Shadow card?

libuse

Hi All,

Apologies if this is a naive question, but I'm a novice who is trying to teach myself. I'm feeling that I'm getting somewhere with the work I've done so far, but on this forum I see a lot of references to a shadow card. I've tried to do a search for what this is and how to use it but it just throws up lots of threads that mention the existence of this position rather than a definition. Neither of the books I'm working from mention a shadow card either.

So, my question is, can anyone guide me as to where the shadow card would sit and how I should interpret its message?

Again, I'm guessing this is a stupidly basic question but I can't find the answer for myself unfortunately.

Thanks in advance for any guidance
 

franniee

I will! :D

Welcome!

The shadow card to me is the base card - the card at the bottom of the deck after you have shuffled and drawn the cards. I shuffle - cut the deck - then usually draw from the top of the deck but before I do all of that I look at the bottom card. It tells ME (and everyone is different) what this reading is all about. It tells me the overall theme - the crux of the matter or the mind frame of the querent. I use it all of the time.

Search for base card or shadow - there are many threads about it. :)

:heart: Enjoy!
f
 

Thirteen

Franniee said it. Some readers pull the Shadow card all the time, others only pull it for special spreads or on special occasions. Essentially, after you've shuffled, cut the deck and laid out the spread by flipping cards off the top of the deck, you pull the card from the very bottom of the deck and set it to the side.

This is your shadow card and it's kind of the "unconscious" of the spread. What the whole thing is *really* about. So, for example, if you got 5/Wands as the shadow card, you (the reader) might say to the querent (whoever you were reading for): "This spread is all about competition and the feeling that you have to fight and compete for attention...."

And now you, the reader, keep that in mind as you read the spread. Hopefully, it helps you to better understand what message of individual cards and the spread as a whole.
 

starrystarrynight

Like franniee, to me the shadow is the card at the base of the deck after the shuffle and throw of the spread.

I look at it one of two ways:

1. as the energy the seeker brings to the reading (almost like the Foundation card of a Celtic Cross)--sort of the reason the seeker is looking for the info or why he is asking the question. Sometimes the seeker doesn't really know why he is asking the question, you know...or there is something deeper to the question that may need to come out.

2. as the overview of the whole reading (especially if it is a trump--Major Arcana--card)...as the life lesson that the seeker may need to learn by way of the information given in the reading itself.

I hope that made some sense to you.
 

star-lover

i find the shadow card very useful too

what is the difference between the shadow card and the quintessence card?
 

balenciaga

I had the ace wands sitting at the bottom of the deck yesterday. I thought about it and had to laugh. I was making soup and the deck was telling me to turn up the heat under the pot; it was too low (it was true, the soup had fallen below a simmer!)
So the shadow card can be some additional facet that ties the whole thing together, or some hidden aspect regarding the issue at hand.

I think the quintessence (the dictionary says it is the higher essence above the four elements) card might differ in that it is the essence of the question, whereby the shadow is the hidden element (but a necessary one).
 

starrystarrynight

The quint card is the one you get by adding up all the numerical values of the cards and reducing it down to a single number.

But I don't use quint cards (I tried it at one time, but didn't find it as useful for me)...so someone else can likely shed more light on them than I can.
 

Umbrae

starrystarrynight said:
The quint card is the one you get by adding up all the numerical values of the cards and reducing it down to a single number.

But I don't use quint cards (I tried it at one time, but didn't find it as useful for me)...so someone else can likely shed more light on them than I can.

Off topic: some history on the 'Quint' card should be inserted here (please see link at the bottom of the referenced post). It dates back to Wirth as far as I can tell, and is ONLY used in the spread referred to as "du tirage en croix". You'd not add up all the cards in a Celtic Cross to find a quint card...

Shadow or Base cards often receive (IMO) too much attention. I don’t think of it so much as ‘What the reading is about’, as “something to keep in mind while giving the reading’.

I’ve seen readers get too hung up on them, or assign far to much importance on the Shadow card, and then allow it to overshadow the whole spread. It shouldn’t be part of the spread, but part of the reading (two very different things).
 

star-lover

balenciaga said:
I had the ace wands sitting at the bottom of the deck yesterday. I thought about it and had to laugh. I was making soup and the deck was telling me to turn up the heat under the pot; it was too low (it was true, the soup had fallen below a simmer!)
So the shadow card can be some additional facet that ties the whole thing together, or some hidden aspect regarding the issue at hand.

I think the quintessence (the dictionary says it is the higher essence above the four elements) card might differ in that it is the essence of the question, whereby the shadow is the hidden element (but a necessary one).
LOL at ace of wands meaning turn up the cooker

ok thanks for the explanation about the difference, im still confused
:D

what about the shadow card being the bottom line, crux of the matter, whats most important in querents head/heart, but the quintessence being like a clarifier for the whole reading?
 

libuse

Thankyou, so much, all of you. This has really helped me and I appreciate the time you have all taken to share your thoughts

Stevie