3 cards
Three Card spread
The Three Card spread uses 3 cards in fixed positions — past, present, future. The workhorse spread. Fast, readable, and hard to over-interpret. Use it for almost anything. Also works as Situation / Action / Outcome.
How many ways it can fall
3,651,648 possible three card spreads
3 positions drawn without replacement from 78 cards, each landing upright or reversed: 78 × 77 × … × 23. That is more combinations than there are seconds in a human lifetime, which is why the same spread twice is not something you will see.
Reversals double the count at every position. Readers who ignore them are working with 456,456 instead — still plenty, but a different deck of possibilities.
The positions
Use it for almost anything. Also works as Situation / Action / Outcome.
How to read it
Lay the cards face down in order, then turn them one at a time and say what you see before reaching for a meaning. The image comes first; the book comes second.
Read positions against each other rather than in isolation. In a three-card spread the interesting information is usually in the gap between the first and the third — what has to change for one to become the other.
Reversals are optional. Decide before you shuffle, not when an unwelcome card appears.