9-card spreads (split from Trying my hand at a nine card spread)

Does anyone else read in columns with past, present, future as I do? Would it be better to
read the cards vertically and horizontally just as they are without designation?

Nine card spreads confuse me.

I frequently use 9 card and 3 card spreads. I view the 9 pattern in this way:

I do not make lines for past/present/future.

The lines are only read horizontally.

Each of the 3 lines is a complete sentence in itself.

Each of the 3 lines is a commentary on the question asked.

The 3 lines put together make a complete story.

This is how I do it, and it works. Others have very different methods and I am certain that their methods work for them.

Izzydunne said:

I frequently use 9 card and 3 card spreads. I view the 9 pattern in this way:

I do not make lines for past/present/future.

The lines are only read horizontally.

Each of the 3 lines is a complete sentence in itself.

Each of the 3 lines is a commentary on the question asked.

The 3 lines put together make a complete story.

This is how I do it, and it works. Others have very different methods and I am certain that their methods work for them.

Click to expand...

Rana George uses the P/P/F vertical columns along with also reading horizontal columns as Concern/Situation/Undercurrent. Neither of those resonate with me, but I though I'd give it a chance.

[Moderator's note: Posts dealing with Village Witch's 9-card reading have been moved to their own thread.]

Your interpretations now seem clear to me.

See, it isn't so hard once you embrace a simple and clear approach to reading the cards. Most readers and teachers make it much too complex, and people cannot learn to use the cards as a result. The divine wants to communicate, and a simple system makes the messages come through loud and clear.

So, as with all things, time will tell. Within 6 months (your time frame in the question), you will know if the reading is accurate. Although, that is not the most important thing to take away from this expercise. The most important thing is that now you can read a 9 pattern (if you keep it simple). Congratulations!

Thanks, Izzydunne. You have been a great help. Much appreciated.

Interesting perspective Barleywine:

Here is the problem with trigger cards, middle card, cards on the corners, directional facing cards, knighting, etc., they are techniques. The thing about techniques is that sometimes the technique works and sometimes it doesn't. As such, that makes it unreliable from my viewpoint. In one spread the center card will appear significant, and in another is has no extra meaning. The same for all techniques that I mentioned, and the ones I did not mention.

Here is the deal from my perspective: The divine wants to communicate in a reading. However, the Divine never read all those fancy books or web sites on cartomancy, and doesn't know all those clever techniques. That is one reason as to why there tends to be so much error in many readings. People are trying to use techniques to provide all the details when the Divine wants the reader to get the big picture. Now, I realize that most readers will disagree with the approach of simplicity, and that is just fine. People do tend to like their rules and techniques. We all have to find our own way.

I'm a bit lost. What is a "trigger" card?

Village Witch said:

I'm a bit lost. What is a "trigger" card?

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As I understand it from what I've read and the examples I've seen, it's the very first card you draw, if you haven't already set out a pre-selected central "focus" card. In my case it's the top-most left-hand card ("upper-left"). I picked up the idea from Helen Riding's blog, but I'm not sure of its historical usage.

Barleywine said:

As I understand it from what I've read and the examples I've seen, it's the very first card you draw, if you haven't already set out a pre-selected central "focus" card. In my case it's the top-most left-hand card ("upper-left"). I picked up the idea from Helen Riding's blog, but I'm not sure of its historical usage.

Click to expand...

Thank you.

I haven't tried selecting a focus card for a nine card spread. I do so occasionally for a specific question when using a five or seven card linear answer line. I personally find it works better for me if I let the deck select the cards. I also do not draw from the top of the deck but spread the deck and let my fingers "feel" what cards to draw. I also have an order sequence I use to draw cards in an answer line or daily draw: middle card first followed by drawing one card to the right and follow by one card to the left and repeating for however many cards I wish to draw. In a nine-card spread, however, I do draw the cards off the top of the deck one by one in order. Nine-card spreads aren't my favorite, but I plan on working more with nine-card spreads and comparing the results to a linear answer line spread.

Village Witch said:

Thank you.

I haven't tried selecting a focus card for a nine card spread. I do so occasionally for a specific question when using a five or seven card linear answer line. I personally find it works better for me if I let the deck select the cards. I also do not draw from the top of the deck but spread the deck and let my fingers "feel" what cards to draw. I also have an order sequence I use to draw cards in an answer line or daily draw: middle card first followed by drawing one card to the right and follow by one card to the left and repeating for however many cards I wish to draw. In a nine-card spread, however, I do draw the cards off the top of the deck one by one in order. Nine-card spreads aren't my favorite, but I plan on working more with nine-card spreads and comparing the results to a linear answer line spread.

Click to expand...

I don't usually pre-select a focus card for 9-card spreads either, since I use these spreads more for "general situation" overviews - at which they excel - than for seeking specfic answers to single-pointed questions. (Plus, like the judgments Aleister Crowley rendered about whether to continue the divination if the significator didn't turn up in the"right" place in the Opening of the Key - OOTK - method, I like to see right away how well tuned-in the deck is to the circumstances under consideration.) If I were to pre-select a focus card under my normal working scenario, it would probably be the Man or the Woman, as applicable.

I have a slightly different wrinkle for the 9-card draw (not my own, something I read): cut the deck into three roughly equal piles after the shuffle, then draw the 3 top-line cards off of (or out of) the left-hand sub-pack, the 3 middle-line cards from the middle sub-pack and the 3 bottom-line cards from the right-hand sub-pack. In all cases I lay them left-to-right. I do very few 3-card spreads and hardly more 5-card spreads (they aren't favorites of mine) but for those I draw off the top of the pack and lay them left-to-right. It's second nature now since I've been doing it that way with tarot for decades.

I'm thinking that, with a pre-selected focus card in an answer-line spread, you could use the same method as in the tarot OOTK: shuffle the deck with the focus card in it, turn the deck over and locate that card, and then take the one, two or three (or any number that suits the length of your line spread) cards to the chosen card's left and right and lay them all out in a line, maintaining the same sequence they had in the shuffled deck.

Although the GT will always be my favorite, the 9-card square is rapidly becoming my "workhorse" because most of the people I rread for want a situational perspective, not a narrowly-focused answer.