gregory
OK - fair enough; I got hung up on the order of appearance - and as I don't always see courts as people ANYWAY....
OK - fair enough; I got hung up on the order of appearance - and as I don't always see courts as people ANYWAY....
As the question was originally asked about my interpretations in a Your Readings thread, I didn't want to take that thread off-topic by answering the question there.
For those interested in the question of how order affects interpretation, take a look at the examples linked at Elemental Dignities Study Group Discussion & Index Thread. When reading EDs, the order definitely makes a difference in how the cards are interpreted. Changing which card is the central card completely changes what the interpretation is about.
In the specific case that prompted this thread, the OP listed the cards in one order but interpreted them in a different order in this thread. If you look at a series of cards (especially if they don't have positional meanings) as a progression in a story, then the order of the parts of the story are important.
For example, let's say we have three cards that are interpreted as success, heartbreak and ordeal. Those cards could be arranged as follows:
success, heartbreak, ordeal
success, ordeal, heartbreak
heartbreak, ordeal, success
heartbreak, success, ordeal
ordeal, success, heartbreak
ordeal, heartbreak, success
The terms equate to happiness, sadness and struggle and the order in which those things is placed gives a totally different reading. Are you happy and then some struggle occurs that leads to sadness? Or was there a struggle that led to sadness, but you ended up happy? Some components, different order, different interpretations.
Rodney
But using your Earth-Fire-Air (EFA) example and tying the discussion back into this thread, EFA would be read differently than FAE or AEF, keeping the same order of the three cards and just changing their positions. The central card (since EDs are read from the center out) changes, therefore changing the interpretation.I agree with your post in the ED study group thread saying that all the cards should be used, not just the two on the outside. So if I had Earth-Fire-Air, instead of the outside cards cancelling one another out and having no effect on the middle Fire card, I might see the "friendly" Fire and Air cards "trumping" the single Earth card (which is on decent terms with Fire anyway), giving the center card some strength. This would be amplified if the Air card was of a higher rank than the Earth card. The rote rules from the GD material seem a little clumsy and lacking in nuance.
But using your Earth-Fire-Air (EFA) example and tying the discussion back into this thread, EFA would be read differently than FAE or AEF, keeping the same order of the three cards and just changing their positions. The central card (since EDs are read from the center out) changes, therefore changing the interpretation.
Rodney
Yes, please continue this conversation in the ED Study Group thread. And, no, just start posting.That should probably be posted in the ED Study Group thread. Do I have to sign up to participate in that?
I have issues with dropping the conflicting flanking cards too. Thanks for that.This had me going back and poking around in my ED material from Liber T, Israel Regardie and some other stuff I got who-knows-where. My understanding is that the interpretive meanings of the individual cards don't really count for much in EDs, where the goal is to see if the "principal" or focus card is strengthened or weakened by the nature of its surrounding modifiers; only the elemental attributions are important. Beyond that, the closest you might get to weighting the individual cards is to consider whether they're Major, Minor or Court cards. In that sense, synthesizing the meanings of the cards in a line wouldn't be immediately necessary since narrative subtleties aren't being sought at this point, but the elemental sequence could make a difference in the final weighing of the focus card.
I agree with your post in the ED study group thread saying that all the cards should be used, not just the two on the outside. So if I had Earth-Fire-Air, instead of the outside cards cancelling one another out and having no effect on the middle Fire card, I might see the "friendly" Fire and Air cards "trumping" the single Earth card (which is on decent terms with Fire anyway), giving the center card some strength. This would be amplified if the Air card was of a higher rank than the Earth card. The rote rules from the GD material seem a little clumsy and lacking in nuance.
Hiya! rwcarter mentioned in another thread that the order in which the cards are drawn affects their interpretation, and I wanted to learn more about that so I'm starting a new thread here.