Relationship Spreads
Three common spreads for relationship questions, the five-card Lover’s Cross, the eight-card Venus Love and the nine-card Reunion, chosen according to how deep the question goes.
A common approach in relationship spreads is to give each person several positions (their own feelings, what they expect from the relationship, how they look in the other person's eyes, and so on), plus one summary card for the overall direction of the relationship.
Lover’s Cross (five cards)
A common five-card layout: 1 the querent's feelings, 2 the other person's feelings, 3 the environment, 4 the present, 5 the future. Two things in this spread easily go wrong. First, positions 1 and 2 can be read either as "my subjective feelings in this relationship" or as "how I see the other person." The two framings are close in meaning but subtly different, so decide which one you are using before you read and keep it consistent. Second, card 3, the environment, is easily misread as one person's own emotions or circumstances. The environment position refers specifically to the effect of outside conditions on the relationship (such as family attitudes, distance, financial pressure or outside gossip) and has nothing to do with either person's subjective feelings. When reading, keep "trouble caused by the environment" separate from "the querent's own emotions."
Venus Love (eight cards)
An eight-card relationship spread for two people already in a committed relationship, used to see whether each person's words and actions match what they feel inside. The eight positions: 1 the querent's outward actions, 2 the other person's outward actions, 3 influence of the environment, 4 how things are developing (the present), 5 help or hindrance, 6 the querent's inner thoughts, 7 the other person's inner thoughts, 8 the future outcome.
Reading points: positions 1 and 2 are outward behavior others can see, and positions 6 and 7 are the true inner thoughts. The two pairs can confirm or contrast with each other, so you can see whether each person is the same inside and out, or whether there is a gap: getting along on the surface while apart at heart, or close at heart while awkward on the surface. There is often cause and effect between positions 1 and 6, and between 2 and 7, since inner attitudes drive outward actions. For a position like 5, where you have to judge which way it leans (help or hindrance), it is best to agree on the standard before drawing (a card that leans positive counts as help, one that leans negative counts as hindrance) instead of making it up after the card is drawn. The same principle applies to any vague position in other spreads that needs a judgment on the spot.
Reunion (nine cards)
A nine-card spread for exploring whether the querent and an ex could get back together. The nine positions: 1 the past between the two, 2 the querent's current situation, 3 the ex's current situation, 4 the querent's true feelings about getting back together, 5 the ex's true feelings about getting back together, 6 obstacles to reuniting, 7 what helps toward reuniting, 8 what the querent does not yet know, 9 whether they will get back together (the outcome).
Position 8, "what the querent doesn't know," is harder to read, and it is hard to strike the right balance. If what you read there is something the querent already knows, they will think "I knew that already." If it is completely outside common sense and hard to believe, they will think the reading is off. The ideal effect is for the querent to think, "I really didn't know that, but on reflection it makes sense." This position is better used to fill in details that other positions already hint at but the querent has not yet noticed, rather than to bring in new information out of nowhere.