Try this.
Divide your tarot deck into five sections — majors, wands, cups, swords, and pentacles (or their equivalents in your pack).
Think about a topic or area of life about which you’re curious. Write it down. Depending on your topic, pick a card from the appropriate face-down card pile. E.g. if it’s about BIG life lessons, choose from the Majors. If about self-discovery, self-expression, independence, etc., choose from the Wands stack. If your inquiry is about feelings, relating, intuition, etc., pick a card from the Cups. If you’re curious about ideas, communication, networking, education, etc., pick a Sword. And if you want to know about something tangible, physical, or material, pluck a Pentacle.
Look at your card. What symbols, colours, characters, shapes, activities, and so forth grab your attention? Let each one suggest an open-ended question about your topic of inquiry. Write down these questions. Number them in an order that makes sense to you.
Draw a diagram, using little rectangles or circles (depending on the shape of your deck), creating a shape that’s pleasing to you or appropriate to your topic. Number each little rectangle or circle according to your numbered questions. Ta-da! You’ve just created a spread/layout to explore what you’re curious about.
This gets better! Imagine that your self-created layout is superimposed on the single card you chose. Notice what symbol is at the place where the first question position would be on your card. What response to your first question does it offer? Do the same with each of your questions, imagining each spread position in its correponding region of the card image. Let the symbol(s) in each answer your questions. How great is THAT?!
Terrific if you really want to learn about a specific card. Also good if you have a small surface on which to lay out your tarot reading.
I’d love for all of you to try this and to give me some feedback about it. Thanks in advance!
6 comments
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June 12, 2009 at 11:36 pm
Connie
James, this sounds like a wonderful exercise!
May I have your permission to try this with my Tarot Reader’s Group when we meet on June 23rd?
Connie, Spokane Tarot Reader’s Group Organizer
June 13, 2009 at 7:31 pm
jameswells
Yes, please try it with your group. You can offer them the link too, if you feel it’ll help. Let me know how it goes. I’ll be curious about what emerges for each group member.
~ James
June 15, 2009 at 3:48 am
Nicky
James,
I did this spread for myself today (after sharing with my meetup group this afternoon) and it works wonderfully. I have a hard time being objective when I read for myself and this method fooled me into being objective. Thanks!!
June 15, 2009 at 11:50 pm
jameswells
Thanks for your feedback, Nicky. Designing the layout BEFORE superimposing onto the card does seem to create a greater chance of objectivity. As an old song says (I hear Bea Arthur sing this one one time), “It’s fun to be fooled.” Another way we could do this activity is to design a layout based on questions around our topic, then pick a card from the appropriate stack. How did it work for others in your meetup group? I’d love to hear from some of them!
June 15, 2009 at 6:46 am
chea maria
James, thank you for posting this one-card reading (on steroids)! ;D Well, I tried it out and have to say its pretty darned fascinating…
My topic was money – yeah, super mundane, but I chose to do the reading with the William Blake deck. Came up with the muscular “2 of Painting”… Then the fun began! Now, I know you’re familiar with this deck and how much symbolism is packed into each card. Came up with 6 questions to make the spread within the card with… Had to stop with 6.
Here’s where I found a little challenge. It was very tempting to superimpose the new spread over the card and adjust the “cards” in my imagination to be moved a bit to places on the main card better to my liking… Know what I mean? Say one card in the spread really was meant to just cover the forearm, but I liked the “answer” better if it was tweaked a bit lower… Are you getting the visual on this?
Anyway, I decided that would kind of be like cheating- like choosing a different card if one didn’t care for the one first chosen. So my solution was to take a piece of plastic wrap and trace the card layout on it, then place the wrap over the card (2 of Painting). (first, on paper, you trace the outline of your single card, then draw the spread inside that, then place the plastic wrap over and redraw in a non-smudge Sharpie pen. This way you don’t risk damaging your card). Voila! No cheating. ;D Much easier to concentrate on each little “card”, and it was quite a revelation to focus the vision that way on each tiny piece…
Was very interesting to read each new “card” for each question and then try to read the relationship of each one to each other, then to the “2 of Painting” as a whole. Whew! This little one card reading took me a whole afternoon of fun exploration! Had a couple of very unexpected insights and very much deepened the interpretation of that card, for sure. I think its a bit tricky to get the hang of getting good question material in the beginning segment. But maybe that’s just me. I’m going to try this again with the Waite-Smith deck and see how that feels.
This is a great technique when interpretations for oneself have gotten a bit “pat’ and routine!
Peace, chea
June 15, 2009 at 11:48 pm
jameswells
Clingfilm as tarot helper — I love it! What a stunning card to get re: money. By exploring in this manner, you’ve already become your own best giant helper and agent of change. Yay!