How many cards does the SWOT Spread use?

The SWOT Spread uses 6 cards: the full 78-card deck.

What do the positions of the SWOT Spread mean?

The positions are: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats, Advice and Possible outcome. Each card is read as the answer to the question of its position.

How do you read the SWOT Spread?

Cards 1 and 2 speak of what depends on the querent, cards 3 and 4 of what comes from outside: do not mix the two levels. The advice (5) grows out of the matrix: use the strengths to seize the opportunities, repair the weaknesses exposed to the threats. The outcome (6) is the tendency if the advice is followed, not a verdict. The cards do not replace the numbers: an economic or financial plan needs a professional.

A spread · 6 cards

SWOT Spread

A four-card matrix of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, with the advice and the possible outcome beside it. For a project, a business or a career choice.

Begin a reading with this spread All spreads

Strengths

Weaknesses

Opportunities

Threats

Advice

Possible outcome

The positions

Position 1
Strengths
The inner qualities, of the querent or of the business, that support the project.
What can I count on?
Position 2
Weaknesses
The inner frailties that may hold things back: what is missing or needs strengthening.
What weakens me?
Position 3
Opportunities
The favourable outside circumstances: what the context offers and can be seized.
What does the context offer?
Position 4
Threats
The outside factors that may get in the way: competition, timing, conditions.
What could stand in the way?
Position 5
Advice
The attitude or action the cards suggest in light of the matrix.
What is best to do?
Position 6
Possible outcome
The most likely tendency if the advice is followed and the forces stay as they are.
Where does it lead?

How to read it

Cards 1 and 2 speak of what depends on the querent, cards 3 and 4 of what comes from outside: do not mix the two levels.
The advice (5) grows out of the matrix: use the strengths to seize the opportunities, repair the weaknesses exposed to the threats.
The outcome (6) is the tendency if the advice is followed, not a verdict.
The cards do not replace the numbers: an economic or financial plan needs a professional.

Positions to read together

Strengths ↔ Opportunities. Forze e opportunità: dove ciò che si ha incontra ciò che il contesto offre. È il piano d'azione.
Weaknesses ↔ Threats. Debolezze e minacce: dove una fragilità interna incontra un rischio esterno. È ciò da proteggere.
Advice ↔ Possible outcome. Il consiglio e l'esito: dove porta la strada che le carte suggeriscono.

Origin

SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) is a business planning tool from the 1960s that tarot readers turned into a spread. This is Priskha's "SWOT Plus" version (2015), with advice and a possible outcome.

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