spread on a recurring card

Hi all!

I'd appreciate suggestions about, reactions to this informal spread I made up in the midst of a series of repeated readings -- basically the same situation changing over time and its various aspects, all for the same querent. Several cards kept turning up so insistently that I felt I needed more information about why. Here's how it looks:

****5****
4*******6
****1****
3*******7
****2****

1, at the center, is the recurring card in question. In my particular series of throws, the Moon kept showing up, usually as card 6 or 7 in CC (RWS), and I got frustrated mushing around with meanings like mysteries, what is unknown, the unconscious rising up, the past, etc., and wanted to know what was up with the Moon for this particular person in this context. So I put it down in the center and pretty much without thinking made a vaguely CC halo around it, sort of in the shape of wreath around the RWS' World. I didn't pin down the position meanings very tightly -- 2 is sort of what's underneath, 5 is what the person knows or wants with regard to the card's issues, 3 and 4 are where this is coming from or what in the past affects it , 6 and 7 are what's to come or what will flow from it.

I found this very helpful in clarifying what "went into" or "surrounded" the Moon for this person. I've tried it since on a couple of other repeating cards, and felt that it helped with them, too.

Does anyone else do anything like this with a card that seems especially significant (but opaque)? Thoughts or comments? My feeling is that us bumbling, non-clairvoyant readers need all the help we can get in digging out the significance of the individual cards. Yes?

Namaste, renard

AAH, the MOON

before seeing your layout I envisioned the card in questioned i the center, but I only used 4 cards.
(s)1. negitive influences
(w)2. past
3. positive influences
(e)4. future
Did you do a reading? how did it turn out?

Ah, Renard, great idea, thank you!

I've had the King of Swords turn up in every daily (3-card) spread I've done for myself for the last week.

Before that, the Princess of Wands was constantly all over the place....

I'm going to try it for a while, see how the surrounding meanings work out.
I'll let you know how it works for me!

Hedera (printing out spread)

(Edited to add:.... finding printer cartridge is empty, despite recent refill..... Cursing softly, resigning herself to buying new cartridge tomorrow, copying the spread by hand....)


Btw, it also occurred to me you could use this spread to get insight into a regular problem: you could pick out a card that you feel represents the problem to put in the no. 1 spot, then shuffle and put the other cards around the first in the regular way.

Hedera--

LOL about your printer - oh, I've been there.

I HATE the K of sw -- he always seems to mean frustration, "no", some imovable obstacle or person in my way. I often do not know who the person is -- who, for example, is tossing my job application -- but he (or she) is there, tight-mouthed, dried up, with mind fixed. But, hey, don't get me going about that guy. Good luck in your dealings with him.

Lunalafey--

I made the spread a seven - carder instinctively, I guess, because I wanted as much information as possible and didn't want to assign exact meanings to each position -- I wanted to create a sort of cloud around the card in question.

Here's the spread about the moon that I did (RWS):

****king C****
3c**********H Man
****moon*****
8sw*********8 w
****7 sw*****

This did jibe closely with some things I know about this person, and cast some moonlight (so to speak) on how those things fit together.

7sw -- lots of personally dishonest behavior in the past (mostly fooling around behind people's backs) for which he is now intensely sorry. He's reformed at long last and often mentions his wicked past -- it seems to really haunt him, and he has trouble forgiving himself (which he knows he must do). Also, he killed people in Nam when he was just a kid. (Enlisted at 17)

8sw -- wandering around blind in the past. Also, worry about vulnerable women. See above.

3c -- he's never been a mean person, didn't set out to hurt anyone, wasn't a sexual predator -- in his naughty days he had many, many great times which are, for the present, over.

King C -- what's on his mind now -- being a great dad and generally helping make the world better. Kindness and concern. But some tippiness and uncertainty about sustaining this role. The King is in the middle of the sloshing sea, while the thief in 7sw has his feet on the ground and looks like he's having fun.

Hanged Man -- Changed perspective, waiting for something to happen, self-sacrifice, helplessness, willed passivity. Trying to be good. (This guy also gets Temperance and Strength a lot lately.)

8w -- the energy and impulsiveness are still there -- has to put himself in a H Man sort of position to keep that bottled up, to keep thoughts from becoming action (wands striking the ground). Interesting, since he often says that he just doesn't have the energy for illicit stuff any more. The cards beg to differ.

So. MY theory is that these contradictions and regrets and desires create so much strain that he needs to keep them out of sight. This helps explain, I think, why "the underneath" -- the moon -- is so strong in his life. (Also, BTW, his moon is in cancer in the 8th house.) yowza!

Namaste, and thanks for your insights! renard

renard, This spread is absolutely wonderful! I don't really have recurring cards when I use my tarot cards, but when I use my Faeries' Oracle (Froud), I have recurring cards all over the place! I used the spread last night on a card that kept popping up over the last 3 months for my daily draw. It was very helpful! Thank you so much.

Please post more spreads if you dream any more up.

Found Card

I used this spred to work out the meaning of a card that I had found on the street. I was very impressed with it. I may use it again in the future. I put the found card in the first position, and did the rest as you had written.

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=74448 (To see it in action...kind-of.)