OOTK, Opening Of The Key 1st Operation (earthair-style version!)

earthair

The version I've adapted for my own use, if anyone is interested...

I've probably made some errors, in which case I'm sure GD officionados will appear immediately to correct me :joke:

1). This spread works most easily with Thoth or a GD deck, because they have the zodiac, planetary and Mother Letters already written on the cards, but I've also used a Visconti Sforza which I wrote the symbols on!

But if you don't have Thoth or GD and don't want to write on your deck then you need to know that the majors are going to be counted like this-

0, 12, 20 - count 3 (Mother Letters)
1,2,3,10,16,19,21 - count 9 (Planets/double letters plus lunar nodes)
4,5,6,7,8,9,11,13,14,15,17,18 - count 12 (zodiacal signs)

And while I'm writing lists,

Aces- count 5 (4 elements+ spirit)
Princesses- count 7 (palaces of Malkuth)
Kings Queens Princes - count 4 (letters of Tetragrammaton)
2s-10s - count the number on the card (sephirah)

2).
The GD system says to pick a significator according to your gender and appearance, or the court which rules your sun sign... but I add the Unicursal Hexigram card to the pack and use the court card which is nearest the blue/green points. [The court under it when you're looking through piles in a minute]. This means the spread will pick a suitable significator for you and/or the question.

If using RWS then I use the court which is nearest to the Fool, on the side he's walking towards.

3). Shuffle cards. Think of your question.

4). Place pile on table face down. Imagine 4 piles in row- ABCD.
Place pack in pile A. Cut roughly in half, place top pile in C. Now cut A again, putting roughly half into B, and C again, putting half into D.

Now turn the piles face up.

GD allocate each pile to-

A - Pentacles/discs
B - Swords
C - Cups
D - Wands/batons

Take each pile in turn and locate the significator, but preserve the order of cards. Is the significator in the pile associated with the question? Or not? Are any of the top cards in agreement with the GD pile allocation? Using Elemental Dignities here is the way to read the 4 top cards, it shows the direction the reading will take.

3) Take the pile which contains your located significator. [Put the other piles away, unless a second person's significator is in another pile, and you intend to read that pile too]. Useful for couples readings.

4) Starting with top card face up, lay it to your left and form the cards, in order they are stacked, into a horseshoe shape so the final card is on your right.

Starting at your significator (counting it as the first count -that's also why aces don't count 1!!) count the cards according to those lists I wrote at the top. Then when you eventually after a few (or a lot) of cards, return to a card you have 'landed on' before, the reading is finished. In this way, the spread takes itself for a walk though some of the cards, which you interpret as you go.

If starting from a Queen or Princess, head to the right with your counting, and head left if starting at a Male court card. Or if using a RWS deck head in the direction the card is facing.

Tip- I like to pull 'landed on' cards down slightly into a inner horseshoe, so I remember if they've been landed on before.

You could theoretically form the cards into a circle if you don't intend to do the next step...

5). Then you interpret the cards in pairs, starting from opposite sides, working inwards.
 

foolMoon

OOTK

I was going to learn about this spread lately, and this post is just what I was after. Thank you.