Merry meet!
A different tarot discussion had me thinking about smaller versus larger divination spreads. I do the rare larger spread (10+ cards) but I generally stick to smaller spreads with just a few cards. Part of this is just me being lazy (lots of cards means lots of brain juice, time, and clean up!) but I also worry about not having the right card(s) available in big spreads.
As part of the theory exploration, let’s say someone (a very ambitious someone) wanted to do a 78 card spread. They would ask their first question or prompt, shuffle the deck, and the deck would have 78 potential cards it could present as the answer. Assuming the reader is laying the cards out in a traditional spread, for the next question, the deck would have 77 potential cards. The third question in the spread would have 76 potential cards to use for the answer, and so on. Eventually, you’d be down to a single card. Some might say that it doesn’t matter what you ask as the final question because the card you’ll get is predetermined by whatever is left in your hand.
In this particular framing and set-up, one could say that a smaller spread would be mathematically more accurate (as it has more potential answers) than a larger spread (where answers become more limited with each card removed from the deck).
People have such wonderfully diverse reading practices so I’d love to ask for some advice/see what others do about this. Does this “mathematical limitation” affect your tarot reading practice at all? Do you have a work-around, or do you trust in the universe/deities/guides to make sure the right cards appear in the right spots in the spread? 
I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas!
Polls because I love them:
(Polls are anonymous)
Do you use mostly smaller or larger divination spreads?
- I use mostly smaller spreads (<5 cards)
- I use mostly larger spreads (>5 cards)
- I use small and large spreads equally
How do you work with/around deck limitations?
- I stick to using smaller spreads
- I trust in my guides to place the cards
- I return the card to the deck after each draw
- I use multiple decks at once
- Other
- I hadn’t considered it before
) but this made me think because runes have 24 staves so 
I think the idea applies to runes, oracle, or any form of divination with a set number of options being laid out in a spread - in fact, I think it may be even more applicable to something like runes that have fewer staves at the start!
what a fabulous question! The short answer is no, but only because I hadn’t thought about it mathematically before… what a fascinating perspective!
Big spreads can provide a lot of insight, but more info naturally means more to work with, and sometimes my brain just doesn’t want to brain. A spread with a few cards is fast, easy, and usually pretty insightful!
It sounds like, by returning any staves used to clarify back to the bag, you’re able to extend the reading and continue to have lots of available answers to each following question. You also raise a good point about when too much on the mind leads to murky focus, which can lead to murky or unclear readings. I hadn’t considered that point! Thank you, Georgia! 
