A new tarot deck is a stranger. The interview spread is the handshake: six cards that introduce you to the deck’s personality, its strengths, and the kind of working relationship you will have. Readers have used some version of this spread for decades, and it survives because it does two jobs at once. It breaks the ice with a new deck, and it teaches you how that deck talks before you trust it with a real question.
Before the cards: the bonding ritual
The interview works better after a short getting-to-know-you ritual. Unwrap the deck slowly and look through all 78 cards, one by one, without reading them. Notice which images pull you and which ones puzzle you. Shuffle the new deck a few times to loosen the factory stiffness; new cards stick together, and a deck that will not shuffle will not read well either.
Some readers sleep with a new deck under their pillow or carry it for a day. That is personal preference, not requirement. The one step that matters is the look-through: you are learning the deck’s visual language, and the interview spread that follows will make more sense for it.
The six cards
Lay six cards in two rows of three, or in a simple line. As you turn each one, read it as the deck answering about itself, not about you. This shift in perspective is the whole trick of the spread.
Card 1: Tell me about yourself. The deck’s core character. A major arcana card here speaks loudly: the Hermit suggests a deck for inner work, the Fool a deck for fresh starts and play.
Card 2: What are your strengths? What this deck does best. Cups here might mean emotional readings; swords, clear-eyed analysis.
Card 3: What are your limits? What the deck will not do well, or where you should not push it. Readers often find this the most honest card in the spread.
Card 4: What will you teach me? The lesson this deck has for you specifically. This card sometimes names a gap in your current practice.
Card 5: How can I best work with you? Practical guidance: daily draws, big spreads, journaling, reading for others. The deck tells you how it likes to be used.
Card 6: What will our relationship look like? The outcome card for the partnership. A warm card here is a green light; a difficult card is worth sitting with rather than fearing.
Reading the interview
Read the six cards as a conversation, and write it down. The act of writing “the deck says its strength is X” sounds odd, but it works: it forces you to articulate first impressions that would otherwise evaporate. Note especially the relationship between cards 2 and 3 (strengths and limits); a deck that names its limits clearly is usually a deck you can trust.
If a card confuses you, that confusion is data. A deck whose interview leaves you puzzled may be a deck whose symbolism you have not learned yet, which is fine, or a deck that simply does not speak your dialect, which is also fine. Not every deck needs to become a working deck. Some are art objects, and the interview is a graceful way to discover that.
After the interview
Do a few low-stakes readings with the new deck before anything important. Reading for yourself is the ideal test ground: pull a daily card with the new deck for a week and see how its voice feels in practice. If you chose the deck using our guide to choosing your first tarot deck, the interview is the moment the choice gets confirmed or questioned.
Keep the interview notes. A year later, re-reading what the deck said about itself on day one is one of the small pleasures of a tarot practice, and it is often startlingly accurate. Decks, like people, tend to tell you who they are right at the start. The interview spread is just a formal way of listening.