Readings: Positions and Rules

Hello!

This is a question I've always wanted to ask and learn more about. I was taught how to read tarot at an early age. My mother and my paternal grandmother both read it. The thing is, I grew up with the Lenormand Oracle and there are a few rules and certain spreads that you should follow. I have recently devoted my time to study the Rider-Waite and be as good as I am with the Lenormand, and I've been doing okay so far but I've been doing three card spreads since forever. Past, Present, Future. Even for Yes/No questions.

I'm so into the 'rules' I've been taught that I don't feel confortable pulling, say, 6 random cards with no postions/spreads in mind. And I think that's blocking me a little, so I'd like to know how you guys do it. I know it sounds like a silly question, but I did get out of my comfort zone a few weeks ago and the results were so....inspiring and eye-opening, except I didn't know if I could trust it haha.

What makes you guys feel more at ease when pulling random cards?

I am also a third generation card reader, I come from a playing card background, I have my grandmother's 1914 playing card deck, it is under glass, I dont use it. Anyway there are so many spreads to choose from. I use to pull a lot of cards when I was younger, but now that I am older I find the fewer the cards the better. There are no rules. Find what works for you and your clients. Personally I keep it simple, three cards spreads, sometimes up to ten. Best of luck to you. Welcome to AT

PS one rule my grandmother had was no yes/no questions, she used her magic coin for those (it was an old siver dollar )

PAMUYA said:

I am also a third generation card reader, I come from a playing card background, I have my grandmother's 1914 playing card deck, it is under glass, I dont use it. Anyway there are so many spreads to choose from. I use to pull a lot of cards when I was younger, but now that I am older I find the fewer the cards the better. There are no rules. Find what works for you and your clients. Personally I keep it simple, three cards spreads, sometimes up to ten. Best of luck to you. Welcome to AT

PS one rule my grandmother had was no yes/no questions, she used her magic coin for those (it was an old siver dollar )

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That's so cool!!! My great-grandmother has this habit of predicting things with knots. She gets a rope and ties a few knots, eight at the most. They're all very loose and then she swings the rope four times and if the majority of the knots come off, then she takes it as a 'no', if the majority stay the same, she takes it as a 'yes'. It's eerily accurate as well!! I think it has a lot more to do with her intuition and coincidence, but still.

I like to keep it simple, too, but I was just so amazed by this 'no rules' things. It's very liberating. And thank you!

I don't know if this will help at all, but when I'm reading without positions, I focus more on the relationships between the cards than on the card meanings themselves. What do they have in common? With practice, you'll start seeing themes and can interpret based on those.

moon_light said:

I don't know if this will help at all, but when I'm reading without positions, I focus more on the relationships between the cards than on the card meanings themselves. What do they have in common? With practice, you'll start seeing themes and can interpret based on those.

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That's very interesting! And a pretty good idea. Like, say, the themes of love and affection that can be found in Cups and how that merges with the way Swords represent the mind and the spoken word, right?

PAMUYA said:

I am also a third generation card reader, I come from a playing card background, I have my grandmother's 1914 playing card deck, it is under glass, I dont use it. Anyway there are so many spreads to choose from. I use to pull a lot of cards when I was younger, but now that I am older I find the fewer the cards the better. There are no rules. Find what works for you and your clients. Personally I keep it simple, three cards spreads, sometimes up to ten. Best of luck to you. Welcome to AT

PS one rule my grandmother had was no yes/no questions, she used her magic coin for those (it was an old siver dollar )

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very cool, Pamuya, that you have your grandmothers 1914 playing card deck!

Welcome, maiadsandthewater, to A.T. I am also a card reader from a very long line of card readers and diviners. I prefer 3 card readings myself when I give them--and if it calls for more, I continue to just lay out 3 cards until I 'know' the reading is done. I don't assign any particular meaning to the 3 cards--save this rule--the first card is always for or represents the client asking the question. I don't do yes or no questions either, so if I do get a yes or no question--I work with my client to re-word it.

I follow the 'rules' loosely as layed out in this thread here:
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=81444

Don't be intimidated by the length of this thread, but do take your time to read through it and try it for yourself. It may make sense to you and be something you want to try out for yourself. If it doesn't resonate with you--perhaps just throwing out 3 cards and read them like that w/o assigning any rules to the positions. Its all about what you are comfortable with.

naiadsandthewater said:

That's so cool!!! My great-grandmother has this habit of predicting things with knots. She gets a rope and ties a few knots, eight at the most. They're all very loose and then she swings the rope four times and if the majority of the knots come off, then she takes it as a 'no', if the majority stay the same, she takes it as a 'yes'. It's eerily accurate as well!! I think it has a lot more to do with her intuition and coincidence, but still.

I like to keep it simple, too, but I was just so amazed by this 'no rules' things. It's very liberating. And thank you!

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wow, naiadsandthewater. that is cool what your great grandmother did! I've never heard of that before. My maternal side use to take something - an article of clothing or a picture of a person they wanted to or needed to hear from and close it in the door jam to ensure they'd hear from them. It always seemed to work. After doing this, they'd hear from the party within a few hours.

Personally, I actually don't read without spread positions. I like structure in my readings, in part because I think it helps to look at the balance of certain suits and numbers between various positions in a spread. If you're doing a relationship spread, and you see a predominance of coins in one half (representing the querent) and a predominance of cups in the other (the partner), that can be meaningful--but not so if the cards don't have spread positions. I've always found the no-rules model of reading too messy for my taste.

However, that said, I will generally improvise spreads to best fit my querent's question. I think about what kinds of insights might be necessary, how many cards I should pull, and then an aesthetic way to present them. If you're not comfortable doing this, I would say that it might be helpful to investigate some of the smaller spreads on the AT database aside from the past-present-future model, just to broaden the parameters of what you're comfortable doing.

But, of course, lots of people read without spreads, and it works very well for them. It's really just a question of what you're most comfortable with.

I'm not a fan of winging it without structure either, but when I do, I place each individual card within it's own bespoke pre-considered question or context as I go, or pick from standard positions of CC in the order you need them. Otherwise it's a bunch of answers without questions...