View Full Version : major arcana - spreads
i wanted to ask this already for a long time, i have a few decks with pips where i would like to work only with the major arcana but i don't know what spreads i have to use and for what occasions i would use them for, so i would ask you do you know any?
thank you very much,
sara
Original Destiny
06-05-2002, 17:12
:OL Hi rostie, I must admit I don't know any Major spreads...Try making one up and see how it goes...I feel that the major cards are too powerful to be used on there own....This is only my opinion...maybe you feel different...If I am using the major cards only , then it is for meditation...I sometimes use the major cards when working as a counsellor...I ask the client to pick a card that visually represents how they are feeling at that moment in time...:TFOOL
mooncat2
06-05-2002, 18:03
Hi Rostie,
Have a look in the favourite spreads thread - I posted a spread there yesterday that is a majors only.
emily2otters
07-05-2002, 23:05
this halloween, when i do my annual "what's this year going to look like?" draw, i'll use only the majors.
i'll make a list of the dates for the new moon between halloween 2002 and halloween 2003, then draw a major for each. after each draw, i'll return the card to the deck and shuffle, allowing each draw to have all 22 possibilities. throughout the year, i'll refer back to the draws and watch how they manifest in each moon cycle.
i agree with original destiny, about the strength of the majors when used by themselves... i wouldn't be hesitent to use them alone, however, just careful to ask questions that respect them for what they are. not "should i go to this party tonight?", but "what are my best tools for enriching my spiritual life?"
oh please Diana, yes, you're so helpfull!!!!!!!!
thank you very much in advance and already for the ones you have given!!!!!!!!
with love,
sara
personally i never use only the majors (or the minors).......it feels to me like an incomplete reading. i view the majors as the actions and situations in our lives that we often have little control over - when alot of them come up in a layout - so i can't imagine how i (i'm speaking about myself here) could get a well-rounded reading from only the majors.
in light,
jade :)
wow, i never thought of that!!! there are lots of times that i just want the goods without the details.................thanks sooo much for taking the time to explain that to me.
hmmm.......i'll have to try this out ;)
love
jade :)
Just another idea to throw into the cauldron :)
I never start off doing a spread with just the majors, but if the throw I'm doing ends up with more than about 5 majors I will often redo the throw using only majors. (That's a Celtic Cross spread in both cases by the way!) I don't know when or where I got this method from, but I've talked to a couple of people since who do the same thing with their majors so it can't be that wacky! :)
Jade - I generally think of the majors as the 'big issues' in life, as opposed to the minors being the normal day-to-day stuff, but it makes a lot of sense the way you think of it too. Can I ask you a question though? If the major arcana shows things that we don't have control over, then in a reading with some majors and some minors does that mean that the minors show the things that the querant can change and the majors show things that cannot be affected no matter what the querant does? Or am I just not understanding your idea properly? :confused:
Blessings!
when i do a reading the majors don't just represent stuff that is out of their control.....they read like normal in the reading, BUT if there are 50% or more of majors in a layout, then the situation is one that the querent's guides have brought in for them.........a learning situation or a change in their life situation (for example) that they HAVE to do..................they got off their path and their guides are picking them up and plopping them back down on the right one LOL
i tell the querent that the situation is not one that they can control so to relax and go with it. let it lead them rather than them trying to manipulate the situation in any way. :)
does that clarify things?
in light
jade
Major Tom
14-05-2002, 12:38
For more years than I care to remember - I read the Celtic Cross with the majors only. The majors can be used with any spread that doesn't call for more than 22 cards! })
Reading with the majors calls for more intuition from the reader - but can provide considerable practical detail. The more detailed decks help. :)
Certainly provides for a more intense reading though. })
thanks for explaining Jade - that makes a lot of sense. I'm going to have to try this one out when I read!
Blessings!
Major Tom
15-05-2002, 04:18
Diana - I knew we must have something in common. })
It was Jade who gave the excellent advice to redo the spread in just the majors if the spread comes up more than 50% majors. I think I first read that advice in one of Eileen Connolly's books. The advantage was that with more than 50% majors - something definitely archtypal was occuring in the querent's life...
I am also very fond of the majors as a deck of 22 cards. My favorite is a set of BOTA that my mother gave me together with instructions for colouring them. I dutifully coloured them in according to instruction and covered them in sticky back plastic. Some of the colours have run but are still quite bright. I'm very glad I did that. :THIER
nope it wasn't me. i didn't give that advice..........i'm the one who doesn't use just majors. LOL
diana was right.....it was mermaid. :)
LOL
jade
Yep, it was me! :)
Diana - I've never really thought about why I do it this way, it was just something that someone suggested to me once that I tried and liked!
I guess if I try to think about it I'd say that I do it because the cards are telling you it's a pretty important issue, so I rethrow the spread to get more info, and use the majors to try to see the 'big' reasons for what's going on. Like, if the issue's that vital for me I want the more long term, indepth, intense view and the majors seem to give me that. I don't just want to know what's going on 'on the surface', or just beneath it.
Sorry, that doesn't make too much sense when I read back over it! Maybe we'll just have to stick with "I do it because I like it & coz it works for me!" :D
Major Tom
16-05-2002, 04:31
Originally posted by Mermaid
Yep, it was me! :)
My humble apologies! I'm having trouble keeping up. lol
i'm satisfied, practically. but if there's more to know i'm always fond to hear about it!
but thanks, really thanks, i learned a lot from you all! and i definatly will try it!
with love, sara.