top and bottom cards of deck!

[~tarot dummy~]

hi guys! ihave a question about using tarot cards.

i know a lot of people use the top and the bottom card as part of their readings too.. what does the top and the bottom of the deck actually stands for? for example i had a 3 cards reading with for example ace of cups, 7 and 10 of cups so on the surface it seems good but when i flip out the top and bottom card.. they are like 7 of swords and 9 of swords.. it happen to me a few times that the actually picked cards are good but the top and bottom cards are bad... can any one explain this? or should i just discard top and bottom just to stop confusing myself????

TD

 

[Astraea Aurora]

Hi TD

by saying "top and bottom cards" I assume you draw your cards from the fan, right out of the middle.

Not all tarot readers do this. Many shuffle the cards, maybe (or maybe not)cut and restack them and then draw from the top. In this case the top cards are the cards that are essentially your reading. Imo there's no second, hidden meaning to those cards, they are just your reading.
The bottom card, though, is sometimes seen as a hidden aspect of the situation. The subconscious trying to tell you something.

Then, why do they contradict each other from time to time? Well, I'm sure you've been into a situation where your gut (read: subconscious) told you to do something this way, but logic (read: conscious) got in the way and you did it the other way. In the end you did what you (consciously) THOUGHT or KNEW was right, not what you (subconsciously) FELT was right. To me it's just that, contradiction. Then it helps me to change my conscious thoughts so they are in line with what I know about my subconsciousness.

Beware, not all readers draw from the fan, not all readers draw from the top, heck, there are even readers who draw from the bottom. There are readers who use bottom cards as an additional factor in the reading, there are others who don't. After all, what makes sense to YOU, is what you should do. Screw the rest, especially if it confuses you. As gregory said so nicely: "What works for you works for you!"

Astraea Aurora

 

[obeygravity]

I'm a total shadow card user. I didn't used to do it, but then I tried it once, saw how accurate it was, and kept doing it ever since. I never pull more than one shadow card though, I just turn the deck over. I've never heard of picking another top card, unless you're talking about clarifiers? The shadow card usually tells me the aspect of the situation that I may be overlooking. It's just that overall theme or basic holder for the rest of the reading.

 

[~tarot dummy~]

Astraea Auroral: yea i do use the fan method. i never thought or used to reading from the top cards..however i had a try and found that using top cards doesn't shut my way of shuffling..if i use top cards, i might ended up getting the same cards from the last reading. I don't even know if I am shuffling right. Since I don't read reversals, I shuffle it in a way where u place half deck on each hand then kinda merge it into one deck, do you know what i mean?

Back to the shadow cards, your exaplaination of the subconcious and concious makes a lot of sense as to why are they contradicting. Now I understand a bit more. So are you saying that, we should listen to our subconciousness more and hence the bottom card does play an important role?

obeygravity: what are clarifies? this sounds like something i should know...

thanks for both of your inputs.. it really helped!

TD

 

[Astraea Aurora]

Astraea Auroral: yea i do use the fan method. i never thought or used to reading from the top cards..however i had a try and found that using top cards doesn't shut my way of shuffling..if i use top cards, i might ended up getting the same cards from the last reading. I don't even know if I am shuffling right. Since I don't read reversals, I shuffle it in a way where u place half deck on each hand then kinda merge it into one deck, do you know what i mean?

Shuffling is the same as in anything tarot related: What works for you works for you! I think you mean you shuffle like you'd shuffle a poker deck. I do overhand shuffling and I've found that I don't get the same cards from the last reading if I put each card separately into the stack of cards when the reading is done, each card at a different place, some more to the front, some I put into the middle, some at the end. Then I give it a few shuffles to mix them all up again.

The overhand shuffle gives you no reversals, unless you cut the deck in parts, reverse one or two pile upside down and restack the deck into one pile. If you don't cut and reverse upside down you'll get no reversals.

Back to the shadow cards, your exaplaination of the subconcious and concious makes a lot of sense as to why are they contradicting. Now I understand a bit more. So are you saying that, we should listen to our subconciousness more and hence the bottom card does play an important role?

Yes, I think we should listen more to our subconsciousness. But that doesn't mean that bottom cards (sometimes called shadow cards) play an important role. Personally, I see the logic behind them but I can't work with them. The theory makes sense to me, but in practice (my readings) it doesn't.

obeygravity: what are clarifies? this sounds like something i should know...

Clarifyer or clarifying cards are additional cards you CAN (but don't need to) draw when a card or two makes no sense in the reading. I don't use them. If I'm having enough trouble decoding 3 or 5 cards why put pressure on myself and add 1 or 2 clarifying cards to the interpretation? Instead I take extra time with the reading, maybe read some book interpretations, think about the aspects of the cards and try to see it from different pov's to find the right layer of meaning that fits the reading.

Astraea Aurora

 

[starrystarrynight]

I shuffle, cut and deal my spreads from the top of the deck. Then I look at the card that is on the bottom of the deck and incorporate it into the reading as the energy the querent is bringing to the reading or the underlying issue that prompts the question/situation.

Edited to add:

Since I consider elemental dignities, I also peek at the second-to-bottom card to see if the bottom card is compatible (dignified) or not (ill-dignified.) It seems to work for me.

 

[wytchwood]

I do sometimes look at the bottom card if I feel unsure as to the general tone of the reading, then I find that the bottom card casts a certain light over the whole reading rather than add another card to interpret. I never pull 'clarifiers' as I feel that this is scratching for more clues which are not going to appear, more likely the reading will become incoherent if more cards are drawn to clarify the original cards. The answers are either there or they're not and if they're not there I will ask myself why, if the answer is because I didn't fully engage I will start again, if it's for another reason I will respond accordingly.

 

[Grizabella]

In my opinion, if you're confused by the cards in your spread, then adding more cards just adds more confusion. The cards in your spread are the message for you. I don't see why taking the top and bottom cards should be considered a part of your spread. However, people are free to do whatever they want in using the cards and if someone thinks they're getting a benefit from bothering with the top and/or bottom cards, then that's what they should keep on doing if they want to.

I riffle like shuffling a poker deck. Then I take the cards off the top but lately I've been drawing cards randomly throughout the deck just to see if that method impresses me as being better.