The Friendship Insight Spread

afrosaxon

I really liked this spread! It was pretty dead on.

My only nitpick: for position 9, you ask "What is this friendship lacking?", but nowhere in the spread does it ask where the friendship may be abundant (or rather, what quality in the friendship makes it a good one). Especially since questions 4 and 5 are about likes and dislikes regarding the friend(ship).

Does this make sense?

T.
 

rwcarter

afrosaxon said:
I really liked this spread! It was pretty dead on.

My only nitpick: for position 9, you ask "What is this friendship lacking?", but nowhere in the spread does it ask where the friendship may be abundant (or rather, what quality in the friendship makes it a good one). Especially since questions 4 and 5 are about likes and dislikes regarding the friend(ship).

Does this make sense?

T.
Hey T,

That makes perfect sense to me. It's about balance. If one looks at the negative, then one should also look at the positive to keep things in balance. 10 could become the abundance position and then 11 would be the lesson. That position could go either right above 10 or above and equidistant between 8 and 10.

---------------------11
------8--------------10
------7---------------9
2------------3---------
------1----------------
4------------5---------
------6----------------

or

-------------11--------
------8--------------10
------7---------------9
2------------3---------
------1----------------
4------------5---------
------6----------------

I think I prefer the first one.

Rodney
 

.traveller.

rwcarter said:
It's not my spread, but from how I read those positions, I'd say not necessarily.

7. What my friend wants from me.
8. What my friend would prefer to happen in our friendship


There might be a congruence or repetition in the two answers in a case where one friend harbors romantic inclinations toward the other friend. In the case of a troubled friendship, there might be a contradiction if the friend doesn't know what they want or if there's a difference between their words and actions, for instance. In the case of a friend with a drug or alcohol problem that they're in denial about, one position might show that they want you to butt out of their life while the other position shows that deep down they really do want your help but can't bring themselves to ask for it.

Rodney

Thanks Rodney! I just saw this. I'm still struggling with my results but I guess the key is not to overthink it and accept the contradiction for what it is.

~
About the lack/abundance issue, I'm not sure it is necessary to address abundance specifically. Certainly one would know what they are getting out of a relationship? A lack of understanding would lead to an abundance of assumptions, perhaps one position can point to both sides of the coin.
 

rwcarter

So I've done this spread from both the friend's perspective and from my perspective and I got some interesting (in a good way) answers. One thing I found interesting was that three of the same cards from the same deck came up in both readings and of course had completely different interpretations. (I used a combined deck of the Universal Tarot and Tarot of a New Vision.) In the reading I did from my perspective, I ended up having 11 cards because I had a straggler from my shuffling process. I didn't read it as what quality makes the friendship a good one, but instead read it as additional info I needed to be aware of.

I'll definitely be using this spread again if given the opportunity.

Rodney
 

enchanted_dreams

afrosaxon said:
I really liked this spread! It was pretty dead on.

My only nitpick: for position 9, you ask "What is this friendship lacking?", but nowhere in the spread does it ask where the friendship may be abundant (or rather, what quality in the friendship makes it a good one). Especially since questions 4 and 5 are about likes and dislikes regarding the friend(ship).

Does this make sense?

T.

Hi,

I usually don't try to state the obvious when it comes to the tarot. Hopefully, it should be obvious as to where the friendship is abundant without consulting the tarot. I don't like to beg the question with positions like "how do I see my friend" or "what good things does my friend bring to my life". Hopefully one has enough self-awareness to know this; and "where our friendship is abundant" doesn't seem to be all that necessary. But if you feel the need to have this included in the spread, than of course nothing is stopping you from adding it in when you do the spread for yourself.

Best wishes
 

rwcarter

enchanted_dreams said:
Hopefully, it should be obvious as to where the friendship is abundant without consulting the tarot.
Not necessarily. If one is focused on the negative where the friendship is concerned, one might be overlooking where there is an abundance and need a reminder of that fact.

Say you have a friend who always complains about everything whenever you see them. You might have forgotten that the two of you used to have fun together or that the friend regularly made you laugh or was there for you when you really needed a friend. A position of where the friendship is abundant could bring that to light in a way that none of the other positions would.
 

enchanted_dreams

rwcarter said:
Not necessarily. If one is focused on the negative where the friendship is concerned, one might be overlooking where there is an abundance and need a reminder of that fact.

Say you have a friend who always complains about everything whenever you see them. You might have forgotten that the two of you used to have fun together or that the friend regularly made you laugh or was there for you when you really needed a friend. A position of where the friendship is abundant could bring that to light in a way that none of the other positions would.

Hi,

I see your point. But in the situation you described, if you had a friend like this, in the present circumstances there wouldn't be that much abundance. In the past the friendship was abundant, but if your friend is complaining endlessly and causing rifts in the relationship, then it doesn't seem to be very positive. I don't know if the Tarot would have a card symbolic of a past status (that no longer exists) turn up in the position for where a friendship is abundant in the present...seeing as how the happiness seems to be in the past, not the present.

But I see now that for clarification purposes, if one would like to have a position of the friendship's present abundance then it would make sense. I feel it should be highly optional though...

Best Wishes