How to connect the cards 2gether

You could try using key words for each card and combining them to form a sentence or story.
I often pull more than one card for a question and started out combining this way, I find it helps.

I think it is a very good question for everyone. I am very interested in learning how to combine cards better. I tend to get very bogged down in going into detail about each individual card, and not looking to what ties them together. You might want to write down all the ways you can think of for combining cards. Here are some ways I can think of:

-- check for repeating colours/images/numbers, or sequences like 1, 2, 3, 4
are numbers getting bigger or smaller, colours getting darker or lighter...

-- check for how the characters in the different cards appear to be relating to each other -- if you line the cards up next to each other -- say you have a fool, and a hanged man, and a queen of spades --- Is the queen of spades mocking the fool? Is the Fool longing for the Queen? Is the hanged man begging the Fool for help? Is the Queen saying "Die scumbag, die" ? Be creative, LOL.

-- check for developments -- like moving from lying to sitting to standing, or from swimming to crawling to flying -- or from eyes closed - to half open - to wide open, or sleeping to active, etc... from little cat -- to leopard-- to huge lion -- (I used the cat becoming a lion thing to tell a querant once that he was getting stronger and wilder, LOL). My favorite example of this kind of reading is one Aoife did for me, she saw the 2 of cups and the Ace of cups and said this was about "two hearts becoming one" -- I was super impressed.

-- be creative in combining key words into sentences -- combine cards into concepts -- like Hermit (winter) + tower (storm) + Ace of Wands (something starting) might be "winter storm coming". There are no right or wrong key words, and no right or wrong combinations -- you make them up according to what makes sense to you at the time.

Have fun

This worked for me!

What worked for me was to ditch the actual spread positions and just read the cards from left to right. Just like reading a paragraph in a book. This way you're not Overwhelmed with the card meaning, the card in relation to the spread and how to the cards link to the question.

Plus, as you lay your first card down say the card in your mind then as you look at the image it should trigger a keyword for you. For instance,
I ask the question, what can I expect from my love life?

First card, 4 of wands. Basic keyword triggers are celebration, happiness.

2nd Card, Knight of Cups(for me court cards always represents another person except fot the pages) prince charming.

3rd card, 7 of Pentacles. Basic keyword triggers are success, long term.

My basic story line I would say to my client is...

I see you out with close friends having a good time when your prince charming comes floating in and heads straight to you. I see this relationship being successful and long-term.

This gives you you're basic story line and shows how you can link the cards easily with keyword triggers. Now that you have the story line you can expand on it my looking at the 3 different suits to ad more to your story...

Wands represents your passion, your drive, your creativity. Wands also bring Excitement, adventure, flirting and being spontaneous. You could add..

This happens during an upcoming celebration which is centered around home such as a family reunion or class reunion. You'll get together with several old friends hitting the closest karaoke bar drinking and singing the night away. In walks this dreamy guy that appears to just float across the room and he's headed in your direction. You immediately feel butterflies in your stomach. Getting a little nervous as he draws closer. He smiles at you and you just melt. He ask yout to dance and you feel as if you have to left feet. He's intoxicating! The rest of the weekend you spend every moment together and before you leave you exchange information. You both know this relationship will take hard work to keep it together but you are committed to it and know you finally have the opportunity for a stable, loyal relationship which will last for along time.

Hope this helps....

When I do readings, I would start by pulling one to three cards to see what's going on. Im complicating myself but it helps in terms of accuracy. For me, the first card that comes up is the main card as -- I understand that some people take the middle one as representing the main one. For me, it's the first card and whats next influences this one.

Examples:
3 of Cups + III the Empress = Celebrating abundance and fertility.
2 of Cups + XVIII Moon = The enchantment of romance...or A honeymoon. Sometimes the cards are very literal.

Something else I look at are the directions. For instance, a court is facing left can mean that a person is interested in your subject/querent...right will mean not interested or currently not a part of his/her life. If two courts are facing each other, it can mean showing interest in each other, being friends, or agreement with each other. If one court is facing and the other is looking away in a pair, it can represent one sided relationships.

Basically, I just go by what I believe the cards mean and with my intuition to try to see what the Universe is trying to tell me with those three cards -- I strongly believe the cards are trying to tell you a story. Sometimes, one cards can answer a question, sometimes two, sometimes three. Sometimes three won't do the trick either (once again, I go with my intuition -- I'd immediately get that feeling that there is more that the Divine wants to tell me, the reading would just feel incomplete to me like a piece of a puzzle is missing), so if I would pull more cards and i correlate them from the first one with the last one. But I always start with no more than three cards.

I wouldn't recommend anybody who is just starting to immediately start with more than three cards. Follow your intuition, what the cards mean to you and practice, practice, practice -- trial and error. There is no right or wrong way in the Tarot, it's all about what works for you and what doesn't.

I think everyone develops their own style of reading eventually, I tend to keep the question in mind but ignore positions initially and focus on one card to start taking into account keywords and themes for example 'outcome of a relationship that's going through a difficult patch'

3 pentacles - 6 cups - 4 cups. Just taking key words into account we have
3P - Teamwork, 6 cups - children and the past, 4 cups - discontent

Key themes are telling a story and what we're looking for is what it's saying in relation to teamwork, we can see it ties into children whilst the discontent tells us there's a lack of teamwork with childcare or the past.

A common mistake we make is to read cards in isolation but it presents a false picture because 3P and 6C are both very positive productive cards but that doesn't necessarily indicate those influences are present. If for example the last card was 10 cups which represents contentment in relationships it would paint a completely different scenario but we tend to home in on positive cards conveniently missing negativities because that's what we want to see.

Try keeping your spreads minimal to start and don't get too tied up in detail, a great exercise is pick a study card get a grasp of it's meaning then go through the pack placing one card at a time to partner it discerning how they relate or affect each other.

Try to see the cards as storybook for a movie. What's going on in the movie? Who's the hero, who the antagonist, what's going on in the background?

I find that for me, reading books and reading the cards were both important but NOT together.

When I read the cards, I read the images that I see.

And I read loads of books which make me see better what I see when I see the cards ;-) if you know what I mean.

It's like with art. When you go a museum to see Greek vases and you know nothing about mythology, it's just figures on old vases for you. Once you recognize the figures and know their background stories, the images come alive.

But looking at the guidebook while walking around in the museum is not the right way for me.

And looking up meanings in a book is for me completely counter-intuitive. I get sucked into the text I read and it influences me so much that I really don't see MY question and MY life when I look at the cards.

So my advice it: read the books at night and the cards in the daytime, or the other way around. But not at the same time.

And at least as important: journal! Write down what you see. The process of reflection "inscribes" into the cards the connection between the images and your life. Over time, the book descriptions fade away and your own insights become stronger.

Patience! It doesn't happen overnight but the process is great fun. I bought my first Thoth in the early Nineties and slowly start to feel that I might be ready to read for others if I keep studying!

I have a suggestion that might help. Think of a situation that's already happened and that you know the resolution for. Then go through your deck and find the cards that you feel describe what happened in that situation.

For instance, imagine that you're reading is for a relationship problem where two people just couldn't make the relationship work and eventually they broke up because---whatever. Lay the cards out for that relationship from start to finish, beginning with the start of their initial attraction to each other. (I usually don't use reversals when I read, so I make a position or two that are named to reflect the negative that's present in the situation.)

This is the question----what happened to break J and S up?

2 of Cups--this is the spark of the relationship. They've met and become interested in each other.

Lovers---they make the choice to start living together after dating awhile.

You've got two cards there that, together, can mean a progression into a meaningful living together or married situation.

4 of Wands----they do get married so they have a party to celebrate their union.

What happened: The 9 of Pentacles---She's alone a lot of the time because he travels for work. She's very much able to fend for herself, but it isn't a positive in their relationship that she's alone so much.

The result of what happened: 7 Swords---she finds out he's been unfaithful while on a business trip.

Outcome: Death---the relationship or marriage is over.

So having picked out all the cards you feel represent what happened from start to finish, you've got the story. Just keep on doing that exercise and it should help you to recognize what the cards as a group are saying as a whole.

bellaluna said:

Ive been reading for a short time now,just really for family. I can read each card individually,but I do not understand how to put it all 2gether? Does that come in time? I've read the posts,reading the books,but putting 2 cards 2gether or however many, I am lost.Please tell me that there is hope for me and any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.


Dawn

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I think it's just experience. Each card is like a sentence. Many sentences make a story.

darkmoon84 said:

thanks again. I tried giving my dad a reading without the book and to tell you the truth I felt great. I looked at each card and just told my dad what the cards made me feel, even the reversed cards. My father said that it was a great reading and that I was 100% right. i did it better without the book! Its amazing....

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THAT's when you know you CAN do it - and carry on from there.

JennyM said:

How do you assign a meaning to the card from the full spectrum in that case?

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(re reversals) I have no idea. I read without reversals, and the cards seem to be pretty firm in the information they give me. They don't seem to need reversals - the context is what fine-tunes the meaning. I don't find reversals add anything personally. YMMV.

nisaba said:

I think it's just experience. Each card is like a sentence. Many sentences make a story.

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So - lay them out and tell a story from one to the next. There's the guy galloping across the plain; there's a castle on a hill on the next card; that may be where he's aiming for; there's a dragon - there are obstacles in his path....

If you can't get a READING from that - at least you'll have fun !

Read for fairy tales. Read some James Ricklef.

JennyM said:

How do you assign a meaning to the card from the full spectrum in that case? I started using reversals because well....I thought it would give me more specific information. Sometimes though..it just confuses me. For example, I asked how someone would react if I did X. I drew two cards (RWS)...using reversals. The two cards were,

Knight of Wands and Star, reversed

Now, both cards upright would have told me that the person would respond in a very positive way. The Star reversed made me wonder though. Would the response be positive? However, it's still the Star reversed...a very positive card. I guess what I'm trying to say is...that I'm finding...with reversals...that I tend to jump to the opposite meaning of the reversed card...when that is rarely the case. Would I have been better off...would I have understood the reading better had I not used reversals? I'm still trying to find out.

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Seems to me it really doesn't matter how we learn to read because the cards tell you the same story whether you use reversals or not, a reversed card is out of balance so we know for sure we're reading from the spectrum of negative interpretations. If on the other hand we choose not to use reversals then a negative upright card with a positive upright will give the same information.

An example going back to my original post 3P - teamwork, 6C - children, 4C - discontent
We established the spread likely reads a lack of teamwork with regards childcare and there are no reversals, quint was death suggesting an end to the discontent.

On the other hand look at this spread 3P rx - lack of teamwork, 6C - children, 4C rx -end of discontent. It gives exactly the same information so it really doesn't matter what your preference is because we need the same understanding of the spectrum from positive through negative interpretations and the same insight into dynamics IMHO.

Knight wands and star rx

We know we're looking for a negative interpretation to the star in isolation from the other card/s but it's difficult to interpret without the specific question. Knight relates to movement in a situation and if the spread relates to a lover or potential lover there may be unfounded optimism or loss of hope in the star rx but logically both in time because of the knock on effect. Sexual problems are often highlighted with the star rx relating to one or both partners and I feel there's movement away from rather than a coming together.

If it relates in a personal capacity there's healing around issues of self esteem because the rx star indicates the issue you are moving away from in the knight hence healing, or to see from another angle the positive upright knight pulls a positive interpretation of the negative star through because there's movement away from the less positive spectrum of interpretations.

If it relates in a professional capacity the same issues will be present so there's a realization of your true worth moving in and possibly a job related to travel but I'm not sure on that one. There's a special talent you have in the star (is it linked to communication?) but have been lacking motivation or self confidence to fulfil it previously, that's no longer so.

Hope I haven't confused you further here.