9-Card Tarot Layout

[elfwreck]

Fairly early in my Tarot practices, more than 20 years ago, I'd hit a point where I had memorized the book-meanings of most of the cards, and could recite them on demand (or during a reading), but couldn't synthesize any understanding of how they worked in relation to each other, or a specific place in the reading. I considered starting a notebook

Comments

[veedub]

i love Morgan's Tarot and have been using it for over 30 years. still have my original deck, too. the ten-card celtic cross arrangement works fine for me, as does simply picking a card for the day.

one thing i tend to use it for is when i'm dng readings with my vee-deck and run into something i don't understand, i will pick a morgan's card for a second opinion. that works beautifully--it is very good for clearing puzzles up. but that may be because i have been interpretingmorgan's accoriding to my own intuition for many years, having lost the book shortly after i got the deck, and not bothering with it since then. it was rather amusing to go to the website and see the interpretations and how different they are to my own responses. meh. i don't believe in formal interpretations of cards anyway. it's all about what your intuition tells you.

[tharain]

I am loving the Tarot theme on my F-list!!

=-D

[elfwreck]

...There's a Tarot theme? *blink*

[kaiz]

Oh! I'll have to give this layout a shot. Normally, I don't even use a layout--the cards just kind of decide where they want to be placed and what their placement signifies--but yours looks really neat. And the Morgan Tarot looks very interesting, esp. since I never use the minor arcana anyway :-)

[elfwreck]

The Secret Dakini Oracle is also good for a non-Tarot oracular deck, although it's probably better for someone who loves traditional symbolisms and cross-cultural references. (Which you might be. Sometimes I am. But the Morgan's Tarot, it speaks to me.) (It whispers inside my ears, it does, takes up space in the hidden alcoves in my mind and haunts my thoughts with a small, shrill voice...)

Em. Sorry. Got off track.

The book Choice Centered Tarot had a section on designing reading layouts; it helped. It's an interesting exercise, crossing math with spiritual focus like that.

A three-card reading only allows for so much detail, whether it's "past-present-future" or "hopes-fears-self" or "social-spiritual-physical." A twenty-five card reading has to consider the fact that the later cards aren't nearly as random as the first few; they're drawn from a deck that's missing substantial cards.

I've seen a couple of 72-card readings that were suggested as annual "life-path" layouts. I've never had the wherewithal to try one; aside from other

[kaiz]

That's a pretty interesting looking deck! I mostly use the Zen Tarot deck for readings, with the Dreamtime oracle thrown in as well.

(It whispers inside my ears, it does, takes up space in the hidden alcoves in my mind and haunts my thoughts with a small, shrill voice...)

Hee! I know that feeling. For me, it's a case of random stuff in my environment just up and demanding to be read.

Re. the 25+ card spreads you mention...I confess that my eyes tend to glaze over with the super long card spreads! 9 is about the max I want to keep track of at once. I tend to just pull a few cards and then ask for additional clarification on whichever aspects of the reading are of interest. I'm not exactly big on tradition when it comes to the tarot. *g*