AUTHOR’S NOTE: In The Book of Thoth, Aleister Crowley discussed metaphysical syncretism as it applied to spiritual beliefs and practices across a wide range of ancient cultures, drawing parallels between them when it struck him as significant. At a more humble level, I employ syncretism (“the merging or assimilation of several originally discrete traditions”) in the development of tarot spreads that use more than one divinatory method to arrive at an answer: cards and dice; cards and dominoes; cards and coin-flips; cards and board-game spinners; etc. The secondary technique is usually brought to bear on decisions that must be made between two or more cards, paths or outcomes.

I’ve posted a number of essays on the subject in the past. Here is another spread that enlists a board-game spinner in choosing the cards for a reading.

Begin by shuffling a full tarot deck (don’t worry about concentration or reversed orientation at this point), then deal all 78 cards into six piles of 13 around a board-game spinner in a way that will give all of the groups an equal chance of being singled out by the spin. (A little overlap will prevent “gappers.”) If it’s easier, you can deal the cards into a row of six sub-packs and place them in the layout when done; the order of placement doesn’t matter since “the spin is the thing.”

While concentrating on the question or topic, give the pointer a brisk spin. When it stops on one of the piles, pick up those cards and shuffle them (continuing to concentrate and allowing for reversals if you like), then draw one card to represent the first card in a line spread. (This approach is suitable for spreads of any length; just keep spinning until you have all the cards you need.)

Make note of this card so you don’t lose track of the order, then continue concentrating, spinning, shuffling and pulling until your spread is fully populated. If you land on the same pile in any subsequent spin, remove the card previously pulled, reshuffle the pack, and pull another card from it. Unless you have a really large spread, you won’t run out of cards in any one pile by doing this.

Here is the final spread. (I didn’t get any reversals in this one.) For some strange reason, I can hear The Beatles singing “We Can Work It Out.” Although I didn’t have a specific question in mind for this example, it does suggest an opportunity to make headway after a slow start. That Queen of Wands seems “ready for anything” and the resources appear to be available, but the Princess of Swords is elementally hostile to the 3 of Disks and may be hard to motivate. She has the look of a “Quality Control inspector” to me, but then I should know since I used to be one a long time ago.