Basic concepts/principles behind the meanings

One day a few months ago, as an exercise while waiting for a bus, I began going through all 36 cards in my mind to see if I could reduce each one to a basic energy pattern.

I got the idea of basic energy patterns from Stephen Arroyo, who in his Chart Interpretation Handbook presents basic energy patterns for planets and signs.

I'm not suggesting that these patterns could serve by themselves as meanings to be used in readings. But I was fascinated by how many cards could easily be reduced to such patterns.

For example:

Child: obviously a small, new pattern, perhaps visualized as a young solar system, with exuberant but uncontrolled energy and lots of potential.

Tower: a pattern that's established and set in its ways, and which influences other energies around it to follow its example, establishing a conforming and self-perpetuating behavior.

Fish: a liquid-like energy of no set pattern which shifts and exchanges itself easily. I imagine a bunch of balloons whose necks are attached, so that when you squeeze one balloon, the others grow correspondingly.

Again, I don't think this would work as one's sole basis for meanings, but it might be interesting to keep them in mind as sort of a hook to hang more particular meanings on.

One card that I couldn't come up with an energy pattern for was Letter, whose mundane meaning (text) seems inescapable.

I'd be curious to see what energy patterns we might come up with for the cards.

Here's a reading I did for myself last night which gives an example of what I'm getting at.

I asked, "How will my job go on Monday?" As background, I'm a court reporter, which means I use a stenotype machine to take down testimony in legal proceedings and produce verbatim transcripts. To do so I must write down what people are saying as fast as they say it, with zero room for error. It's a highly demanding job, requiring much focus and technical skill. In the last few years I've been working to refine my stenotype writing so as to be able to write more quickly on the machine.

Here are the cards I got:

10 Scythe + 27 Letter + 17 Stork + 16 Star + 36 Cross




I stared at these cards in dismay, because I couldn't make any sense of them at all in the context of the question. My question didn't involve any sudden decisions, quick endings, or sharp tools (Scythe), no incoming messages (Letter), and the final card lends an atmosphere of doom and gloom to the whole reading.

My problem was that I was using too narrow a perspective, letting keywords and card images restrict the range of meanings.

As I sat and ruminated over the cards, I noticed the Stork and decided it could suggest my efforts to improve my steno writing.

After that, it immediately occurred to me that the Letter might mean my steno writing itself, which after all is a kind of text. From there I was able to make the big leap -- Scythe can be "fast action"! So now we have:

Scythe+Letter+Stork = fast-writing-improvement, or improved ability to write fast.

Furthermore, the swinging action of the Scythe echoes the upward and downward motions of my hands as I write on the machine. More importantly, the quick, decisive action of the Scythe echoes the instantaneous, hesitation-free speed with which I need to stroke the keys in order to keep up with people's speech.

From there, I was able to easily finish out the reading:

Star+Cross = provides inspiration to help me deal with the burdens of the job.

So: The improvement in my writing speed will give me the inspiration necessary to help endure the burdens of the job.

My interpretation of the final three cards is pretty straightforward, but I feel that it was my ability to see the first two cards (Scythe+Letter) in a different light that enabled me to crack the reading. I think the important factor here was seeing the first two cards in terms of basic principles -- "fast" for Scythe, "symbols" for Letter -- that allowed me to apply them to my situation in highly individualistic ways that are still (in my opinion) true to the traditional meanings.

In terms of combining methods, it seems to me that I've combined the first two cards (Scythe+Letter) into one subject, then the Stork is a modifier for that subject; then Stars and Cross are read with forward narration.

That's a fascinating idea, Lee! I've been giving it a thought, and it makes sense to me. It needs more musing, though.

For me, the energy of Letter is sort of contrasted to that of the Book: Book = thick, heavy, thoroughly researched, slow to write and understand, mysterious, requiring knowledge to decipher; Letter = thin/flat, light, spur-of-the-moment, fast to write and understand, clear, superficial. Of course, these are not divination meanings but rather some keywords to express the 'feel' of these cards.

dancing_moon said:

For me, the energy of Letter is sort of contrasted to that of the Book: Book = thick, heavy, thoroughly researched, slow to write and understand, mysterious, requiring knowledge to decipher; Letter = thin/flat, light, spur-of-the-moment, fast to write and understand, clear, superficial. Of course, these are not divination meanings but rather some keywords to express the 'feel' of these cards.

Click to expand...

Excellent! I really like that comparison/distinction between the Letter and the Book, I'm going to remember that.