Thirteen
Yes, that's right time for a TEST! Here's what you'll need:
1) Tarot Deck, ready to travel.
Pick one small enough to carry around with you--if you have a wide range of choices, pick one with images that symbolize to you the start of a new year. Make sure your deck is safely bagged, wrapped in a scarf or boxed for travel purposes.
2) A small notebook and pen
So you can jot down the spreads you get and tell us what happened! Just write down the spread--quickly and in short-hand (like 1 = hps for Card #1 is High Priestess), you'll remember what you said when you see it again.
Sometime between now and January 3rd, take your cards with you to a gathering or party or lunch or just to visit a friend and do the following spread for, yes, a real, live person--warning, if you do this at a party, in full view of all party goers, others may ask you to do them as well
This is a Calendar spread. It's very easy to lay out, and should be done for a person's Birthday or for someone's cultural New Year (Next month we'll be having the Chinese New Year, for example). Do this spread for a least one person, and yourself as well, as it's a spread that may be easier to read for yourself than some.
You lay out the cards bottom to top, RIGHT to left. So they look like this:
.....13.....
...12.11....
..10.9.8.7..
6.5.4.3.2.1.
Each card, surprise surprise, stands for a month. And the easy thing here is that as you will start with January, the numbering follows the calendar year exactly. #1 is January, #2 Feb, #3 March, etc. So you get an idea of what each month in the year ahead will be like.
#13 is an overview of the year as a whole. So if you got, say, The Fool, you'd say, "On the whole, this is going to be a year of new beginnings." Or something like that. Of course, as you read up from 1-13, you'll get an idea of the year 13 is summing up--and vice versa. If, for example, the other twelve cards indicate certain problems, 7 of swords (deception), 5 of swords (loss in fights), the Tower (lies coming down), etc, then the Fool at the top more likely indicates a year of being too optimistic, too foolish, naive. And you might warn the person to be more on their guard, more savvy.
If, on the other hand, the other cards are things like the Chariot, 8 of cups, Page of Wands, then the Fool card at the top likely indicates a year of travel, of packing up and going new places.
Likewise, the card at the top can help you if you're unsure about the meaning of one of the 12 cards below. If you have an 8 of cups for, say, April, and there is a Fool card at the top, then you might read that 8 of Cups as a literal move in April. You might say, "In April, you will end your old life, and follow a new dream; others will see it as foolish, but it's worth going for."
But if the card at the top is The Moon, then you might tell the person that in April, they're going to be lured away from family by a powerful illusion, or an almost irresistable, addictive desire. That they should be very careful that what they're going after is real and not a kind of maddness. It might lead to poetry and painting, but it could also be emotionally damaging.
You get the idea.
Don't forget to shuffle and cleanse the deck before laying your cards out. Especially for this spread, you want your deck very clear and ready to go each time you do this spread. And for this Field test, I'm laying down the law just to make things easy on you. No matter how people plead and ask, do only *THIS* spread.
First, because we don't want you spending your New Year's eve/day party doing tarot readings, second, because this spread should be particularly powerful right now. No need to confuse or weaken it by doing others.
I'm looking forward to hearing about your adventures out in the Field! HAVE FUN! And a very, very HAPPY NEW YEAR!
1) Tarot Deck, ready to travel.
Pick one small enough to carry around with you--if you have a wide range of choices, pick one with images that symbolize to you the start of a new year. Make sure your deck is safely bagged, wrapped in a scarf or boxed for travel purposes.
2) A small notebook and pen
So you can jot down the spreads you get and tell us what happened! Just write down the spread--quickly and in short-hand (like 1 = hps for Card #1 is High Priestess), you'll remember what you said when you see it again.
Sometime between now and January 3rd, take your cards with you to a gathering or party or lunch or just to visit a friend and do the following spread for, yes, a real, live person--warning, if you do this at a party, in full view of all party goers, others may ask you to do them as well
This is a Calendar spread. It's very easy to lay out, and should be done for a person's Birthday or for someone's cultural New Year (Next month we'll be having the Chinese New Year, for example). Do this spread for a least one person, and yourself as well, as it's a spread that may be easier to read for yourself than some.
You lay out the cards bottom to top, RIGHT to left. So they look like this:
.....13.....
...12.11....
..10.9.8.7..
6.5.4.3.2.1.
Each card, surprise surprise, stands for a month. And the easy thing here is that as you will start with January, the numbering follows the calendar year exactly. #1 is January, #2 Feb, #3 March, etc. So you get an idea of what each month in the year ahead will be like.
#13 is an overview of the year as a whole. So if you got, say, The Fool, you'd say, "On the whole, this is going to be a year of new beginnings." Or something like that. Of course, as you read up from 1-13, you'll get an idea of the year 13 is summing up--and vice versa. If, for example, the other twelve cards indicate certain problems, 7 of swords (deception), 5 of swords (loss in fights), the Tower (lies coming down), etc, then the Fool at the top more likely indicates a year of being too optimistic, too foolish, naive. And you might warn the person to be more on their guard, more savvy.
If, on the other hand, the other cards are things like the Chariot, 8 of cups, Page of Wands, then the Fool card at the top likely indicates a year of travel, of packing up and going new places.
Likewise, the card at the top can help you if you're unsure about the meaning of one of the 12 cards below. If you have an 8 of cups for, say, April, and there is a Fool card at the top, then you might read that 8 of Cups as a literal move in April. You might say, "In April, you will end your old life, and follow a new dream; others will see it as foolish, but it's worth going for."
But if the card at the top is The Moon, then you might tell the person that in April, they're going to be lured away from family by a powerful illusion, or an almost irresistable, addictive desire. That they should be very careful that what they're going after is real and not a kind of maddness. It might lead to poetry and painting, but it could also be emotionally damaging.
You get the idea.
Don't forget to shuffle and cleanse the deck before laying your cards out. Especially for this spread, you want your deck very clear and ready to go each time you do this spread. And for this Field test, I'm laying down the law just to make things easy on you. No matter how people plead and ask, do only *THIS* spread.
First, because we don't want you spending your New Year's eve/day party doing tarot readings, second, because this spread should be particularly powerful right now. No need to confuse or weaken it by doing others.
I'm looking forward to hearing about your adventures out in the Field! HAVE FUN! And a very, very HAPPY NEW YEAR!