Excellent Spread for making a choice

Labhraín

Fantastic Spread!

What an excellent spread. I have been going back and forth over a decision regarding school lately, and I came upon this thread today. Wonderfully insightful and such a huge help. I do have a question though, regarding the 'warning' cards drawn on cards #6 and #10.

For the warning card for card#6 (which would be card #11 in path #1 on the left) the card did indeed sound like a warning, or rather something to clarify path#1. The second warning card (which would be card# 12 in path#2 on the right) was a positive sounding card. I am confused how a positive card can be a warning?
 

Labhraín

Do you specify before you do the spread, which side is which choice?
 

Labhraín

Using the "Legend: The Arthurian Tarot"....

I'm a little confused as to how to interpret the action card.

Does the action card mean 'IF I take this action?'

I am asking because I just did a three choice spread and the card that came up as the action card for choice#3 was the Queen of Shields (Queen of Pentacles). I was having trouble interpreting this card as an action, and based upon the book description I consulted, it can mean basically, not taking care of yourself. This is why I wondered if it was saying that IF I took this path, I wouldn't be taking care of myself. It's the only explanation I could come up with and I wanted to make sure I understood the position of each card in the spread.
 

Barleywine

In the "action" position you might also see the affect of "inaction" and what might occur on that path if you don't do something. I see it as a "transitional" phase: you're no longer just examining your choices from a hypothetical perspective, you now have to at least tentatively commit (one toe in the water, so to speak) in order to test the wisdom of taking one path over the other. Or you could just say "That water looks too cold!" and retreat (another form of action tantamount to doing nothing constructive, indistinguishable from "inaction.") I have yet to try this spread, but I can see how it might work.

I had another thought: with the "forks" pointing upward, you can easily see which choice stands head-and-shoulders above the other(s). But suppose you only had a choice between the lesser of two (or the least of three or more) evils? Might you also put Cards #1 and #2 at the top, in descending order, and see which "fork" takes you farthest down the least promising path, thereby advising you to shun it? After all, not every choice takes you higher, some just keep you from losing too much ground. I think it would make for less hair-splitting about degrees of "goodness.".