Problem With Daily Readings

Marquise

Lately I been working on trying to get something more practical out of my daily draws. What I want to do is use a spread that will not only shed light on the events of the day but will also give advice on how to handle them. A 3 card spread is more then enough for this in my opinion. I been asking my rider deck "Give me insight on the events of my day today?"

I've been using Mary K Greer's three card spread from the Tarot For Yourself book. For those of you who don't know it (although you probably do) it's drawing three cards - one for body, one for mind, and one for spirit. While the past two days that I've been using this format has brought some minor syncronicities, I still don't understand how I can use a spread like this for practical daily reading in terms of the question I'm asking.

What other ways should I interpret my daily readings using the above spread, and how can I better understand both the events, and any advice given? What is a better way of phrasing a daily draw question?

Also she mentions either fanning out the cards or picking one card from three stacks. While I know this is all pretty subjective what are the advantages of each, and what are more efficient ways of using each method? I was thinking more along the lines of dividing the cards into three stacks, and then fanning out each stack. What do you think?

Thanks for all your help.
 

kricket25

This is a really good question, and I'm curious on the answers. I have had trouble in the past myself with daily readings.

I find I don't get much out of them. I always feel like I'm over-doing it. I like to focus on a monthly or bi-monthly reading with a lot of detail.

I have often thought of trying daily readings again, though.

Good luck!
 

rwcarter

I've found from experience that Daily Readings work best for me as a retrospective of the day that is ending instead of as a predictor of the day that shall occur. When done predictively, Daily Readings could mean a lot of different things. But when done in retrospect, there is a more finite set of circumstances to which the cards do refer.

As for what the three individual cards refer to, Mind, Body and Spirit work fine. So do Goal, Challenge and Outcome; Thesis, Synthesis and Antithesis; and Morning, Afternoon and Evening off the top of my head.

Another thing you can do with your daily readings is to track what cards appear the most in a given time frame (monthly, quarterly, yearly, etc.) Those cards (both in each position and in all positions) can provide you with insights about your life over the past period.

As for phrasing the question, what I use is pretty close to what you do Marquise - What insight can you provide me on my day that is just ending?

As for how to choose the cards, I would suggest you try all the different methods and settle on the one that feels most right to you. (If multiple methods work for you, then you can switch them up at will.) I use a variant of cutting into three stacks and picking the top card off each stack. That works for me. But it might not work for you. The most important thing is that the method you choose feels right to you.

HTH,
Rodney
 

hshaffery

I used to do morning spreads, and aside from the fact that I can't drag myself out of bed in time to do them often enough, I also found them pretty confusing. So I started doing them at the end of the day, like Rodney mentioned. This spread has proven really useful, and if you browse/search through the "Tarot Spreads" forum you'll probably find some more to try. :)
 

tigerlily

I also used (I stopped out of laziness) three cards, but gave them no position meanings. Instead I tried to see if they formed combinations or if each card pointed to a different event of the day. Some days it was the combination, others it was the single cards, and still other days, I couldn't find any correlations.

It's fun, like tracing astrological transits, but I lack the self discipline to keep it up for more than a month at a time.
 

Anna

I've always found the "mind body spirit" spread to be completly useless, to be honest. I don't bother with it.

I use this spread when I want more clarity:

1. What will be good today?
2. What will be difficult today?
3. Advice
 

tabi

I am doing the three card daily from the Tarot for YourSelf Work book myself, what I've done is simply write down the cards and the events of that particular day. I am not going into what the cards mean or if they mean anything at all. I'm doing a two week period then I'm going to review over them to see if anything jumps out at me for some reason.

IF you want to get a good feel of how to fit tarot into your daily life as Rodney and hshaffery stated at the end of the day would be better to view. May also want to add in Anna's spread to give you a good overview of the day or end of day asking: What do I need to think about? What did I miss that I shouldn't have? Advice to handle things better in the future?

My own problem with daily spreads are these: A) I work nights so my days are a bit more confused them most peoples and B) How does certain cards mean something to me in my daily life? I"ve seen this so using it as an example: The Tower card, me I would view this as things being a bit shaky or having a bad day someone else who draw it in their daily said that their washing machine (dryer-one of the two) went out on them...see I would NOT have connected that together at all even if it does make sense when someone else says it. *shrugging*

So basically you're unfortunately kinda stuck finding out what works best for you. It is something that I'm still trying to work out for myself. *sighs* Hope that I was at least of some help but for some reason I doubt it.

tabi
 

Aladdin

Overall i am not a supporter of the daily spread idea if only because it could lead to unnecessary anxiety if an early morning commuting rat race has to be.
Three cards drawn could as an example be the Tower, the Chariot reversed and the six of pentacles reversed. On looking at this i have to ask myself whether i would even bother to get into my chariot ? Most likely it wouldn't even start if the battery was flat, all six cells discharged, ergo: the retrospective at the end of the day makes a lot more sense.
 

emmsma

I am doing daily readings with my new deck (Anubis Oracle), to get myself familiar with it.

I draw a single card. I feel it gives me idea enough of what the day to come will be about. I focus on the day ahead, not really asking a specific question. Then I write down in my journal what I see - describing the card, then my impression of the card.

Then I consult the book, recording what it says the card means.

I've been doing it for a week now and I feel I am doing pretty well. My meanings are pretty on target with what the book says - not that that is how I gauge my progress, but this is the method that works for me.
 

Anna

Aladdin said:
Overall i am not a supporter of the daily spread idea if only because it could lead to unnecessary anxiety if an early morning commuting rat race has to be.
Three cards drawn could as an example be the Tower, the Chariot reversed and the six of pentacles reversed. On looking at this i have to ask myself whether i would even bother to get into my chariot ? Most likely it wouldn't even start if the battery was flat, all six cells discharged, ergo: the retrospective at the end of the day makes a lot more sense.

You could always do a daily reading in the evening to reflect on the days events.

Or pull a card in the morning, but don't look at it until the evening - I really like doing that because then you know you haven't influenced your day because of the card you pulled.