nisaba

This spread is to be carried out on the 25th May and laid out on a Towel that you choose to carry around for the whole day in honour and memory of Douglas Adams, may-he-rest-in-pieces, creator of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, in which a little lost earthling, Arthur Dent, is tossed around the galaxy accompanied with only two certainties: his large tin container of olive oil and his Towel. Everybody should always know where their towel is.

So, laying one's Towel out flat one lays the cards like this.

36..37..38..39..40..41..42
29..30..31..32..33..34..35
22..23..24..25..26..27..28
15..16..17..18..19..20..21
8....9...10..11..12..13..14
1....2....3....4....5....6...7

Row One, the bottom row is the Big Bang Burger Bar, briefly referred to in the volume called "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe". The Big Bang Burger Bar is a tourist-trap at the very instant of creation. These seven cards, when viewed and interpreted together, will give you an overview or "story" of the fundamentals of the place, person (or even the celebratory day) that you are reading for.

Row Two symbolise "Slartibartfast's Favourite Fijords". Slartibartfast was an elderly man whom promotion had passed by, whom in the scale of planet-creation was a menial - he only ever got to do the Crinkly Bits around the edges of continents. These seven cards, read together, tell you what has been firm and reliable forever in the situation, but what may one day start to crumble.

Row Three symbolises Deep Thought. Long ago, a computer of this name was devised by a bunch of confused toga-wearing philosophers to arrive at the answer to Question, the Great Question, the Question of the Meaning of Life, the Universe and Everything. The answer, of course, was 42. This row, read together, symbolises whatever needs your deep and profound thought, now and in the future.

Row Four is Marvin the Paranoid Android. Marvin is a man-shaped robot with a "brain the size of a planet" and sharp pains through all the diodes down his left side. Humans treat him badly, in one case actually leaving him in the basement of an office block to park cars for six trillion years. Marvin's Row illustrates those issues about which you feel powerless, and which make you actually feel worse than you need to, despite any evident positivity in the cards.

Row Five is the Improbability Drive. These cards show you what is supremely unlikely, and therefore almost certain to happen. If I can segue from one great master to another, Terry Pratchett accidentally described the force powering the spaceship with the Improbability Drive very well when he said "research wizards have ascertained that one in a million chances pay off nine times out of ten." These cards express that which is most incredible and improbable in the situation which will therefore come to pass.

Row Six, the top row, is the Dolphin's Row. Man feels he is smarter than dolphins because he discovered fire, the internal combustion engine, guns, pollution, and digital watches. Dolphins feel they are smarter than man for *exactly* the same reasons. They are about play, and when the earth was about to detonate, they all left, leaving behind a message which read "So long, and thanks for all the fish". Dolphins, and the Dolphin row, are all about having fun and avoiding catastrophe. These cards tell you what to enjoy and what to run like hell from, depending on whether they are "positives" or "negatives".

Enjoy. And on the 25th May, when you use this spread, don't forget to lay it out on your Towel!

Wendywu

I am going to do this! But, I think if I'm gonna have the time to read 42 Ironwing cards (gulp) I may well have to take the day off work. So be it. A day off, a HUGE reading, me and my towel... and if it's not raining I shall be outside. If it is raining, I shall adorn the sitting room floor with cards and banish the dogs to the kitchen.

Even with the day off I may well have to consider using something not-Ironwing. I have heard of such decks .....

__________________
Our real journey in life is interior,
it is a matter of growth, deepening,
and an ever greater surrender to the creative
action of love and grace in our hearts.

From: The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton

nisaba

Aren't there only 22 of them?


<laughter>

.traveller.

Here's last year's: http://www.tarotforum.net/showthrea...highlight=towel

nisaba

<grin> Yep, that's where I copied the spread from, with a little minor editing to mark the change of the year. We had fun, didn't we.

.traveller.

Y'up. Seemed a shame to lose it to the bowels of time. Unfortunately I won't be able to participate this year, I have something cooking that is going to take me away from tarot for a while. Have fun, this is definitely worth doing once a year

Wendywu

She did a full 78 card deck too but only issued 200 copies. The minors are very different to the majors but really, they offer every bit as much information and sometimes more....

__________________
Our real journey in life is interior,
it is a matter of growth, deepening,
and an ever greater surrender to the creative
action of love and grace in our hearts.

From: The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton

nisaba

Can you legally adopt me please, Wendywu? I think I'm in need of mothering.

<fiendish cackle as idea takes shape>

Wendywu

Ha! I saw straight through that feeble ploy ......

Tell you what - just ask me to marry you and endow you with my Ironwing - it is my worldly good after all (Although my husband might object to this plan .....)

__________________
Our real journey in life is interior,
it is a matter of growth, deepening,
and an ever greater surrender to the creative
action of love and grace in our hearts.

From: The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton