Creating a Cycle Spread

[WalesWoman]

I'm trying to come up with a spread to get a deeper clue of what my Year/Cycle will bring and what it means.

This year I'm in the Lover's cycle and thought maybe a 6 card spread laid out in a Star would be cool, I'm just not sure of the questions or if they could be worded differently to get a clearer answer, so I would really appreaciate any suggestions for improvement

------6------
-2---------3-
-4---------5-
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1. How will the Lover's (or current cycle card) manifest istself in my life?
2. What lessons do I need to learn from the Lover's?
3. What, if any, particular area of my life do I need to focus on?
4. What blocks me or what don't I see?
5. What helps me or what do I know?
6. What kind of year can I expect to experience?

[WalesWoman]

What do I bring to this cycle?

What does it bring to me?

Ummmmm....any light bulbs flashing?

[Jeanette]

I think you've covered all the bases with your questions, and I also think it's very creative Would you use a significator with your spread?

[WalesWoman]

I'm not sure to be truthful, use the cycle card, Lovers, in this case? I don't think so. I'm not sure who I am this week for a significator, unless it would be to answer "What do I bring to this cycle?" in the center position?

I had some other ideas since I first started this:

What lessons from my current cycle do I need to be aware of spiritually /physcially /emotionally /intellectually? One card for each of those?

What area of my life will be influenced the most by this current cycle?

How can I best implement these lessons into my life?

I'm also still trying to decide if our current cycle changed at the beginning of the year or if it will change on our birthday, I've heard different opinions on that.
Maybe I am already feeling this influence, because I sure am having a hard time deciding anything! ()

[Jeanette]

I am not really sure if I would use a significator, I guess I was curious what you were going to do! But you are definitely right that you're having a hard time choosing how to go about this, so maybe if your deck's Lovers card portrays the choice aspect (I don't really think the Rider/Waite images convey the choice as well as some other decks) I might use that for the significator. Or maybe not! Anyway, maybe this could be a sort of "work in progress," that you could shuffle and lay out the cards in the spread, and then lay out further cards as you need clarification. Just a thought ~ you could end up using up the whole deck doing that! I have no input as to when the cycle starts; I guess it's whatever date has meaning to you. BTW, how do you determine what cycle card to work with?

[WalesWoman]

I'm sure there's a thread somewhere that talks about this, but just for starters... to calculate your current cycle you use your birth month and date of birth and the current year.

Example using my birthday and the current year:

08
+ 01
+2004
=2013
2+1+3=6 Which is the Lovers

Last year my cycle or personal year was 5 the Hierophant, which was full of learning, I picked up my first Tarot deck and began studying the Tarot for starters and the whole year seemed to be one huge learning experience.

http://www.geocities.com/tarot_r_us/calculations.html This link shows you how to use numerology and tarot to find out your "current cycle" or "personal year", life path number, soul urge, expression number and much more. I'm sure there are other sites as well, but it was the first one I could think of.

it is called your "personal year" and has a section that explains what you might expect at this link http://www.geocities.com/tarot_r_us/numyear.html

A great site for numerology itself is decoz.com, you can correspond the numbers to the majors and lessons with the numbered pips also.

[miss_apples]

i would use the lovers card as a significator. Just place it in the middle of the star so that it can radiate the 6 energy throughout the reading.

[WalesWoman]

Thanks for all of your ideas, think I'll tweak it a bit and post it over at Readings in the next day or so. I'd like to be able to use this for any cycle not just the Lovers, so perhaps using the "Card of the Year" would be a good focus, but if I use it for a Significator then it wouldn't be available just in case.

How important is having a significator anyhow?