What do I need to know?

I'm looking for a quick spread, 3 or 5 cards, that I can use fairly frequently. It's for use with the Hallowquest deck, which I find tends to have a mind of its own, and doesn't seem to respond very well to being asked specific questions. So I'm trying to formulate a very general question so it can tell me about whatever it thinks is important. Basically, a "what do I need to know?" spread.

Of course arguably having any specific spread structure will defeat the point of the cards freely saying what they want but, I'm still working on developing my intuition, so I'd feel happier having at least a loose basic structure in mind for the cards. This is what I have in mind so far; I haven't tried it yet, as I'm not fully satisfied with it, particularly with the 3rd position.

1. What do I need to know?
An important influence on my life that I am not aware of (or not paying enough attention to) .

2. What do I need to do?
An action I need to take (may or may not be related to the knowledge revealed in pos. 1).

3. What will be the effect?
...fairly self-explanatory, I think.

Any suggestions for improvements? I'm thinking of just cutting it down to the first 2 cards (I'm not sure I really need an "outcome" card, I'd rather concentrate on getting advice!); but for some reason I like odd numbers of cards, especially in smaller spreads...

Oriana, hi and welcome to ATF

Oriana said:

Any suggestions for improvements? I'm thinking of just cutting it down to the first 2 cards (I'm not sure I really need an "outcome" card, I'd rather concentrate on getting advice!); but for some reason I like odd numbers of cards, especially in smaller spreads...

Click to expand...

I think I'll use this tonight or sometime this weekend. I want something really simple and short right now. As I was thinking about this spread and it's questions, I thought that I'd probably add the following:

(4) "What will happen if I continue as I have been?"

(5) "Give me another alternative to question 2 - What do I need to do?

The reason being that sometimes we either don't understand the advice given or have a hard time with it for whatever reason. Question (4) poses some interesting possibilites for the cards to deal with, I think. For instance, what if continuing to do things the same way will yield results, but, rather slowly. I mean what if "you'll get there this way" but, not quickly or with more difficulty. What if "continuing the same way" will produce harmful or negative possibilities?

Then, (5) gives the cards a chance to make another suggestion, which could also be interesting. What if another card chosen for position (5) is really confirming card 2. Whoa! That would be rather hard to ignore. On the other hand, one might actually get a different approach that will help them achieve their goal, etc.

Also, I'm going to do this in a specific way and then in a "just talk to me" general way. In other words, (specific) "What do I need to know about xyz? (situation, person, etc.) General - "What do I need to know?" (about whatever you want to tell me about).

What do you think, Oriana? I'm going to do your spread including 4 & 5.

Thanks.

TL2

I like those suggestions! Especially #4 - since I have a bad habit of seeking advice, and then neglecting to follow it; card #4 might help give me the incentive I need to act on the advice I'm given! Yes, definitely better with two "potential outcome" cards showing you a choice of paths, as it were.

And having two potential spaces for advice, either to reinforce the original or to suggest an alternative, is also a good idea. (Especially for when you're completely confused about what the first card was trying to tell you... which I find is the case a little too often!)

Thank you most kindly, TL2 I hope the spread yields some good results for you.

Oriana