elements
I use the 15 card spread and break the elements down to
wands cups swords pentacles
fire water air earth
Trumps are the element known as Spirit, your Soul - the Spark Of Life, your soul as represented by its journey through all the Major Arcana cards
The 22 MAJOR CARDS are known as Trump cards. Short for triumph, if you master the lessons that they represent.
Looking at all the elements Fire, Earth, Air ,Water and Spirit these are the elements that all the universe and life are made up of.
In a reading we look at the patterns of energy of the overall spread
15 card reading represents a 12 month cycle. the elemental breakdown in a reading shows the sub cycle of the energy the person has to deal with over a twelve month period.
Subltle influences Normal future
Present
Past External Energies
The past flows to the present and creates the future
Subltle influences acts as either a Alternative future or a subltle ongoing influence
External Energies is pretty much Beyond control, environmental, external events
The pattern of energyof the overalll reading,
the elements
the cards
puts together a really good picture of what is going on in a persons life.
example
Example of a possible fifteen card elemental breakdown.
6 Trumps ............ Element Spirit
0 Cups ........ .... Element Water
4 Swords ......... ... Element Air
3 Wands ......... .. Element Fire
2 Pentacles...... .... Element Earth
--
15 Cards In Total
The elements can actually tie a reading together
Always add them up to make sure you haven't missed any. As you notice, in the example, the distribution is well balanced except in cups where we have none. So the person is gearing up for major changes (6 Trumps), has reasonable practicality (2 Pentacles), good intellectual ability (4 Swords), plenty of motivation and action (3 Wands).If the question was regarding decisions to be made, then it would be excellent, but notice the lack of cups.
This can indicate that the person needs to look to this area to bring it back to a balanced state. (0) Cups means emotional suppression and a lack of love expressed. This does not mean that the person is unemotional nor does it mean that they do not have any feelings, but simply shows the trend over the coming months would be to avoid getting in contact with their emotions and relationships with people. You could talk about this with the person and gently work out a strategy that will guide them back to expressing there feelings in relationships when they are ready.
All this information is gained before the actual reading has begun and can show underlying factors that may not obviously be apparent. Always let the cards show you HOW, WHY, WHERE AND WHEN.
Court Cards
The court cards as we know represent people, in ancient days they were assigned this way;
King = Man
Queen = Woman
Knight = Young Man
Page = Children Of Either Sex
Now that was during the dark ages when most people lived to about 30 and young women were married off early in life. There was no grouping of cards to represent young women.
In our modern world where we live much longer and where either sex has equal importance, the assigned designation is as follows;
King = Man
Queen = Woman
Knight = Teenage Boy
Page = Teenage Girl
When no teenage boys or girls are present then pages can represent children under the age of 13 of either sex.
Thoth cards are NEVER mean't to be read upsidedown
the keywords "lock" the card, so you have to look at patterns of energy within the spread.
matfav
