When a postion requires a card that's already used

[Adriana]

Ok, this is a bit weird question lol. But lets say you have a big spread, for example the horoscope spread with 12 positions. So obviously you will pick the card in each position that is most descriptive. But after a while what if the deck "wants" to use a card in a position that is already placed in a previous one? What happens then? Will a card in the same suite appear?

I noticed once that the queen of wands fell in one position, then the page of wands fell in another, and I had the feeling it was the same person described.
What are your experiences around this? Wouldn't that potentially ruin the reading?

 

[MareSaturni]

Ok, this is a bit weird question lol. But lets say you have a big spread, for example the horoscope spread with 12 positions. So obviously you will pick the card in each position that is most descriptive. But after a while what if the deck "wants" to use a card in a position that is already placed in a previous one? What happens then? Will a card in the same suite appear?

Hum... I don't really understand your example.

For instance - are you choosing the cards consciously or are you drawing them randomly?

In a first moment it seems that you are choosing the cards for each position according to your wishes ("So obviously you will pick the card in each position that is most descriptive"). But right after, it seems that the cards are being randomly drawn ("But after a while what if the deck "wants" to use a card in a position that is already placed in a previous one?").

Who is choosing which card goes in each position? The "cards" or you?

I like to think that the tarot (or whatever force is behind it) will put a certain card in the position that will better deliver the cards' message. If "it" needs a similar card in a different position, "it" will choose a different card with similar meaning. Tarot has 78 cards for God's sake, that's plenty to choose from!

Now... if you were talking about you choosing the cards for the same position and feeling that one card should fill two positions at the same time... then I really don't know what to say. I never used this technique before, but I think you can work as if the card was indeed in these two positions... who is going to forbid you from doing so?

In any case, none of this would 'ruin' your reading, unless you feel that your reading is ruined. It's pretty much up to the reader.

 

[Adriana]

Maybe I expressed it a bit unclear. I didn't mean consciously picking cards yourself, I meant picking cards face down so that the card or higher power or whatever chooses for you. And yeah cards may have similar meanings, but they wont have the same meaning, that's why I wondered about it.

 

[gregory]

I don't understand this either. If you are placing the cards face down, how can any card "want" to be anywhere ? They fall where they fall and then you read them....

I don't MEAN to be thick here - I just can't see what you mean...

 

[Adriana]

I just expressed myself a bit unclear lol Don't get hung up on that phrasing, it was more a wording mistake. I meant asking a question and pulling out cards as you normally do in a reading.

 

[NikkiB]

Hi I get what you mean but I do think the cards will fall where they need to and the best place for them. In something like the horoscope layout I sometimes use one deck and then add another card all the way round with another deck maybe tarot maybe an oracle to give me extra information.

The other day I did a reading for two people who wanted to know how thier joint new business would go so I got them to shuffle a deck each and laid cards from each deck and the results were really interesting - in some positions the cards were the same, and in others they complimented each other well and built on the information from each other, so when the cards for the same position was different they still conveyed a very similer message perhaps a different aspect of that message.. it was an interesting exercise. The decks i used were the victorian romantic and the bright idea deck so they are very different and each provided a complementary perspective to each other...

 

[gregory]

Ah - OK.

I think if you try to second guess where the cards "should" be, you are distorting the reading.

 

[MareSaturni]

Maybe I expressed it a bit unclear. I didn't mean consciously picking cards yourself, I meant picking cards face down so that the card or higher power or whatever chooses for you. And yeah cards may have similar meanings, but they wont have the same meaning, that's why I wondered about it.

Ah, great! Now I get it

As I said, I'm a firm believer that the card will fall in the best position to deliver its message to you, even if it'd fit in a different one.

You have to trust that your cards will tell you the message you are meant to get, not the one you want to. Sometimes we look at a reading an think that our situation would be better represented by the card that fell in another position, but that what we want and not exactly what it is. It's important to know this difference.

Also, if you keep questioning if this or that card fell in the "right" position, your readings will give you a lot of headache. You have to decide - you either trust the cards or you don't. As a reader, i prefer to trust them even if at first I think all cards fell in the wrong position.

I hope I have helped now!

 

[nisaba]

Ok, this is a bit weird question lol. But lets say you have a big spread, for example the horoscope spread with 12 positions. So obviously you will pick the card in each position that is most descriptive. But after a while what if the deck "wants" to use a card in a position that is already placed in a previous one? What happens then? Will a card in the same suite appear?

Let me tell you a little story.

Twenty-something years ago, when I was at the flirting-end of a significant relationship in my life, the person decided to impress me, and pulled out a Tarot deck to offer me a reading. I said okay, and we sat under the tree in the front yard, as it wasn't too windy.

They laid out lots and lots of cards face down, and flipped them right-way-up when they reached them - just their reading-style. Early in the reading I asked a question about something they said, and to answer, they peeled the top card off the remainder of the deck. It was Strength. After we discussed that, the Strength card was put back in the deck and put aside. Later in the reading, one of the cards turned out to be Strength when it was flipped over.

The card managed to be everywhere where it was needed. In accordance with cutting-edge physics (the Heisenberg Uncertainly Principle, and quite possibly Shroedinger's Cat), the card managed to be in two places at once because it was needed in two places at once - just so long as we didn't *know* at the time.

 

[MissJo]

Tarot has 78 cards for God's sake, that's plenty to choose from!

Adding onto this, some of the cards are closely related too.
The Moon and The Priestess, for example, one time I redid a reading. Oh, I think I must have done something stupid and confused the hell out of myself with positions (it happens... I just redo the readings then, asking for the same message '<_< [and apologizing, 'cause I'm that kind of person who apologizes for everything to anything... >_>']). I remember in the first set of cards, the important characteristic, I got The Priestess, dealing with the unknown, faith, intuition, psychic. In the second reading I got The Moon, dealing with the unknown, faith, intuition, psychic.

There are so many meanings when it comes to a single card! Not all are interchangeable, but some definitely are, as in the case of The Priestess and The Moon.

Trust that whatever forces are behind Tarot that they know what they are doing. Because really, whatever is goin' on in what ever deck you use (Tarot, Oracle, or even using your average Casino playing cards), it's working.

But you know, if this really concerns you that much you could combine 2 decks and deal with shuffling 156 cards. I'd go with just trusting them though... that just seems a lot easier...