Your favorite Thoth spread.

Hello all,

What is your favorite Thoth spread and why?

One Love!

First Operation of the Opening of the Key, modified slightly to suit my method of working (I don't use a significator, and choose the pile to read based upon the nature of the question). This is more than adequate for 95% of my purposes.

I find sequential, rather than positional (such as the "Celtic Cross"), spreads to flow much more effectively for me.

And yes, I have done the full Opening of the Key when called for -- and I have a few hours to spare.

I like sequential one card spreads. So I ask a question, draw a card. And if I want to know about something related to that I draw another card. And if I want to know about something related to that I draw another card..

Also three card spreads.

And I like the relationship spread from Banzaf's books.

12
374
56
1 = you
2 = them
3 = how they see you
4 = how you see them
5 = how you see the relationship
6 = how they see the relationship
7 = the relationship
Lots of really juicy and useful comparisons and elemental dignities in that spread

Johari window spreads can be great too.

I suppose the OOTK is sort of the official Thoth spread, but I don't use it. I used CC for many years, but I detested having to fit the card meanings into the positional strait jacket. Now I just draw one or three cards at random and study them.

Mine tooo

Grigori said:

And I like the relationship spread from Banzaf's books.

12
374
56
1 = you
2 = them
3 = how they see you
4 = how you see them
5 = how you see the relationship
6 = how they see the relationship
7 = the relationship
Lots of really juicy and useful comparisons and elemental dignities in that spread

Johari window spreads can be great too.

Click to expand...

I agree; it's the comparisons that are great. I find it very helpful when someone comes and ask about their relationship. Though the one I use from Banzaf has a slightly different order of meanings for the card number.

I just posted very similar spead in Your Readings using Thoth. I think it is going to be moved over here to the Thoth Tarot, includes a pic of the spread.

Ah great LeahG. I must have unknowingly adjusted the spread since I started using it

devilkitty said:

First Operation of the Opening of the Key, modified slightly to suit my method of working (I don't use a significator, and choose the pile to read based upon the nature of the question). This is more than adequate for 95% of my purposes.

I find sequential, rather than positional (such as the "Celtic Cross"), spreads to flow much more effectively for me.

And yes, I have done the full Opening of the Key when called for -- and I have a few hours to spare.

Click to expand...

Years ago (well, decades, to be honest), I started prefacing my CC spreads with the first operation of the OOTK (cutting into four packs, locating the significator, and doing some minimal counting-and-pairing). This seemed to be useful to provide a circumstantial (that is, elemental) "backdrop" or incipient "field of operation" for the unfolding of the matter. Crowley said it yielded a story about the beginning of the matter, an observation I never found reason to quarrel with. (However, I didn't abandon the reading if it didn't square exactly with the nature of the question, I simply took it as an indication that the heart of the matter lay elsewhere - an overt Cups question may, for example, have its genesis in issues more closely allied with Disks.) I found the full OOTK to be a too iterative, a case of diminishing returns for the effort expended. Also, as an experienced astrologer, I found the zodiacal elements to be unsatisfying.

I'm curious, though, why you consider the CC to be purely positional rather than sequential. I've always used it as an evolving or emerging tableau, with the individual positions merely "spokes in the wheel" that I put in motion. Each one flows logically into the next, but of course I've tinkered a little bit with the traditional meanings to make that more seamless. Seems to me that every question has a past, a present and a future, and the root of the answer falls somewhere on that continuum; the positions in the spread are therefore somewhat fluid in regard to timing, and can often be "blended" to advantage. I don't see them at all as "stakes in the ground," but rather as a moving tapestry.

Barleywine said:

Years ago (well, decades, to be honest), I started prefacing my CC spreads with the first operation of the OOTK (cutting into four packs, locating the significator, and doing some minimal counting-and-pairing). This seemed to be useful to provide a circumstantial (that is, elemental) "backdrop" or incipient "field of operation" for the unfolding of the matter. Crowley said it yielded a story about the beginning of the matter, an observation I never found reason to quarrel with. (However, I didn't abandon the reading if it didn't square exactly with the nature of the question, I simply took it as an indication that the heart of the matter lay elsewhere - an overt Cups question may, for example, have its genesis in issues more closely allied with Disks.) I found the full OOTK to be a too iterative, a case of diminishing returns for the effort expended. Also, as an experienced astrologer, I found the zodiacal elements to be unsatisfying.

Click to expand...

As do I, in general. The first operation gives the "beginning of the matter", if that's what we choose to look for in it. I use it for the whole question, and as I said, it's generally more than sufficient. I do agree with your reasons for not abandoning the reading; usually that first pile will point to the correct one, which I read in like manner. There are too many escape clauses in the "official" OOTK; one wonders if even 5% were ever completed in the orthodox way...

Barleywine said:

I'm curious, though, why you consider the CC to be purely positional rather than sequential. I've always used it as an evolving or emerging tableau, with the individual positions merely "spokes in the wheel" that I put in motion. Each one flows logically into the next, but of course I've tinkered a little bit with the traditional meanings to make that more seamless. Seems to me that every question has a past, a present and a future, and the root of the answer falls somewhere on that continuum; the positions in the spread are therefore somewhat fluid in regard to timing, and can often be "blended" to advantage. I don't see them at all as "stakes in the ground," but rather as a moving tapestry.

Click to expand...

I never stated I felt it purely positional. "Sequential" and "positional" were chosen as the most succinct terms I felt described the difference between the two types.

I understand that things must be looked at as a whole, but my annoyingly Mercury-in-Taurus brain has problems pulling out of the idea that the positions have a defined significance. Thus, I gravitate to methods wherein the physical position of the cards does not have a defined import, however we choose to shade them. Just works better for me.

I use my KRAP spread for everything

Keep
Remove
Add
P-present from the universe (use the info as you will)

Iv'e used the 15 card spread that is in the LWB from my Thoth deck. No fuss, plenty to think about and EDs work a treat.