Sweet! Another chance to power up the ol' printer. Thank you Bee.
As for the "neutral zone", if we view the whole sequence as a gradation of dignity, then it makes sense that some cards are neutral. No one approach is right or wrong, of course.
I view the courts as being somehow separate from the pips, literally a noble manifestation of their suit's energies. I haven't found a good way to express how that would look on a gradation of dignity diagram however. Hmmm???
When doing a reading, I start out very general -
"Should I go to Elizabeth's party tonight?"
I'm a Sword . The party is a Baton. I won't go. The party will be 'laborious', and I'll be in a bad mood. No need for dignities, elements, temperaments, planets, Iamblichus, Plato, Aristotle, or Mel's 'nicknames'.
There is no point to pull out the precision tools to whack a nail. (LOL. There it is folks! Mel's reading method in a nutshell.)
Other times we need to beam down, and dig a little.
Edward asks,
"I really want this position as a Cracker Salter. What can I do to get it?"
Edward = 10 Coins, Cracker Salting = 3 Batons
Ah? Delightfully vague cards. In a yes/no scenario, a definite 'maybe', but this is a should question. Damn. We take a deep breath, whip out our toolbox and start digging around for some precision tools.
Again, I'd like to throw this question out to our distinguished panel of judges, and all the viewers at home,
When 'bad cards' show up, where do we find their solution?