How to calculate the Quint card

[WolfSwan]

I've only recently come across this topic of 'quint' cards and I was wondering how you'd calculate it. Do you add the number value of each of the cards together until they give you a single or double digit that reflects the Major Arcana? What if you calculate all the cards and it gives you 102 - would the Quint then be 3 - Empress, or 12 Hanged Man?

Or are you supposed to add the value of all the numbers and then add the bottom card (last card), for example Justice (11). Which means you get 3 + 11 = 14 (Temperance)?

I recently did a reading for a friend (guy) who just met a guy over the weekend and wanted to know the potential of the relationship between the two of them. I thought I'd spice it up by adding the Quint, but I'm so confused about how to read it. The reading changes in each of these with the Quint!

Any help would be appreciated!

 

[violetdaisy]

There are a few ways to do it. Most often, you add the cards and reduce until you get a number between 1 and 22 (with 22 as the fool). It's personal preference as to whether you number the court cards (11-14). So if the numbers add up to 35, you'd add 3+5=8. If you get 47, 4+7=11. Keep in mind that just as some people don't use reversed cards ever, some never use a Quint. For some it adds to the reading, for others it doesn't.

ETA: 102 can be done either way. Just be consistent.

 

[Barleywine]

You can also "cast out nines" by subtracting 9 from the numbers until you get down within 22. Another idea is to keep on doing this until you get all the way to a single digit. I've been experimenting with getting a "double quint" this way (10-22 and 1-9) and making a vignette or "short story" out of them. If you use Amanda's method of subtracting the value of reversed cards, you can get down to zero as the Fool, and even into negative numbers to show a reversed quint card. I don't use them much, but they can be fun to play with and occasionally revealing.

 

[Amanda]

I've only recently come across this topic of 'quint' cards and I was wondering how you'd calculate it. Do you add the number value of each of the cards together until they give you a single or double digit that reflects the Major Arcana?

You keep adding ONLY until you get the first number you reach between 1&22.

What if you calculate all the cards and it gives you 102 - would the Quint then be 3 - Empress, or 12 Hanged Man?

I would add 1+0+2= 3/Empress

Or are you supposed to add the value of all the numbers and then add the bottom card (last card), for example Justice (11). Which means you get 3 + 11 = 14 (Temperance)?

I don't add the bottom card, or clarifiers if they're pulled. I only add the numbered cards from within the exact/original spread.

This is just my way of doing it; various people will tell you various things. It's up to you to pick what works best for you. Hope that helps!

 

[WolfSwan]

Hi everyone, thank you all for the replies...Quint's feel complicated to me. I'm not sure I'll be using them going forward. I'll go back to the original reading with the Empress interpretation Amanda and see how that changes my initial thoughts!

 

[Barleywine]

You keep adding ONLY until you get the first number you reach between 1&22.

I haven't heard that one from you before in previous quint discussions, is it a new wrinkle? My personal preference is that the quint should ideally be a kind of condensed "signature" or "motif" for all the cards on the table, a "gathering in" of the totality and a "rendering" of that totality into a single expression. (I haven't tried what you suggest, so I can't say what it might do to the result.) I always add all of the cards together (and maybe subtract reversals as mentioned above), including the court cards as 11 through 14, and then reduce. It can produce some very elegant and inspired insights on the outcome of the spread, but I would say it should capture all of the inputs to be most effective.

 

[Aunty Anthea]

I assume people are referring to the card representing the queriant

I find this card the old fashioned gypsy way. As soon as the queriant come to me I ask him/her to pick a card. Immediately. Before any other word is spoken

 

[Barleywine]

I assume people are referring to the card representing the queriant

I find this card the old fashioned gypsy way. As soon as the queriant come to me I ask him/her to pick a card. Immediately. Before any other word is spoken

As I understand it, the quint is simply a numerical condensation of the values of all the cards in the spread that derives a single Trump card as high-level commentary on the reading as a whole. Kind of an "exalted qualifier."

 

[Sulis]

I assume people are referring to the card representing the queriant

I find this card the old fashioned gypsy way. As soon as the queriant come to me I ask him/her to pick a card. Immediately. Before any other word is spoken

No it's not the querant's card.. Quint is short for 'quintessence' or 'quintessential card'.. It's the sum of the other cards and was first used in the Tirage en Croix spread which was a spread for reading with TdMs.. There are 4 cards in the spread then to get an overview of the whole spread you add the numbers of the cards you pulled together and reduce it down to a Major.

 

[Amanda]

I haven't heard that one from you before in previous quint discussions, is it a new wrinkle? My personal preference is that the quint should ideally be a kind of condensed "signature" or "motif" for all the cards on the table, a "gathering in" of the totality and a "rendering" of that totality into a single expression. (I haven't tried what you suggest, so I can't say what it might do to the result.) I always add all of the cards together (and maybe subtract reversals as mentioned above), including the court cards as 11 through 14, and then reduce. It can produce some very elegant and inspired insights on the outcome of the spread, but I would say it should capture all of the inputs to be most effective.

Not really a wrinkle, I guess I was never clear exactly how I do it. I realized how the Quint could be used as a 'control' for the rest of the cards elementally and have been pretty much sticking with that.
I might play around with your method a little more, it sounds romantic as a 'signature' or 'motif'.
I probably still won't add the court cards though. Maybe if I was more aware of Thoth meanings... and had some astrology background. With a fortune-teller 'bent' I'm more inclined to just see them as people, and I like to keep them separate from 'events' to see more clearly how they are acting (or not).