Barleywine
In another thread about the "base" card, passing mention was made of the "summary card" or "quintessence." As I had never used it and was experimenting with a new 3X3 spread, I became interested in applying the idea to that in a broader way. The 3X3 spread has numerous 3-card series (three rows, three columns and two diagonals) that I use as 3-card "vignettes" for story-telling purposes in both a "past-present-future" and a "developmental focus" sense. I decided to do a numerological summary card for each sub-set, as well as for the entire sequence and, finally, for all four numerical values (rows, columns, diagonals and sequence) added together as the overall "quintessence."
This generates five cards similar to but more intrinsic to the spread than drawing a separate qualifier card in each case, since it builds on the existing draw. One card recaps the movement of the matter over time (columns summary), one rolls up the ways in which the querent can approach development of the matter on their own terms (rows summary; I provisionally named the rows "aspiration," "deliberation" and "transformation"), another captures the essence of more oblique, cross-cutting considerations (diagonals summary), the fourth one is kind of a "penultimate" closer since it reflects the entire sequence of nine cards (I actually use ten cards since I have an underlying "root of the matter" card in the center position), and the last one totals up the other four sub-values in a kind of "grand quintessence."
I've used this approach a few times and it works beautifully. By way of illustration, in one case I asked a political question about how the American middle class will fare under the next administration; the 5-card-summary series was book-ended by the Emperor reversed, which I took to mean that neither the present "Emperor" nor the next one is or will be vitally interested in the well-being of the middle class, and all three internal summary cards came up the Lovers reversed, which looked like an unraveling of union or a powerful sense of disunity to me.
I resolved the question of how to treat the court cards by using the Golden Dawn/Crowley "Tree of Life" attributions: Kings = Chokmah = 2; Queens = Binah = 3; Princes = Tiphareth = 6; and Princesses = Malkuth = 10.
I'm thinking of applying the idea to the various 3-card series in the Celtic Cross as well, although for the "staff" or "scepter" a 4-card series would be more appropriate.
Has anyone else explored use of multiple summary cards similarly in their work?
This generates five cards similar to but more intrinsic to the spread than drawing a separate qualifier card in each case, since it builds on the existing draw. One card recaps the movement of the matter over time (columns summary), one rolls up the ways in which the querent can approach development of the matter on their own terms (rows summary; I provisionally named the rows "aspiration," "deliberation" and "transformation"), another captures the essence of more oblique, cross-cutting considerations (diagonals summary), the fourth one is kind of a "penultimate" closer since it reflects the entire sequence of nine cards (I actually use ten cards since I have an underlying "root of the matter" card in the center position), and the last one totals up the other four sub-values in a kind of "grand quintessence."
I've used this approach a few times and it works beautifully. By way of illustration, in one case I asked a political question about how the American middle class will fare under the next administration; the 5-card-summary series was book-ended by the Emperor reversed, which I took to mean that neither the present "Emperor" nor the next one is or will be vitally interested in the well-being of the middle class, and all three internal summary cards came up the Lovers reversed, which looked like an unraveling of union or a powerful sense of disunity to me.
I resolved the question of how to treat the court cards by using the Golden Dawn/Crowley "Tree of Life" attributions: Kings = Chokmah = 2; Queens = Binah = 3; Princes = Tiphareth = 6; and Princesses = Malkuth = 10.
I'm thinking of applying the idea to the various 3-card series in the Celtic Cross as well, although for the "staff" or "scepter" a 4-card series would be more appropriate.
Has anyone else explored use of multiple summary cards similarly in their work?
