread is critical because relationships — and the columns — get tangled.
For example, consider laying the King of Swords, reversed in the first position: “what you think of them”. Before you look at the other cards, that one card could reflect how you think or it could reflect what you think about the other person. Typically, I find this card means unwise or unkind use of words and an erosion of trust. But who has been using words unwisely and whose trust is eroding?
The Temple of Aphrodite is a Hall of Mirrors and appearances. Each person is thinking and feeling from their own perspective. For this reason, it is critical to lean hard on your intuition and take in all the cards to get clear insight into the reality of the whole situation.
That said, you will find this spread helpful in so many situations that you will get lots of practice and before long, even really tangled relationships will start to become clearly visible in the cards. Persist with this spread and I promise you, it will quickly become one of your go-to tarot spreads too!
I would love to hear about your readings with the Temple of Aphrodite Tarot spread! What does this spread tell you about your relationship?
Love this spread! So simple yet entirely insightful. Gives clarity to the thoughts and feels 🙂
Thanks, Morgyn. It is definitely one of my favourites!
This was such a great spread. Having practiced the art of Tarot for years, i figured I would experiment w myself and my relationship with my husband. All I can say is WOW! No clarifiers needed. This reading was simple and direct and spot on 👍👍
I agree, Cindy. I find I only have to pull more cards when the client asks follow-up questions, and even then — the answers are often right in this first spread. It is very rich.
All the best!