Reading the cards in a different order than they were laid down...

I went to visit my Grandad last weekend and he asked me to do him a reading. I dont usually like reading for people I'm close to cos I can't tell if I am getting information from the cards or from what I already know about the person. Anyway I told him not to tell me his question and just to shuffle, think of his question and lay the cards out. While he did that I went off to make a cup of tea then when I came back I read the cards for him in my usual way...from left to right...

Afterwards he said that my reading answered his question but that he had laid them out the opposite way to the way I read them, so he laid them out from right to left, backwards in my mind!

So i looked at the cards and if I had read them in the order he laid them out the reading would be completely different! So i would say I read them in the order they were "meant" to be read....but what would be the point in him laying them out backwards if i was going to read them forwards..? If you see what I mean?

<shrug> The cards ended up in the right places - it's all good.

As a matter of fact, I use an even-armed cross-spread occasionally to pinpoint important issues, and the order I lay it out routinely is

.....2
4....1....5
.....3

but the order in which I always read it is:

......3
4....1.....5
......2

It works perfectly wall, as well.

harmony1985 said:

So i looked at the cards and if I had read them in the order he laid them out the reading would be completely different! So i would say I read them in the order they were "meant" to be read....but what would be the point in him laying them out backwards if i was going to read them forwards..? If you see what I mean?

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He laid the cards out in the manner that felt right to him and you read the cards in the manner that felt right to you. Win-win situation in my book.

Had you been there when he laid the cards out and told him the "proper" (in your mind) manner in which to lay down the cards, he might have resisted, which may have thrown off the energy of the reading. I think the same holds true with how he laid down the cards. You may be a deal from the top of the deck person and he may have fanned and pulled cards or vice versa.

I started a thread last year about a reading I was "forced" to do. My partner's brother's girlfriend asked me to do a reading for her. I left the room for a minute and when I came back, she'd already pulled cards (from a deck I hadn't planned on using) and laid them out. I had no idea how well she'd shuffled, the order in which she laid out the cards (although I'd left her with a printout of the spread I was going to use) or anything else. But I interpreted the cards in the manner that made sense to me. While I'm sure the process of shuffling, choosing and laying out the cards would've been different had I been involved, it didn't matter in how I interpreted the cards.

Rodney

I've had this happen many times before. A few years ago, I started "overthinking it" and worrying about it, so I formed a new habit... when the cards first go down, I ignore positions for a few seconds. I just look at the cards, see how they're relating to each other, note any flashes of seemingly unrelated insight. Then I mentally go *back* and read noting the positions (which gives me added information), and then I put it all together. It adds about 30 seconds of silent study to any in-person readings I do, but I've found it makes me more accurate, because I can see the cards as a *whole* and how they relate to each other, rather than "Card A is in X position so it must mean ___." It helps me to view the positions as supplemental info, rather than feeling like if something is past position than it's "supposed" to mean past even if my gut is screaming that that card with *these* cards means there's going to be good news next week.

YMMV of course.

I almost always read the cards in a multi-directional manner...depending on what feels right to me...(I started doing that from the beginning and didn't know it was "wrong"...lol)

Now some layouts call for certain questions that go with certain cards and so I follow those usually...however if I am just doing a spread without questions attached I may read it in multiple directions....

Example

**************1*******************4*************************************3*******************2***********************
********************5**6***7******************************

I may read and connect 1 and 3 together or 1 and 4......depending on the feeling I get when first examining the cards....what "feels" right..............
Same with 4 and 2 .....or.....4 and 1............2 and 3 etc....................
Then 5-6-7......can be read forward or backwards...............................

I know it sound confusing but when I "see" the cards together they speak to me in a certain manner and I follow that...I am learning to view cards as pairs or trios rather than as individual cards....as such the meanings are deeper and richer in meaning

DragonFae said:

I know it sound confusing but when I "see" the cards together they speak to me in a certain manner and I follow that...I am learning to view cards as pairs or trios rather than as individual cards....as such the meanings are deeper and richer in meaning

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This is how I do it, too. The interrelations of the cards tend to tell me much more than where they fell. Not always, but most of the time.

I'd echo Dragonfae and seanchai, above. I move the cards out of position, pair them together, look for themes and patterns, move them some more... it all adds to the meaning. I've also read a spread both backwards and forwards. Forwards, it answered the question in a straightforward way; backwards, it gave me advice and a warning. It was all good.

It's like everybody said. You got the message you were supposed to get.

it is like the nine card spread........
read them as first as accross 1, 2, 3
4. 5. 6
7, 8, 9

then read them down 1,4 and 7
2, 5, and 6
7, 8 and 9


then read 1, 5 and 9
and then 3, 5 and 7...

then the overall picture....... suits, numbers, colours etc.....

so for me sometimes i will get a spread and just read what sticks out first in the imagery then move to minor detail.......there is no right or wrong... what just feels right.... trust in yourself.........putting cards in threes can reall assist in the reading....

Vesta

Thanks all
That is what i thought, i got the message i was meant to get. I will tell him next time i speak to him cos he was asking if it mattered that i'd read them in the opposite order. I told him at the time it happened like that for a reason but thought i'd get some of your lots opinions so thank you