How do you read TIME in tarot?

[HoneyBea]

Originally Posted by GeminiMoon87

This is my question:

a) In general, how far in advance can tarot card readings predict? I understand that tarot is generally open-ended and almost anything goes, but from your own personal experience / practice, how far in advance do you try to read?

b) When asked a question such as "when will this event take place?", and you pull the 3 of wands, would you read this as 3 months or after some sort of move has taken place? Do the numerals on RWS come into play at telling time at all?

Thanks!!!

Roxy

Another way to approach a timing question like you ask above, I first heard this method on a podcast from the Tarot Connection and I tried it for a few people, and this has worked for me and I have been able to predict time with it. The Method is to lay the cards out month by month, so if you asked the question today, I would start the first card with July - do not go over 12 months, and when a card appears that that seems to give you the answer that is the month it will be. Then I usually read the preceding cards up to that card so you can get a broad outline of what will transpire in the lead up to it.

It really suits questions like 'when will I find another job' — or when will another opportunity present itself etc. You do have to use your intuition here but also your knowledge of the cards.

Try it and see if it works for you or not.

~HoneyBea~

[Aladdin]

There are some advanced adepts on here who claim very accurate timings can be made with some card layouts. Regrettably i am not in that league and don't go along with the seasonality sometimes asociated with the suits.
Trying to predict anything farther ahead than three months always makes me uncomfortable.
Pages and Knights along with 8 of rods / wands for me always indicates an event 'sooner rater than later' - more likely within a week than a month.
Of the dozen or so professional readers i've been to in the last ten years only one did a calendar type spread and another only hinted at time scales.
Hope this ambiguous waffle is of some use for you.

[MoonLitCrystal]

Aladdin's mention of professionals made me stop and think if anyone I've ever went to did the time thing. Now that I think about it a lady I saw in Atlantic City claimed that I'd be pregnant by September. (That'll be real proof that we can change the outcomes of our readings, haha!) How she got September out of it I'll never know.

My mom has also had several professionals tell her when something was going to happen. One was off by a few months and one was dead on.

All of that being said, I'm sure I've gone to ones that make no mention of timing whatsoever.

[Bernice]

I'm awake now. Just re-read the posts and I think MoonLitCrystals husband has the most direct and simplest approach. i.e: Do the reading, then shuffle the deck and draw for the timing. I should think the 'time' question would have to be direct and concise.

Thank you Moonlit

Bee

[Fire Cat]

I did not make this method up, but I cannot find where I saw this. It was in one of my books but I am tired looking for it. If anyone else recognizes it, please let us know where you saw it.

I use this first and foremost with playing cards, but adapt it for tarot (minors only)

First, choose a suit to represent a season. Personally, I use:

Pents= Spring
Wands = Summer
Cups= Fall
Swords= Winter

Then, rank the cards from high to low, such that

Ace = Solstice or Equinox
King = 1st week after...
Queen = 2nd week after...
Knight = 3rd ...
Page = 4th
10 = 5th
9 = 6th
8 = 7th
7 = 8th
6 = 9th
5 = 10th
4 = 11th
3 = 12th
2 = 13th

Therefore the 7 of Clubs would mean 8 weeks after the summer solstice.

I also see:

Wands = Weeks
Cups = Months
Pents = Years
Swords = Seasons or days

[celticnoodle]

I keep reading this thread with interest, and remembering when I or family or friends had tarot readings in the past. I recall one that I and a few family members had with a tarot reader who was able to predict YEARS in advance! she must be a bit of a psychic, though she doesn't sell herself as such and just reads the cards.

anyway, to the one young girl I was with- she mentioned that she would marry this man in the military and she saw a big wedding, yada, yada, life in general. she told her it would all begin to happen later that year and even tho this young girl was seriously involved with a different man--they broke up & all happened as predicted and in a year & half time! some of it is still coming true--years after this reading!

the other girl was not even dating anyone at all, and the reader told her that in 2yrs. she'd finally meet "Mr. Right" and marry and have 2 boys. Well, she did meet "Mr. Right" and they are engaged to be married soon! This reading was about 6yrs. ago, and she did meet him 2yrs from the reading, but only in passing. She didn't start to date him until just 2yrs ago, 4yrs after the reading! they sort of knew each other from the first meeting, which was when mutual friends introduced them but no-one ever tried to fix them up. I reminded her of this reading recently, and she said, "Oh yeah! that's right! I"m suppose to also have 2 boys after we marry!". They're looking to buy a home and I told her to be sure it has 3bedrooms--she'll need them with the 2boys to come!

so, I guess you can date things for years in advance--though I don't know how the reader does it. It's amazing at how accurate she was. She also predicted once before for a family member about someone they are not in touch with dying and leaving her alot of money. she couldn't think of who it was, and sure enough years later, the person passed and left money to mom. I hope one day to be able to do this myself!

[Umbrae]

Originally Posted by celticnoodle

so, I guess you can date things for years in advance--though I don't know how the reader does it. It's amazing at how accurate she was. She also predicted once before for a family member about someone they are not in touch with dying and leaving her alot of money. she couldn't think of who it was, and sure enough years later, the person passed and left money to mom. I hope one day to be able to do this myself!

Well dear CelticNoodle, page back and read post #16. Then head out and purchase a notebook and start journaling.

Once you learn about how YOU time things, and forget how others time things; once you grok your own comprehension of time, you'll be able to say things like "Late September/Early October of 2008 will be a VERY interesting time for CelticNoodle!"

In fact you may want to write that on the first page or your journal followed by the words "Umbrae sez".

(BTW: It will be really good once the ride stops).

[annika334]

Originally Posted by Kilted Kat

I did not make this method up, but I cannot find where I saw this. It was in one of my books but I am tired looking for it. If anyone else recognizes it, please let us know where you saw it.

I use this first and foremost with playing cards, but adapt it for tarot (minors only)

First, choose a suit to represent a season. Personally, I use:

Pents= Spring
Wands = Summer
Cups= Fall
Swords= Winter

Then, rank the cards from high to low, such that

Ace = Solstice or Equinox
King = 1st week after...
Queen = 2nd week after...
Knight = 3rd ...
Page = 4th
10 = 5th
9 = 6th
8 = 7th
7 = 8th
6 = 9th
5 = 10th
4 = 11th
3 = 12th
2 = 13th

Therefore the 7 of Clubs would mean 8 weeks after the summer solstice.

I also see:

Wands = Weeks
Cups = Months
Pents = Years
Swords = Seasons or days

Hi Killed Kat,
I've a question for you.... in a spread there is more than one card. Do you look at the last card to read time like you described?

thank you
annika

[HoneyBea]

There was another method of extracting a time frame from you reading that I forgot to mention in my post up there and that is passive cards v active cards, by that I mean passive Water/Earth and active being Fire/Air. This is not my personal system and it comes from an article I read in the American Tarot Association by James Rioux.

he said that if more than 75% of cards are active, the timespan is days
If between 75% and 50% are active the timespan is weeks
If between 50% and 25% are active the timespan is months
If less than 25% of the cards are active the timespan is years

He says you can determine how many days, weeks, months or years by looking at the numbers of the cards. He goes on to say it is not necessary that every card have the same number (though with small spreads he indicates this is possible). You do need a majority of a certain number he sites a 5 card spread and as an example he says two 3's are not significant, but three of them might be important. For courts he suggests reducing their numbers to single digits:
Pages 11 or 2
Knights 12 or 3
Queens 13 or 4
Kings 14 or 5

He says this is a three step method the first two are above the third is based on astrological attribution — so that if you cannot pin something down by numbers you look at the astrological attribution so that you can pin point it down to when each star sign begins and ends.

Just thought I would share this with you

HoneyBea

[kwaw]

Originally Posted by rwcarter

... Golden Dawn Astrological associations of the cards. Also the Magician covers two periods (21 May - 20 Jun and 23 Aug - 22 Sep) since it rules two signs as does the Empress ( 21 Apr - 20 May and 23 Sep - 22 Oct).

A lot of work there Rodney - but shouldn't each of the double letter / planetary cards (barring the lights, sun and moon) rule two of the zodiacal signs? You seem to have given the three mother letter / element cards (water - mem - hanged man / aleph - fool - air / fire / shin judgment) rulership of three of the signs instead... perhaps you are associating them with the modern planets - but if so then they are not the Golden Dawn Attributions, who used the rulerships of traditional astrology (Saturn - World - Capricorn/Aquarius | Jupiter - WoF - Sagittarius/Pisces | Mars - Tower - Aries/Scorpio)