Which comes first, chicken or egg?

well not exactly the chicken and egg senario, but what comes first when reading the GT using the house method.

If a card is in a house in a GT does the house or the card come first?

so if clover is in the house of the scythe , is it Clover+scythe, or Scythe+clover? Which controls which?

I don't use houses, so I wouldn't know. Seems to be part of the Trepner / German method for the GT, which I am not familiar with. However, I've met quitea few Trepner enthusiasts on another site.

What you might find interesting, is that someone had asked about their relationship and both my and theTrepner methods turned out very accurate, so I don't think it matters so much.

Here's the link to the discussion: http://cartomancy.darkbb.com/t4192-cheating#36627 in question.

Not sure why the Trepners are no longer on here, but back in the day there was some conflicts between schools of thought and the people with other methods went up and went elsewhere... Something that I hope we'll fix with time...

I don't use houses either because I find them limiting and ultimative, but intially I was taught the houses method (by Gypsy people), it's popular in South Europe and very popular in Russia. In my experience, and the way I was taught, nothing comes first - the card in a particular house has a particular meaning, it's not completely different from the regular meaning but it just means something particular. I don't know the Treppner method, I've only had a peek from time to time.

I use a "GT-like" spread with playing cards and to my experience, the house controls (comes first) and the card in the house defines it(comes second). Just like grammar. Think of phrasal verbs. "Cut" is the main action(house-scythe in your example) and "out" the preposition(the card inside the house-clover in your example) which gives a nuance in the main theme.

I like to think of the House as the undercurrent of the card it's sitting in. I like to think of it as a present influence that doesn't physically manifest. And I tend to only consider it if I'm stuck on the card + the cards around it.

thank you to everyone, it does help when i read your answers. I also brought the Psy.cards which is helping me understand the lenormand and vice versa

In the Treppner method, the house position comes first, and the card from the current layout combines with it, i.e. Scythe in your grand tableau is the "template card" and Clover falls within its sphere of influence. Speaking figuratively, Scythe thus represents the left-hand card, and Clover the right: Scythe + Clover.