Reading using directionality and reversals

Pamela Colman Smith Commemorative Tarot  

This is the reading I've been exploring in my journal for the last few days. I'd drawn cards of the number 5 two days in a row (not pictured). Five being associated with finding balance, I asked 'What is attempting to find balance in my life right now? What is out of balance? and What is maintaining equilibrium?' I drew Magician Rx, Strength, Star.

So, a weakened Magician is attempting to find balance right now. Personal power is not being used to bring my needs into reality. I am not identifying my true needs. Strength has come forward as what is out of balance right now -- again a card of personal power and taking the bull by the horns (or lion by the jaw). The Star has maintained equilibrium -- hope has not been lost. I have felt all along that there is plenty of time to address my issues. I just haven't done anything about them. (The reason why is seen in 9 of Pentacles later).

To rectify the reversed Magician, I drew Hermit and placed it above Magician. I can identify my true needs and establish balance in my personal power within myself, or with the help of a mentor, or in a spiritual tradition or practice. wondering what the Hermit's lamp was lighting, I drew another card to see what was in his line of sight. Queen of Cups. Her posture echoes that of the Hermit -- both facing to the left, both intent upon the item they are holding, for the Hermit, the lamp of enlightenment, for the Queen it's the world's craziest cup, shaped like the Ark of the Covenant with the seraphim on either side (if the Ark of the Covenant were made of spare pipe and hood ornaments nicked from the cars of pimps in Starsky and Hutch.)  Queen of Cups is Water of Water -- and so was the daily card that prompted this draw (not in the photo), 5 of Cups, another Water of Water card. This imbalance or disturbance is in the realm of emotions and relationships and personal power.

 Looking at the Queen of Cups and Hermit makes one long to know what is in their line of sight -- so I drew another card to see what they are looking at and got 8 of Cups reversed. Another Water of Water card! 8 of Cups is recognition of time to move on; reversed suggests confusion or delay in making that move.

How can I overcome this confusion, find some clarity? I drew a card to rectify the 8 of Cups reversed and got -- King of Swords reversed! Fire of Air, reversed. I am Aquarius, and King of Swords is the card associated with Aquarius. He's sort of my default setting. But here, to overcome my confusion about what needs looking at and changing, I can't do it through King of Swords, but through King of Swords reversed. Usually, I tend to be rational about things but now that is not what is needed. To clarify this, I remembered a technique of identifying reversed court cards by identifying their elemental opposite. If King of Swords is Fire of Air, his opposite would be Air of Fire --Knight of Wands!

Knight of Wands, that maker of 'down and dirty' plans, that explorer and adventurer, that risk taker! Knight of Wands? How the heck do I access Knight of Wands energy when I don't even feel that I remotely have it right now?

I took the card out of the pack and looked at it for a while. I noticed the pyramids in the background. The Knight of Wands is not drawing energy from his surroundings, which are dry and barren. His passion is inside him. So it must be somewhere inside of me, even when there is nothing in my environment or situation to feed it. What is the Knight of Wands charging toward? What is he charging away from?

I put the card back in the pack and shuffled to find out which cards he would end up between. I found the Knight of Wands and laid him out with the cards on either side of him: Chariot, Knight of Wands, 9 of Pentacles.

The Knight of Wands is moving away from 9 of Pentacles (Air of Earth), whose energy and line of sight are directed away from him (though her body posture is still open to his direction). Her attention is definitely elsewhere, focused on her bird (Air) of prey (Earth). As Air of Earth, she contemplates the material/physical realm. Her satisfaction with her status quo is evident. She is complacent, self-congratulatory, self-satisfied. These are not bad things, but the way she spends her leisure time may no longer be balanced -- too long standing still. Too long watching others move (her bird of prey, which she will presumably set loose to watch fly).

How does the Knight of Wands move me from too much physical luxury? What does he move me toward? The Chariot, a Water card, associated with Cancer and the Moon. Okay, so the Water of Water cards led me to draw a variety of Water cards that have laid me a path to -- a Water major! The emotional plane is dominant in this issue. Not the material plane or the logical plane, but the emotional plane, and how to take action with balanced emotions.

'Cancer is the gateway to incarnation, as Capricorn (its opposite) is the gateway to ascension. Cancer's energy guides us to learn the distinctions of our emotional and logical reasoning so we can recognise how they don't always agree' - agent64.com/cancer-the-chariot

Like a Cancerian crab, the Chariot has a hard shell and a soft centre -- appearing tough on the outside but deep down quite sensitive and vulnerable.

The Chariot card is full of this tension between opposing forces: black and white sphinxes, male and female, facing in opposite directions, meant to be pulling the chariot but not hitched to it and lying down (they seem ambivalent), the lingam and yoni on the shield (which to me looks like a top that spins in place but doesn't actually get anywhere), the chariot is a conveyance but is built like a cube of concrete, no reins and no motion in the charioteer who is encased in the concrete cube (he seems ambivalent), chariots are often associated with the sun ('chariots of fire') but this one is decorated with moons and starry night skies and is associated with the moon.

In other words, the Knight of Wands is me progressing, through my own inner drive,  toward a state of balance created by acknowledging that there is always a state of perpetual tension, and harnessing that tension to drive my life forward. I have been looking for balance rather than acknowledging constant tension. In fact, I have turned from acknowledgement of tension, turned from the areas that need attention (Water and Fire) and settled into some complacent wallowing in the material realm. And there I've wallowed for quite some time.

'To be useful, either to herself or any higher purpose, she had to use her ambivalence as a driving force in her life, a force that would power the Chariot' (Rachel Pollack, The Forest of Souls, 75).

Much to ponder. The Chariot and the Knight of Wands are going on my altar.

Some of these techniques were shared by Caitlin Matthews in a session at the UK Tarot Conference, October 2015. A webinar and DVD of line of sight and rectifying reversals, etc,  may be available at some point. Visit her website at Hallowquest.

Other techniques seen herein have been shared by Alison Cross in TABI conferences, by Benebell Wen in her book Holistic Tarot, and many others.

UK Tarot Conference 2015

Hey, another UK Tarot Conference in London! This year the theme was Hanged Man -- but I missed all the themed business, because I attended the Saturday session, and nobody said boo about the Hanged Man on Saturday. Never mind! There was plenty to keep me busy, and at the end of it, I got a certificate!

Look, Ma! I got a certificate! 

Here are my highlights:

Which Way Are Your Cards Facing? by Caitlin Matthews

Photo courtesy Kim Arnold

Caitlin led us through some exercises to help make use of the directionality of cards in our readings. This is a practice I picked up by way of Robert Place and have been doing for years. I remember getting feedback from a client once a few years ago telling me that 'which way a card faces has no bearing on anything and is something that exists entirely in your imagination.' Funny how something I 'dreamed up' is a standard interpretation method!

Reversals
Caitlin calls the direction the 'line of sight'. She addressed reversals and provided this mnemonic for interpreting, TAROT:

Tardy - things are slowed down or delayed
Aberrant - the card's usual effects are lessened
Restrained - stuckness, obstacles
Obverse - the opposite to upright meaning
Threatens - the card's power becomes ominous, shadowy or burdensome.

This could be of use, but I find the words a bit abstract for me. I prefer Benebell Wen's mnemonic, offered in her book Holistic Tarot, because for me it is simpler, WIND:

Weakened energy and meaning of card
Inverted meaning, ie, opposite of upright meaning
Negative influence on seeker
Delay before outcome will materialise; not all factors fully matured

You can see that the various ways to interpret reversals are there in both mnemonics, I just find the second one easier to deal with.

Two Techniques Using Direction

1. Mirror Pairs
Caitlin taught us a simple method of asking a question, selecting a number, and then cutting the deck into two piles. Count down the number of cards you selected into each pile. Turn those cards over. How does this pair relate to your issue? Swap the cards round. Does that change anything? Add a third card to resolve them. If the cards are looking in a certain direction, see what they're looking at by placing the third card in their line of sight. Try moving the card around. How does that change things?

2. Rectifying Reversals
This was something I'd never heard of. I don't tend to read with upside down cards (reversals), and so never need to 'rectify' one. Caitlin never explained what she meant by that, so I have googled it and found this quotation from Mary K Greer's book, The Complete Book of Tarot Reversals:

'If you or your client receive a reversed card but desire its upright associations, is there a remedy? Of course. A tarot reading is about becoming aware of what you are creating with your current attitudes and choices. [A card's full range of meanings] is there for you to access, but ...you are going to have to extend your imagination and exert yourself to achieve a desired change' (33).

Greer goes on to describe ways to rectify a card. Caitlin's way as demonstrated in this session is to merely draw another card and put it above the reversed card. If that card is also reversed, put another card above that.

Caitlin used this technique in what I call a 'story board reading' (and she drew that analogy as well), which is something I often do when reading for myself. You draw one card, three cards or however many. If this leads to another question, draw another card and add it to the line. Using Caitlin's two techniques of Line of Sight and Rectification, you would place the card to find out where someone is looking, and how to correct (rectify) the reversals. The reading draws to a close when the directionality is capped (for example, you've had two cards looking to the right and the next one you draw looks back at them to the left) or when the questioning comes to a natural finish. It's a 'story board' because you read, not for set positions, but by stringing the cards together into a story. (She did offer the tip of not allowing a reading to sprawl more than three lines!)

'Heresy!' by Richard Abbott

Photo by Chloe McCracken

Richard's talk was my favourite, in which he discussed ways of finding meaning in life, calling them 'mono-valence, multi-valence and omni-valence':

mono-valent - there is only one meaning per thing; only one interpretation of events (or cards)
multi-valent - there are many meanings to things, but there is still a truth
omni-valent - anything means anything, everything is one

The place we want to be is multi-valent, but in reality we move up and down the spectrum and sometimes get stuck in one spot (some deeper than others). I'm not sure why he called this talk 'Heresy', as most of us seemed quite in agreement with him.

I liked his idea of asking clients to stir the cards around (mudpie, he calls it) and select three cards. The manner they go about this, he says, shows a lot about the way they live their lives.


Lunch - 'Lenormand Magic' by Chloe McCracken

Photo by Lisa Eddy

Chloe shared her presentation on using cards in magical practice, this time using Lenormand cards. (See my notes from the Summer Tarot Festival here). The focus was on using the four elements as template when designing spells, then using the cards to help reinforce the energy and embed in the subconscious mind.

As usual, the day was packed and there wasn't much time to touch base with the people I only see once a year. But next year, it's a THREE DAY conference -- 13th, 14th, and 15th October. That sounds like the perfect year for me to finally attend all the days, and stay over in the hotel and the whole she-bang. If all the speakers and attractions appeal, I will do that. Can't wait to hear what Kim is cooking up for us.

And there's still Summer Tarot Festival (please, please in a different venue, we were wilting in the one used this year) -- and hopefully a TABI Conference. :D