Sorry, but my focus has been elsewhere the last two days.
Makes sense. I've been doing regular 3-card spreads for awhile, using jumpers and shadow card (a new addition for me), and I've only been turning to ED's recently when the spread doesn't make sense in a traditional reading. So for those, I don't know that I'm using ED's until I've already looked at the spread.
That could be wrong, though, from a spiritual point of view. Should I "announce" that I'll be using ED's before shuffling? Or is it OK to optionally use it on any reading (including past readings) for further insights?
I have a very specific shuffling method that I use when I'm doing readings from the comfort of my study. If I happen to use a different shuffling method, I don't think that tarot is going to give me wrong cards cause I used a different method. Similarly, if you only use EDs when the reading doesn't make sense to you in the way you normally interpret the cards, then tarot (which is a euphemism for what the source of your interpretations is) will know to give you difficult cards when it wants you to interpret them through EDs.
This makes sense to me. Am I correct that since the Sun card strengthened the 9 of Swords, the Sun and 9 should be read together? Or is it that any Fire card on the right would have made the 9 of Swords stronger, and it doesn't matter whether the card was the Sun or, for example, the 8 of Wands?
Almost. ANY Fire card will strengthen any other Fire card or any Air card. It doesn't matter what the specific cards are. I wouldn't say that pairs of cards that strengthen each other are read together, because the opposite of that is that cards that weaken each other aren't read at all. If you look back at my interpretations in the Your Readings thread you started, you'll see that I included all three cards separately in my interpretation.
For the 9S | 8W, I could see worries (9S) that come on quickly or unexpectedly (8W).
For me, it really is the exception to the rule when I don't start my interpretation with the central card. I usually then go to the card on the left, but sometimes I have to go to the card on the right in order for the interpretation to make sense.
Assuming that I'm right, how would one read the 9 of Swords with the Sun card together, when they seem to be opposites? Is it just that the Sun amplifies the 9 of Swords emotions, and the 9 of Hearts is not relevant to the reading?
I usually only read EDs in odd numbers of cards using triads starting from the center out. So the reading for ABCDEFGHI would be DEF, CEG, BEH and AEI. As the interpretation of triads is based on the interactions of pairs of cards, those can also be read.
For consistency when using EDs with pairs, you have to decide which card is the primary and which is the qualifier. For me, with the pair AB, I see A as the primary card and B as the qualifier. So with 9S | Sun, the 9S would be the primary card. So I'd see worries (9S) that a truth will be revealed (Sun). With Sun | 9S, I'd see happiness (Sun) now that worries are over (9S).
What would your final interpretation of this triad have been?
I'm assuming you meant the reading that contained the 9 Hearts and not the reading from your update. Normally UTC is not the place to discuss complete readings, but as you had 2 jumpers and a shadow card in the 9 Hearts reading, the main reading is less than half of the cards from the reading so can be discussed here. The reading from your Update can't be discussed here in UTC because it's more than half of the reading.
So looking at 9H 9S Sun, we have WAF, and we've already gone over the interactions. And I've already said that I leave neutral interactions neutral and let the specific cards tell me how they want to interact. In terms of romantic outcome for the day, my interpretation would've been that you would be worried (9S) that you were going to find out something you didn't want to know (Sun) leaving you wishing that you hadn't found it out (9H). In and of itself, I don't think the cards directly answer the question of romantic outcome, but it's easy enough to extrapolate from the interpretation that your romantic outcome is that you'll be unhappy.
The Sun strengthens the interpretation of the 9S and in this case, I think the 9H is neutral to the 9S (although it strengthens the Sun, but that's not the central card, so that doesn't count).
I did review the first two earlier, but between that and the info on tarotelements.com that I mentioned before, I'm getting overwhelmed with info. I was hoping that a more hands-on approach would help it to stick
We can't discuss almost complete readings here in UTC (3 cards out of 4) - they have to be no more than half of the cards. So it would be better to lay down the cards from one of the exercises and ask your questions based on that.
Rodney
by now, you should be! 
