The Blank Spot Revisited

[tarotbear]

John, ... who?

Still laughing to the oblique reference in paragraph one ....

I didn't catch this article (or the reference) the first time around, but did while reading the article in the November 2005 ATS newsletter that jmd sent me.

 

[firemaiden]

Oh THAT John guy... John EatsBread

Okay, Umbrae. For some reason I thought I understood this post when it first went up. Now I'm going "what's a ticker?" "What's a chart?" "What's the right hand edge of the chart?"

Now do I understand correctly (Patience, please! I'm the gal who watches the news about Wall Street on TV and says, "why is that guy banging that thing?") the ticker is what happens after you fall off the edge of the chart? The Chart is the past performance expressed in a nice graphic that makes you think "this stock will go up for ever, where's the catch, let me get rich now?" and the ticker shows what's happening right now as the sales are being made? Each sale is a tick? It's a fluid live picture, whereas the chart is the dead static one?

Hoping I got that right, now I'll try to understand the analogy with the cards: I guess the challenge is to read the cards as though they were tickers, not charts? or - as the "right edge" of the chart where you fall off the chart into ticker-land?

Okay, now I'm thinking about how turning over the cards one by one as they come up, instead of laying them out face up in a line, is like falling off the right edge of the chart.

It's a bit of a paradox you know, because if we look at each card one at a time, you might suppose it would make you just focus on that one card, in a static way, but, you say it will bring a flow, so it makes me pause. I think you are right, though saying why is a bit difficult to put into words.

Well, you know I like to read this way - one card at a time, as it comes up. You said it was "The Artichoke Spred" - you know, you peel one card at a time off the deck, like tearing the leaves off an artichoke, savouring one leaf at a time, dipping it in butter, and scraping all the meat off with your front teeth.

What happens when I turn over one card at a time, is that of necessity the first card leads perfectly into the second. All the meat you can get is scraped off card number one, (with butter) and when the leaf is nothing but a skeleton, then the next question reveals itself, and we turn over the next card.

So the next card answers the question that arose from card number one, and very often, at the same time, was also predicted by the first card. (I find everything is usually all there in the first card). In this method, each card is related back to the preceding card, and also predicts/gives birth to the next one. It's a little bit like a spiral curling inward, where each card contains the next - It's that kind of flow.

Also when you turn the card over, and you have no idea what it is going to be, the potentiality of the whole deck is still there in the card until you turn it over. (the chaotic fluidity of the ticker).

Am I understanding you?

 

[Umbrae]

The ticker (and not that scrolling thingy on the bottom of the TV screen - that's not a real-time ticker) is the now, current, present. It prints with each trade, so it slows down, speeds up – does nothing, goes nuts.

The Chart is a picture of the history of all trades in a given time period. All trades for the last 5 minutes or all trades for the last 5 decades.

The right hand edge of the chart is where a chart moves to the now, to the future.

By laying all the cards face up, the mind of the reader and the sitter become overtaken by the colored symbology of the images. We are assailed by the whole.

Then we attempt to break it down.

And we do the reading – card – by – card – one – at – a – time…

Now if I turn them over one at a time, I can chat about that Nine of Cups. It’s alone, by itself and you and I can talk, we’re not overwhelmed. And our conversation meanders – lead by the Nine of Cups.

Our conversation is not lead by me attempting to segue into what the Hanged Man is about. The segue will happen all by itself if I keep that Hanged Man face down until you and I are ready for him!

What happens when I turn over one card at a time, is that of necessity the first card leads perfectly into the second. All the meat you can get is scraped off card number one, (with butter) and when the leaf is nothing but a skeleton, then the next question reveals itself, and we turn over the next card.

So the next card answers the question that arose from card number one, and very often, at the same time, was also predicted by the first card. (I find everything is usually all there in the first card). In this method, each card is related back to the preceding card, and also predicts/gives birth to the next one. It's a little bit like a spiral curling inward, where each card contains the next - It's that kind of flow.

Also when you turn the card over, and you have no idea what it is going to be, the potentiality of the whole deck is still there in the card until you turn it over. (the chaotic fluidity of the ticker).

Am I understanding you?

Precisely.

Now go to Yahoo, then choose Finance, then choose DOW, look around on that page and find the chart. Click on 5-year.

This is a spread. It’s a static picture of history. Everything that was, is here in the chart. (note: The DOW is an index of 30 stocks chosen by newspaper guys, journalists…it is not an exchange – nothing ‘trades on the DOW’ – it’s an index, nothing more)

If you listen to journalists they have been crying about the ‘poor economy’.

Is the market up or down? Depends on who you listen to. It’s a sideways picture of consolidation. When should you buy in? As it breaks that upper-band? The 11K mark? That’s the right hand edge. You buy in on the 11k mark and you’re gonna miss the move. It’ll take off without you. The built up momentum will leave you at the station.

What’s this got to do with Tarot?

All of your cards face up may present a confusing picture. Look back at that chart. Each downward moment could be represented by a Tower (“Sell!”) and each upward movement as a Wheel of Fortune (“Buy”).

Buy Sell Buy Sell Buy Sell what do I do? Buy Sell Buy Sell Buy Sell and the commissions will eat you alive…

But turning over one card at a time you begin to feel the rhythm…just like you’ll feel the breakout on the chart (on a ticker) long before it breaks 11k.

(Financial tip o’the day…it won’t break 11K until all the ‘pain’ is outta the chart)

 

[firemaiden]

Fascinating, thank you

hmmm .. "til the pain is out of the chart"... that's wild, it really is like a spread.

 

[tmgrl2]

Great thread, Umbrae!

Guess I've been out to lunch past few weeks since I missed it!

I love your analogy. And...I look at charts when I buy stocks..I don't "trade" anymore...way too difficult to read the moment.

Tarot, now. That's different.

When I first started reading not that long ago, I turned all the cards over. I did have those gasps when Death or The Tower or The Devil came up. Sitters couldn't get themselves around those to listen to me.

Then I read one of your posts where you talked about turning the cards over one by one and talking about them. So...that's what I have been doing since then...with much greater returns, I believe.

What's interesting...is how the flow shifts...like a river when it hits rocks or an island or when it suddenly widens out and gets very deep. Once we start down the river, we don't know how the flow will go. We have to "get there" to "be there" and once we're there, we react from that place.

Then ...when the trip is over, we can pull together the experience we have just gone through....river journey or Tarot Reading.

So, when I finish, I pull together and summarize where we have been. But in the midst of the turn of cards, when that blank spot hits.....I usually find that something comes to me about the card....and if it isn't much, I simply say...well, then, let's move on and see where we are going and perhaps this card will have more to say later on.

I love your process threads, Umbrae. (And your advice on buying/selling stocks...LOL)

terri

 

[poivre]

I'm by no means a descriptive reader but I do read
one card at a time.

I find the client goes with the flow, with me. When the
cards are moving they get that little bit of excitement in
there eyes. When the waiting cards keep coming up they look
discontent or happy and when the people keep coming through
they sometimes know exactly who the person is without you
even telling them a description of the card.

Also with the numbers. When the number keeps showing up
example, once you tell them five is change or choas, they
know where every single five shows in the spread, any 5 or 15.

I find the body language tells us alot when the cards are
turned over one at a time. By the third or fourth card they
become comfortable and begin to join in with the reading.

I have sometimes had a second deck with me and after their
reading, let them pick three cards from that deck.
If new cards come up it's usually extra information that they
want to hear or it's flow from the first reading and they are
amazed.

Three cards I don't have a trouble reading, all turned over but more
than that I just get too much information at once.

I like to enjoy the mystery of the cards when
we have to learn the flow of a reading.
Major or minors, moving or searching, numbers or court cards...
flow is a part of the reading.

jmho

 

[Satori]

What I've been doing, is to turn over the first card, pause, perhaps speak, then turn the next, pause, consider, twirl my hair, smile at the sitter, turn the next card, and rub my hands together.

I really need the whole the spread looking me in the face before I see the connections.

For me, the story is the place between the cards where the connections in time and space emerge.

I actually don't think the word linear is in my personal Tarot vocabulary. There isn't much about me either that is linear. I'm all about the curves...the swirls, the eddies, the current and the undertow.

Like the journey of a snowflake.

It isn't really falling in a straight line. So that the moment of it's creation is pretty important because in the moment of crystallization it receives it's unique form...

....and then
....the journey downward


is like the journey inward and then back out to meet with the person weeping or laughing across the table from you.

I just get nervous around numbers, and discussions of charts, and tickers.

The most important ticker is inside of us anyway.
In my most humble opinion.

 

[tmgrl2]

elf...your post beautifully describes the process that works for you!! Well said!!

For me, it seems to work so much better when we talk about each card and the position and meaning as it turns up...later, the dots begin to connect and finally, when we "pull it all together," I often find my sitter doing that on her/his own....also, it seems they have a better "memory" of what each card meant along the way, so that the tying together seems to give us the next step.


I know, though, that from the early readings I did, I was uncomfortable with the expressions on my sitters face as the cards were turned over...and I had a sense that they were churning about something that came up...and certainly, at times, the sitter jumped right to the card or cards that seemed to "bother" them....It didn't seem to make a difference if the sitter was familiar with Tarot or not.

I do agree with those, though, who feel that a three-card spread can easily be turned over at one time. Even when I do a CC, though, I turn over #1 card and talk about it before I turn over #2...and they are related.

Whatever floats our boat, right??

All this being said, there are times, when...in the moment of the reading, I do something completely different from my usual pattern. I decide once we sit down and are shuffling and cutting and talking.

Oddly enough, when I do an online reading or a phone reading, I turn over all the cards and then begin...

So, this says to me that I feel ok about putting together the reading, either way...with the only factor being, that for an online or phone reading, my sitter can't see what has already turned up....This works for me quite well.




terri

 

[poivre]

Geesh!!!
After going over this thread...

I realized that when I sit with a client
I read card for card.

When I do readings online I turn over the whole spread
to get flow of the person's situation.

Thanks for the thread!

 

[tarotbear]

If I am doing a Celtic Cross 10-card - which I see as having three conclusions, I read this way:

Turn over 1, 2 and 3, face up. Comment on them, then turn 2 & 3 back face down. Read the first card, flip and add 2, then flip over 3 and read them as a sequence.

Flip over 4, 5, & 6 face up. Comment on them. Turn 5 & 6 face down and read 4. Flip 5 and read it, flip 6 and read it, then read them as P-P-F in sequence.

Lay out 7, 8, 9, & 10. Comment. Flip 9 & 10 face down. Read 7 as internal, read 8 as external. Flip 9 face up and read their hopes or fears. Flip 10 and read it as the conclusion.

Read 3, 6 and 10 as a progressive sequence.

In this way the querent does not have to try to keep too many things going on in the mind at once, and can focus on what you are reading, and ultimately hear what you are trying to tell them.