Past Life Tarot Spread: 3 Layouts and How to Read Them

A past life tarot spread is a layout whose positions ask who you might have been in another life, what that life was about and how its story echoes in the life you have now. The six-card spread below is the one to start with, and you can draw it free on this page; two shorter layouts follow for quicker questions.

An honest word before anything else. Reincarnation is a belief held in several religious and esoteric traditions, and tarot can’t prove it. Some people use a past-life spread because they believe they have lived before. Others use it as a story that shows up a present pattern more clearly than a direct question would. This guide works for both, and it never asks you to treat the cards as a record of real history.

Jump to a section:

• What a past-life spread is and isn’t
• The Past Life Spread (6 cards, free draw)
• Before you draw
• Then, Thread, Now (3 cards)
• Why Am I Drawn to This? (4 cards)
• How to read a past-life spread
• Cards often read in past-life spreads
• A full example reading
• Using the reading in your life now
• Common mistakes
• Frequently asked questions

What a Past-Life Spread Is and Isn’t

The belief in rebirth is old and widespread. Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism all teach some form of it, in different ways; Buddhism, for instance, speaks of rebirth without a fixed, unchanging soul. Some strands of Jewish mysticism have a teaching called gilgul. In the West, Theosophy made reincarnation popular in esoteric circles from the late nineteenth century.

Past-life spreads are a modern practice, not something the deck was designed for. That doesn’t make them less useful. The spread is a way of asking a question, and the cards answer in symbols, as they always do.

What it is: a structured way to tell yourself a story about another life, then see what that story says about this one. The positions guide you from “who was I?” to “what does this have to do with me now?”, and the last cards are always about the present.

What it isn’t: evidence. No spread can tell you your name in 1640 or confirm that you knew your partner in Rome. If a card seems to point at a real person, hold it as imagery. And the cards can’t replace help for fears, phobias or trauma; if something from a reading stirs up real distress, talk to someone you trust or a qualified therapist.

Belief or story? You don’t have to decide. The method is the same, and the part you act on sits in the present.

The Past Life Spread (6 Cards): Draw It Free

This is the main spread on the page. The top row tells the story of the other life; the bottom row brings it home. Hold your question in mind, then deal the six cards below. Each position shows the question it asks, and each card links to its full meaning.

The layout: two rows of three. Cards 1 to 3 go along the top for the other life; cards 4 to 6 go underneath, one below each, for what reaches into the present. The columns pair up on purpose: 1 with 4, 2 with 5, 3 with 6.

Card 1: Who I was

What kind of person was I in that life? A character sketch, not a biography. Court cards describe a type of person, a Major a life defined by one big theme. A pip card describes a situation, so read it as “I was someone who…”.

Card 2: What that life was about

Where did I live, and what filled my days? The suit gives you the arena (see below). Let your imagination fill in the scenery, and notice which details you add without trying. Those details are yours, whatever you believe about where they come from.

Card 3: What I learned

Which strength or lesson did that life give me? Often it’s something you already have and take for granted. A hard card still counts: endurance and caution are lessons too.

Card 4: What I left unfinished

What was never resolved? A conversation never had, a need never met, a habit never questioned. Read it gently. “Unfinished” doesn’t mean owed or punished; it means something you might like to finish on your own terms.

Card 5: How it shows up now

Where does that story echo in my life today? Look for a pattern you can name this month: a reaction, a fear, a role you keep ending up in. If nothing comes, ask where card 4’s unfinished thing turns up at home or at work.

Card 6: What to carry forward

What is worth keeping, and what can I set down? Check the “as advice” section on the card’s page. Card 6 usually answers card 4: if the unfinished thing is fear, the advice points to courage; if it’s over-giving, to balance.

Before You Draw

A past-life reading doesn’t need a ritual, but it does need your attention. Five quiet minutes help.

1. Write the question down. Anchor it to the present. “What past-life story sheds light on why I always feel responsible for everyone?” gives the cards far more to work with than “Who was I?” (more in how to ask the right questions in a tarot reading).
2. Decide how you’ll read it. As belief, as story, or open to both. Decide before you see the cards, so a dramatic card doesn’t change the rules halfway through.
3. Decide on reversals. In this spread they’re useful, because they show where a lesson was left half learned. If you don’t read them, turn every card upright.
4. Take three slow breaths. In through the nose, out a little longer than in. Feel your feet on the floor. That’s all the grounding this needs.
5. Have a notebook open. Write the first image or word each card gives you before you look up any meaning. First impressions are the raw material of this spread.

Any deck works. The Rider-Waite-Smith, published by Rider in 1909 with art by Pamela Colman Smith, suits this spread because every card has a full scene to step into. Candles are fine if you enjoy them, not required.

Then, Thread, Now (3 Cards)

A quick past-life spread for when you have ten minutes, or when you want to try the idea before committing to six cards.

Position	The question it asks
1. Then	Who was I, and what was that life like?
2. The thread	What carried over from that life into this one?
3. Now	What can I do with that thread today?

The layout: three cards in a row, left to right. The middle card matters most: it’s the pattern that links the story to you. No deck? The free three-card reading deals three cards; read its positions as then, thread and now.

Say you draw the Hierophant, the Eight of Swords and the High Priestess. Then: a life inside a tradition, with rules, teachers and a place in a community. The thread: feeling boxed in by beliefs you never chose, which is the Eight of Swords’ blindfold. Now: trust your own inner knowing. As a story, it asks which rules you still follow because someone once told you to.

Why Am I Drawn to This? (4 Cards)

Many people come to past-life tarot because of a pull they can’t explain: a period of history, a country, an old craft. This spread takes the pull seriously without claiming to know its source.

Position	The question it asks
1. The pull	What is it about this place, time or skill that draws me?
2. The story	What life do I imagine there?
3. What it gives me	What does that story supply that I’m missing now?
4. Bringing it home	How can I have more of that in my life as it is?

The layout: four cards in a row. Cards 1 and 2 describe the attraction; cards 3 and 4 turn it into something you can use. Card 3 is the heart of it. A pull towards medieval monasteries might, with the Hermit in position 3, be about quiet and solitude, and that’s something you can find this week without a time machine.

If the pull is towards a person, be careful: feeling you’ve known someone before isn’t information about them. For a real relationship, the relationship spread or the How Do They Feel About Me? reading keeps you grounded in what’s happening now.

How to Read a Past-Life Spread

Read the cards with their usual meanings, then translate them into a life. Four habits make that easier.

Court cards: who you were

The sixteen court cards are natural “who I was” cards. A Page suggests a learner or someone young, curious and at the start of things. A Knight is a mover: a traveller, a messenger, someone always on the way somewhere. A Queen holds things together from within, through care, judgement or skill. A King carries responsibility for other people. Combine the rank with the suit: the Knight of Wands is an adventurer, while the Queen of Pentacles keeps a household or a business running.

Suits: the arena of that life

Suit	The arena it suggests
Pentacles	Land, work, craft, money, the body and daily survival
Cups	Family, love, friendship, faith and feeling
Swords	Words, ideas, law, conflict and hard decisions
Wands	Travel, ambition, creative work and causes

Two or more cards of one suit set the scene. A spread heavy in Pentacles describes a practical, working life; one heavy in Cups is a life lived through relationships. A missing suit is worth noticing too.

Major Arcana: the big themes

Major Arcana cards name the themes that define a life: faith, solitude, upheaval, completion. Don’t over-read them, though. The deck has 22 Majors in 78 cards, so six cards hold about 1.7 on average (6 × 22 ÷ 78). At least one Major turns up in about seven readings in eight, so one or two is normal. None at all (about one reading in eight) suggests an ordinary, everyday story. Three or more happens in roughly one reading in five, and that’s when it’s fair to call it a life shaped by big events.

Reversed cards: the lesson not finished

Read a reversed card here as a lesson started but not completed, or energy held back, never a punishment. The free draw reverses each card with a one-in-three chance, so a six-card reading averages two reversals, and about nine readings in ten have at least one. A reversal in position 4 is especially easy to read: it often names exactly what was left undone.

Then read the columns. Card 1 against card 4: what kind of person leaves this unfinished? Card 3 against card 6: is the thing you learned the thing to carry, or has it gone too far? For reading cards in pairs, see tarot card combinations.

Cards Often Read in Past-Life Spreads

Any card can appear. These sixteen tend to catch readers’ attention in a past-life spread. Each line follows the card’s standard meaning; the link takes you to the full page.

Card	What it may point to
Six of Cups	The past itself: childhood, roots and memories. Reversed, a story you keep going back to or see through rose-tinted glass.
The Hierophant	A life shaped by tradition, study or belonging to a community with its own rules.
The High Priestess	Inner knowledge, dreams and things kept hidden; what you sense but can’t prove.
The Hermit	A seeker’s life, lived apart. Reversed, a habit of withdrawing that tipped into loneliness.
Wheel of Fortune	Cycles and patterns that repeat; the theme that keeps coming round.
Justice	Cause and effect; a question of fairness or responsibility still open.
Death	The close of a chapter or a change of role. It says nothing about how anyone died.
The Tower	A structure that fell suddenly; now, perhaps, a fear of things collapsing.
Judgement	Looking back honestly, forgiving, and answering a call you’ve heard before.
The World	A cycle completed; travel and wide horizons. Reversed, loose ends.
The Moon	Dreams, imagination and hidden fears. A reminder to hold the whole story lightly.
Eight of Swords	Feeling trapped by beliefs; a restriction that was looser than it looked.
Five of Pentacles	Hardship and feeling left out in the cold, with help closer than it seemed.
Eight of Cups	Walking away from something orderly but empty to look for deeper meaning.
Knight of Wands	A traveller or adventurer, always moving. Reversed, impatience and unfinished plans.
Three of Pentacles	A craftsperson working with others, building something meant to last.

In a past-life spread, Death and the Tower describe turning points, not fates (more under mistakes). For every card’s standard meaning, see tarot card meanings.

A Full Example Reading

Here is a complete hypothetical reading of the six-card spread. It’s an illustration, not a real person. Imagine someone called Hannah. She’s the one everybody leans on, at work and at home, and she rarely asks for help herself. She’s tired, and she has always loved old market towns. She asks: “What past-life story sheds light on why I carry everything myself?” She reads reversed cards and is open to reading the result as belief or as story.

Position	Card	In brief
1. Who I was	Queen of Pentacles	Practical, warm, running a home or business
2. What that life was about	Ten of Wands	Carrying too much, for too long
3. What I learned	Eight of Pentacles	Skill built through patient, repeated work
4. What I left unfinished	Six of Pentacles, reversed	Giving and receiving out of balance
5. How it shows up now	Nine of Wands	Tired but still braced for the next demand
6. What to carry forward	Temperance	Balance, moderation and a middle way

The top row: the other life

The Queen of Pentacles is warm, practical care: a well-run home, sensible money, grounded generosity. As a character, she keeps a household or a small business going and makes sure everyone is fed. Put her in one of those market towns and the story tells itself.

The Ten of Wands says what filled that life. Its figure carries all ten wands at once, clutched awkwardly in front of him, and the bundle blocks his view of the road. A life organised around carrying, never quite seeing where it was going.

The Eight of Pentacles is what that life taught: skill built piece by piece through patient practice. Hannah has that strength now.

The bottom row: what reaches into now

The Six of Pentacles reversed is the only reversal, and it sits in the unfinished position. Upright, this card is fair exchange, help flowing both ways. Reversed, one of its meanings is one-sided giving; another is needing help but feeling ashamed to ask. Read under the Queen, it’s clear: the woman who looked after everyone never learned to be looked after.

The Nine of Wands shows how that echoes today. Its figure wears a bandage around his head and grips his staff, a row of wands behind him: he has been through a fight and is braced for the next one. That’s Hannah at the end of a long week, still coping, already expecting the next request. Upright, this card is resilience, and it’s real. But it sits under the Ten of Wands, and together they say the load has become the way she lives.

Temperance answers card 4. Its angel stands with one foot in the water and one on the land, pouring between two cups: balance, patience and healing. It’s the only Major, so the big theme lands on the solution, not the problem.

Putting it together

Three Pentacles and two Wands: a working life, full of effort. One Major, upright and in the advice position. One reversal, in exactly the place that names the lesson not finished. As a sentence: “I was someone who held everything together, learned to do it well, and never let anyone share the weight. I still don’t. The next step is balance.”

If Hannah believes in past lives, she can take this as an old pattern she has a chance to finish. If she doesn’t, it’s a sharp, kind picture of a habit she already half knew about. Either way, the action is the same: this week, ask one person for help with one specific task, and let them do it their way.

Using the Reading in Your Life Now

A past-life reading earns its keep when it changes something small in this life.

1. Write the story in five sentences. One per card from 1 to 4, and one for card 5. Keep it plain. If you can’t write it, the top row needs another look.
2. Name the present pattern. What does card 5 look like on an ordinary Tuesday? Be concrete: “I say yes before I’ve checked my diary.”
3. Turn card 6 into one action. Under an hour, within a week. Temperance might become “take a proper lunch break twice”; the Hermit, “spend an evening alone with a notebook”; the Six of Cups, “call the old friend I keep thinking about”.
4. Review in a month. What happened when you acted? Only then, if you want to, draw again.

Journal prompts

• Which detail of the story did I add without being asked? What might it say about me?
• Where have I felt card 4’s unfinished business in the last month?
• What did that other life do well that I also do well?
• If this story is only a story, why did I tell myself this one?
• What am I ready to set down, and who could help me carry the rest?

To keep the thread going between readings, draw a card of the day and ask it one question: “Where does the old pattern show up today?” If you want a lens on lifelong themes, some readers pair a past-life spread with their cards from the tarot birth card calculator.

Common Mistakes in Past-Life Readings

• Treating the story as fact about real people. If a reading suggests you and your sister were rivals in another life, that’s imagery. Don’t act on it with her, and don’t tell her the cards said so.
• Reading fear into Death or the Tower. Death is endings and change; the Tower is upheaval and rebuilding. In six cards, the chance that at least one of the two appears is about one in seven, so you’ll meet them. Neither describes how anyone died.
• Using the past to explain away the present. “I can’t help it, it’s from another life” closes the door the reading opened. Card 6 is there so you can do something.
• Chasing a grander past. Everyone would like to have been a priestess or a queen. Most lives, if they were lived, were ordinary, and ordinary stories are often the more useful ones.
• Redrawing until it feels right. Sit with the first reading for a week before you judge it.
• Reading it as a debt. “Unfinished” isn’t “owed”. Nothing in this spread says you are being punished for anything.

If you’re new to reading several cards together, the step-by-step guide to how to read tarot cards covers the basics that apply here too.

Past Life Tarot: Frequently Asked Questions

Ready to try it? Hold your question, deal the free Past Life Spread, and write down one small action from card 6 before the week is out. For other layouts, browse all the tarot spreads.