*The techniques described below can also be applied to the elemental attributes of the Major Arcana by either direct association or astrological correspondence.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: I recently commented on an r/tarot sub-reddit post about a spread that was “all Pentacles.”

This brought up the question of preponderance or absence of an energy (or energies) in a reading, an idea I first learned about in natal astrology. If there is an abundance of one quality and a lack of the others, it can mean one of two things:

1) the seeker is well-supplied with the dominant influence and need not struggle to master it, while the meager or missing emphases show where a lot of work is required;

2) a multitude of one type can mean a “target-rich environment” for situational development while none at all would show being disencumbered in that area with no compensatory effort needed.

In the case of all cards from a single suit, I would see it as a narrowly-framed outlook that focuses primarily on the element in question, to which everything else will be referred: so an all-Earth array (mundane Pentacles, Disks or Coins) would point toward “practical solutions,” with a cross-section of “practical actions;” “practical sentiments;” “practical ideas;” and “practical physicality” as expressed in concrete plans, strategies and tactics.

The single-suit pull is not an ideal condition because most human activities involve a blend of action, feeling, thinking and sensation as represented by the four classical elements. If some properties don’t appear in a spread of four cards or more, the reader must make assumptions about their level of silent engagement or disengagement in the client’s affairs.

In readings where the number of cards in any suit is only slightly above or below the level of the other suits, the qualitative assessment of distribution is not particularly difficult, but when a layout is overfull or devoid of one or more suit, it will be up to the querent to weigh in on how that scenario plays out in their circumstances for any major surplus or shortage.

The diviner can coach them in doing so by briefly highlighting the elemental nature of each suit and then concentrating on the significance of any that are either plentiful or deficient. This will quite often be where the crux of the sitter’s issue lies, the main reason for seeking a tarot prediction in the first place. Suit distribution can be a powerful tool for determining where to place the most emphasis in a reading. As a preliminary move, I will sometimes perform the initial step of the First Operation of the Golden Dawn’s “Opening of the Key” method (the “four elemental sub-packs” process) to acquire a heads-up on where I might look first in the primary divination that follows.