AUTHOR’S NOTE: Here is another unique way to use the single “focus” (aka Signficator) card to open a tarot reading.
Additional Insights: I’m now home after the trip to Italy described in the example reading below. All of the anxiety I anticipated was reserved for the vehicular mayhem we experienced in Florence (Firenze), the one major Italian city we visited by car. (It was the epitome of “Me first, damn common courtesy, get out of my way” and I think it took a couple of years off my remaining life-span.) The “grin-and-bear-it” quotient had to do with the excruciatingly long, wearying return flight. Also, we did have some trouble with luggage upon returning to the US; it was sent to a different baggage carousel than promised and we eventually found it standing in the middle of the concourse floor after the alternative conveyor was shut down. Fortunately, a couple of airport security people (suggested by the faithful Knight of Swords) were keeping an eye on it, but it was a near-miss that could have turned into a stolen-luggage disaster. We don’t intend to do this sort of thing again.
I’m applying orientation and facing of the initial card to create an embryonic “seed-state” from which a detailed reading can grow. It emulates the creative way I sometimes use the Significator card as a “pointer” in the Celtic Cross spread. The Waite-Smith deck is best for this since so many of the cards exhibit a discernible facing, gaze, regard, gesture or posture involving the figures or features shown in the images. Reversals may be used to broaden the range of possible directions that the run of cards can go from the “seed” position. The overall thrust of this reading is to show where the querent’s path in the matter is likely to lead in the next few weeks.
Begin by shuffling and cutting the deck in your usual way while concentrating on the question or topic of interest.
Next, deal a thirteen-card “cross” face-down, beginning with Card #1 in the center. This card becomes the “seed” and “pointer” of the title. The four three-card “arms” of the spread can be dealt in any order.
Turn over the center card, being careful to maintain its as-dealt top-to-bottom orientation.
If the figure or feature on the card faces or leans toward the left, turn over the three cards on that side to create a four-card line with the “seed” card showing the underlying purpose as the “beginning of the matter” and the other three creating the extended narrative. The conventions of past, present and future interpretation can be ignored; just read the cards in the order they appeared to create a “story.”
If the bearing of the figure or feature points or veers toward the right, turn over the three cards in that direction and proceed as above.
If the figure is looking straight out of the picture or the features have no evidence of directional bias and the card is upright, turn over the three cards above the center. Read the four-card sequence as before.
If the same conditions exist and the card is reversed, turn over the three cards below the center and conduct the reading with that four-card sequence.
Below is an example reading. I’ve also included links to three earlier posts that depict the facing (if any) of all of the RWS cards.
The question involved my concerns about an upcoming trip to Italy for a destination wedding. Given the state of the world, and particularly of air travel, I’m not entirely looking forward to it.
The 9 of Cups reversed as the randomly-drawn Significator clearly shows emotional discomfort.
The Ace of Wands reversed suggests disempowerment. (Auto-correct wanted to give me disembowelment.) The wedding is not on my side of the family, and I was more-or-less pushed into going. I do feel a bit eviscerated, or at least pummeled.
The reversed 10 of Swords is even more discomfiting, reminding me of the Mel Brooks film High Anxiety. At least the reversal makes it look more cerebral than viscerally debilitating.
The upright Knight of Swords is telling me to step lively and just “ride it out.” The background does look “Mediterranean” so at least I should get there OK. “Coming back” is covered in the next paragraph.
If I do the “numerical essence” calculation for these cards using my customary practice of subtracting reversed-card values, I come up with minus 8, Strength reversed. I’d like to think it means “strength held in reserve,” so maybe “grin and bear it” is the message. The trip begins during the fourth week of September and we return in early October, which in the Thoth deck corresponds to Adjustment/Justice, Libra and the Number 8. In an earlier post I described the Eights as expressing anxiety due to their Qabilistic relation to Mercury and their unbalanced position on the Tree of Life, and the reversal would double down on that. I think reentering the country may be more difficult than leaving it. I hope the airline doesn’t lose our luggage.
