Just a different model, one I learned from Eden Gray's books back in 1972 and have elaborated on ever since. Not a "need" just a variation. I don't believe Gray ever explained why she felt a "need to separate" hopes and fears into two positions, but I'm probably wrong and will have to go look. By the logic you've given, I see "fears" as better positioned low on the "staff" than in the more exalted spot up high. It's why I call the lower position "the deepest part of the Self" (rather than just the "Self" or "himself" per Waite), and the "psychic basement" where emotional "baggage" accumulates. By the same token, many people use Waite's "sign of the cross" model without really thinking too much about it. I try to get "under the hood" more.
I rarely know where ideas come from - didn't know, for example, that one approach was Gray's and the other Waite's - and looking at the wheel part (as I too think of it) as a papal blessing finally shows me why people lay the cards that order; as earthair says, it made no sense to defy gravity and left/right logic.
I'm not sure I agree with you about fears being lower than hopes. Hopes can be deep in the unconscious, and fears can be entirely conscious. Sometimes emotional baggage manifests as hopes... but I see your point about fears lying lower than hopes. Just need to decide if I really think they ARE lower.
I prefer to get under the hood, too... usually if something strikes me as anti-intuitive, I seek a way of understanding it that makes sense of it. That's probably why I stopped to consider how hopes and fears can be expressed by a single card, rather than rejecting the idea and modifying that position for myself. But faced with two schools of thought, I use intuition to decide, or more often find a third (and fourth and fifth) option come to me - which rarely happens at the earlier stage of study, when I've only come across one way.
I don't think they're the same thing at all, which is why they're so useful as 2 different cards for me. Therefore I can see why, when a person thinks they are two sides of the same coin, they would need only 1 card! But...just for an experiment, why not try 2 cards in the next CC you do- first is hopes, second is fears. You have nothing to lose
I was already thinking of doing just that!
I'm not all that experienced with the CC. And I'll never reject an approach without a fair trial!
So far I've done mainly general questions with it, because I'm practising and can never think of a question for myself. Since people here are saying it's much better with a question, I'll have to think some up!
I've never understood how some versions have positions defying gravity and the natural progression of left to right!
