An interesting way to determine time

Hi folks,

so I came about Teresa Michelsen's book "Designing Your Own Tarot Spreads" and she states an intersting way to determine when something will happen with the help of the suit cards. (She also has a system for the Major Arcana cards, but my interest is on the suit cards system.)

First, one should assign the four seasons to the four suits.
Second, the number of the drawn card determines the week within that season. The rule of thumb is Ace is the first week, Two the second week and so on. All suit cards are used, even the Court cards. Pages are thus the 11th week, Knights the 12th week and Queens the 13th week. Kings are not attached as they signify the change from one season to the next season.

EG 1: Four Wands means fourth week in summer (I use Cups as spring, Wands as summer, Pentacles as autumn and Swords as winter.)

EG 2: Knight of Pentacles means 12th week in autumn.

What I find odd is that logically a season consists of three months, and each months has only four weeks. So there are only 12 weeks per season - but 13 weeks x 4 seasons make up 52 weeks = a whole year. Guess I need to have a calendar at hand to find out the correct date of the week I'm refering to .


So, does any one of you also used this system? If so, how are your experiences? I admit I'm intrigued by it and want to find out if it works.

Astraea Aurora

So in essence the Queen and King is the next season from that card?

Hi BLFO,

yes and No.

No for the Queens. From what I understood she uses Queens as "13th week" which seems a bit odd at first sight as I'm (maybe you too?) used to think 1 year = 12 months, one month = 4 weeks, so 12 multiplied by 4 makes only 48 weeks and four weeks are missing to complete the calender year.
But her system makes sense. One year has 52 weeks. When you divide 52 by 4 (weeks : seasons) you get 13, and thus she includes the Queens.

Yes for the Kings. They transform the passing season into the coming season.

Hope it becomes clear.

Astraea Aurora

That sounds like a pretty good method. I've never asked how long something will take/ when something will happen, as I've never been able to figure out how to determine it. Will definitely try this way...

I use this system, with Wands=Spring, Cups=Summer, Pentacles= Autumn, and Swords= Winter. For me, Major Arcana cards answering the question, "When?" mean that other energies are at play that make the timing uncertain. I have had very good results with this method, but overall I feel the key is to adopt a system and use it consistently.

I have also heard of this system before and use it on occassion. I believe if you count the weeks of each season, it actually lasts 13 wks. I don't believe you are suppose to use the page in this count, but I could be wrong.

for instance, spring is from March 21 to June 20, which is 13wks. summer is June 21 to Sept. 20th, fall is Sept. 21 to Dec. 20th, and then winter from Dec. 21 to March 21 again, (or there abouts on the dates)--which is 13 wks.

If you were using a regular deck of playing cards, you would have only 13 cards from the ace to the king. this is how I learned about this timing schedule for the cards.

Apollonia said:

I use this sytem, with Wands=Spring, Cups=Summer, Pentacles= Autumn, and Swords= Winter. For me, Major Arcana cards answering the question, "When?" mean that other energies are at play that make the timing uncertain. I have had very good results with this method, but overall I feel the key is to adopt a system and use it consistently.

Click to expand...

Hi Apollonia,

I agree with you. There's no use in such a system if you use another method every time. It highly resonantes with me, so at least I want to give it a couple of test runs.

Your approach to Major Arcana cards is interesting. I still don't know what I want to do with them. The astrological approach doesn't quite fit for me but I'm unsure as it is also often used and well-established.

Astraea Aurora

celticnoodle said:

I have also heard of this system before and use it on occassion. I believe if you count the weeks of each season, it actually lasts 13 wks. I don't believe you are suppose to use the page in this count, but I could be wrong.

for instance, spring is from March 21 to June 20, which is 13wks. summer is June 21 to Sept. 20th, fall is Sept. 21 to Dec. 20th, and then winter from Dec. 21 to March 21 again, (or there abouts on the dates)--which is 13 wks.

If you were using a regular deck of playing cards, you would have only 13 cards from the ace to the king. this is how I learned about this timing schedule for the cards.

Click to expand...

Hi celticnoodle,

you're right. Counting the weeks of each season brings up 13 weeks.

It's interesting that you learned this system with playing cards and it makes much more sense because they only have 13 cards. (This actually brings me to the question why the Pages have been eliminated in playing card decks, but that's o/t. )

In her book Michelsen explains that she counts the Pages as well, at least as I understand it (p. 34):

"...and the Ace through Queen can be related to the thirteen weeks in a season. ... Kings are considered the transition between sesason, ..."

Click to expand...

Thanks for your insight ! It leaves food for thought.

Astraea Aurora

I also learned this system for playing cards and it has been scarily accurate there. Never tried it with tarot... yet What system does she propose for the Majors?

This is a great system, I will certainly try it! I was never sure how to read time in the cards.

But how would you do it - do you pull a special card which answers only this question, regarding time? Like an extra card? Probably.