Are you doing readings for Halloween?

[augursWell]

I've been thinking some more about this idea of spreads specifically for Halloween. I came up with a layout for a spread but not really sure what each card should indicate. Here's the layout:

***1***2***
*****3*****
**4*****7**
****5*6****

If you notice it is the two eyes, one nose, and four "teeth" of a fairly typical Pumpkin face. Cards 4,5,6,and 7 are laid out in a curved pattern to simulate the mouth.

So far from this thread we have concepts of tricks, treats, communing with spirits, veil between the worlds being thin, future romance, and so on. Anyone care to suggest some meanings for the cards in this layout?

[Flavio]

This spread remembered me the happy smiley spread the eyes showed "how to see with new eyes" and the smile "what will made me smile again", a Halloween twist can be added in positions 3 and 7 of the pumpkin face suggested by aurgusWell.

As I live in Mexico, Halloween correspond to us to the Dia de los Muertos celebration, our dead family members are supposed to come back to visit us one day, my father died this year so I was planning to use the happy smiley spread to know what to do so he can see me happy at the Dia de los Muertos when he come to visit me.

[Alissa]

Flavio, that's an *excellent* way to use this spread, both for traditonal Halloween as a jack o latern, as well as a Dia de Los Muertos spread for your father.

Other world religions also believe the veils between the living and departed grown thin at this time. Anyone wishing to pass messages along to those who have gone before them seems a healing way to remember those we've lost.

[Shade]

Well... thi might not be a popular idea but how about a seance? Now I know Ouija boards and crystal balls are more seance-oriented but I think Tarot would be workable fro this as well.

Very early on in my tarot reading days I was asked by a young man I hadnever met before if teh cards could tell me about his deceased father. I did the reading and I was very surprised at how well it went. I was able to describe the young man's fater's life, the serious decline at the end, the manner of his death and his current status. The final card was a card of great peace and joy and gave me a great deal of hope at that time about the afterlife.

Now not everyone will want to do a reading of that sort but I can'tthink of a better time of year for it.

[Francesca]

Originally posted by Shade
Well... thi might not be a popular idea but how about a seance? Now I know Ouija boards and crystal balls are more seance-oriented but I think Tarot would be workable fro this as well.

Very early on in my tarot reading days I was asked by a young man I hadnever met before if teh cards could tell me about his deceased father. I did the reading and I was very surprised at how well it went. I was able to describe the young man's fater's life, the serious decline at the end, the manner of his death and his current status. The final card was a card of great peace and joy and gave me a great deal of hope at that time about the afterlife.

Now not everyone will want to do a reading of that sort but I can'tthink of a better time of year for it.

WHat spread did you use? I'd like to explore that idea a bit.

Francesca

[Shade]

I used a spread that I actually got from a computer game: Quest for Glory IV Shadows of Darkness... rather ominous title I know, in it a Gypsy uses the Russian Tarot of St Petersburg to conduct readings for the hero. In case anyone’s worried, the game was very pro-gypsy and showed that much of what was said about them was a misunderstanding based n fear and superstition.

Ok it looks a little like this

.........8.............10
.........x9

2.......1........6
x3...............x7

.........4
.........x5

Hmm hat looks odd I'm still trying to learn how to raw layouts on a message board. Anyway the spread normally is used to find out more about a person their past present and the future that they are planning.

card 1 represents who the reading is about
2 is their early life and upbringing
3 crosses 2 and shows how their upbringing influenced their life
4 represents their later youth and beginning of their independence
5 crosses 4 and represents how this influenced their life
6 represents their maturity
7 crosses 6 and shows how 6 influenced their life
8 represents the end of their life or more specifically their death (in my reading I actually got the 10 of swords which reflected the violence of the man's father's death
9 crosses 10... I read this as the influence of their death on others

10 is the card that "rule the reading" and shows how they are now. In this reading it showed his father being at peace.

In a regular reading (living querent) 6 and 7 are the present, 8 represents the future they plan and 9 represents how that future will affect them and others. 10 represents the overriding influences on their life and connects the "theme" of their life. If 0 were, say the 7 of wands than their life might have usually involved some element of a struggle.

The reason I liked this approach is that it is a way of finding out more about the departed without actually invoking them like one might do with a ouija board or other more traditional séance activities.

Edited to correct heinous spelling errors.

[annik]

I think I will do one. I haven't decided on the spread yet. Maybe the graveyard spread, if I am not doing it before.

[Darla]

I want to try out a spread I found in a German book called "Das große Buch der Legemethoden". Here it is:


**********11**********
**9***************10**
**********12**********
**7********6*******8**
******4*********5*****
**2********1****3*****


1. This natural force acconpanies me
2. This is the quintessence of the last time
3. Central theme: Samhain
4. The dark shadows of the night; the hidden
5. the power of my ancestors
6. the subject I have to look into
7. What has to die
8. What has to be reborn
9. What is on my side
10. What guides me in dark times
11. The safety ring for the upcoming time
12. What gives me strength to come through this time

additional questions, if you want to perform a ritual:

13. What do you have to consider in a Samhain ritual?
14. Which power acconpanies my/our ritual?
15. Which power protects our ritual?


I will probably shorten and change this layout a bit but I think it has potential.