How to Do a Past Life Tarot Spread

Tarot Spreads
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I’ve been using this past life Tarot spread with clients for years, and it never fails to uncover cool insights about their soul’s path through time. This isn’t just about the interest of your past life, it can give you a lot of guidance for your current (and future) life, you can carry with you.

A past life Tarot spread can be used when you’re seeking insights into recurring patterns or challenges in your current life that may have roots in past experiences. This spread can offer insight into karmic lessons, unresolved issues, or talents from previous lifetimes that are shaping your current circumstances. It may be particularly helpful when you’re feeling stuck in a situation and need a fresh viewpoint, or when you’re curious about the deeper spiritual meaning behind your current life path.

Past Life Tarot Spread
Past Life Tarot Spread950×950 62.7 KB

The Spread

  1. Soul’s path, Reveals the overall theme or lesson from your most influential past life.
  2. Unresolved Karma, Indicates lingering issues or challenges carried over from a previous incarnation.
  3. Innate Gifts, Highlights talents, skills, or wisdom you’ve brought forward from past experiences.
  4. Karmic Relationships, Shows connections with major people from your past life.
  5. Integration Path, Suggests how to harmonize past life lessons with your current existence.

Significant Cards

In a past life Tarot spread, The Hermit often signifies a lifetime of solitude or spiritual seeking, suggesting that the querent may have been a sage or recluse in a previous incarnation. The Six of Swords appearing in this context can indicate a process or swap between lives, possibly hinting at unresolved issues carried over from a past existence.

Watch for the Tower, which in this spread may reveal a dramatic, life-altering event from a previous life that continues to impact the querent’s current incarnation. The Ace of Cups here can suggest the beginning of an emotional or spiritual process that spans multiple lifetimes, potentially pointing to a soul mission or karmic lesson that the querent is still working through.

Timing & Preparation

The past life Tarot spread is best performed during a waning moon phase, when energies support reflection and releasing old patterns. This spread can be especially insightful when you’re feeling stuck or experiencing déjà vu, as it may reveal karmic lessons or unresolved issues from previous lifetimes. Before beginning, take a few minutes to ground yourself through deep breathing or holding a grounding crystal like black tourmaline, helping you connect more deeply with your intuition and past life memories.

For a past life Tarot spread, the Rider-Waite (Smith deck is an excellent choice due to its rich symbolism and archetypal imagery that can easily connect to past life themes. The Legacy of the Divine Tarot by Ciro Marchetti is another great option, as its vivid, ethereal artwork lends itself well to exploring past life narratives and karmic patterns. For a lesser-known deck, think about the Akashic Tarot by Sharon Anne Klingler and Sandra Anne Taylor, which is specifically designed to access the Akashic Records and explore past life information. Of course, any deck can be used for a past life spread, as the reader’s intuition and connection to the cards are eventually what matter most.

When reading a past life spread, pay close attention to how the cards interact and tell a story together, rather than interpreting each one in isolation. Look for recurring symbols, elements, or numbers across the spread, as these often point to important themes or lessons carried over from past lives. After reading, take time to journal about your impressions and any emotions that arose, allowing yourself to explore connections to your current life situations or challenges. When it comes to reversals in a past life spread, consider them as energies or lessons that may have been blocked or unresolved in that lifetime, potentially indicating areas for growth and healing in your current incarnation.

Please share your experience with this reading or your variations :heart:

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Something interesting happens when doing past life readings specific.

The deck you choose makes a huge difference! I tried using my minimalist deck at first and kept drawing blanks, but when I switched to a more symbolic deck with detailed human figures… suddenly the stories just flowed.

Last week I did a reading for my sister using The Good Tarot deck and the faces in the cards practically told the whole narrative of her past life as a healer, which perfectly explained her natural gift for knowing exactly what people need to hear. It’s like the visual details act as portals that help your intuition access those ancient memories more clearly.

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The Akashic Tarot is wonderful for past life work, it was created by Sharon Anne Klingler and Sandra Anne Taylor, not just Klingler alone. Minor detail, but credit where it’s due! The spread positions are solid, though and I really like this format.

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Last month I did one of these spreads for a client who kept sabotaging relationships, and the cards revealed a past life betrayal that was still affecting her spirit.

The spread showed how her subconscious was protecting her from imagined threats that no longer existed in this lifetime. Once we identified this soul memory through the cards, she was able to consciously work through the pattern and her next reading showed The Lovers appearing where The Tower had been.

These spreads help us gain consciousness of what our deeper self is holding onto from previous incarnations.

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So I may have accidentally stumbled onto something mildly interesting when I did my past life spread during a full moon instead of the waning moon, turns out my Hermit card practically started glowing with ‘yeah, you were definitely that weird cave person who collected herbs and scared the villagers’ energy.

My Six of Swords kept showing up in the karmic relationships position, which I’m choosing to interpret as ‘you’ve been dramatically leaving people in boats for several lifetimes now.’

Past life readings could be so hilariously on-brand for my current dramatic exits?

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Whenever I pull cards for past life connections, it’s amusing how often the querent suddenly remembers their mysterious attraction to a coworker or why their mother-in-law feels like a nemesis from medieval times, though I can’t help but wonder if we’re just looking for cosmic excuses for our current relationship drama.

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When I started exploring past life connections between two people in my readings, I put a ‘Past Life Connection’ card at the center.

I’ll provide an initial interpretation, but then return to it as each subsequent card adds new layers of meaning. This central card reveals whether the connection was harmonious or challenging, and often the true nature of the relationship only becomes clear after reading all the other positions in relation to this central card.

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Has anyone noticed how certain Major Arcana cards seem to act as spirit guide messengers during past life readings?

When The Star appears alongside past life positions, I’ve found it often represents a guide who’s been with the soul across multiple incarnations. The Hierophant in these spreads frequently points to ancient wisdom keepers or teachers from mystery schools. I’m curious if others have experienced specific cards repeatedly showing up as spiritual guardian indicators in their past life work?

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A skill that often goes unmentioned in past life readings is the ability to maintain a meditative state [a focused, receptive mental condition].

This lets you access deeper intuitive insights [beyond surface-level impressions], so practicing meditation or mindfulness [daily practice recommended] can really enhance your ability to connect with past life energies [also known as karmic imprints or soul memories].

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I remember the first time doing a spread like this.

I wasn’t prepared for the emotional intensity when I uncovered a past life trauma through the cards. The Three of Swords appeared in my ‘unresolved karma’ position, and suddenly I was sobbing uncontrollably, feeling grief that wasn’t quite mine but also deeply was. Now I always keep grounding stones nearby, and I’ve learned to create a gentle closing ritual to help integrate difficult revelations without carrying that heaviness into my day.

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Thank you for this, I’ve been very interested in my past lives but (for whatever reason) never thought to try the Tarot for insights.

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Our tarot circle tried group past life readings last month. Everyone pulled cards for collective karma themes, and wow, the synchronicities were wild.

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One common mistake people make with past life tarot spreads is focusing too much on individual cards rather than the story they collectively tell (or trying to tell if we let them).

It’s the interplay between cards that often reveals the most profound insights. The narrative that emerges from their connections holds far more meaning than any singular interpretation could offer. Try not to get bogged down in isolated meanings when the real magic lies in how they speak to each other.

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Past life spreads work amazingly well when you specifically ask the cards how past life lessons can guide your current path, there’s this technique where you pull an additional ‘integration card’ that shows how to apply those ancient wisdoms to present challenges.

The deck isn’t like Netflix just wanting to tell a story for the sake of wasting our time. It wants us to learn and take something away from what it tells us.

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The High Priestess in past life readings often connects to the third eye chakra, suggesting psychic abilities or mystical knowledge from previous incarnations. Different spreads incorporate cards that relate to specific chakras, like finding Death in a past life position, which often relates to root chakra transformations and complete life shifts between incarnations.

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For non-beginners who want to add a bit to this, add incense to the ritual. The sensory elements that help access those deep soul memories. Certain scents can trigger those ancient cellular memories, and past life spreads can sometimes cause physical sensations - tingling, pressure points, even phantom pains, where old wounds might have been.

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Doing past life readings during the waning moon really does enhance the clarity of karmic patterns, especially when those old soul memories start surfacing through The Hermit or Six of Swords cards.