The let the deck tell you what it wants to spread

earthair

Been having a bit of an experiment with my Pointner deck, and have come up with this way of letting the cards dictate both the question and the specific positions it needs.

Step 1

Shuffle the deck, then lay out 22 cards face down on the table to represent the Major arcana archetypes= the positions.

I like doing it in grid of 4 rows like this-

*,*,*,0,*,*,*
1,2,3,4,5,6,7
8,9,10,11,12,13,14
15,15,17,18,19,20,21

Turn over 0 (in the Fool position) - this is your question, or area which needs examining.

From the pile of remaining cards, turn over the top one, and whatever the number is, dictates how many cards will be turned over in Step 2, so pips 1-9 are what they are - i.e the 8 of wands would mean turn over 8 cards. The Death card would be 1+3=4 cards to be turned over. Courts count as 11,12,13,and 14 so 1+1=2 for Pages, 1+2=3 for a Knight etc.

Step 2
Let's say you have found you that need to turn over 4 cards. For the next bit of the spread, you now use your intuition to turn over whichever 4 you think will answer the question, or feel right to you...or let the sitter turn over their choices.

Or... use a separate majors only deck, shuffle, draw 4 cards, and let them tell you which to turn over- so say you drew the Lovers, then turn over card 6 of your grid.

Or... using a deck like the Pointner, which numbers all 78 cards, you draw 4 additional cards from the pile, and count the number on the card to tell you the position to turn over, so card 20= turn over card 20, card 40 would tell you to turn 40 minus 21 = card 19, card 60 would tell you to turn 60 minus 21+21 = card 18.

Or...using the rest of the undealt pile, use the numerical value on the next 4 cards to count gaps between the ones to turn over.

Then the reading is done by seeing how particular cards interact with the essence of the position they are in. So you might turn over the Death card, in the 6th = Lovers position. (So how would change relate to choice in your question?)

Things get really fun when you turn over a card and it's in the 'correct' place already. :bugeyed:

Theoretically you might turn over the Fool as your number of cards to draw... in which case count it as the 22nd card 2+2 = 4.... or count it as 0 and don't turn over any cards, instead go and have a cup of tea and try to answer the question without tarot cards :D
 

alekx.p3

Hello!
I just tried your spread and it was amazing. The method remains me a lot to the Grand Tableou from the Lenormand system, something that I had tried to integrate to Tarot before and you have accomplished wonderfully.
Love the playfulness and depth of the spread.
Thank you so much and congratulations for such a great construction. šŸ˜Š
 

earthair

Hello!
I just tried your spread and it was amazing. The method remains me a lot to the Grand Tableou from the Lenormand system, something that I had tried to integrate to Tarot before and you have accomplished wonderfully.
Love the playfulness and depth of the spread.
Thank you so much and congratulations for such a great construction. ��

Thanks :)

You spotted where I got my inspiration from :thumbsup:

Am currently experimenting with stacking my majors spread above the 9x4 Grand Tableau for a huuuge grid, then using the shapes on the Pointner minors to show the direction of turnovers :bugeyed:

Like this ...

___ *
_ *******
_ *******
_*******
*********
*********
*********
*********
 

sladie

oh my gods I love this spread! Just tried it out for the first time, and not only did it ask the question I had going in my brain for awhile (but couldn't figure out how to word it!) it answered it in a way that I actually understood!

I'll be going back to this spread a lot, it's fantastic.
 

Cyberbuddha

From the pile of remaining cards, turn over the top one

Do you mean the card at position 1? So every time 0=question and 1=# of cards?
C.
 

cozmo0_4

Hi there. I've done this and get the premise, but when the cards are in place, let's say that knight swords is in the Devil position - what would that mean the queries would be about.
Is there a list of which main question would be to which card.
As your example said 6th position, is about the lovers - I gather that to be about a loving answer.
Sorry if this sounds confusing.
 

earthair

Do you mean the card at position 1? So every time 0=question and 1=# of cards?
C.

After you have placed the cards in the grid, you will have a pile of undealt cards- take the top one off of that pile to give you the number of cards to turn over.

The unturned card at position 1 (or 'house 1' if you want to think Lenormand GT) remains unturned, unless you choose to turn it...

[And btw house 1 in this spread is The Magician NOT the Rider as in Lenormand :D ]
 

earthair

Hi there. I've done this and get the premise, but when the cards are in place, let's say that knight swords is in the Devil position - what would that mean the queries would be about.
Is there a list of which main question would be to which card.
As your example said 6th position, is about the lovers - I gather that to be about a loving answer.
Sorry if this sounds confusing.

The first card you turn over, the card at the Fool's position '0' is always the Question because the Fool is the start of the journey of the spread. You interpret this card to ask whatever question you think it is asking. So say you turn over 2 Swords and are a traditional RWS reader you might ask yourself "what in my life am I blocking or blinded to, or confused by? or Where is there stalemate in my life?"

So if you later turned over Death at position 6 in a spread asking the question above, it may suggest for you to change the way you choose to deal with those stalemate situations by making a clean break.

Turning over the Knight in that position would never be a question, it would be an answering card.
 

earthair

I'll lay out a spread, take a piccy and be right back...

So this is a pic of a completed example spread, The question was 2 Swords. Then from the undealt pile I turned over a 3 wands which told me I'd get the answer in 3 cards, and because I like to feel my way, I randomly chose to turn over cards at position 3 The Empress, where I drew 3 cups... at position 6 The Lovers I drew Death, and at position 9 The Hermit I drew 8 Pentacles.
 

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