How to make the final adition?

aloevera

Maybe this is a stupid question, but I have been struggling with this for some time and I would really like to read some opinions on it, so...
At the end of the reading, I make the adition of the numbers of all cards together until I come up with a number that can be associated with one of the majors. Now my question is how do you do this:
- do you keep doing it until you have a single number? like, let's say, all the cards together totalize 16. Do you still reduce this number to 1+6=7 ?
- or you just keep the number you already have, 16 in this case, because it's already possible to associate it with a major?

Thanks in advance for every little enlightment on this.
And sorry if this is the wrong place to post this question... It's my first time posting and I did my best :)
 

Grizabella

I don't do this myself but if it were one of my practices, I think I'd make note of the card indicated by the double digit but would also then reduce further to make it a single digit.
 

rwcarter

Congrats on your first post aloevera!

What you're talking about is called reduction, among other things. I've run across two schools of thought about this, and you've listed them both. :)

When I do it, I keep reducing until I get a number between 1 and 22 (with 22 equaling the Fool, because you can't ever add up 2 positive numbers and end up with 0).

There's no wrong way to do it though, so experiment and see which method works best for you.

Rodney
 

aloevera

Reduction - many thanks Rodney, as I now know which word I can search for and actually get some results :)

I have been trying both methods, and I am really not sure about which one should I stick to. The difference between getting the Tower (16) or the Chariot (1+6=7) is still significant.
 

CrystalSeas

The difference between getting the Tower (16) or the Chariot (1+6=7) is still significant.

You need to decide which Majors you want to include.
You can limit yourself to Magician, High Priestess, Empress Emperor, Hierophant, Lovers, Chariot, Strength and Hermit or you can include all Majors

Ask yourself whether you really want to ignore all 13 other Majors.

If you only want numbers between 1 and 9, then keep adding.

Otherwise, stop when you get a number between 1 and 22. Otherwise you limit yourself to the majors with the numbers 1 through 9.
 

snowmoon

for personal number as major cards? i will reduce this number to 1+6=7

but some number like 22 with no reduce number.
 

Farzon

I don't do this myself but if it were one of my practices, I think I'd make note of the card indicated by the double digit but would also then reduce further to make it a single digit.
If I do it, than that's also my way to go. Simply because of the fact that otherwise the resulting major will depend largely on the number of cards used in the spread.