Using the full deck...again and again

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 31 Dec 2004, and now archived in the Forum Library.

WolfSpirit	31 Dec 2004
This seems so very obvious...and has probably been discussed before as well. Last day of the year, so I wanted to do a New Year's Spread, picking a card for every month of the coming year. I felt I should not lay the cards down in a spread but use the whole deck for every month, so I wrote down the card I pulled and put it back in the deck. This way, I pulled the Lovers for two months and the 6 of cups even three times ! Had it been possible to draw every card only once, the results would have been very different. So that made me think...doesn't the same go for other spreads as well ? Don't you need ALL possibilities for every position in the spread ? Especially for larger spreads, where a lot of cards have disappeared from the deck once you get to the last cards. There would also be disadvantages: you would not see the whole spread in full immediately. You could lay down the spread when you substitute doubles with cards from another deck - but maybe that would look weird, and it might disturb the dynamics of the reading, doing those tricks. Anyway, I wonder what others think about this. Should it be possible to have a card appear in more than one position ? Is it only for practical reasons that we don't let it ?

Moonbow*	31 Dec 2004
I have never thought of this before WolfSpirit other than it being the reason that I don't use a significator. But it does remind me of Contrascarpe's 'reflecting pools' spreads where he uses 5 decks (I think) and therefore duplicate cards can appear in different positions. Having said that, I think that any answers or advise we may need is in all 78 cards, and that in picking them for the spread we are opening ourselves to choosing (subconsciously) the right card for the position.

jmd	31 Dec 2004
From my perspective, if each position is to be taken as its own independent reading, then certainly the whole deck for each card may be possibly 'better' used. If the spread - even a year's spread - is to be taken as a narrative, with each card speaking and informing that which comes before and that which comes after, then the one deck spread into twelve (or other) positions seems to me to be not only more natural, but allows for the cards to speak from within the same ... how shall I put it... chapter from the book of 78 pages.

Fulgour	31 Dec 2004
Just the other day I did a reading for a close friend, and her two questions were of the "so near and yet so far" variety, though there was just a single issue. Lots of dynamic energy. I took a walk and thought about it, and used the whole deck three times ~ two 3 card spreads, and then a one-card draw. The dynamic includes not just the possibility of getting the same cards in different positions, but the amazing energy of having the whole deck do multiple tasks in one reading.

contradiction	31 Dec 2004
i too have contemplated this issue. most of the time if i do a reading, and need some clarification, or more detailed knowledge, i will replace the cards, and reshuffle. but, there are times that i feel the cards telling me to just keep going. when this happens, i lay out cards until the cards say stop. sometimes, it is just 3 or 4 more cards, but i have laid out all 78 in on spread, as strange as this sounds, (i know some people have a different view on this), but each card, all 78 feel right into place in the story, of the reading. so personally i would just do whatever feels right. for your monthly/yearly reading, i do not think there would be anything wrong, to go back and do a big picture reading for the whole year. consider this, you can not have a year without 12 months, but you can have 1 month without a year. therefore if you wanted to look at the year as a whole, and then at each month independetly it would not be the same reading. this is one situation, that will come down to how you personally feel, and listening to the cards, and following their lead.

Fulgour	31 Dec 2004
WolfSpirit wrote: Should it be possible to have a card appear in more than one position? Is it only for practical reasons that we don't let it? Did you ever wonder, which cards you will never draw. In 50 years time say, do you think it's possible that you would never have drawn one certain card in a reading? Readers who have discovered that nothing happens twice also know that some things will never get to happen at all.

SunChariot	01 Jan 2005
WolfSpirit wrote: This seems so very obvious...and has probably been discussed before as well. Last day of the year, so I wanted to do a New Year's Spread, picking a card for every month of the coming year. I felt I should not lay the cards down in a spread but use the whole deck for every month, so I wrote down the card I pulled and put it back in the deck. This way, I pulled the Lovers for two months and the 6 of cups even three times ! Had it been possible to draw every card only once, the results would have been very different. So that made me think...doesn't the same go for other spreads as well ? Don't you need ALL possibilities for every position in the spread ? Especially for larger spreads, where a lot of cards have disappeared from the deck once you get to the last cards. There would also be disadvantages: you would not see the whole spread in full immediately. You could lay down the spread when you substitute doubles with cards from another deck - but maybe that would look weird, and it might disturb the dynamics of the reading, doing those tricks. Anyway, I wonder what others think about this. Should it be possible to have a card appear in more than one position ? Is it only for practical reasons that we don't let it ? I do something like that. Lately, for the time being, instead of doing spreads, I seem to be drawn to doing a series of related questions on a topic with only one card for each question. Each question seems to lead into the next. My current reading is on some inner child work and is 18 questions long. Then I do one question at a time, and when I am completely done I replace the card and go on to the next question. I don't know what drew me to stop doing spreads, but this method is working very well for me now. Oh, and yes I have found that the same card comes up more than once in one of these readings. And when it does it tends to point out some interesting correlations between the two questions asked, that are sometimes very revealing, and point out things you did not notice in common between the two. Bar

SunChariot	01 Jan 2005
Fulgour wrote: Did you ever wonder, which cards you will never draw. In 50 years time say, do you think it's possible that you would never have drawn one certain card in a reading? Readers who have discovered that nothing happens twice also know that some things will never get to happen at all. I think it is possible, but is it likely? I think it depends on the questions you ask. If you asked only questions about the future and what the card depicted was not part of your future in any way, then it would never come up. But if you asked questions on a wide variety of topics about yourself (for self-exploration...), then, in my opinion, I think every card would come up at some time, either as a quality you have in you, or as a quality you need to work on developing in yourself. I would love to hear more about what others think. Very interesting topic Fulgour! Bar

The Using the full deck...again and again thread was originally posted on 31 Dec 2004 in the Using Tarot Cards board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Using Tarot Cards, or read more archived threads.