For about two decades, a guy named Alec Satin made a name for himself in online (and offline) tarot communities as a well-read expert on the subjects of both reading tarot, and creating tarot spreads.

In 2015, Alec converted to devout Christianity, deleted his entire tarot website, and appears to have nuked it from the Internet Archive as well. The funny thing is, Alec's position on why he stopped reading tarot falls right in line with my philosophy when it comes to reading tarot:

1. If you find yourself growing dependent on readings, stop engaging with tarot, either as a reader or a client. Addiction comes in many forms.
2. Avoid divination, because you have no way of vetting who or what appears to be communicating with and instructing you.
3. Reading for others brings with it a lot of risk and responsibility, especially if your client takes you at your word and blindly follows your advice.

Now, Alec views tarot cards as inherently evil, because he believes there is a malevolent spirit (i.e. Satan) controlling which cards are actually dealt in a spread. Obviously, I don't subscribe to this notion at all. What little I've found of Alec's material has really piqued my interest, so I will be cataloging his content here, for those interested.

Articles & Columns

• The Message In the Title Cardplugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigThe Message In the Title Card
  
  I found this article here.
  
  Not long ago a client came for a reading. He had recently retired and was curious about what was coming next. The reading showed clearly that he had completed what he had contracted to do. The future card was blank. Literally blank - it was the title card.
• 37 Tarot Questionsplugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_big37 Tarot Questions
  
  I found this article here.
  
  What do you ask the tarot when you don’t know what to ask?
  
  Here are 37 of the best tarot questions to get you started. You and your tarot reader can customize any of these to best match your particular situation.

• Courtyard Spreadplugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigCourtyard Spread
  
  Spread Notes
  
  Details of this spread can be found here. I found an image of this spread on Pinterest, which is the basis for this template.
  
  This is an event-driven spread. Instead of revealing each card as you work through the spread, you should deal the cards face up. Once the spread is dealt, determine which card is the significator - that is, the card that represents your current state of mind or being. The cards that follow this one in numerical order represent future even…
• Tirage En Croixplugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigTirage En Croix
  
  Spread Notes
  
  This is an old spread that dates back to the 1870s, according to this thread. It's a simple spread that can be quite flexible. The layout and card associations lend themselves nicely to an alchemical framing, with the four arms representing the four classical elements or the four cardinal directions. You could even take this a step further, associating each minor suit with one of the arms, and the major arcana with the central card.