Aaagh, doing this was pushing me into several parallel universes! Or twisting me into a mobius strip at first, but by the end I was all straightened out
My question was "How can I reconnect with warmth?" (element of fire)--caused by the interminable cold rain here for DAYS. I had said in that first post of drawn cards that nurturing others and myself was helping me feel warmer. Both in discussion and in physical ways (took a hot bath).
So when it came to placing cards on the spread, I had no problem with the issue, but after that, I could rationalize anything for the meaning in placing the other cards. I had 5 cards in lots of different arrangements, finding logic in each of them. I finally settled on:
1. issue situation--
Moon--feeling cold and longing to connect with warmth, drawing possible plans in the sand, perhaps
2. self--
perhaps 9 wands fits this best--looking out, wanting to do something active and warming, hesitating
3. environment/surroundings--
if this is the cold rain, then maybe Knave of Pentacles for the blue skin and cold wind?
4. obstacles--here I got stuck--finally chose Magician (r) for being unable to change the weather? Powerless in one way, (but then I did something to create warmth in another way?)
5. advice--here I wanted the Magician for "do something--create warmth in new ways!" but since that's already used, I picked the Empress for "go nurture someone, feel the warmth within from giving"
6. outcome--which leaves the Devil for feeling warm--generating my own heat. But he's a mindless consumer in the process, addicted to his trees, and I'm thinking a LOT here
Could I use the "addicted" for addicting to wanting warmth in Spring?
Whichever, the Devil outcome would be warmth of a kind, which goes with the only card with obvious fire element.
To do the random throw helped take all my dithering out of the choices--and several turned out the same! or made total sense to me, compared to my trying to figure out precise arrangements. I got:
1. issue -- Moon (yes!)
2. self -- Devil -- well, if reversed, he might be cold, or blocked from taking action to get warm, perhaps?
3. environment -- Knight of Pentacles -- this goes with the blue skin and cold wind of my own choice
4. obstacles -- Magician -- again, this matched my idea of a reversal implying my powerlessness to change the weather.
5. advice -- 9 wands -- meaning "get moving!"? Stop complaining about the cold up in my hole and get out there.
6. outcome -- Empress -- feeling warmth from nurturing? Well, that was part of what happened!
This choice makes sense for the elements I saw in the cards--that fire was not in any of them in an obvious way except the Devil.
As for word associations--generally I had found associations of fuel and how it's used, power and reflections of power (moon reflecting Sun), and in all of that, there's the idea of taking what you need and doing what you need to achieve your goal (warmth, in this case).
Lunafey, what an interesting exercise! It really made me think of all the angles of each card, trying to fit each into the spread. It was a relief to have the tarot pick the cards for the second spread--and I could still think of the angles but without the ultimate decision of which one was "right."
I could just let the tarot be right, and figure out why/how. That closely relates to how I see the Cosmos, Spirit, and my free will role to make something of what I am given.
I feel I've been validated, somehow (and so many of my word associations were philosophical). Very cool how the tarot responded to my weather question in a way that gave me a philosophical puzzle to figure out.