by Marcus Katz
The Solar cards represent conscious factors in play, the Lunar cards represent unconscious patterns at work.
You can also use two decks for this method, one for the Solar cards and one for the Lunar cards, giving rise to the possibility of the same cards appearing in both aspects of the reading.
The Victoria’s Secret Spread
A spread for divining the best course of action for a fight, or combative situation.
In this method, we take a Greek myth and create from it a spread. In fact, the myths of ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt are good places from which to derive spreads as the mythology was so specific to context, such as having a God for the Arts, a God for the Shepherds, a Goddess for Childbirth. If a client has a specific question in advance, you can prepare for the reading by discovering the appropriate myths for that situation and weaving them into your reading.
So, in this spread, we look at how to divine for a situation where there is argument and the Querent wishes to know how to act to get the best from the combative situation ahead.
As appropriate for a Twist reading, we add in a dash of magic by performing a brief invocation to the appropriate deity before commencing the reading, if we wish to gain divine favor.
Invocation of Victoria/Nike
Omnipotent Nike, desired by all
I invoke Thee –
Beat your wings against injustice!
Confer the battle trophy,
The Victors wreath,
The Mark of Sweet Renown.
Then perform the 4-card reading with the assistance of Styx’s Children, including Nike, which are Nike (Victory), Bia (Force), Zelus (Rivalry) and Kratos (Strength).
Illus. Victoria’s Secret Spread.
House on the Borderlands Method
A means by which we use your dreaming soul to perform Tarot readings.
The unconscious mind works very much by conditioning and expectation setting. In this method we promote expectation and utilize our ability to dream. Recent studies have shown that eye-accessing in REM sleep reflects our dreamt activities so we also use this phenomena.
This process usually takes 1-2 weeks at most to gain a result. If you do not have a result within this time, take a break and repeat the method again at some later time.
On the first night, before sleep, consider your question (even if it is on behalf of a Querent) and say out loud, firmly, “This card is the answer to my question!” Then take a Tarot card out of your deck and place it up above your eye line so you have to look up at it. Keep your head still, but move your eyes up, deliberately. Look at the card and then place it back in the deck and go to sleep.
Repeat this for at least 5-6 days. You can keep a note of the cards and keep a note of any dreams you may recall.
On the seventh night, hold the deck again, say in a loud distinct voice, “This card is the answer to my question!” and simply place the deck down and rest your head and go to sleep.
You may find that your unconscious, the moment your eyes look up during REM sleep, produces a Tarot card (or sometimes, a whole spread) in answer to your question.
My Mythic Story
A Method to write your life as a Mythic Story.
This method is given as one section in The Garden of Creation, which is a Tarosophy Gated Spreads. These Gated Spreads are week-long Tarot experiences comprising of usually 3-4 spreads or methods, linked by actions that have to be taken between the spreads themselves. This is a unique way of working with Tarot in real-life and participants find the experiences life-changing.
In the Garden of Creation, we teach methods of using Tarot in creative writing, and this particular spread shows how to write a mythic narrative based on the universal archetypal story. Our twist is that it is a split-spread because different elements of the Tarot relate to different levels of the mono-myth.
1. Split your deck into three piles containing the Majors in one, the Minors in another and the Court Cards in the third. Shuffle each deck and lay them face down. Select cards from the appropriate pile as indicated below to create the cards for your story.
2. The first card, choose from the Court Card pile. This is the Hero(ine), and depicts his ordinary life. What sort of character is he (or she) and what sort of life does he lead?
3. The next card is a Major card and is the call to adventure. What changes in this person’s life to start them on their journey?
4. The next card is a Minor card and is the nature of their refusal to go on this journey, engage with this event or opportunity. What do they do? How do they respond?
5. The next card, a Court Card (or you can select a Major Card) shows their Mentor. Who or What encourages them, teaches them, provokes them to change, and how?
6. The next card, a Minor, shows the first threshold that must be crossed, to enter a different world.
7. The next three cards (choose from any pile) indicates the tests, allies and enemies they encounter in this new situation.
8. The next card, a Major, shows the next threshold and the nature of the inmost cave – the secret heart of this story, a revelation, where they encounter the ordeal (select a Minor or Major card) and gain the reward (select a Minor or Major card).
9. They then take the road back to their starting-point (choose a Minor card) and cross a third threshold experiencing a transformation or resurrection. Finally, they return with a boon or elixir, a philosophers stone and gift to bring to their previous situation. This is indicated by the final card, a Major.
This sequence is based on the mythic journey, or hero’s journey described by Joseph Campbell and recast in contemporary style for authors, playwrights and screenwriters in Christopher Vogler’s The Writers Journey.
We can utilize the cards in specific ways to creative dramatic narratives. These are seen in multiple aspects, where the Majors are archetypal forces at play, the Minors the events in everyday life manifesting those forces and acting as teachers, and the Court Cards personalities embodying these archetypal energies in mixed characters.
Whilst practicing creating these stories in this manner, you are also unconsciously learning (“installed”) a new sense of how these cards represent these elements in a spread for a divination. You may find your ability to read cards progressively increasing and deepening as you practice these gates.
There is a universal story pattern which is the “Mono-myth” and all our lives partake of this mythic structure which is revealed in stories and any creative act. You may find that your garden plan and stepping stones already reveal a lot about your own story.
A Note about Gated Spreads
You can discover more about Gated Spreads in our series of six books, given in the bibliography.
Recommended Reading
Christopher Vogler, The Writers Journey (London: Pan Books, 1999)
Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (London: Paladin, 1998)
Rings of Atlantis Spread
An ancient method inspired by the mythic city of Atlantis and the Necronomicon.
Take 6 cards. Drop them in the bath or ocean. Wonder whether you should take anything seriously.
The so-called Lovecraft Variation: These cards will return when with strange Aeons even Death may Die. As it is said, “Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn”.
Ancient Echoes Spread
An innovative method for discovering past-lives and their bearing on the present.
This is another split-spread method so first you will need to separate the Court Cards, Major Arcana and Minor Arcana into three stacks.
Take the Court Cards and shuffle. Lay out one card in the centre of the table with the words “This is the nature of my Soul in present-time”.
Take the Minor Cards and shuffle. Lay out two cards around the Soul card and say “This is the nature of my lifetime in this life”.
Once again, take the Court Cards and shuffle, looking at the two Minor cards. Take out one card and place it to one side (top/bottom, left/right) of
the Minor cards and say “This is an echo of my previous lifetime self”.
Take the Major cards and shuffle. Select a card and lay it down between the two Court cards, saying “This is the Karmic lesson I must learn in this lifetime”.
Take the Minor cards again and shuffle, considering the Major card of the Karmic lesson. Select out two cards and place them against the previous life Court Card, saying “This was the nature of that previous life”. Weave a story from those cards.
You can keep repeating this method, by laying out another Karmic Lesson Major Card for the previous life Court Card, and working outwards in echoes through all previous lifetimes.
Illus. Ancient Echoes Layout.
You may choose to notice whether the previous life Minor cards are predominately male or female, particular suits denoting employment, and other such details.
You might also like to align your Karmic Lesson cards in a row and see if you discern any progression or pattern in those Major cards.
Candle Burning Method
A straightforward candle-magick spell souped-up with Tarot.
The following method is a special amalgamation of two methods we teach in the Magicka School 6-lesson Spellcrafting course.[7] In this exercise of spellcrafting, we demonstrate one of many ways which you may choose to use Tarot as a spellcrafting tool. Here we will use Tarot as a map and ritual to change a specific situation. We will be precise in the nature of the energy we require, using our own background in Tarot, to ensure that the manifestation of the change is appropriate to our requirements.
The Tarot cards depict the Universe manifesting itself in a variety of ways. This exercise introduces you to analyzing a situation you are currently living through, with the Tarot (and by implication the Tree of Life in Kabbalah) and then appropriately choosing a required energy to change the situation for the better, and using the appropriate Tarot card to invoke that energy in a gradual manner. This also provides a template for many other spells where you may require a gradual change rather than an overnight or abrupt change!
Follow the six steps below, having already defined your desire and moving into a state of neither-neither (meditation or dance, music, etc. prior to starting the exercise).
1. Take a situation you currently wish to change. What would you like to happen? Write this clearly on a piece of paper. You may also create a sigil.
2. What is the nature of the change that is required, in terms of the four elements and their corresponding Tarot Suit?
Material change, money, finances, health … Earth/Pentacles
Emotional, Fluid, Deep … Water/Cups
Intellect, Learning, Education … Air/Swords
Beliefs, Lifestyle change, goals … Fire/Wands
Make a note of this Suit (Aspect to be Purified).
3. How far has the situation you are in got to? How long has it been going on?
On a scale of 1-10, where 1 is “I’ve only just realized I need to change something that has just started,” to 10 “It’s been going on for ever and I’ll never change it.”
Make a note of this number (Developmental Stage to be Consecrated)
4. What type of energy is required to change the situation? Choose the appropriate energy from below which is given with the corresponding Court Card symbolizing that energy.
Sudden, dramatic, fresh energy … Page
Forceful, dynamic, piercing energy … Knight
Stable, comforting, enduring energy … Queen
Constant, fixed, robust energy … King
Make a note of the Court Card (Energy to be Invoked).
5. Now take a Tarot deck and select the appropriate MINOR card comprising the purification number (from step 3) and consecration aspect (from step 2).
For example, you would select the 4 of Pentacles, if it is a wealth situation (Pentacles) that has been going on a while, but hasn’t yet stabilized (i.e. 4 on a scale of 1- 10).
Also select the appropriate COURT card for the energy to be invoked (from step 4) in the same Suit (as step 2).
For example, the Page of Pentacles if you need a new fresh energy to break the wealth doldrums!
6. To carry out this spell-crafting, over a period of one week, begin by placing the MINOR card to the left of the COURT card somewhere convenient, i.e. where you can leave them and work with them for a week.
Leave a gap between them representing 7 card-widths. As each day passes for a week, move the COURT card one position to the LEFT towards the MINOR card.
This begins to bring the required energy into your life to change the situation, until on the last of the seven days, place the COURT card ON TOP OF the MINOR card which concludes and closes the spell. You may choose to leave the cards together for a further day and night to consolidate the spell. Then return the cards to your deck.
You can obviously amend this spell to work over a longer period of time (mark off smaller intervals and move the card a smaller amount) but it is recommended that you use a week or lunar month cycle at the minimum to ensure a graduated change.
There are other variations of this spell or you can use your imagination (i.e. working with all Four Suits in a Cross surrounding the Central Minor card and moving all four cards in towards the centre every day).
I have used this spell method on many occasions and found it subtle and effective. It also provides a hidden template for group temple workings where participants invoke appropriate forces and move in a brief ritual which reflects the cards, consecrating a Talisman in the centre.
We can add a Candle Magick spell at the same time as moving the cards together. Unlike most “candle magick” this uses two candles to ensure equilibrating forces (see also the “Path of the Seasons” article on “Uninvited Guests” in the Magicka Magical Light Magazine, July 2009).
Select an emotional state you wish to obtain whilst carrying out the Tarot spell, for example, “peace in turmoil”, “confidence”, “rest from anxiety”. Using correspondences choose an appropriate color, i.e. blue for tranquility. Now, using a color wheel, find the complementary (opposite) color. So for blue, we would select orange.
You can also purchase candles specifically designed for Tarot spells.
Now, purchase two candles, one of the state-color (e.g. blue) and one of the complementary color (e.g. orange). Place these by your bedside (with the usual and common-sense safety observations) or on your altar, next to each other.
Every morning, spend 5-10 minutes and follow the ritual below:
1. Light the State-Candle.
2. Say “Not Now, but Later, I will feel even more [state]”.
3. Spend a few minutes noticing wherever you don’t feel [state].
4. Light the Complementary-Candle.
5. Say “Spirit of the Opposition, I Bind You to [state]”.
6. Spend a few minutes noticing how the two candles burn.
7. When ready to start the day, blow out both.
8. Say “I have forgotten that which I did not need”.
Record in your journal any noticeable changes in your internal state and external behavior as you conduct this spell over a week or lunar cycle.
Synchronicities Method
A Method using Tarot to promote synchronicity in life as a spiritual experience.
Plaskett’s coincidence experiences alerted him in particular to the meaning of symbols: as he says, their conspicuously symbolic content “increased the attention I was giving to symbols.” An eleven-page appendix to his narrative reproduces extensive extracts from various writings either showing symbolism in action (for example, in the spiritually orientated psychotherapeutic context of psychosynthesis), or discussing the nature of symbolism generally … One thought occurring to him was that “in the light of such coincidences it seemed reasonable to postulate that some symbols have a power and significance wholly independent of the human mind”.
Roderick Main, Revelations of Chance: Synchronicity as Spiritual Experience, p. 101
The
practice of magical ritual often leads to synchronicities manifesting themselves in daily life. In fact, an immersion in magical thinking generates many such events until ultimately all life is seen as one continual synchronous event – a unified meaningful experience.
The practice of Tarot goes some way to promoting and experiencing this magical worldview, where the universe is “bound by invisible knots” or the “Web of Wyrd”. In each reading we connect to the mysterious story of unseen patterns and processes of which we are the result.
To encourage this perception of synchronicity, a simple method may be undertaken. Take your deck and shuffle it until you feel the right moment to stop. Take out the top three cards and then look at the symbols contained in them, for example, a red cloak, a golden crown and a lantern.
The following day, look for these symbols in your daily life – it could be a passing stranger in fancy dress, a pub symbol or a brand logo on a television advertisement. When you have seen one of these symbols in your environment, try it with just two cards, and then one.
You may be surprised how the Universe is interconnected and your part in its very creation.
Illus. Creating and Using Spreads.
See no Evil, Hear no Evil, Speak no Evil (3 Monkeys Spread)
An immediately classic spread, the 3 Monkeys method uses NLP and Tarot.
We would like to thank Bernie Rowen and Nadine Roberts for assisting in the development of the Classic Three Monkeys Method during an online workshop for the Tarosophy Tarot Diploma course, mentored by Janine Worthington.
