Featured Reading - Konraad's Past Lives Spread

Konraad's Past Lives Spread

This thread will be used for the Featured Readings opening on Saturday 7 June 2003


………………………….....…THRONE II……………………….


…………………….. .………………Ace……………………………………

…………………………...18……14……4……3…………………………


……........….THRONE 1……………………....…… THRONE III....


…………….....…….Ace……………………………………...……Ace …………….. ….

………….15…..11……2……1………………….....….13……7…..6……5…………..

………………………………...…19……………………………...………....……17………….



……………………THRONE IV…………………………………..

…………………………….Ace………………………………………….

…………21……20……16……12……10……9……8……22……………….


Table of Thrones

Throne I: Destiny and early childhood
Ace of Coins: Strength and vitality
Ace of Wands: Work and responsibility
Ace of Cups: Love of pleasure, depletion
Aceof Swords: Poor health

Throne II Career
Ace of Coins: Highly favourable
Ace of Wands: Great power
Ace of Cups: Insufficient effort
Ace of Swords: Delays and frustrations

Throne III Love and Marriage
Ace of Coins: Powerful
Ace of Wands: Conflicts and difficulties
Ace of Cups: Joy
Ace of Swords: Quarrels

Throne IV Psyche (Past Lives)
Ace of Coins: Unhappy or unlucky
Ace of Wands: Struggles
Ace of Cups: True beauty
Ace of Swords: Great power

Welcome!

Welcome to our featured reading:

Konraad's Past Life Spread

My volunteer for this reading will be Marion--thank you Marion. Now if you view the diagram which Moongold has so kindly set up, you'll see this is a pretty complex spread.

It's also a BIG spread. If you do this spread, you're going to need a LARGE clear area. You want to separate the "Thrones" best you can and keep them from bumping into one another.

HOW IT WORKS:

You have 4 "Thrones"--each one is its own mini reading. They DO relate, but not like most spreads. And unlike certain spreads, there is no reading them according to, say, number or placement (as with the celtic cross, reading the card that crosses first, then is above, then below, etc.).

You read Throne by Throne. Each throne has a story--and the images in the cards give you the story.

Requirements: This spread requires that you separate out the 4 aces and all the majors. Those are the ONLY cards you'll be using, so set aside the rest of the deck.

The Aces: The aces are shuffled separately (by you or the querent), then laid out simply--1, 2, 3, and 4. Their job is to "crown" each throne and give a clue as to how each story should be read. Moongold has detailed what each Ace means depending on which Throne it crowns. Basically, the Ace tells you if this aspect of the person's life (or past life) is happy, sad, powerful or weak.

The Majors: The Majors are shuffled (by you or the querent) and laid out after the Aces are down--in the order you see in the diagram. As you can see, the numbering is pretty complex. Two cards in 1, then two in 2, then three in 3, then three in 4 (moving CLOCKWISE).

Back to Throne 1--and now we put down one card in each--COUNTER-CLOCKWISE! Go around twice, then lay the final three cards down in Throne 4.

You lay down 22 cards--thus using all the majors. I however, like to add in the court cards. That's just my preference. The benefit of this, is that I think you get more "characters" for the stories told. The negative is that, well, you can mess up when laying down cards. Just using the majors makes it easy to know when you've laid them all down.

The Thrones: there are 4 thrones. Throne #1 indicates a period in childhood or youth. I usually let this range from babyhood on up through college (depending on the age of the querent).

Throne #2 indicates the person's present job/career.

Throne #3 indicates the person's current social or love life--relations with others.

Throne #4 is the past life.

The Idea: The idea behind Konraad's spread is NOT just to find out about a past life, but to find out HOW that past life affects the present life--and, in the case of Throne #1, affected an aspect of the person's immediate past.

Reading: To read this spread, I've found, requires two things:

First, fluidity in how you look at the cards. Rigid right-to-left doesn't really work. Nor does interpeting the cards as you normally might. The Chariot, for example, may mean literally "WAR!"--as compared to "controlling opposite forces." The pictures tell a story as much as offer an interpetation.

Second, this is a VERY interactive spread. Especially when it comes the past life, the Querent needs to be asked, "does that sound familiar?"

But let's get down to it, shall we? So you can see it in action.

For those of you playing at home, I'm using THE ANCESTRAL PATH Tarot. This is actually not a deck I'd recommend for a past life spread as it has rather distinct images (like Egyptian queens) that might bias me (Past life: "You were an Egyptian Queen"). A deck with more neutral imagry is better for past lives.

But I felt it right for Marion and so I'm going with it all the same. Marion is an Aries (I use the Zodiac in my readings, so that will be important in, say, deciding which cards stand for her, etc.). Here we go!

Throne 1 (Childhood!)

Throne #1 appears as follows:

*********Ace of Swords**********

Justice**Fool**Prince/Cups**Emperor*
*********************Judgement*

There are two keys to the story. First is the Ace which crowns the Throne. In this case, it is the Ace of Swords. Which, going back to the diagram, you'll see stands for "Poor health." In this deck, the Ace/Sword is a floating Samurai sword, very severe and final.

So I know right away that this was a time in Marion's childhood or youth when either she or someone in her family was not well. Also a time of severity, finality.

The other key is the card down and to the right, the "leg" of the Throne. In this case, Judgement. In this deck, Judgement is a VERY interesting card. It pictures a woman floating out of her bed, drifting, in her nightgown, toward a open window that ripples like water (and reflects her) as she starts to float through it.

The Fool is another interesting card in this deck. It pictures a modern woman before a mirror, holding up the very self-same Fool Card. The Emperor is Aries--but this is "childhood" and so The Fool becomes the natural card to stand for Marion in this story.

The feeling I get from this story is as follows: This is a time in Marion's teen or young adult years. That time when we're all, well, Foolish and innocent--more so, it seems, then in our wiser days of earlier childhood. It is a point where she decided to make a radical change in her life (Judgement).

This is actually a pretty self-evident tale--it's the story of a girl meeting a handsome boy (Prince of Cups) and, well, going out the window with him. Even at the time, she was able to admit to being a Fool (showing off that card of herself)--but he was, well, very handsome and off she went. Her feelings were that though this relationship--this leaving home--she would find herself (the mirrors).

Daddy (or both parents--The Emperor) did NOT approve--and there was a severing of relationships because of it (Justice). On reflection, Marion might well say now that it was "fair"--but it was also cold and harsh.

But what about the "health" issue? I have a few thoughts on this--one is that the romance happened (blossomed) at a time when Marion was sick in her bed.

The other, of course, is that the results of this teen romance did not leave Marion in the best of heath.

Marion--is any of this sounding familiar?

Sorry about the delay Thirteen and everyone wanting to see how this spread works. My plans got set askew and I wound up coming home a day late.

My feedback on Throne 1.

Childhood. Yes, I had a very sickly childhood. I had pneumonia every winter. I missed a lot of school and basically landed in the Children’s Hospital for months on end. Then it went away and I have been more or less healthy ever since. Still have asthma, though it vansihed in my teens and came back in my mid thirties.

Judgement: your description of the card is very evocative. I day dreamed intensely as a child… I did indeed drift away, out the window, as you describe. This is very important in understanding my life I believe.

I am not a romantic person, though I did have some episodes in the later teens and early twenties that I guess most have. I see them as a younger me than you do. The romance that you refer to (and it wasn’t very romantic) happened when I first left home to start my job. I was on the other side of the country and he was a person I knew from back home.

My father was a remote figure, I think he liked me but he couldn’t express it. The Fool may be correct, I stayed immature very very late because of the previous two circumstances.

I would have to say that my mother was more The Emperor than my father. There was not a lot of feedback about that rather ill-starred affair. My mother seemed to disapprove and even dislike me, because I look and act so much like my father. And I have no doubt you are drawing the correct conclusions from that. So, any other thoughts on Throne 1? Or do we go on now? Marion

Throne 2 (Career)

Throne II appears as follows:

******Ace of Staves (wands)****

*Tower**K/Staves**P/Coins**P/Staves*

The second Throne doesn't clue you in, like the first and third, about an important card (the "leg" of the throne)--so you have to decide which of the four cards + the Ace might be important.

In this case, I'd say that there are three cards of importance: The Ace is VERY important in letting us know how to read this spread. With the Tower there, this could easily indicate an unhappy situation, but the Ace of Staves let's us know that this is a spread of POWER. So we know not to read that Tower as disastor, but as indicative of power.

The first question here is which card represents Marion? It could be The Tower, indicating that in her career she's shaking things up. But being that she's an Aries, I'd rather put her as King/Staves (wands) and keep the Tower as the effect she has.

At this point in her career, Marion is an expert and most certainly in power as a leader. The Prince of Coins, and the Prince of Staves are those under her--students or apprentices (may be male or female). The Prince Staves is a lot like her, and there are conflicts, but he/she's got energy. Prince Coins is hardworking, precise.

Marion's power comes from brutal honesty and lightning insights. She tears down lies, falsehoods and misunderstandings. This isn't communication so much as creative information and powerful instincts--also the fact that she's "been there, done that." She just KNOWS.

Marion--As we got Throne 1 cleared up, I'm going to move onto Throne 3 and 4--and let you catch up. Just give me some yeas or nays on Throne's 2 & 3--as we'll need to correlate #4 to them as well as #1.

Throne 3: Love/Social

Throne III appears as follows:

**********Ace of Coins***********

Princess/Sword*Sun*Wheel*Hanged Man
*********************King/Cups

Once again, we look at the Ace first, and then at the "leg" of the throne, the King of Cups.

The Ace here (of coins) isn't indicative of romance, but, again, of POWER. It's interesting to compare this spread to Throne #1 where the Prince of Cups had such power over the Fool.

In this spread, Marion is the Princess of Swords. Not the cooler Queen of Swords because she still has that heat of Aries, but when it comes to romance, playfully cool. She now has power over the King of Cups (the Prince grown up)--or, if you will, power over romance. It no longer, as in her youth, has power over her.

What's most striking about this Throne is how incredibly youthful--and repetive its message is--The Sun, The Wheel and the Hanged Man, which, in this deck, is a babe in a womb, hanging, as babe do, upside down, waiting to be born.

*The Sun--fresh, new, empowered.
*The Wheel--Lucky, taking a new turn.
*And the Hanged Man--a baby about to be born.

In contrast to Throne 1, with it's daydreaming Fool, Marion's sight/insight here is youthful (baby) but wise; sword-blade clear and up-side-down unique. In addition, it's content to stay in the womb, waiting. VERY like the young Princess/Swords is content to think rather than feel, the children in the garden of the Sun content to be, well, in the Sun, and the Wheel to turn, turn, turn.

There is power in having power--in being content, in feeling fresh and young, in feeling lucky, blessed. And, most especially, in not being in any rush. When and if Romance comes again, it will come. When it's time, the Wheel will turn, the baby will be born, the kids playing in the garden of the sun will open the gate to others.

Till then, the Princess of Swords contemplates alone, content and in control.

Throne 4: Past Life! PART 1

Throne 4--our long awaited Past Life, appears like this:

***********Ace of Cups***********

Moon*Devil*Q/C*Lovers*Q/St*K/S*P/S*Pcess/St*

That's one long line of cards. Now here's the sticky part. I could be wrong but I believe that Konraad states somewhere in his book that these should be read from left-to-right. But for some reason, this never felt right to me. I read them right-to-left.

Do what feels right for you. But that's how I read them here--and this story pretty much tells itself:

Ace of Cups indicates a life of "Beauty"--Beauty, yes, but that doesn't preclude some sadness and tragedy, as we shall see.

In a past life, Marion could have been man or woman. So we have to decide, early on in this spread, which card represents Marion. In this case, it's pretty clear. Our Aries could be none other than the the Princess and then Queen of Staves. So Marion was female in this life.

With this many court/personality cards, we have to reach another conclusion: Which ones are different people, and which are a single person developing and changing? There are clues--but the best hint is what fits the story. Remember that what you're reading here is a linar tale: beginning, middle and end.

Also, as I mentioned in the beginning, especially in Throne 4, we have to make choices in how we read the cards--as what they mean, or as more literal? Is Lovers a "choice" or is it two people having, perhaps, an affair or marriage--or both?

So let's see what happened to Marion:
We start with her as Princess of Staves, opinionated, haughty, hot tempered. The boy next door is the Prince of Swords, cool and training to be a soldier.

Here's where we begin to follow intincts and see if they jive with Marion's memories ("does this sound familiar?"). When was this? When I talked earlier with Marion, she mentioned a possible "Civil War" past life. This might be it--or, if not, my instincts would say it's WAAAY back at a time when boys from well off families were naturally trained to be warriors. If this is NOT the Civil War, then tis is a warrior society, and there is a standing army, to protect an ancient empire. If it is the Civil War, our Prince was a son expected to go to West Point, just like his dad and grandad. Our Prince and Princess were part of an arranged marriage.

They weren't children of very powerful people (not the kids of kings), but they weren't poor commoners either. They were children of fairly important and well off people. He was trained from childhood to use weapons--this being a legacy of his position. He was expected to be in the army as an officer, and to rise through the ranks. She was expected to give orders and run a household. To be an important lady.

To be continued in Part II.

Throne 4: Past Life! PART 2

So what happens? Our Prince and Princess grow up to be a King and Queen. And they both live up to expectations. He is very successful in his military career, she is at the center of society, on her way to being a very influential and charismatic lady.

As was expected (and King/Queen tells us) they've married.

Lovers: Here's where it gets interesting--they actually find they love each other, passionately. He's cool and dignified, she's charismatic and fiery--but they both share a driving ambition, a desire to be at the center of their worlds, to make their mark. He loves that she is queen of the social scene, clever and beautiful and all the guys envy him. She loves that he's a dashing, controled officer, in charge and respected. They're perfect partners.

Their lives are filled with beauty and glamour.

Queen/Cups: But then something very, VERY interesting happens. There's no indication of how, but Marion begins to have visions--she transforms (maybe thanks to some trauma?) from the glittering Queen of Staves, with social power, into the visionary Queen of Cups, with psychic power. Instead of being part of worldy beauty, she becomes a part of otherworldly beauty.

Let me just end by stating two important points here:

1) Marion's past persona here always had psychic powers, but they'd been ignored, trapped or just overwhelmed by her conscious mind. It took this "event" what ever it was, to release it and bring it to the surface. After having been supressed for so long, these psychic abilities and visions pretty much took Marion over--unlike if she'd always known about and used her visionary power.

2) I got very curious about what might have caused the transformation, so I laid down a clarification card over the Queen/Cups. I got Queen/Coins (or in this deck, Queen of "Sacred Circles"). In this deck, the image on that card is of a Native American grandmother, the full moon shining through the window, a tribal sheild of the phases of the moon on the wall behind her--she is watching over a baby.

Which is exactly what I thought. The very physical, down-to-earth act of childbirth is what transformed our youthful Queen of Staves into a wise woman.

I'm going to add that I think the infant was somehow lost--which is another reason why, as we'll see, Marion eventually went off to live in her world of dreams.

Continued in part III

Throne 4: Past Life! PART 3

Our tale continues...

Devil: As might be anticipated, Marion's visions, her new position as psychic, causes problems in the marriage. Her King of Swords just doesn't understand. He resents them, is frightened by them, wants, understandably, his old, worldly wife back. But Marion sees too much, knows too much, to return to that shallower pond.

In this deck, the Devil is a picture of a man and a woman, chained to each other, but with their back turned to each other, and I think that expresses it perfectly. Where before they were the Lovers, pressing naked bodies together, now they're separate, linked only by the chains of fomality, tradition, society.

The Moon: In the end, Marion left the world of daylight and her husband behind, and secluded herself away by the river, where she could give herself over to her beautiful visions--following the glory of the moon, of instinct, psychic power, and magic.

Any of this sound familiar, Marion? Most importantly, does it give you flashes, visions, images or memories of a time and place?

We'll see what Marion has to say--and then we'll finish this off by connecting this past life to Marion's present life--and understanding how it's still influencing her.

Throne 2

Throne II Career

I would agree that the Tower does not represent me. In fact I was told recently (by a very young and enthusiastic young man who works for me on assignment) that I did not create enough of a ‘risk-taking’ environment. I would say I have initiated some very far reaching changes, and make things happen, but Tower would not describe my style. So, agree with your assessment there.
The Prince of Staves is a very dynamic, eager, young man who needs some guidance but has good ideas. He is idealistic, and a very broad thinker. I think the Prince of Coins is a woman, who does Human Resources issues around a pool of people I manage.

Brutal honesty, hehe, boy have I been told that often enough! I have learned to at least anticipate negative personal effects on people over many years of putting my foot in it, and try and keep things on an impersonal plane. Lightening insights is oddly true. I can feel as if I am wading through glue on an issue then suddenly the answer is just there. Your last two sentences could have been said (and were, slightly differently) by my right hand man in my last job. So, you have pretty well described things.