Interaction
with Pattern
One of the simplest ways to expand your understanding of the meaning of a tarot layout is to look for frequency patterns in the cards. This is an additional component to a reading, separate from any individual card.
In other words, suppose you lay out a six-card reading, and four of those cards are cups.3 This would give you, as a beginning, seven different things to say: the meanings of the six cards, and the meaning of two-thirds of those cards being cups. (You’ll have far more than seven things to say by the end of this book!)
Do the Math
In order to recognize something as unusual, you have to know what your odds are, so we’re going to have to crunch some numbers.
In a standard tarot deck, there are:
• 78 cards in total
• 22 major arcana cards (“trumps”)—28 percent of a deck
• Suits: wands, pentacles, cups, and swords—each of which represents 18 percent of a deck. Each suit has:
• 10 numbered cards
• Court cards (usually pages, knights, queens, and kings)
• 20 percent of the deck is composed of court cards, so any one type of court card is 5 percent
• Each number from one through ten appears on 6 percent of the cards (once in each suit and once in the trumps)
Other recognizable patterns are harder to quantify because they vary from deck to deck, but we’ll get to that.
This chart shows a normal distribution of cards in a reading:
|
6-Card Reading |
10-Card Reading |
12-Card Reading |
|
|
Majors |
1–2 |
2–3 |
3–4 |
|
Each Suit |
1–2 |
1–2 |
2–3 |
|
Court Card |
1–2 |
2 |
2–3 |
|
Any Number 1–10 |
0–1 |
0–1 |
0–1 |
If you did a six-card reading, it would be normal to see two cups, but three would be slightly unusual, and four would be of real interest and worth adding a layer to your reading—worth interacting with.
Note that, for numbers, it is unusual to see more than one card of any number unless the reading has a lot of cards—more than twenty. We’ll address number patterns a little later in this chapter.
Also note that the numbers in the table don’t have to equal the total number of cards in a reading, since there will be overlap. For example, a Knight of Swords would be counted as both a court card and a sword, while the Magician would count both as a major and as the number one.
Now, just as a card can have multiple meanings, so can a pattern. It is easy enough to say that cups represent love and emotion, but how that pattern interacts with the reading as a whole is up to you, the reader, to determine.
Suit Patterns
Here is a general overview of suit patterns:
• A pattern of swords indicates that the reading has a lot to do with aggression, conflict, speech, or argument, or that there is intense movement related to the reading.
• A pattern of wands indicates that the reading has a lot to do with building, creating, establishing, or labor.
• A pattern of cups indicates that the reading has a lot to do with love, emotions, or the subconscious.
• A pattern of pentacles indicates that the reading has a lot to do with money, career, or education.
But how do you apply these patterns to a reading? First, do the math; be comfortable knowing that you’re really seeing a pattern. You’ll second-guess yourself if you stop to ask yourself if this is truly an unusual distribution. That’s the purpose of including the numeric data in this chapter. Once you’ve determined that there is indeed a pattern, there are several approaches you can take.
First, you can read a pattern as if it’s another card.
Second, ask yourself how this pattern applies to this reading. Sometimes a suit confirms the subject of a reading (Well, you’re getting a lot of pentacles, which makes sense since you’re asking about money), but sometimes the pattern can provide redirection of the concern. Querents ask what they want to know, but if a deeper issue is behind the concern, that will come out in the reading. Querents may also be misunderstanding the situation (Well, this card and this card confirm that it’s a work situation, but the prevalence of cups elsewhere suggests that satisfaction and feeling play a larger role than money).
Speaking of which, the third component is that absence is as important as presence.
Very often, a querent will ask for a “general life” reading, and I’ll go through the process of telling him what’s going on, and then he’ll say, “Do you see a relationship?” That’s the point at which you count up the cups. If there are a large number of cups, then you can say, even though the reading hadn’t pointed to a relationship, that love may be coming. But most of the time, that’s when I say, “There are no cups here,” or “There’s only one cup, and it’s reversed.”
If you read for the general public, or even just for your friends, you get used to the love question being the most common question you’re asked. As a result, you learn to look for something that isn’t there, to note absence, and to use absence as a significant point.
Also note that I incorporated the fourth component: How is the suit aspected? What is the context of the pattern? It’s not just that my querent in the earlier paragraph had only one cup, it’s that it was reversed. As you learn more about interactive reading, you’ll learn more ways in which the suit can be affected by other cards. For now, note that if all the cards of a suit are negative or are placed negatively, then that’s an important part of the pattern.
By “placed negatively,” I mean that the card is next to, in conjunction with, or part of the meaning of a negative card or position. Chapter 4 will address position and layout in depth, and we’ll get to cards functioning in conjunction with other cards in chapter 5.
A card is negative if the meaning itself is negative (as with the Three or Nine of Swords) or if it’s reversed. There are some cards that are so positive that they shine through as positive even when reversed (such as the Four of Cups or the Ten of Pentacles), and there are cards for which the reversal is more positive than the upright (again, this is true of both the Three and Nine of Swords). However, when looking for patterns, it’s important to stop and count reversals, just as you would count a suit or a number.
It’s also important to note whether the pattern interacts with another pattern. Do you see both dominant suits and a pattern of reversals? Two dominant suits? A dominant suit and a lot of court cards? All of these are part of the context of the pattern.
Sample Reading: Dominant Suits
For sample readings in this book, I’m trying something a little daring: shuffling my deck and seeing what comes up. If my cards are true to me, they should bring readings that apply to the current lesson and enhance the meaning of each chapter. Unless otherwise noted, every reading in this book is either a real reading for a client or a sample reading I did on the fly, shuffling and laying out cards next to my desk.
Here’s what I drew for a sample reading on interacting with a suit pattern (illustration 11):
Let’s ignore the layout for now, since that’s for a later chapter, and just look at the cards.
This is definitely an unusual reading, because we have only two suits and no majors. (Distribution is often unusual on a small reading because it’s a small sample size. You can get an idea of the norms by looking at the distribution of cards chart from the last section and cutting the numbers for a ten-card reading in half.)
To summarize, here are the four components of reading a pattern:
1. Read a pattern as if it’s another card.
2. Ask yourself how this pattern applies to this reading.
3. Absence is as important as presence.
4. What is the context of the pattern?
Read the Pattern as if It’s Another Card
In my sample reading, I have pentacles and swords, with more pentacles. Swords can indicate conflict or movement, while pentacles can indicate money or career. Together, they tell me this reading is about competition or conflict on the job.
Note that I’m already interacting; I’m looking at the combination of swords and pentacles and asking where they intersect. That meeting place tells me a story about this reading.
Reading the pattern as if it’s another card means that “conflict on the job” is treated as a card meaning, just like “greed or short-sightedness” (the meaning of the Four of Pentacles).
Ask Yourself How This Pattern Applies to This Reading
We don’t have a question on the table, but that’s not uncommon. If you read for yourself, you always know the question. But whenever a querent is involved, she might choose to withhold the question, either because she’s embarrassed or because she doesn’t wish to taint the reading with foreknowledge. In fact, many readers request that the querent withhold the question for that reason. If prior information serves as a barrier to the free flow of your intuition, where your psyche says “X” but your conscious mind says “X can’t be right because I have been told YZ,” then you can choose to read without any question asked in advance. Then at some point during the reading, once information is flowing and you’ve gotten some positive feedback (“Yep, this is what I was silently asking about”), you can ask the querent what it was all about.
Nonetheless, I know what the reading is about by understanding the pattern in the first place. It’s about career conflict—which I learned by reading the suit pattern as a card. Now I can go back and read the cards, and ask how this pattern affects the implied question.
One thing we see is that pentacles slightly dominate swords—there are more of them, suggesting that the career itself is the most important part of the reading, not the conflict that is currently occurring. I should keep this in mind as I read each individual card.
Absence Is as Important as Presence
What is missing from this reading? In a five-card reading, it is natural that all sorts of things won’t appear—there just isn’t room. Note absence as it comes up in relation to the reading, or to questions that the querent may have.
Is the reading about love? Nope. If the querent wants to know if people’s feelings are hurt at work, or if it’s an issue of morale, the answer is no. Any of these things would be indicated by cups, and there are none.
If the querent is trying to pinpoint an individual—the boss or a coworker—you can point out that there are no court cards. The only dominant person in this reading is the fellow depicted in the Seven of Swords. I say this because the person depicted in the Seven of Swords has committed a deceitful or dishonorable act, perhaps a theft. This person’s identity and/or behavior will be important in the reading. Two other cards have pictures of people, but in both cases, the people seem to be indicating abstract concepts, not individuals. While the Three and Four of Pentacles show people, their meanings reside in situations. They might refer to people, but they don’t have to. I’m not seeing cards that indicate gossip (like the Three of Cups) or power (like the Emperor), so I don’t think the situation is interpersonal or about authority.
Speaking of absence, there are also no majors, suggesting a certain impermanence or pettiness in the situation.
The Context of the Pattern
The first and most obvious context is that there is a second pattern: there are two aces. In such a small reading, any repeated number is very significant.
Aces have to do with beginnings; getting things started. In relation to the suit pattern (work and conflict), it seems like the primary issue has to do with starting something new: a work conflict in regard to a beginning—perhaps a new project, a new source of income, a new investment, or a new competitor.
There’s no particular pattern of reversals. Three reversals and two upright cards suggest a slightly more negative than positive energy, but it’s not a dominant pattern: 1/4 or 0/5 in either direction would be more notable.
But look at how the reversals interact with the other patterns: pentacles have the negative ace, and swords have the positive ace. Could it be that confronting the conflict directly and forcefully, rather than pushing the financial interests, is a solution?
Now take a moment to see that we’ve already gathered a huge amount of information, and we haven’t read a single card. We haven’t engaged with the meaning of any particular card in detail. Simply by looking at patterns—at suits, numbers, absence, presence, and reversals—we’ve learned a great deal about this reading.
We know it’s about a work conflict, and that the conflict involves starting something new. We know the situation isn’t about emotions or anything interpersonal. We know the energy around the situation has been negative, but we can see a possible solution. We know that confronting the problem verbally and assertively is likely to work better than focusing on the financial aspects of the new beginning (whatever it is).
This is an impressive start to a reading, and we have yet to look at the card meanings. There’s a thief in the center, a situation involving shortsightedness and greed, and perhaps issues of recognition and reward. All of this is seen when we start looking at specific cards, but our understanding of each—the Four of Pentacles is the miser, the Seven of Swords is the thief, and the Three of Pentacles is the craftsman who may not be getting recognition—is colored by reading the pattern.
Reversals
There are readers who never use reversals in their readings. In general, they give two reasons: one, that it overcomplicates the reading, doubling the number of possible meanings, and two, that it is too negative. I don’t like either of these reasons. The first I reject because I think life is incredibly complicated and full of shades of gray, and that the best way to offer a truly useful reading is to apply your psychic skills in an environment where you can choose among a full array of life situations. A full astrological chart reading is more accurate than a simple sun sign interpretation because your moment and location of birth are uniquely your own, whereas a sun sign reading applies to about one-twelfth of all people. The more complex potential a reading has, the truer it is to the individual. As to the second reason, I also think that life brings us negativity, challenges, and disruptions—if it didn’t, tarot readers would have far fewer querents! Negative meanings help to accurately reflect life as we all experience it.
Some readers say that they just know (intuitively or psychically) whether to draw on the negative or positive meaning of a card, and don’t need reversals. Fair enough, but the whole purpose of the cards, in my view, is to utilize a complex interface between your inner psychic abilities and the rest of the world. In other words, if you just know, that’s fine, but I think that the more the cards show you, the more your psychic abilities are empowered to know more and different things.
In order to make sure that a reading has a good, randomized assortment of upright and reversed cards, I flip the deck with each shuffle. I split the deck in two, flip one half end to end, shuffle, and repeat each time. I do this so routinely that I’ve been caught doing the flip when playing card games with my family!
Reversals impact both individual cards and the overall patterns in a reading, and should be looked at with that in mind. Just as any given card is itself and its suit (which can form a pattern) and its number (which can form a pattern), it is also both itself and its upright or reversed nature.
My understanding of reversals is, perhaps, unique. I see upright cards as inherently stable and reversals as inherently unstable. Visualize each card as a structure; if the card is reversed, that structure is standing on its head!
Look at the Two of Cups (illustration 12). Upright, these two people are standing on their feet and are likely to stay on their feet. Reversed, they’re balanced on their heads! This is unstable and the whole situation is likely to topple.
Just as those two people are more comfortable on their feet than on their heads, and want to be on their feet, I find that any reversal wants to be upright. This is important because when querents see negative information in a reading, they naturally want to know what the solution is. The solution to a reversal is usually to set the card upright, and you can even show the querent how much more natural the situation would be when set aright by briefly taking the card out of the layout and turning it upright.
In other words, don’t grasp outside of that card for a solution; the solution is in the card itself—it’s in flipping that card back over!
You can think of a reversal, then, as a card interacting with itself.
But on to pattern. If you’ve randomized reversals as I suggest (or by some other means), it would be normal to see approximately half of the reading reversed, and random distribution would allow for that to vary, plus or minus, to some degree. You’re looking for extreme cases—when two-thirds or more of the reading is upright or reversed.
In the next chapter, we’ll look at a reading that calls for an exact count of reversals, but for pattern recognition, a number range is all you need. A ten-card reading with seven or eight reversals shows a significant and unusual pattern. Whatever else you know about the reading and the cards, you know it is trending toward reversal.
What does that mean? The meaning of the reading can be negative or dark, or unstable in the way that individual reversals are unstable. Specific cards or other patterns will guide you.
A reading might have reversals plus a preponderance of a suit, or a dominant suit might also be reversed. These are two different things.
For example, the following two readings 4 (illustrations 13 and 14) show different patterns.
The pattern in the first reading (illustration 13) indicates a dominance of wands, and also a strong negative trend. Each suit has a reversed card. The reversal trend isn’t about any one suit, and, in fact, is global.
The pattern in the second reading (illustration 14) places the negativity squarely in the domain of wands—wands are the cause or location of the negativity.
Remember the four parts of reading a pattern. As with suits, reversals are meaningful in their absence as well as their presence. A reading without any reversals predicts an unusually positive outcome, even if the cards also indicate problems or struggles.
Major Arcana
Many readers treat the majors as a very different animal from the minors. There are even decks consisting entirely of the twenty-two major arcana, omitting the minors.
In general, the majors are considered to be more important. Depending on who you ask, this is because they represent the soul’s journey through life, or the querent’s fate, or the will of God. Most tarot teachers will point out that the majors, read in order, tell a tale of the journey of a person from individual ego to ascended spirit, from the Magician to the World, through which the soul wanders hither and yon like an unnumbered Fool. For the Jungian, the majors are a psychological journey of self-actualization, and for the Kabbalist, each major is a path on the Tree of Life.
My primary concern has always been as a reader and not as a mystic. I see the majors as I see the minors: components of a reading.
A preponderance of major arcana indicates that large forces are at play. The querent may have little control over the events that are unfolding. A lot of majors in a reading may indicate the following:
• The subjects depicted in the reading are life-changing events that will affect the querent for years to come.
• The querent may have little control over the outcome; the matter may be in the hands of fate.
• The querent is at a crossroads; decisions made now will determine the querent’s future.
• The majors may indicate life lessons that must be learned.
By contrast, an absence of majors can indicate that the events are just ordinary life events, and no big deal in the grand scheme of things.
When a reading is difficult, challenging, or really dark, the querent will want to know how to get out of it and what to change. A pattern of majors indicates that applying willpower is not going to help. Depending on the specific cards, this may be a time to accept the experience as a lesson, or as fate, or it may be a time for prayer or meditation.
By the way, expect plenty of majors when reading for adolescents; their lives are in constant dramatic flux, and almost every day is a turning point.
Number Patterns
Numbers are a complicated subject to address because there are so many systems of numerology. Still, it’s important, because any number pattern is significant. With each number from one to ten appearing on only 6 percent of the cards, two or three instances of the same number in a reading is definitely a pattern worth noting.
By “number pattern,” I mean a pattern of the same number appearing over and over. Even twice is notable unless you’re doing a very large reading—twenty-four cards or more. I’ve never worked with actual patterns, as in a sequence of numbers, or noticing a reading of only even or odd numbers, or whatever. Theoretically, it’s certainly possible to find meaning in that, and if such a pattern speaks to you, go for it!
Keep in mind the principles of reading patterns. We’ve looked previously at an example of an ace pattern interacting with a reading. If you are already conversant in a numerology system, use the one you know. Otherwise, take my brief descriptions as a guide.
Aces—Keyword “Beginning”
Aces are beginnings, as discussed in the sample reading in illustration 11. They represent something new that has come or will come into the querent’s life, or the effort to create something new, or, in the case of reversals, the difficulties or challenges encountered when attempting to create something new. The Magician, which is the number one in the major arcana, is creative power and therefore the potential to begin anything.
Twos—Keywords “Duality” and “Balance”
Twos can represent balance, duality, or stasis. Each two in the tarot has the quality of On the one hand …, but on the other hand … The manifestation of that paired-ness can be stasis (Two of Swords), waiting (Two of Wands), a meeting of minds (Two of Cups), juggling (Two of Pentacles), or the Pillars of Justice and Mercy (High Priestess). In each case, a quality of paired or dual energy is encountered and must be faced—with love, anticipation, or panic, but it must be faced.
Threes—Keywords “Outcome” and “Flux”
Three is an outcome. An egg (one) plus a seed (two) equals a child (three); the fertile outcome that may or may not occur is the overarching meaning of three in a reading. Threes can also indicate a state of flux; pyramids have a solid base and an unstable tip, and love triangles are prone to breaking apart. Three creates and can destroy.
Fours—Keyword “Possession”
Fours are stable just as threes are unstable; they represent reality, possessions, and results. If three is the child of the family, then four is the house in which the family lives. Fours in the minor arcana address different responses to the material world: the sword withdraws, the wand celebrates, the cup questions, and the pentacle grasps. In the major arcana, the Emperor is mastery over the material.
Fives—Keyword “Change”
In the tarot, the fives of the minor arcana all depict changes in circumstances; there is a great deal of uncertainty and upheaval, while the five in the major arcana, the Hierophant, is almost reactionary in its distrust of any sort of change. The Hierophant is the ultimate conservative of the tarot. Fives move and are active, but they can also be unhappy. Of course, any card in the tarot can be unhappy based on placement and other aspects, but five is a roiling energy that can have unhappiness as its natural companion.
Sixes—Keyword “Journey”
In the tarot, six starts to observe life conditions and stabilize them. Any double in numerology tends to exalt or stabilize its earlier form, so six is a more solid three. In the minors, journeying is a theme of the six: both swords and wands depict a physical journey, cups depict a journey into memory or into the past, and pentacles show a more metaphorical journey—of social position. In the majors, six is the Lovers, which can be a journey toward love, but doesn’t necessarily represent a journey. Even though the Lovers card diverges from the lesson of the minors, if it appears in a reading with another six, it should be noted.
Sevens—Keyword “Willpower”
Seven is a number of great mystical significance. In the tarot, the sevens tend to describe willpower and self-control, and their manifestation in various aspects of life. You can read this at a higher level, as the soul exalting itself through will, or you can just use the keyword as a guide to a pattern of sevens appearing in a reading. The Seven of Swords is a dissolute and dishonest will, and the wands show combat and high ground—the will to succeed, fight back, and win. The Seven of Cups is a dissipated and confused will; the inability to apply will is suggested. The pentacles manifest as hard work, the will to create work, and satisfaction (or its lack) with the result. The Chariot, number seven in the majors, is the application of willpower in life generally, and the need to control out-of-control situations.
Eights—Keyword “Progress”
In the tarot, eights depict progress and strength, which is apropos considering that Strength is the eighth major in any Waite-based deck. (It is eleventh in Thoth-based decks, but for that system, you’ll need a different book.) The Eight of Swords is the trap, the inability to progress, and the absence of strength. The Eight of Wands is the opposite, depicting rapid, headlong movement forward. The Eight of Cups is a kind of progress away—from materialism or from sorrow. The Eight of Pentacles is educational or career progress, and depicts a student excelling in his studies. All of these are examples of life progressing and strength being needed. (Absence, we know, is as significant as presence, and here the cards show us the same thing, as swords represent the absence of the qualities of eights.)
Nines—Keyword “Fulfillment”
Nine is three times three, so we can take three’s keyword, “outcome,” and call nine “outcome of outcome.” It pushes these cards almost to their ultimate manifestation (which will be complete at ten). In the tarot, nines are showing us the material result of the suit, so that the Nine of Swords is the outcome of swords (despair), and so on with all four suits. The ninth major is the Hermit, which is almost an outcome of its own—if the first seven majors depict physical fulfillment and Strength begins an inner journey, then the Hermit is the outcome—seeking wisdom.
Tens—Keyword “Completion”
Each of the suits is now done. We’ve come to the end of our pack of ten. Each ten takes the final step to complete the journey that seemed finished at nine. If the Nine of Swords is despair, then the Ten of Swords is total defeat. Both the Ten of Cups and Ten of Pentacles are happier and lovelier than the Nines, while the Ten of Swords and Ten of Wands are darker.
The ten in the major arcana is the Wheel of Fortune, indicating that when we come to completion, we go back around again.
Remember that a number pattern can be read as an additional card, it can interact with what is already known about the reading, and it should be viewed in the context of how and where it appears and if there are reversals connected to the pattern. The principle “Absence is as important as presence” is less meaningful with numbers, because any repeated number is rare. Nonetheless, look for absences that you think are significant.
Sometimes you have a psychic question instead of a psychic answer. You get a sort of I wonder if this means … in your head. That’s when you look for other cards that would confirm your idea, and their absence can redirect your psychic energy.
For example, if you see a pattern of sevens, you know the issue has something to do with the querent’s will or focus. Is it about romance? A moral choice? Work? The presence or absence of other cards will help guide you. A moral choice will almost certainly be accompanied by major arcana; if there’s no Lovers, Devil, or Temperance, you can probably eliminate that option. So, when looking at number patterns, you’re not just looking for absence or presence of numbers, but for absence or presence of other, supporting cards.
Presence of People
Court cards are a sticking point for a lot of people, a place where even experienced readers can get blocked or confused. 5 This isn’t a lesson in how to read court cards, though, but in how to read a profusion of court cards and people in a reading.
People in a reading? Most tarot cards depict people. I went through a Waite deck and counted only the cards that showed people with clearly visible faces. While there’s room for disagreement about my definition, omitting the court cards, I counted twenty-five minors out of forty and seventeen majors out of twenty-two. Since most of the tarot, in most decks, consists of images of people, it would be weird to single that out as a pattern.
Sometimes, though, when you have a lot of court cards in a reading, you’ll also start to notice that other cards seem more like people and less like symbols. This is your psychic wisdom noticing the pattern and seeing it reinforced.
People in a reading mean just that: people. One of the things that is confusing about reading a single court card is determining if it means a person, or if it represents the querent, or if it’s a condition, a state of mind, a situation, or what. But when a high percentage of the reading is populated by court cards, there can be no doubt that a lot of people are around the situation.
This can mean all sorts of things, of course, and, as with any other pattern, you’re going to look for placement and other cards to help you determine exactly what’s going on. Suit makes a difference, obviously, as does the particular member of the court. But whatever the specific meaning, start with the understanding that these are people.
In a reading, it’s easy to get bogged down trying to figure out who such-and-such court card represents. Is that my father? My boss? My ex-boyfriend? Sometimes you know right away, and sometimes a few pointed questions will get you there, but often, you can just let it go. Describe the circumstances, energy, and ideas that come from this card, and ultimately the identity will reveal itself—maybe even after the reading.
What a reading crowded with court cards says is that people are important here. This isn’t a situation happening in the querent’s head; it’s not a delusion. Or it could be pointing to support. This person is definitely not alone, so the court may be playing a supportive role: loaning money, lending a friendly ear, or providing opportunities, education, pressure, or guilt. The support can be positive or negative, but it’s definitely there.
Sample Reading: Court Cards
Here’s a sample reading involving the court cards (illustration 15). In a seven-card reading, a court card should show up once or twice (1.4 times on average), so you wouldn’t note this as remarkable—except for the fact that both court cards in this reading are knights, which is not at all likely, so this should be treated as a pattern.
There’s a lot going on in this reading, with both majors reversed, a card of conflict (Five of Wands reversed) and a card of great sorrow (Nine of Swords). With all this gloom and drama, we need to note the pattern—that men in the querent’s life play a notable role in the goings-on. These men appear to be opposed to each other (one reversed, one upright) or coming from opposite sides of the table. The querent is somehow between them. (If you use a significator—a card pulled from the deck and placed on the table to represent the querent—it is always placed in the center. Even if you don’t use a significator, the center of the reading is where you should consider your querent to be located.)
As with the previous sample reading, we’re looking only at the patterns, not doing the reading yet (and this is a sample reading, not a live client reading). Reversals, majors, and suits are all normally distributed, and no number is repeated. The only unusual pattern, then, is the knights, but you already know something important.
The sense that “there are a lot of people” might lead you to look differently at the other cards. The Five of Wands in reverse starts to look less like a metaphor for conflict and more like actual men in combat, since two men are seen elsewhere in the reading.
Other Patterns
Other symbols that are present in a card reading will vary widely depending on the specific deck and your perception as a reader. You can expect to see paths, mountains, rocks, waves, fields, various animals, wind, clouds, specific colors, fruit, or the absence of any of these. In a reading, this may be something you notice in a specific card, as with the Queen of Pentacles in chapter 1 (illustration 2). But right now we’re looking for patterns. If a path appears repeatedly, you can be sure that there is a way out of current difficulties, and if there’s no path on any card, that tells you something as well.
None of these symbols are complicated or obscure. Ordinary spoken language will tell you the meaning of most “background” symbols. “The sun is shining on me” is symbolic of happiness, good fortune, and clarity, while “clouds over my head” indicates a dark mood and bad luck. You knew the meaning of such phrases long before you picked up a deck of cards!
Let’s go back to the sample reading at the beginning of this chapter (illustration 11). You’ll recall that this reading had three pentacles and two swords. The Robin Wood deck, following Waite’s example, associates swords with air (some decks associate swords with fire, but sword/air is more common). Naturally, with swords, you’re going to expect air imagery, but three of the five cards in this reading show clouds—both swords and the Four of Pentacles. In addition, the craftsman in the Three of Pentacles is Daedalus, working on a pair of giant wings! The air imagery is clearly a pattern. Air is associated with language and ideas, and clouds are associated with troubles. These images reinforce our earlier conclusion that the reading suggests a solution based in swords and in direct confrontation. The clouds repeat our understanding that there are troubles and conflicts, while the overall preponderance of air echoes our previous conclusion that direct confrontation is needed by indicating that the confrontation should be verbal.
Let’s look at the reading in illustration 15. Are there any repeated symbols in these cards? I notice that two cards show people standing on the brown earth: the Knight of Pentacles and Death. (While it’s actually the Knight’s horse that is standing on the earth, a knight and his horse are almost one being in the tarot.) The Knight’s earth is a cultivated field, and Death’s is a path. While fields and paths have different symbolic meanings, it’s intriguing to see this intersection between these two cards.
The Robin Wood Tarot: The Book has a section on the symbols to be found in this deck. It includes various colors, items like books or chains, a variety of plants, and things like paths, clouds, and fields. What it doesn’t include is an entry for “earth,” “dirt,” or “soil.”
If you noticed the soil as a repeated element and then looked it up in the book, it would be easy to become uncertain and say to yourself, “I must have been wrong.” By now you should know, though, that this type of thinking silences the Psychic Child. If the idea of “earth” as a symbol is something that seems right to you as you read it in the layout, then there’s something there to be discovered. This is one reason to read off-book as soon as you can (while still maintaining your studies).
Homework
In the introduction, I stated that you should memorize the basic meanings of each card, using card-by-card interpretation books, the short meanings in appendix A, and/or the little booklet that comes with any deck. By this point, that task should already be complete. If it isn’t, you may wish to pause in your reading and get to work!
Journal
Begin keeping a journal of tarot readings. This can be handwritten, or you can take pictures of your readings and jot down notes electronically, or whatever other method works for you. The purpose is to mark your progress as you move through the exercises in this book, and to give you a sense of your accuracy and connection to the cards over time.
Distribution
Your homework now is to memorize the Distribution of Cards chart at the beginning of this chapter. When you see a layout, you should immediately understand if a pattern appears.
Patterns
You should also work to memorize the keywords for numbers, suits, and the presence of court and major arcana cards that appear in this chapter.
Homework Questions
You should be able to answer the following questions without referring to the Distribution of Cards chart at the beginning of this chapter.
1. You have laid out ten cards:
• There are four swords, two pentacles, two cups, one wand, and one major.
• Four cards are reversed and six are upright.
• There are no court cards.
• No two cards with the same number appear.
What is unusual about this reading?
2. In addition to the meanings ascribed to the following cards, what keywords might apply to them?
a. The High Priestess
b. The King of Pentacles
c. The Six of Swords
d. The Ace of Cups
Oracle Card Homework
If you use an oracle (non-tarot) deck, the distribution offered in the previous homework section will not apply to you, nor will the homework questions. In that case, your task is to figure out for yourself what number patterns are meaningful in your own deck. For example, if you use the Cards of Alchemy deck, there are five suits with nine cards in each, plus five “wild cards.” So each suit is 18 percent of the deck, and wild cards are 10 percent. In a ten-card reading, one wild card is the normal distribution, and zero and two are both in range.
Your homework: Determine the distribution pattern in your own oracle deck, if any, and memorize it.
Homework Answers
1. In this distribution, the (four) swords are a pattern. The absence of court cards is unusual. Only one major is probably a pattern (but not an extreme one) and should be kept in mind. Reversals are normal. Number cards are normal.
2. Keywords for these cards could be:
a. The High Priestess: balance/duality (a two) and fate (a major).
b. The King of Pentacles: people or men (a court card) and career or money (a pentacle).
c. The Six of Swords: aggression (a sword) and journey (a six).
d. The Ace of Cups: beginnings (an ace) and love (a cup).
Exercise
This exercise will guide you through a reading such as the Dominant Suits sample reading earlier in this chapter (see illustration 11). You will be doing a reading based solely on pattern, without reading the meanings of the cards or their positions. You may, if you wish, read the card meanings after the exercise is done, but it will be important, at first, to completely disregard those meanings so that you focus your full psychic and cognitive attention on patterns.
1. Begin with several deep, cleansing breaths, and center yourself.
2. Ask your question out loud. For this exercise, keep it simple. For example, it can be “How will my day go tomorrow?”
3. Shuffle the cards until you feel it’s time to stop.
4. Lay out five cards as follows, in the order indicated (illustration 16):
5. Start by counting reversals. The general tenor of the reading can be gauged instantly in a reading with an odd number of cards. More than half are either upright or reversed, so you can start by determining if the overall tone is positive or negative, stable or unstable.
6. Now it’s time to look at suits. If you’ve done your homework, you’ll know that in a five-card reading you should notice any suit that appears more than once, and the majors if they appear more than twice.
7. Now notice any numbers that appear more than once.
8. Notice if there is more than one court card.
9. Now take note of anything that is completely absent. It’s normal for a suit to be absent in a five-card reading, and it’s normal for any number to be absent.
10. For each pattern you have found, read it as if it’s another card. It will help to describe the meaning of the pattern out loud. You may also wish to write it down in your journal, or you may wish to save the journaling until you are finished.
11. Ask yourself how this pattern applies to this reading. How does this pattern interact with, for example, how your day will go tomorrow?
12. Absence is as important as presence: Ask yourself what is missing and how that will impact the subject of the reading.
13. What is the context of the pattern? Is the pattern associated with reversed or upright cards? Are there multiple patterns interacting with one another?
14. See if you can draw a conclusion about the reading. What is the outcome?
15. Only now should you consider the actual meanings of the cards.
16. If you haven’t already done so, record the reading in your journal.
17. Repeat this exercise several times until you feel confident in your ability to read patterns.
3. Note that the four suits of the tarot have a variety of names. I use wands, swords, cups, and pentacles. Wands can be batons or staves, swords can be spades, cups can be hearts, and pentacles can be disks or coins. Some unusual decks will assign different suits, such as the flamingos, peppermills, hats, and oysters of the Wonderland Tarot.
4. In order to show how the pattern changes, I constructed these sample readings, unlike other readings in the book, which are all real readings drawn randomly.
5. The court cards are the page, knight, queen, and king in Waite-based decks, or the princess, knight, queen, and prince in Thoth-based decks. There are many variations on these titles in other decks.