Who Am I - I Am Spread

Queen of  Cups from  the Morgan
Greer Tarot deck.

Today, I thought of devising a new Tarot spread. That is actually unusual for me, as I devise spreads very very rarely.  I just saw a movie yesterday called 'I Am'. It was about four short stories, and at the end of each story, the central character found a sense of identity. I thought we could do this with Tarot, use it as a tool to find your identity. Picking the daily Card draws from the Revelations Tarot made me want to explore them even further, specially the Court Cards. Generally, we have 16 Court cards in all - 4 Pages, 4 Knights, 4 Queens and 4 Kings. In this Tarot deck, we have 32 Court card depictions which include the reversed interpretations. So, in order to have a balanced life, I thought that I need to have a bit of the qualities of all of these cards.

This is a very simple exercise. Remove only the Court cards and only use them for the purpose of this spread.You can use the Court cards of any deck, and if you do not read reversals, you could also avoid that. Here, I will be using the Revelations Tarot.

So, here goes, the Who Am I - I Am spread.

Whatever are the roles you play in your life, list them down. I listed - sister, daughter, wife, friend, mother  (though i am not a mother, my motherly qualities), human being, academic, tarot reader. So, let's see what cards I get for all these roles I play in my life. I have a feeling, this spread is one of those which is an eye opener. No one likes to see the bad aspects of themselves, and sometimes they feel guilty that they are not good mothers, but the cards could think otherwise. So, it's a good spread to answer the question about who you really are. Try and join one quality from each of the cards which attracts you and feel fits you, to form an image of yourself, which you feel reflects who you are. The most important thing in this spread is to be honest. You cannot play games with yourself. After picking a card, keep it back in the deck, so that it could be repeated, so you could get the Queen of Wands in even 3 aspects of your life.

Sister - Knight of Wands (Rx) - scattered energies

I may not be the best sister, I don't know how to focus my energies in the right direction. I need to work on that.

Daughter - Knight of Cups - giving

My relationship with my mother is great, and I give her lots of love and emotional support.

Wife - Page of Pentacles - dutiful 

As I wife, I am a page, I become a child who is pampered. I am dutiful and do what is expected of me.

Friend - Queen of Wands - social 

As a friend, I am social and friendly. With my friends, I am outgoing and expressive.

Mother - Knight of Pentacles (Rx) - stressed 

As a mother, I will be stressed out LOL, this knight looks pretty upset. Maybe I will have to learn to destress myself, and save myself from getting hysterical!

Human being - Page of Swords - intelligent 

I am analytical and intelligent, and a good judge of people.


Academic - Page of Cups - Study with my heart

I put in my heart and emotions when I study. If I'm emotionally attached to the subject, I study well.

Tarot reader - Queen of Cups (Rx) - mysterious 

As a tarot reader, I am mysterious and secretive. The Queen of Cups(Rx) is overemotional. I should be less attached to my clients and less 'involved'.

Overall, I have a balance of Wands, Pentacles, Cups and Swords in my personality so it is well-balanced. On the other hand, I got the Knight three times suggesting a quality that I love to 'charge' at things and keep things moving. I have no King card showing that I am not the 'boss' or the 'ruler' in any of the roles in my life.
I found this a very interesting exercise of self analysis. Why don't you try it?