Seeing Infidelity in the Cards

I had a querent ask me if I could tell if their partner was cheating on them. Ethically, I don't believe I should determine if an absent third party is cheating or not. However, I was wondering how would one read infidelity in the cards anyway (for instance if the querent is cheat themselves).

Are there particular signs that could indicate this? Are there certain cards or their reversals that you sometimes associate with cheating? Or would a peculiar ratio of court cards in a spread? What if the spread has assigned positions but still have a high number of court cards in a person's positions? Are there card combos that would/could indicate cheating?

A lot will depend on the imagery in your particular deck.

The first thing that comes to mind is the TdM Lovers card where a young man has to choose between two women. Originally it had to do with a blonde (intellectual) and a brunette (sensual) but it could be seen as accepting one female (or male, depending on your Querent) and rejecting another.

In my first ever reading as a paid reader the Two Cups card came up - but in the Reed 'Witches Tarot' the card is a man at the bottom of a waterfall looking up at a woman at the top of the waterfall, running from him with Two Cups in her hands - which I interpreted as she was leading him on (and yes - she was having an affair).

Just some thoughts ....

The 3's can be associated with affairs as well..... the 7 of swords around a 3 can be some behind the back behavior involving another person (particularly 3 of cups reversed-or upright for that matter). THIS IS Looking at RWS....
As Tarotbear suggests.. the imagery really does matter from one deck to another

another reader once told me she saw the 8 of cups as (sneaking off)... but it depends what else is in the reading.. I personally never felt that with the 8 of cups...

Dara said:

I had a querent ask me if I could tell if their partner was cheating on them. Ethically, I don't believe I should determine if an absent third party is cheating or not. However, I was wondering how would one read infidelity in the cards anyway (for instance if the querent is cheat themselves).

Are there particular signs that could indicate this? Are there certain cards or their reversals that you sometimes associate with cheating? Or would a peculiar ratio of court cards in a spread? What if the spread has assigned positions but still have a high number of court cards in a person's positions? Are there card combos that would/could indicate cheating?

Click to expand...

For me, either the Three of Pentacles (an extra person who doesn't belong in the partnership) or the Six of Pentacles (someone giving the wrong person his or her attention). If both are present in a spread, then my antenna really goes up.

In addition, if the cards are positioned such that, for example, a male court card that seems to represent the querent's partner is obviously gazing towards a female court card that seems to represent the "other woman," that is not a good sign either, especially if the Ace of Pentacles or Eight of Pentacles comes up in the same spread.

Also in only this case, The Hierophant for a partner who says, "Honest, I'm being totally truthful, I didn't even look at that person," but is lying. For any other question, I see The Hierophant as a knowledgeble, trustworthy source of information, or a direct connecton to Spirit, but in this one case he just looks sneaky and insincere.

It's always a judgment call on your part in any case. With this question, I always tell my querent that all I can see with the cards is whether their partner has a tendency to be interested in other people, I cannot say whether there has been actual physical cheating or not.

Dara said:

I had a querent ask me if I could tell if their partner was cheating on them. Ethically, I don't believe I should determine if an absent third party is cheating or not. However, I was wondering how would one read infidelity in the cards anyway (for instance if the querent is cheat themselves).

Are there particular signs that could indicate this?

Click to expand...

I have a particular spread that I use when clients don't choose to tell me what's on their mind.

I find that if the feel of the cards is markedly different between the "home and family" column and the "relationship" column, say, one is sunny and peaceful and the other is stormy, that's often an indication that the client is seeing more than one person (I don't like the word cheating).

Thanks everybody.