A Fabulous Spread Utilizing the Major Arcana

Hey everyone, this is a spread a friend gave me. I believe she found it in the LWB of a deck I can't recall the name of. It utilizes only the Major Arcana, and has a unique process towards the end wherein the sum of the cards drawn are added together to "synthesize" a fifth card, which can be seen as the "key" to the situation at hand--a card to ruminate on, if nothing else.

Here's how it works:

1......2
....5....
3......4

Seperate the Major Arcana from your deck--they are the only cards you'll be working with.

Shuffle and draw your first card. This is the card representative of you and in a larger sense your feelings on the matter at hand.

The second card represents things to avoid or let go of. If the card is positive, take a look at the negative aspects of it. I.E: If you draw Strength, consider taking a less "will-power" oriented approach, and channel, instead, the control of The Chariot--a card with a harder outlook on the manifestation of power (of your own making).

The third card is a general idea of what to come, and possibly the way you'll feel about these developments.

The fourth card is a premonition of consequences or a necessary action. As you can tell these positions are multi-meaninged. Use your intuition to find the most correct form.

Alright, here's the gimmicky part. Add the numbers of each card drawn to find the fifth card necessary to complete the reading. If the total is more than the number twenty-two, further simplify by adding the digits of said number together. (You can consider an exact total of twenty-two as representative of The Fool card.)

Example:

First card: The Empress (3)
Second Card: The Emperor (4)
Third Card: The Fool (0)
Fourth Card: The Sun (19)

3+4+0+19 = 26. 2+6 = 8 (Strength.)

This card--the "key"--is the fifth card "drawn".

If clarification is needed, feel free to bring in the Minors. Shuffle them seperatley and lay one out over every card but the fifth to shed more light on the situation.

Hope you find this one useful!

--Jourdain

(Also, if anyone knows the deck from who's LWB this came from, I'd love it if you'd let me know!)

Hey Jourdain,

I can't give you the deck name but the technique you described is pretty much known (but not used by all) in the Tarot world. By using it the fifth card is named "quintessence card" or "quintessential card".

Here are some threads for you:
https://www.tarotforum.net/threads/53790/
https://www.tarotforum.net/threads/80379/
https://www.tarotforum.net/threads/69970/
https://www.tarotforum.net/threads/64063/
https://www.tarotforum.net/threads/58742/

Astraea Aurora

Jodorowsky calls that the "reduced spread" and it's in the LWB for the Jodo Camoin. I don't have it with me, but I think Jodo calls the center card the "synthesis", which makes a lot of sense. Flornoy also includes a variation in the LWB that comes with the Noblet. Flornoy calls the vertical line the "line of being" and the horizontal line the "line of becoming" and the center card a "photograph of the psychic moment in which the consultant finds himself."

I don't know where it came from originally. Asking that is probably like asking who wrote a jump rope rhyme. It's just there. It's a very nice spread, I use it often.

Thanks, Stella! That's exactly what I wanted to know.

You're welcome!

And Oswald Wirth named it the Tirage en Croix, if you're wondering where it came from.

Gavriela said:

And Oswald Wirth named it the Tirage en Croix, if you're wondering where it came from.

Click to expand...

Yes, but where did Wirth get it?

Are there earlier references?

And how long might it have existed before someone published it and took credit?

Jump-rope rhymes.

If you think about it realistically, there's really only so many ways a deck of cards can be laid out to read fortunes. There's probably like ten key spreads that have been used for the last nine or ten decades and everything else we "create" and use are really just shades of so many pre-made forms. I'd say the spread is probably an older one, and while I would be interested to know just where it started, I'm sure it's like what Stella is saying about jump-rope rhymes. There's nothing new under the sun.

5 card spread

I use a spread similar to the one described. Except I let the querant shuffle the cards - after washing their hands of course. For me it's important for the cards to get to know the person. I also believe the cards can better choose the strongest of concerns by that handling. I then lay 5 cards face down in a 4-corner spread with the 5th in the center - then in the same order, lay them face up. The upward facing cards giving an indication of the overall scenario or circumstance to be told. I let the cards decide what will be told and let them choose what the querant ought to know at the time. It's a preference to let the cards find the right energy where the best work can be done. I think of it as allowing the energies flow as they are rather than trying to control and direct them. The face down card is then flipped - showing reason or meaning behind the facets of circumstance. BTW: I don't use reversal - all the cards to me are related and it doesn't make a difference. The center 5th card is closer to the future of "things" and how it will all turn out. I let the querant decide where to begin the reading by picking the corner set to begin with. I then have the querant pick a card from the deck, however they might choose to make their pick... and that is lain in the center 5th card as the one that "ties" it all together giving an "end result". My most recent readings had some amazing things happen! The deck would sometimes "lock up" during a shuffle and refuse to shuffle any further - I take that as the "spirit" of the deck just being a little rebellious. Myself and two others actually saw cards alternate themselves face up and face down during a shuffle and we thought somehow the cards got reversed and was going to have to go through the deck and "fix" the cards to face the same way, but when spread.... they were all face down! The same querant went to pick the last card out of the deck - and the cards showed her which card to pick - it was the only card face up in the deck! I slid the deck to another for him to pick his final card - and to everyone's suprise ONE card shot out from the deck - "ok, I guess this will be your card". I have had cards literally "jump" out of a deck during a tight gripped shuffle. Yup... the cards typically like to have their say. For me, this type of technique and spread has a strong and powerful energy to it. After a few readings, I pack the cards away in salt for a few months... even a couple years some times. If I get a really negative reading - the deck is ritually burned and the negative energy disbursed.

Wow...Uriell..that last part is pretty intense. I don't know if I'd ever burn a deck, but the whole packing in salt thing seems to have some sort of alchemical/ritualistic flavor that seems intriguing. Personally, once I get a "feel" on a deck I tend to use it over and over and over and over again, and have trouble even putting it away.