Question that are future-based

[Brown Eyed Mystic]

Questions that are future-based

Hey everyone,

For a question that is future-based, or assuming the future has happened, how will you read the Past Present and Future spread? Let me give you an example.

If you draw a 3-card spread using past, present and future positions for a question that has happened in the future, for example: "What will happen once I've left this relationship"?

Let's say, you deal the following:

Past: Devil
Present and Future cards removed by Moderator

Now, Devil is a "negative" card. But you'll read it as something that is in your past once you make the decision. So it would mean you were facing a bad situation and you've now broken free.

It doesn't necessarily mean it is in your past right now, it simply means you *will* be facing that as a past, right?

By that logic, could the Devil be interpreted as you PRESENT now? Meaning you need a wake up call to something that is holding you back, like a bad situation or feeling trapped.

Hope I'm making sense!

Thank you,
BEM

 

[Barleywine]

Interesting that you picked up on this. A long time ago I was struggling with a similar thing in the three-card series of the Celtic Cross which shows the same kind of time flow (in the Eden Gray version, it's cards 4, 5 and 6, beginning with the Recent Past position). This is what I wrote in my journal at the time, and I think it applies to the three-card line spread:

"Cards 4, 5 and 6 tend to be fluid regarding the timing of events: the Past may still be strongly felt in Present circumstances, while the most probable Future may already be visible as either a logical extension of the Past/Present dynamic or as an emerging new direction." (Note that I treat the "above" position as "emerging trends or the realm of possibilities" - aka the Present - rather than "what may come to pass;" same idea, different spin.)

Another way I've been handling it lately in the three-card line is to focus on the most important card of the three and treat the other two as qualifiers. In these cases, I ignore the past-present-future model and just look at the most likely outcome.

 

[danieljuk]

Hi BEM,
if you are asking about how a situation will go or something in the future, the spread becomes a hypothetical. You *could* feel like this, this *might* happen. This can be useful for situations, say getting out of an unhappy relationship, it's giving guidance but we should always remember that it might not happen like that, it's just advice to us.

To take the past / present / future with the question that is future based. The past is the past, it's the basis of the question or the situation. In your spread the past card is why someone might want to break up the relationship, the cause if you like. This is why the person feels like they do currently or what caused it.

The present is now, facing a decision, should they stay or should they go? or how they are dealing with it now.

The future is one idea about what will happen if the querent left the relationship. in this spread I would argue the future position is the most important and maybe could use a few more cards than the rest because that is the focus of the reading. This is the outcome based on the past and present situations and what may happen if you make that decision in the present.

 

[Thirteen]

The past is objectively over, but not subjectively which is why, I think, we have a past/present/future spread. After all, if something is in the past but not affecting us any more, why mention it? Which means, I think, that the Past card needs to be something that has us reacting a certain way in the present. Maybe with caution (don't want to get burned again), maybe with hope (this was so wonderful, I want it again...). PTSD if you like.

So, yes, I'd say that the person is free of the Devil, otherwise it wouldn't be in the past, but still feeling the affects of being chained.

There's a cute little song called "New Plaid Shirt" about a girl getting over a guy. In the first line of the song she gets rid of an old plaid shirt that her boyfriend didn't like and that she now can't stand to look at. He is in her past, but that shirt brings him back and getting rid of it is part of letting him go and really getting over him. If we were to construct a PPF reading from this song, we'd probably have 9/Swords for the Past because she implies that she hasn't been sleeping well. Present, as we hear in the song, is that she's doing better, sleeping through the night (we might have 4/Swords for that, or the Star--healing, doing better, no more restless nights). She's getting over him. And it looks like she'll be just fine in the Future (the Sun).

 

[Brown Eyed Mystic]

"Cards 4, 5 and 6 tend to be fluid regarding the timing of events: the Past may still be strongly felt in Present circumstances, while the most probable Future may already be visible as either a logical extension of the Past/Present dynamic or as an emerging new direction." (Note that I treat the "above" position as "emerging trends or the realm of possibilities" - aka the Present - rather than "what may come to pass;" same idea, different spin.)

Little confused. So essentially, you mean that "past" in a hypothetical future-based question becomes your current present right?

BEM

 

[Brown Eyed Mystic]

The past is objectively over, but not subjectively which is why, I think, we have a past/present/future spread. After all, if something is in the past but not affecting us any more, why mention it? Which means, I think, that the Past card needs to be something that has us reacting a certain way in the present. Maybe with caution (don't want to get burned again), maybe with hope (this was so wonderful, I want it again...). PTSD if you like.

So, yes, I'd say that the person is free of the Devil, otherwise it wouldn't be in the past, but still feeling the affects of being chained.

Makes sense! Thank you Thirteen! Always good to have your opinion on my threads.

BEM

 

[Brown Eyed Mystic]

Well I always read the past position that is something that is still being felt in the present, so in this example the client felt chained down in this relationship, there was no give or take so he/she left. But the Page could represent someone they have met now that is making them feel what they felt like in the past so they are hesitant to accept the offer of say a date shown by the four of cups because they are getting that same vibe.

Wow. Interesting! So they quit the relationship in the "past" because of the feeling of being chained. Then they also meet someone who might offer love but it reminds them of the past, so they will be staying away at least for a while (or indefinitely)?

BEM

 

[Amanda]

Here is the meaning of the Devil (derived from the influence of the Sun as Quint): Desires/pleasures ruling (that is, no head nor heart and because the Devil is pretty much underground and far away from the Sun, an obscured or hidden relationship -hidden desires, at least, not out in the open or freely expressed-); restrained freedom, happiness, and/or desire in a relationship (because the Devil is the primary card that showed up in the spread, not the Sun). Does that seem more like something that will happen, or something that has already happened?

My newest experience with 3-card draws is that the Wheel of Fortune may come up as the Quint to indicate that you should read the cards in a past, present, and future structure. So I would recommend that if you want to do future, hypothetical questions then you simply draw three cards with no positional meanings with the intent that they will all answer the question in a future context. I would only consider changing method midstream if I got the Wheel as Quint, to indicate the card to the left as Past, the card in the middle as Present, and the card to the right as Future. Primarily though, I see the Past as any time prior to the moment you asked the question and laid the cards.

 

[Brown Eyed Mystic]

Here is the meaning of the Devil (derived from the influence of the Sun as Quint): Desires/pleasures ruling (that is, no head nor heart and because the Devil is pretty much underground and far away from the Sun, an obscured or hidden relationship -hidden desires, at least, not out in the open or freely expressed-); restrained freedom, happiness, and/or desire in a relationship (because the Devil is the primary card that showed up in the spread, not the Sun). Does that seem more like something that will happen, or something that has already happened?

Hmm. That actually sounds like it IS happening now for them. (Can be considered already happened -- as in <i>started</i> happening). OR it looks like it WILL continue to happen if they stayed in the current one.

Thoughts?

My newest experience with 3-card draws is that the Wheel of Fortune may come up as the Quint to indicate that you should read the cards in a past, present, and future structure. So I would recommend that if you want to do future, hypothetical questions then you simply draw three cards with no positional meanings with the intent that they will all answer the question in a future context. I would only consider changing method midstream if I got the Wheel as Quint, to indicate the card to the left as Past, the card in the middle as Present, and the card to the right as Future. Primarily though, I see the Past as any time prior to the moment you asked the question and laid the cards.

Wow, that's a neat technique. I'd use this henceforth. Just curious Amanda -- what's a "Quint"?

BEM

 

[junkyardmystic]

Hey everyone,

For a question that is future-based, or assuming the future has happened, how will you read the Past Present and Future spread? Let me give you an example.

If you draw a 3-card spread using past, present and future positions for a question that has happened in the future, for example: "What will happen once I've left this relationship"?

Let's say, you deal the following:

Past: Devil
Present and Future cards removed by Moderator

Now, Devil is a "negative" card. But you'll read it as something that is in your past once you make the decision. So it would mean you were facing a bad situation and you've now broken free.

It doesn't necessarily mean it is in your past right now, it simply means you *will* be facing that as a past, right?

By that logic, could the Devil be interpreted as you PRESENT now? Meaning you need a wake up call to something that is holding you back, like a bad situation or feeling trapped.

Hope I'm making sense!

Thank you,
BEM

Once you know enough information about the present subject you can build a predictive model of what has happened and what is most likely to happen.

If you have the devil card in the reading, you don't need to give it a position meaning. Reading the devil as an aspect rather than a past event will still reveal the past and the future. This person has to learn how to free themselves from negative desires. Now you know the subjects current condition you can extrapolate cause (Past) and effect (Future) from a in depth study of the devil card.

The same applies to the rest of the reading.