I understand what you are doing here, buddhagoddess. I have never had any problems with spreads and still use them, but the majority of the time i just read a few cards together, because i do tend to get more out of it this way. If i do a CC i'll get the same amount of talking/writing but it tends to be more along the lines of traditional meanings. if i 'free-read' a few cards, i get more feelings, images, scenarios, literal meanings etc out of it and it can end up a better reading.
i also move the cards. but not if i am doing a spread- i think once you have a 'plan' of how the cards are essembled to give you a message, that message is given within that structure. if i can't read a card in it i see it as my own blindness.
I move the cards because just like in a CC or whatever, certain cards stand out, forming certain relationships. because i have no formal structure, by placing these cards close together i can focus on their relationship, before relating them to the rest.
with a three card reading there is almost inevitably a split- two and one, and that split usually indicates two defineable parts of the answer. where there is no split, the reading usually tells me this is all wrapped up- one feeling or action or event- and the cards become one entitiy.
even in speads i end up mentally grouping cards, but i keep their positional meanings too.
i think if you don't have a spread, moving the cards around may even be to your advantage; you get to look at the group of cards from different angles and so stronger influences emerge, cards 'disappear' as though something unconscious or unseen, colours react with one another depending what they are next too, so you can see how things are impacting on each other....it starts out as something nebulous and undefined and gains clarity the more you look. (i know you know this BG, just elaborating a bit for myself and the thread
) but it does require patience and confidence.
perhaps for the book learned here all those meanings and layers and symbols compete with each other if contexts are not clearly defined?