Tarot · Spread
The two paths · a decision
One question, two roads, each laid open so its shape can be seen.
Reading
One card sets the situation, the ground the whole question stands on, read first and kept in view for the rest. From it the spread branches. A card, or a pair, for the first path and where it leads. The same for the second. A fuller version adds a card to each branch for what that road asks of you, the price it sets at the gate, so that each option is read as a cost as well as an outcome.
The cards show the shape of each course, not which to take. Lay the two branches side by side and read them against each other: this road opens easily and narrows later, that one is steep at the start and level after. The situation card is what both branches grow out of, and it often explains why the choice is hard. The reading lays the two roads open. It does not walk either of them, and the choosing stays with the reader.
The spread shows both roads. It does not point down one.
Common variants give a single card to each path, or two, a near step and a far one, and some add a final card for what stays the same whichever road is taken. The spread wants two named options to work. An open question with no second path is a different reading.
Where it rhymes
The same archetype, spoken in other systems.