This following exercise is intended to get you thinking. The “flowchart” presents a structural reading example that can be used to look at a specific opportunity and see what the possibilities are.
This is one way in which you can ask questions and perhaps get some useful answers in an unusual and interesting manner.
Let's assume that our Questioner is a single man living in his own rented apartment. He has a girlfriend whom he likes very much but is not yet seriously considering engagement or marriage. His parents, with whom he has a good relationship, live close by. He is a normal young man with a reasonable sense of adventure, but up till now has never seriously contemplated doing anything other than living and working in his own neighborhood. At the time of the reading, he has been offered a two-year contract overseas. He likes the idea of the trip, but wonders how he will get on so far away from home. He is also looking at his relationship with his girlfriend and trying to assess his (and her) feelings at being apart for such a long time. As our Questioner is a bright young man who is looking forward to enjoying business in the twenty-first century, we will, in his honor, drag the Tarot out of its fusty medieval home and put it onto a flowchart.
Begin with the oval at the top of the facing page that says work overseas. Then look at the questions in the rectangular question box: The job? The money? Location? The cards are named in the diamond-shaped processing box and the answers are to be found in the parallelogram-shaped answer boxes. Further questions can be found in the rectangular question box, with the thinking processes in the diamond-shaped box and further answers in the parallelogram box. All clear? No? Well look at the diagram and go with the flow.
The question here is: “Should I take this job?” If the cards were in the mood to be kind to us, they would give a nice clear answer such as the one below:
This card suggests success on all levels; therefore the answer would be to take the job and not to worry too much about the details, as they will soon be ironed out.
Only too often the cards give a confusing “maybe” type of answer, in which case a bit more digging will be required.
This card suggests that there will be problems, possibly quite a few of them, but there is nothing to suggest that they cannot be overcome.
Now we ask if there are any hidden difficulties or benefits that will come to light after the man starts the job.
This card has two meanings. The first one shows that the work will go well and the results will be worthwhile to all concerned. The second meaning suggests that housing may be particularly good in that part of the world, with the possible implication that the girlfriend may wish to join the Questioner.
If this were a genuine reading, three cards would hardly be enough to give a worthwhile answer; something deeper, such as the Celtic Cross spread would be much better.
The following idea makes a pleasant break from all the hard work that you have been putting in and it will help you and your friends to get to grips with assessing cards very quickly. You will need one die and one counter per player. There are two sets of rules for this game:
1. The first player must roll the die and move the counter forward according to the number shown. He must then assess the card upon which the counter lands. If he considers this to be a very good card, he should move his counter forward two places. If he considers it to be fairly good, then he can move forward one place. If the card appears to be really bad, he should move backward two places. If he considers it to be only slightly bad, he should move backward one place.
2. The second instruction is simple—cheat!
