by Marcus Katz
Illus. Free Sigil Drawing.
Contemplate the drawings for a moment before returning to everyday awareness and life. Do not then interpret the resulting symbols, sketches or scrawls. These are merely the detritus of the unconscious encounter. In the above example we might discern a face, a landscape, weather, a letter, even an I-Ching Hexagram. You can leave these for later.
For a few days, allow the sketch to be present whenever you are able, it will function as a sigil leading to sudden inspiration with regard to the question. There will be no doubt when this occurs, usually within a few days to a week. If there is no conscious and discernible result, you may dispose of the sketch in some short ritual (burying, burning, leaving to water or the elements) or paste it into a journal for later recollection.
Emerald Tablet Spread
An Alchemical and Hermetic spread
The Emerald Tablet is a hermetic text dating long prior to the 14th Century when it became a source for many alchemical works. It is a short piece of enigmatic verse detailing the “working of the sun”. Yet despite its brevity, it is a profound text for contemplation and a worthy basis of a spread to explore the true nature of a situation.
Select out cards as appropriate to represent each verse of the text:
The Emerald Tablet Spread
[It is] true, without error, certain and most true,
[Card 1: What is the essence of this situation]
That which is below is as that which is above, and that which is above is as that which is below, to perform the miracles of the one thing.
[Card 2: How does the situation in the physical reflect the spiritual?]
And as all things were from the one, by means of the meditation of the one, thus all things were born from the one, by means of adaptation.
[Card 3: What is changing?]
Its father is the Sun, its mother is the Moon, the Wind carried it in its belly, its nurse is the earth.
[Card 4: What is nurturing the situation?]
The father of the whole world [or "of all of the initiates"?] is here.
Its power is whole if it has been turned into earth.
[Card 5: What action can be taken?]
You will separate the earth from the fire, the subtle from the dense, sweetly, with great skill.
[Card 6: What will bring peace to this situation?]
It ascends from earth into heaven and again it descends to the earth, and receives the power of higher and of lower things.
[Card 7: Where can I receive assistance?]
Thus you will have the Glory of the whole world.
Therefore will all obscurity flee from you.
[Card 8: What do I need to know that is presently hidden?]
Of all strength this is true strength, because it will conquer all that is subtle, and penetrate all that is solid.
Thus was the world created.
[Card 9: What is the Creative Act being undertaken?]
From this were wonderful adaptations, of which this is the means. Therefore am I named Thrice-Great Hermes, having the three parts of the philosophy of the whole world.
It is finished, what I have said about the working[s] of the Sun.
[Card 10: How will I complete this situation?]
Illus. Spread Notes from a Personal Tarot Journal.
Turning a Question into a Spread with Clean Language
Many of the spreads and methods here have been designed in real-time with particular Querents asking questions which have turned into a spread. A case in point was for the “Strange Attractors” or “Whirpool” method, which arose because a Querent presented a particular case. We cover this in our other books, but provide a version here for reference.
He asked a question which was framed as “I have two options, both of which are possible, one probably more desirable than the other, but I could sort of do both, and they’re both a little bit out of my hands.” However, whilst he was asking the question, he was motioning with both hands in circular motions on the table. This was to express his own unconscious model of how the two situations were moving and placed relative to each other.
So I suggested we use the “classic Whirlpool Method”, where we first lay two cards down, in two positions on the table, to show the source of the two situations, their essential nature. We then placed a ring of three cards around each of those two source cards to show how that particular situation would ripple out. We then placed a ring of six cards around each ring to show the final results of how the two situations would develop.
Illus. Whirlpool Spread.
However, by then, the two rings had expanded on the table to overlap each other, with two cards in particular touching each other from both situations. The Querent pointed these out and said, “I suppose this is what happens if I try to do both, they’ll interfere with each other”.
I nodded, and said, “so let’s look at what happens in that case”, and we laid out three cards around those two cards to show the interference pattern, like ripples on water. I now use this “classic” method whenever anyone presents a similar situation.
There is a simple method for learning this skill, which I have modified from the NLP-derived method of Clean Language, based on the work of the late David Grove, a therapist in New Zealand.
When someone expresses their question, it usually has an emotional content, and this can be turned into a metaphor by a specialized but straight-forward series of clean questions. It only takes a minute, and then you have a precise metaphor of the question against which to design your spread in real-time.
The sequence of questions is as follows, with the essential sequence highlighted in bold:
Querent: My question is X [including some emotional content, such as “and I’m concerned that I may not make the right choice”]
Reader: … and your concern. Where is your concern?
Querent: In my head [or Querent will gesture unconsciously even if they say “I don’t really know”]
Reader: … in your head. Is it outside or inside?
Querent: Inside, in my head.
Reader: … inside, in your head. I’m wondering how you’d best describe the shape or size of that?
Querent: Well, it’s just everywhere and it’s rushing about.
Reader: … rushing about? And that’s like what?
Querent: It’s like a bull in a china shop, really.
So now you have a metaphor, the bull in a china shop. You can frame the questions in any particular way, following the Querent’s own language. The faster you do it, and the more you pay attention to their whole communication, including non-verbal gestures, the more noticeable it will be that the question suggests its own spread in response.
You can then apply the “Bull in the China Shop” as a reading method.
The Bull in a China Shop Spread
The Querent has asked whether to take an early retirement. They have described their question and given a metaphor which represents how their worries are rushing about like a bull in a china shop.
We take the symbols of bull and china shop to quickly lay out a reading.
1. The Bull cards. What is it that drives the client? [3 cards]
2. The China Shop card: What is it they will gain or lose from taking early retirement? [3 cards around the Bull cards]
3. The China Card: What will be broken by taking this step? [1 card]
Or any other variant that may strike you at the time of the reading, or as the Querent explains their question, or as the cards are laid down. In this approach, we are using our intermediate experience to be more responsive to the question in our divination rather than forcing it into a pre-determined spread. It also allows us to be more flexible and promotes an active dialogue with the deck and an engaging unique experience for the Querent.
Turning a Word into a Spread
If you are performing email readings, you can use a keyword in Querent’s question to design an elegant and relevant spread. If a Querent has sent you this que
stion, for example:
Hello, I am asking about my relationship. I have been married for one year and we are discussing children. I wondered if I could have a reading because my parents used to say I was too irresponsible for such things and I am asking how my future might be with children.
Then we might take that word, irresponsible which I have highlighted above, as the main concern in the question. We then look up the etymology or derivation of the word in a dictionary or online source.
The word irresponsible comes from to be “not responsible”. This in turn, “responsible” comes from a similar root ideas as “obligation”. The word obligation comes from the Latin source, “to bind” and of course leads to its later use as meaning "to make someone indebted by conferring a benefit or kindness".
We take that concept, of debt and kindness, and turn it into the questions for a straightforward linear spread as follows.
The Parents Response Spread
1. What debt does the Querent owe her parents?
2. What kindness did the Querent learn from her parents?
3. What binds the Querent in their attitude to children?
4. What will the Querent be able to give beneficial to children?
5. What responsibility will the Querent take on?
6. What kindness will their child(ren) bring to them?
You can of course then riff out from those questions as the cards are placed, and engage in conversation with the spread itself. This can be a very powerful method because it takes much of the expectation of the reading out of your hands and places it from the Querents question directly in dialogue with the cards themselves.
Your job is simply to interpret the reading.
How to Have a Conversation with the Cards
Let the Cards Guide Your Spread.
An intermediate method of reading for a Querent is to simply allow the cards themselves to give you directions. This works in much the same way as stopping to ask people to give you directions when you are travelling. One person points you so far, then you have to stop again and ask another person from there!
So when considering a question, simply read the first card on the top of the shuffled deck, then imagine how that card would guide you to the next card. If your first card was the Blasted Tower, you would read that as the first part of the spread, then perhaps suddenly drop all the cards and split them down the middle to select the next card.
If that next card were the Page of Wands, you might then wend your way through the deck picking one card after another until you got to a card that felt like your journey’s end. If that card were the Ace of Cups, you’d read that card, then close your eyes and just let your feelings guide you to the next card. If that were the 10 of Pentacles, you’d probably just stop at that card as the final outcome of the reading.
Allowing the cards to direct you is a liberating experience and one of the first steps away from your beginner work into more dynamic and engaging work with the Tarot as your living guide.
Bonus Method 1: The Sign of Paracelsus
A method by which we engage with the signs of the world to direct our journey.
In the ninth book of the collected writings of Paracelsus, the Renaissance physician, alchemist, botanist and occultist, translated by A.E. Waite, Paracelsus writes on “the signature of natural things”. He remarks that there are three signatories to the world; Man, Archeus, and the Stars of the Supernaturals. Whilst Adam was the first signatory of man, the Archeus being the lowest level of the Astral, it is the Stars which give “prophecies and presages”.
In this method, we use the Tarot to direct us towards right action based on the presages of the cards relating to the astrological signs.
Take the following cards of the Majors:
Sun
High Priestess
Blasted Tower
Magician
Wheel of Fortune
Empress
World
These correspond through their planetary correspondences to the days of the week, from Sunday (Sun) to Saturday (World). Shuffle the seven cards and select one. This will inform you which day of the week you are to look for a sign or portent in answer to your question. Do not consult the cards at any time until that day arrives, and then only consult the cards when the sign has been revealed to you.
If no sign is revealed, you can then perform the 7-card reading again in this manner and divine another day.
This method may also be used as a short-timing method where you wish to divine the day of the week for a matter.
Bonus Method 2: Pooh Sticks Method
A Method for using Rune-staves and Tarot with a little bit of whimsy.
And he went back for some more fir-cones. It did. It kept on doing it. Then he dropped two in at once, and leant over the bridge to see which of them would come out first; and one of them did; but as they were both the same size, he didn't know if it was the one which he wanted to win, or the other one. So the next time he dropped one big one and one little one, and the big one came out first, which was what he had said it would do, and the little one came out last, which was what he had said it would do, so he had won twice ... and then he went home for tea.
And that was the beginning of the game called Poohsticks, which Pooh invented, and which he and his friends used to play on the edge of the Forest. But they played with sticks instead of fir-cones, because they were easier to mark.
A. A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner.
You will need for this divination seven sticks, a Tarot deck, a means of making notches in wood, a bridge, seven small pots of waterproof paint of differing colors, a notepad, and a slowly moving river.
In answer to the question “What is Which and Which is What?” shuffle and select 21 Tarot cards. Note each of these cards and then gather together 7 sticks, preferably Willow. They should be about 4-6 inches long and thicker than a pencil.
Take the 21 cards (remaining face-down) and divide them into 7 stacks of 3. Number the stacks 1-7.
Etch onto the sticks a number of notches starting with one notch on one stick, to seven notches on the seventh stick. Paint onto each a different and bright color, and make a note of the colors to the numbers (i.e. red stick = 3 notches).
On a Monday (and this must be a Monday) go to a bridge where you can easily drop (and not throw) the seven sticks from the side of the bridge where the river is flowing down. Then race to the other side of the bridge and with some excitement exclaim the color of the winning stick – the stick emerging first from under the bridge.
You can then consult your notebook to discern the number of notches on that stick, and on returning home, consult the pile of 3 cards bearing that number. To what does the Tarot River answer to “What is Which and Which is What?”
You may also use this method for the other seven questions posed by Pooh, although Tigger did interrupt him before he could complete the seventh. There is one for every day of the week (other than Sunday):
On Monday, when the sun is hot
I wonder to myself a lot:
"Now is it true, or is it not,
"That what is which and which is what?"
Master Method: The Grand Quadrangle
A Master method of using the Runes, I-Ching, the Sabian Symbols and Tarot.
There are a range of oracular devices ranging from the Runes to the I-Ching, Tarot to Astrology. They each have their cultural and philosophical underpinnings. I tend to see the Tarot as a snapshot, the Runes as a narrative, the I-Ching as a flow and Astrology as a blueprint.
Sometimes we have a question that demands due consideration from all angles, and for this occasion we have used the Grand Quadrangle spread. This incorporates Astrology by using the Sabian Symbols – an elegant and enigmatic system of channeled symbols for the Astrological Decans.
In this method, we triangulate and calibrate the various systems like an Alethiometer from the works of Phillip Pullman.
Firstly, we cast
a Sabian Symbol. You can do this from the Sabian Fountain in Tarot Town if you wish (www.tarot-town.com) or from the book which gives various methods to produce a symbol, including the use of dice or by drawing one from the book via Bibliomancy.
This gives us our Grand Title for the Quadrangle and is the outside format for the whole reading. We will see how this works in our example following.
Illus. The Grand Quadrangle.
We then cast an I-Ching Hexagram. This provides the changeable and variable flow of the matter within the very centre of the frame. This tells us what is already passing and changing.
We then draw 4 Tarot cards which provide the framework, giving the general bearing of the situation as a snapshot. This is like a map by which we compare the inner flow and directions of the current (I-Ching) to the destination provided by the grand title of the voyage.
Finally we draw three Runes to provide the elemental engine or fuel for the journey. These provide narrative instructions to the soul to accord life with the direction necessary.
We will now give a worked example of the Grand Quadrangle Method.
Firstly we cast the Sabian Symbol and receive “Scorpio, 27 degrees”, which is defined by “A Military Band on the March”. This gives the overall format of the reading as mobilizing towards some specific outcome. It certainly means our reading will call for decisive action!
We then cast our I-Ching Hexgram (using Yarrow Sticks or Coins) and receive I-Ching Hexagram 63. This is Ji Ji, “Already Crossing”, and signifies Clarity in Action. We can further contemplate this Hexagram and look to the lines which show how the grand title is playing out. In this case, we see advice to keep moving, not chase after any losses. This is further encouragement and so far a positive reading!