The cards from Symbols of Small Truths can be used as “anchor cards”.

These are thematic foundations that shape and guide your card spreads. When used as anchor cards, they help you focus your intention, frame your questions, and deepen your connection to the reading. This method is particularly powerful for journaling, coaching, and personal growth sessions, where the goal is exploration rather than prediction.

You can select anchor cards in two ways:

• intentional selection: you choose a card (or several) that resonates with your current focus, challenge or theme. This is ideal when you already know what you want to explore (such as boundaries, transformation, or clarity) and build your own spread around that energy.

• intuitive selection: you draw a card (or multiple cards) at random and allow the theme to reveal itself. This approach can lead to unexpected insights, uncovering hidden layers or unconscious patterns. You can then create a spread in response to the anchor’s message, letting your intuition guide the structure.

Anchor cards from Symbols of Small Truths can be combined with any other deck: oracle or tarot. For example, you might use a Symbols card from this deck as your anchor and draw tarot cards to explore how the card is manifesting in your life. This cross-deck approach allows for deeper personal readings. Each card in Symbols of Small Truths has a journaling prompt in its guidebook entry. These prompts can be used to inspire the positions in your spread.

The Seasons of Small Truths spread included in this guide is an example of how to work with intentionally chosen anchor cards. Each card represents a seasonal theme (such as emergence, growth, release, or rest) and invites you to explore how that energy is moving through your life.

Whether chosen with intention or drawn by intuition, anchor cards can help you create your spread, made for your personal reflections and truths: one small symbol at a time.