An experimental spread/method/quiz: What Kind of Reader are You?

Pondering and wondering the other day, I went ahead and improvised this spread. It's not a spread per se, more a method for divination, but you can get more than one card (I did), which technically makes it a spread in my eyes. (Dear mods: if you find this thread ill-placed, please move it to where it belongs.)

I reduced the types of readers to four:

* purely intuitive (which would include anything from psychics who use the cards as a springboard to those who don't care for esoteric knowledge and don't even bother with LWBs)

* RWS

* Thoth

* Marseille

Granted, very few people fit squarely and solely into one of the previous categories --which I kept in mind for the spread. The categories themselves are debatable, so feel free to contribute.

Next, I assigned a card to each one of these categories. I had my reasons to choose the ones I chose, but of course I don't expect everyone to agree with me. Again, feel free to riff and improve on it, or use your own choices.

* purely intuitive: The High Priestess

* RWS: The Sun

* Thoth: The Moon

* Marseille: The Magician

So --what do you do? You shuffle and shuffle, and then you start placing cards face up, until one of those four cards shows up upright. If any of them shows up inverted before you get your upright card, it means that those are your secondary strengths. Once your upright card is on the table, you stop. That's the reader you are at heart.

In the event that all four appear inverted, I guess it would mean either that your strengths as a reader are not yet ripe, or that you're exceptionally versatile....

My results were.... enlightening, to say the least. Let's just say that I wasn't expecting the one that defines me. It means that I have a LOT of studying to do....

That's fascinating, FLiz, thanks for sharing! But it got me thinking: how about other systems? Etteilla readers? Non-GD esoteric deck readers? Granted, there are few systems outside the 3 you listed, but they still do exist. What do you think?

If I had to have a go, I'd probably go with:

- purely or mostly intuitive (all kinds of 'clairs', including the instances when the meaning just 'comes' to you, more or less devoid of either what you see in images or what you know of the meanings)

- purely or mostly visual (going with what you see in the images)

- purely or mostly intellectual (analyzing the meanings of cards, suits, etc. within a more or less set framework of a given system)

There are mixes of those, of course, that could probably be shown with different combinations of cards.

Just some ideas.

Interesting notion. Did you give thought to how one would use this method if they did not use reversals? In that situation, how does the method illuminate anything at all beyond a simple, and - let's be honest - ultimately arbitrary, correspondence?

I'd offer alternatives to your card choices, too. I absolutely LOVE the Magician for the Marseilles type decks...but would offer either the Star or the Fool for intuitive readers, the Hierophant for RWS, and the Aeon (Judgement) for Thoth readers. I'd hazard a guess and suggest that most (non-intuitive) Thoth readers won't use reversals as I believe Crowley specifically wrote against doing so.

No prizes for guessing into whose camp I fall.

Tried it- first was HP and the very next card was Magician- also upright.

This reminds me of a spread on here a few months ago, which was about what type of reader are you, (as in reading style strengths, not choice of deck), and for that spread we had to count the number of cards between the 'type marker cards' as they came up to see which were strong and weak. This would work for your spread too

Wow, a lot of interesting responses!

dancing_moon said:

That's fascinating, FLiz, thanks for sharing! But it got me thinking: how about other systems? Etteilla readers? Non-GD esoteric deck readers? Granted, there are few systems outside the 3 you listed, but they still do exist. What do you think?

Click to expand...

I tried to make it as simple as I could, but obviously there is such a thing as too simple. Food for thought.

dancing_moon said:

If I had to have a go, I'd probably go with:

- purely or mostly intuitive (all kinds of 'clairs', including the instances when the meaning just 'comes' to you, more or less devoid of either what you see in images or what you know of the meanings)

- purely or mostly visual (going with what you see in the images)

Click to expand...

I more or less lumped these two types of reader into the first one. It would be interesting to sort of work on a more detailed subclassification.

dancing_moon said:

- purely or mostly intellectual (analyzing the meanings of cards, suits, etc. within a more or less set framework of a given system)

Click to expand...

Actually, now that I stop to think about it, yours is a completely different take on the subject, since you're focusing less on systems than on readers themselves. And I like it a lot. My spread is basically about systems/methods/schools, but yours is about the Reader her/himself --a step beyond. Why don't you work on it and post it? I know I'll be the first to try it.

thorhammer said:

Interesting notion. Did you give thought to how one would use this method if they did not use reversals? In that situation, how does the method illuminate anything at all beyond a simple, and - let's be honest - ultimately arbitrary, correspondence?

Click to expand...

A reader who won't read reversals would stop at the first upright card and not take into consideration the other ones. And isn't Tarot ultimately arbitrary, in the etymological sense --that is, "up to the arbiter"?

thorhammer said:

I'd offer alternatives to your card choices, too. I absolutely LOVE the Magician for the Marseilles type decks...but would offer either the Star or the Fool for intuitive readers, the Hierophant for RWS, and the Aeon (Judgement) for Thoth readers.

Click to expand...

Those are GREAT choices. I went with a Sun=reason, Moon=intuition sort of theme, but I like the Hierophant better here. Although the Hierophant can have a rigidity I don't necessarily see in RWS readers --more in some Crowleyites, paradoxically enough. (Da Beast would have a fit.)

Perhaps the Hierophant would go better with a Golden Dawn option, methinks. Which makes me think about DM's suggestion, since, although technically RWS comes from the Golden Dawn, it's not, and the majority of RWS readers have no interest in the esoteric.

earthair said:

Tried it- first was HP and the very next card was Magician- also upright.

Click to expand...

Why am I not surprised?

Technically you should have stopped at the first upright card, but in the end it's "up to the arbiter," isn't it?

My first card (I got three) was a reversed HP. Mortifying (in my head, I'm Miss Intuition ), but there you have it.

earthair said:

This reminds me of a spread on here a few months ago, which was about what type of reader are you, (as in reading style strengths, not choice of deck), and for that spread we had to count the number of cards between the 'type marker cards' as they came up to see which were strong and weak. This would work for your spread too

Click to expand...

If you can, could you please, please, PLEASE point me to it? I searched high and low and couldn't find anything like this, so I cooked up my own.

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=165340&highlight=type+reader

Here it is It's not exactly like yours but does share a similar system.

That's why I had to find out where the other cards were too!

I got the Sun, about 5 cards in, upright (well...I don't read reversed, so!) Seems I am an RWS gal

No funky surprises there!

Thanks for the little game, Flizzy!

ETA I think the Sun also shows that I can "see" which, by the way, I can! Totally able to see what is going on,as though the cards were standing around a person...and not lying on a table.

earthair said:

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=165340&highlight=type+reader

Here it is It's not exactly like yours but does share a similar system.

Click to expand...

Wow, that's a FANTASTIC spread. The focus is different, like you said --it follows Christine Jette's classification of readers, which I didn't know, and also follows a different logic than mine and dancing_moon's. I can't wait to try it.

Padma said:

I got the Sun, about 5 cards in, upright (well...I don't read reversed, so!) Seems I am an RWS gal

No funky surprises there!

Click to expand...

I was the one surprised. Trust me, I didn't expect the answer I got.

Padma said:

Thanks for the little game, Flizzy!

ETA I think the Sun also shows that I can "see" which, by the way, I can! Totally able to see what is going on,as though the cards were standing around a person...and not lying on a table.

Click to expand...

Love you right back, L!

And I like your interpretation of the Sun.

zhadee said:

Interesting idea. First card was the Empress, the forth was the Highpriestess. Both upright. The card at the bottom was the Moon.

I've used Thoth for several years, tried to learn the card's meaning but it worked best when I focused on colours, forms, and what the image reminded me of.

Click to expand...

That's interesting, zhadee, because your results both reflected your way of reading and the deck you used to read with.