How many spreads?

[Barleywine]

Thankyou Barleywine...
May I request your aforementioned spread on "Health & Happiness" please?

"Health and Happiness" is a category of five spreads I created to look at various aspects of "well-being." This one is the "flagship," which I created from a spread Le Fanu posted and I tweaked with astrological sassociations and revised position titles. (I'm pretty sure I posted it here before.)

 

[Farzon]

This is the one I'm using now, but I'm about to tweak it very slightly again based on a conversation here yesterday. That's what I love about this forum, it keeps me thinking and experimenting. Note that I've pretty much stopped using a significator, and I've been having fun with the additional step I call the "environmental development line" (Cards 4, 1, 2, 6 and 8 in a row). I also reconfigured it in a similar way to be more "ED friendly," another adjunct to a straight read of the spread positions.

Thank you! I like these alterations a lot.

Indeed?... I wait to experience a "short and sweet" reading from you.

I'll remember that if I run into you in an exchange [emoji4].

Wait... did you just say I'm all talk? [emoji33] [emoji4]

 

[Hayyot]

Thank you very much, eveyone. You have been very helpful.
It seems there are certain spreads that work best for certain situations, such as the celtic cross and general readings, foe example...
I guess the general life readings , others used when asking for love and business (those are the most asked questions) lol
So it`s good to have at least memorised those no matter what

 

[Tanga]

"Health and Happiness" is a category of five spreads I created to look at various aspects of "well-being." This one is the "flagship...

Thankyou!

I'll remember that if I run into you in an exchange [emoji4].

Wait... did you just say I'm all talk? [emoji33] [emoji4]

What? (how did you conclude that?)

 

[Barleywine]

I just realized that I'm somewhere in the middle on the debate about "creating" vs. "memorizing" spreads. Other than the reliable workhorse, Celtic Cross, and the simple PPF line, I have created all of my own spreads (after all, isn't it "so easy a cave-man could do it?" ). But because they haven't all had much use yet, my challenge is trying to recreate them on the fly when the need comes up in a public reading situation. Since all of my readings are arranged, not walk-ins, maybe the answer is to try getting an advance idea of the general area of inquiry each sitter has in mind, so I can prep myself with the right "tools." The other option is to just go back and study my own work in a more systematic way. I have all 25 or so spreads organized by category in "publishable" form, so it wouldn't be unreasonable to do that. My spreads tend to be carefully crafted, so replicating them with some precision "in the field" is important to me.

 

[Morwenna]

I think I've only ever invented one spread, and that is a large one.

I started out years ago using Celtic Cross, and that's what I usually used in renfair situations, but I actually prefer the astrological houses spread, which I use most of the time now if I read for others. (That's about mid-size, to my mind.) I often try out others on myself, and I have quite a collection now from books and AT, but most of them have never been tried on other people.

I don't often use 3-card spreads; I'm another one who likes to see a LOT of information! 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, etc. ... and my own invention is (blush) 25!

 

[Barleywine]

I think I've only ever invented one spread, and that is a large one.

I started out years ago using Celtic Cross, and that's what I usually used in renfair situations, but I actually prefer the astrological houses spread, which I use most of the time now if I read for others. (That's about mid-size, to my mind.) I often try out others on myself, and I have quite a collection now from books and AT, but most of them have never been tried on other people.

I don't often use 3-card spreads; I'm another one who likes to see a LOT of information! 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, etc. ... and my own invention is (blush) 25!

Wow, you beat me! My biggest one is a 23-card Tree of Life spread. Are you using the Golden Dawn astrological house spread that requires all 78 cards? That one is too unwieldy for me.

 

[Morwenna]

Wow, you beat me! My biggest one is a 23-card Tree of Life spread. Are you using the Golden Dawn astrological house spread that requires all 78 cards? That one is too unwieldy for me.

No, I never used that one, though I did try one that was huge like that, from another source, and it was very informative!

Mine is the Lord of the Rings spread which I posted some years back; I think it's indexed. It's based on the Ring verse, with an addition.

 

[Tanga]

I had an idea the other day, for those spreads I don't have thoroughly memorized. When I read face-to-face, I often flash a print-out of the spread I'll be using at my sitter to give them the idea that there's a "method to my madness." I'm thinking I might get a small easel to display the spread during the reading, allegedly so the sitter can follow along, but really so I can use it as a "cheat sheet." I'll just pretend it's part of the "theater of tarot," like candles, incense and crystals. Not sure if this will be workable, but it's a thought.

So Barleywine - after beavering away producing some presentable print-outs of different spreads for my A5 file - I tried the "whip 'em out and display" method at a Tarot MeetUp last night with success.


And in the process, discovered what new spread I really like (so I'll be memorising that one) - and that it's getting easier to make spreads up (I have to think about it and write the positions down in a little notebook - otherwise I forget what positions I've decided on whilst I'm doing the reading. ).

 

[Barleywine]

So Barleywine - after beavering away producing some presentable print-outs of different spreads for my A5 file - I tried the "whip 'em out and display" method at a Tarot MeetUp last night with success.


And in the process, discovered what new spread I really like (so I'll be memorising that one) - and that it's getting easier to make spreads up (I have to think about it and write the positions down in a little notebook - otherwise I forget what positions I've decided on whilst I'm doing the reading. ).

Good to hear! My main concern is not doing anything artificial-seeming that disrupts the flow of the presentation, not the least because cramming a ten-card reading into a 30-minute session is already challenging enough for someone like me who likes to talk about tarot. I will do less of the visual gymnastics for someone who's experienced at sitting for readings because they could lose patience with the "window-dressing." The thought of it reminds me of a story I told here before about a dermatologist I once went to who interrupted my examination to go into her office and pull out a medical textbook to show me a diagnosis. Not exactly a confidence-builder.