Long before I read the chapter titled “The Tarot Two by Two” in Alejandro Jodorowsky’s book The Way of Tarot (in which he examines the cards as pairs, couples and duets), I was advising beginners that – rather than trying to learn the meaning of individual cards in an interpretive vacuum – it’s best to take any two random cards and see what they have to say to (or about) one another. This approach also provides an opportunity and an incentive for some rudimentary storytelling practice. We might then think of such partners as “singing in two-part harmony;” “doing the tango with” (or “tap-dancing around”) each other; or “fighting a duel.”

Today, in re-reading Jodorowsky’s words, I realized that this two-card interaction would be an ideal way to tackle spreads that don’t break down into logical triplets and therefore don’t lend themselves to my preferred method of reading card combinations, Elemental Dignities. The Celtic Cross is an ideal example. Rather than presenting triplets, it offers five consecutive pairs that fall perfectly into line with my premise. Cards #1 and #2 (“covering and crossing”) pair up to show the “heart of the matter” (the pre-existing situation and any major motivators that threaten its stability); Cards #3 and #4 (in my personal CC design) both reflect “things as they were” in the distant past and more recently;” Cards #5 and #6 describe the “emerging trend” in the matter; Cards #7 and #8 address the quernet’s “fears” and how they might be aggravated or assuaged by the individual’s personal and social environment (which could either “fan the flames” or “calm the waters”); and Cards #9 and #10 convey how the querent’s aspirations will finally develop into reality.

Not every spread exhibits such a conveniently segmented structure, but in any layout these two-card vignettes can form “cells” of meaning that might be chained together more coherently than the narrative sprawl that often results from a series of disassociated single cards, particularly in larger spreads. I believe I’ve come up with a meaningful way to do this. With only two cards in a set, the theory of dignities with its “two-over-one” motif has no place, but the “dominant-and-recessive” paradigm of genetic science may be a creative and intriguing way to split hairs. I would approach this primarily according to rank, orientation and mode. For example, if one card of a pair is of a higher rank than the other (trump over court or pip; court over pip), I would view that card as the “front-man” in representing its “cell” in the chain. If one of the two is reversed, the other would take “center stage” as being more outwardly assertive, and if one is active or positive while the other is passive or negative, that card would stand out. (In the last case, Fire and Air or odd-numbered cards would be active, stepping to the front, while Water and Earth or even-numbered cards would be passive, standing in the background.) The upshot of this distinction is that each pair of cards would present a layered complexion, with a “lead” card and a supporting partner; in musical terms we might say one plays the melody while the other supplies harmony or counterpoint.

When fashioning the “cells” of meaning into an overall narrative, these assumptions create the possibility for two themes to appear, an objective scenario based on the “dominant” card in each pair that focuses on the outer dimensions of the situation, and a more subjective one formed around the “recessive” cards that shows the inner workings of the querent’s circumstances. Thus, we can come up with a “two-channel” outlook that speaks to both the pragmatic features of a reading and its more psychological aspects at the same time without having to “change gears” in the middle of the interpretation as so often happens when the sitter can’t relate to one perspective or the other. In this sense, a ten-card reading can become a more economical affair of five “duets” accessed at two levels, each with a slightly different focus. Think of it more as a “lasagna” than the “scramble” we’re often confronted with in a large spread.