Barleywine
Note: I figured the subject matter and the target audience made this a better fit here than in Tarot Spreads.
I've always been fascinated with the vision of Adam Kadmon (the "Heavenly Man") standing within the Tree of Life looking out, such that his right arm (strong arm, sword arm) aligns with the Pillar of Severity, and his left arm (weak arm, shield arm) aligns with the Pillar of Mercy. I've also been thinking of creating a tarot spread based on this idea without slavishly following the standard Tree of Life layout. The attached spread and supporting system diagrams are the result. The spread has a central column showing the "heart" of the querent's mental/egoic/emotional exposure to the situation; I intend to use a Significator here, so the first ("covering") card reflects the environment of the question; position 2 is the subconsious/unconscious orientation to the matter (past experiences, memories, emotional baggage, etc.); and position 3 is the conscious orientation (aspirations, insights, creative imagination, etc.)
The left side ("Adam's right arm") is the "active" self-assertive extension of the querent's experience of the matter as it unfolds, and the right side ("Adam's left arm") is the "passive" self-protective extension. I stayed with the Golden Dawn major arcana associations (including Strength and Justice) but didn't keep to the sephirotic pillar arrangement in that I placed most of the balanced, even-numbered cards in the "positive" outcome train ("right arm," cards 4, 6, 8, 10, 11 and 12) and most of the unbalanced, odd-numbered cards in the "left arm" negative outcome train (speaking strictly from a numerological, astrological and elemental polarity standpoint); cards 5, 7, 9, 13, 14 and 15. So Jupiter and Mercury-related cards dominate the "positive" column, while Saturn and Mars associations permeate the "negative" one. (An alternate name for this one might be the "Hold 'em or Fold 'em" spread.)
The bottom three positions (cards 2, 8 and 9) form a "pedestal" that is intended to show the underlying foundation of the matter; note that this "Adam" seems to have "feet of clay" in that all of the cards are associated with Earth and Water. The "right foot" would show a "best foot forward" scenario (and I assigned it the more favorable Tens) while the "left foot" shows a possible "false step" (typified by the more challenging Tens).
Many of the positions have sympathetic pairs of trump cards and a population of court and minor cards that express the core philosophy behind the position. The idea is that the reading cards that fall in each of the positions would take on some of the qualities of the "anchor" cards that underlie them in the model (partially shown in the attached photo and fully detailed in the related diagrams).
The spread proper really has only 9 major positions; position 6 shows the immediate advantage to be gained from taking an active, logical stance when dealing with the situation, while positions 10, 11 and 12 provide an elaboration of the longer-term consequences. Positions 7, 13, 14 and 15 offer the same kind of observations for the more intuitive, "passive" orientation. The spread could certainly be read without the additional testimony. The "right arm" would thus show the best result achievable through head-on engagement, while the "left arm" is more cautionary and defensive in tone.
I decided to leave the Trump XXI (World) position out of the arrangement and populate it via the "quintessence" calculation; I did this because there is only one World card and two possible outcome trains, and as a "final outcome" card it should really be available to both. In the "model spread" photo I show it at the top for convenience only.
Aside from any philosophical objections you may have, let me know if you see any errors in correlation between this and the GD paradigm.
I've always been fascinated with the vision of Adam Kadmon (the "Heavenly Man") standing within the Tree of Life looking out, such that his right arm (strong arm, sword arm) aligns with the Pillar of Severity, and his left arm (weak arm, shield arm) aligns with the Pillar of Mercy. I've also been thinking of creating a tarot spread based on this idea without slavishly following the standard Tree of Life layout. The attached spread and supporting system diagrams are the result. The spread has a central column showing the "heart" of the querent's mental/egoic/emotional exposure to the situation; I intend to use a Significator here, so the first ("covering") card reflects the environment of the question; position 2 is the subconsious/unconscious orientation to the matter (past experiences, memories, emotional baggage, etc.); and position 3 is the conscious orientation (aspirations, insights, creative imagination, etc.)
The left side ("Adam's right arm") is the "active" self-assertive extension of the querent's experience of the matter as it unfolds, and the right side ("Adam's left arm") is the "passive" self-protective extension. I stayed with the Golden Dawn major arcana associations (including Strength and Justice) but didn't keep to the sephirotic pillar arrangement in that I placed most of the balanced, even-numbered cards in the "positive" outcome train ("right arm," cards 4, 6, 8, 10, 11 and 12) and most of the unbalanced, odd-numbered cards in the "left arm" negative outcome train (speaking strictly from a numerological, astrological and elemental polarity standpoint); cards 5, 7, 9, 13, 14 and 15. So Jupiter and Mercury-related cards dominate the "positive" column, while Saturn and Mars associations permeate the "negative" one. (An alternate name for this one might be the "Hold 'em or Fold 'em" spread.)
The bottom three positions (cards 2, 8 and 9) form a "pedestal" that is intended to show the underlying foundation of the matter; note that this "Adam" seems to have "feet of clay" in that all of the cards are associated with Earth and Water. The "right foot" would show a "best foot forward" scenario (and I assigned it the more favorable Tens) while the "left foot" shows a possible "false step" (typified by the more challenging Tens).
Many of the positions have sympathetic pairs of trump cards and a population of court and minor cards that express the core philosophy behind the position. The idea is that the reading cards that fall in each of the positions would take on some of the qualities of the "anchor" cards that underlie them in the model (partially shown in the attached photo and fully detailed in the related diagrams).
The spread proper really has only 9 major positions; position 6 shows the immediate advantage to be gained from taking an active, logical stance when dealing with the situation, while positions 10, 11 and 12 provide an elaboration of the longer-term consequences. Positions 7, 13, 14 and 15 offer the same kind of observations for the more intuitive, "passive" orientation. The spread could certainly be read without the additional testimony. The "right arm" would thus show the best result achievable through head-on engagement, while the "left arm" is more cautionary and defensive in tone.
I decided to leave the Trump XXI (World) position out of the arrangement and populate it via the "quintessence" calculation; I did this because there is only one World card and two possible outcome trains, and as a "final outcome" card it should really be available to both. In the "model spread" photo I show it at the top for convenience only.
Aside from any philosophical objections you may have, let me know if you see any errors in correlation between this and the GD paradigm.