Three Stone Extravaganza!

Here are some three stones spreads for your reading pleasure. 

I've picked up many from Aeclectic Tarot Forum and other places, decks, and authors.  (If you see something that should have an author attribution, please let me know!)

They're categorized by the order in which you lay down and read the stones. 

1   2   3

Past.  Present.  Future.
Yesterday.  Today.  Tomorrow.
Morning.  Afternoon.  Evening.
etc.

Stop.  Start.  Continue.

Opportunity.  Challenge.  Resolution.
http://www.gaiantarot.com/online-tarot-reading/

Head:  What I need to know.   Heart:  What I need to embrace.   Hands:  What I need to do.  (Add Health for a 4-H spread!)

What you want.  What you need.  What you get.

Fork: What to spear and bring in.  Knife:  What to cut away.  Spoon:  What to slowly savor.






(What’s so funny ‘bout) Peace.  Love.  Understanding.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RVDQgVxprE

What I can’t change.  What I can change.  The difference.
Serenity.  Courage.  Wisdom.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_Prayer

2   1   3

Issue.  Questioner.  Outcome.  (Add an optional fourth above Questioner:  Advice.)
(This is my all-purpose go-to spread!)

What hinders.  Issue.  What helps.

1   3   2

An extreme.  Happy medium.  The other extreme.
Thesis.  Synthesis.  Antithesis.

Worst case scenario.  Likely outcome.  Best case scenario.

Weakness.  Opportunity.  Strength. 

3

2

1

Red Light:  Don’t do this!
Yellow Light:  Use caution with this!
Green Light:  Do this!






Spirit.
Mind.
Body.

Or:
Superego.
Ego.
Id.

Etc.

Enjoy!

Crime and Punishment

I’ve always found that a good way to study tarot is to work out how similar cards/stones are different.  After all, if they all mean the same thing, then they don’t mean anything!

So I’m going to do a few posts on ideas related to Justice, giving my take on the similarities and differences of Justice with other majors that also can be related to those ideas.

The most obvious ideas related to Justice are crime and punishment, morality and karma.  The Catholic Encyclopedia (a good place to go for the straight dope on Renaissance-era concepts such as the cardinal virtues) says Justice means giving others what belongs to them, and points out that it focuses on how we treat others, while other virtues focus on how we deal with ourselves.  I’m pretty sure what is “owed to” or “due to” others refers to both the “front end,” expected moral behavior, and the “back end,” appropriate punishment for those who do not follow moral behavior.

As I discuss briefly in the Arcana Stones booklet, karma is simply a law of nature that guarantees that individuals will always get exactly what they are due (in the moral arena).  This exactly appropriate occurrence might not be obvious to other people or even take place in a current lifetime, but it does (or will) happen.  (Early translators of Buddhist texts translated karma as “retribution,” but that’s not a great fit, especially if the karma incurred is good karma as payment for good/moral actions.  So now it is usually left untranslated.)

So what other majors besides Justice relate to the concepts of crime and punishment, morality and karma?

Morality

Emperor, Hierophant, Devil, Sun, Judgment

How are these different than Justice and each other?

 

Emperor and Hierophant are about laws and rules.  Emperor imposes actual laws and rules, those of governments and other outwardly constituted authorities, such as employers, homeowner associations, and parents.  Hierophant imposes religious laws and rules, and, perhaps more importantly, societal, traditional, and unwritten rules, as well as self-imposed rules.  In opposition to Justice, Emperor and Hierophant can also represent authority acting outside the law, or outside morality (think embezzlement and sex scandals).  For both Emperor and Hierophant, the emphasis is on who imposes the rules and what the rules are.  Justice is more about whether rules are being followed or broken.

 

And so is Devil!  He is, of course, about breaking the rules (including rules that should be broken).  Devil also represents the temptation to break the rules.  So you could say that Devil is the before, and Justice is the after.  Which points out another difference between Emperor, Hierophant, and Devil and Justice.  Justice not only relates to following the rules, or not, but also what happens after (punishment or karma).

 

One of the concepts of Sun is openness, honesty, and integrity, the idea being someone with a clear conscience acts in the light of day, while someone who knows she is doing wrong hides her deeds in the shadows.  I consider this a secondary meaning for Sun, which would apply only in certain readings, maybe when it shows up accompanied by many of the other majors mentioned here!  In contrast, this is a primary meaning of Justice.  Also Justice refers to a wider range of morality meanings, not just conscience or honesty.

 

I’m usually careful to separate Justice from Judgment by emphasizing that Judgment refers to a specific mythological event, the Last Judgment of Revelation.  But it’s called Judgment for a reason, which is that the souls not only rise, but are also judged to be deserving of either eternal companionship with the divine or everlasting torment.  This is obviously closely akin to karma.  (See below.)  But it also suggests choosing and deciding, judging what is best to do, perhaps addressing a moral dilemma.  This could also be considered a before, with Justice, the action that results from the deliberation, as the after.

 

But my preferred meaning of Judgment is still “a higher level,” including transcending conventional Hierophant (and perhaps even legal Emperor) morality to do what is really right.

 

Time for a brief Buddhist tale:  One day, two wandering monks came upon a swollen river, with a young woman standing on the bank.  “How can I get to the other side?,” she asked the monks plaintively.  Without a word, the elder monk scooped up the girl into his arms and carried her across to safety, leaving her and her thanks on the opposite bank.  After a few more miles walked in silence, the younger monk blurted out, “You know it’s forbidden for a monk to touch a woman!  How could you have held her in your arms like that??‼”  The elder monk answered calmly, “I left the girl on the riverbank.  Why are you still carrying her?”

 

This is a perfect illustration of Judgment morality:  The elder monk has transcended the need for the letter of the law because he doesn’t perceive the girl as a sexual or romantic object, or as a stumbling block to his monkhood.  She is simply a fellow traveler in need of his help.

 

Karma

 

Wheel, Hanged One, Tower, Judgment

 

How are these different than Justice and each other?

 

Some say Wheel is a karma card/stone, quoting the karma-like saying, “what goes around comes around.”  But I don’t think Wheel is a good fit for karma because its focus is on chance and unexpected change.  Karma, as the effect of a moral cause, is not a manifestation of chance, and shouldn’t be all that unexpected (even though it can be by the morally unaware!).  (As the card/stone of expected change, Death might actually work better that Wheel for karma.  But it has other jobs to do, so we won’t go into that much here!)  If you believe in karma, Justice is not random.

 

Hanged One is a representation of a Renaissance punishment, but it’s not usually thought of as punishment in current tarot thought.  Even if not a punishment, the suspension or delay represented by the Hanged One could be a result of karma, a kind of cosmic time out.

 

Tower’s relation to karma is similar that of both Wheel and Hanged One.  They all represent experiences, that, since unexpected, are not representative of karma, but that could be a form of punishment, the result of karma.

 

Judgment, as an event that includes the separation of saints and sinners, seems to have a closer correlation with karma than these, but again, this is a depiction of the result of karma, not really karma itself.  As to the connection between karma and the higher level of Judgment, well, beings transcend karma only if they are fully enlightened Buddhas, so we probably don’t have consider that when we read for ourselves or our friends . . .

 

So while all these majors have interesting connections with the concept of karma, only Justice is a representation of karma itself, not just result of it or a punishment/retribution.

 

I hope I haven’t thoroughly confused anyone with my musings on morality, karma, and Justice!  Coming up will be another post on the concepts of Justice:  Health and Balance.

Arcana Stones Interview Spread

When you get your Arcana Stones, you might want to try this spread as a way to jump start getting to know them better.  And you can use the spread later after you’ve worked together for a while to see how your relationship has grown.

Let your Arcana Stones speak for themselves! 

Ask them these questions:

--4
--3
2---1

1.  What is your greatest strength?
2.  What is your greatest weakness?
3.  What can I learn from you?
4.  What will be the outcome of us working together?

Please post here if you interview your Arcana Stones! 

I'd love to hear what they have to say!

Four Noble Truths Reading for Me

Here is a reading with the Four Noble Truths spread.  I decided to use a stone-card combination--stones for the first four and cards for the path cards.

 

I asked for insight and advice on my various tarot projects, especially the two deck concepts I’ve been working on for a long time. 

 

Here’s the beginning of the reading:

 

Symptom:  15-Devil-Hematite.  My problem with my projects is a common one--my attention is always being called off by other tempting interests!  TV shows and movies, random (but irresistible) divination topics to research, fascinating new decks to get to know, these are where my time, attention, energy, and thoughts are snagged, instead of with my own creations that are not yet prepared to be sent into the world to seek their fortune.  I am in charge of my own thoughts and time . . .

Diagnosis:  14-Temperance-Rose Quartz.  The reason that I’m not paying enough attention to my projects is that I’m under the mistaken impression that I can take a balanced approach to my work.  But in reality that just leads to the temptation to work on what’s new and fun instead of working out the difficult issues with a project or knuckling down to the nitty gritty of writing things out exactly the way I want them.

Prognosis:  5-Hierophant-Orange Calcite.  This is good news!  The probable outcome is that I will be able to complete the writing and editing (and teaching) portions of my projects.  They will be considered acceptable entries in the tarot tradition.

Prescription:  2-Priestess-Moonstone.  Here’s where it get interesting.  Even though the beginning of the reading is telling me I just need to manage my time and energy and buckle down and do it, the actual advice is trust my inner knowing.  Does that mean my inner knowing of how to manage my work?  Or does it mean don’t just crank something out, but make sure that my work includes true tarot and spiritual wisdom?  It’s also an interesting contrast between Hierophant and Priestess.  If I put personal, inner wisdom into it, conventional and accepted wisdom will come out.  This works with the idea that religion and conventional spirituality are always based on the roots of someone’s very personal (and usually difficult to express) transcendent experience (as in Varieties of Religious Experience by William James).

So, to get more insight into and answer my questions about the Prescription, I drew 2 path cards for 2-Priestess.  (The deck is La Corte dei Tarrochi.)

Path:  Due Spade and L’Impiccato.  So, it looks like yes to both of my questions!  2 Swords says I need to follow my own wisdom and self-knowledge to make a (sharp?) decision about how I’m going to spend my time and energy.  The Hanged One, on the other hand, says I need to know when to work and when to wait.  I need to be able to wait for the inspiration and wisdom I need to say exactly what needs to be said.  The fact that the hanging person is held up by a chain of leaves held by two small birds perched in a tree makes me think that this waiting won’t be an anguished dark night of the soul or an uncomfortable punishment.  It will seem natural and in harmony with nature to wait until the time is right.

This is an encouraging reading.  I just need to balance (Temperance) the need for concentration and regular work habits with the need for waiting until it’s time for the truth to emerge in my work.  And I’ll keep my eyes on the prize of the Hierophant outcome!

The Four Noble Truths/Medical Model Spread

This is a special spread I created to go along with a Buddhism tarot project I’ve been working on (or at least thinking about!) for many years.  I hope someday it will become a reality.

Because the spread has four positions, it’s great to use with Arcana Stones.  It also has an “extended version” you can use with a full deck (or with Arcana Stones, if you want to throw the 15 percent rule out the window!).

 

Background

The Four Noble Truths is the fundamental teaching of Buddhism.  The goal of Buddhism is simply to put an end to suffering.  When the Buddha, after many years (and many lifetimes) of searching, discovered the way to do just that, he taught the cure for suffering in the form of the four point medical report used by the physicians of his culture. 

The First Noble Truth describes the symptom (the problem):  Suffering exists. 
The Second Noble Truth gives the diagnosis (the cause of the problem):  Craving causes suffering.
The Third Noble Truth is the prognosis (the possible outcome):  The ending of suffering is possible.
The Fourth Noble Truth is the prescription (what is needed to cure the problem):  Following the Eightfold Noble Path will end suffering.  The eight steps of the Path are right understanding, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.  The eight steps are often grouped into three aspirations:  morality, meditation, and wisdom.

The Spread

Randomly draw 4 stones or cards and line them up left to right.

1.  Symptom:  The issue or problem you want to know more about.
2.  Diagnosis:  The cause of the issue.
3.  Prognosis:  The likely outcome.
4.  Prescription:  Advice on how to deal with the issue.

Optional additional step:
Path:  Steps to put the advice into effect.

Draw the number of cards or stones corresponding to the number of the Prescription stone or card.  If the number is over 9, add the digits together.  (For example, if the Prescription is 14-Temperance, draw 5 Path cards.)  For Pages, draw 1; for Knights, 6; for Queens, 3; and for Kings, 2.

Like the steps of the Eightfold Noble Path, these steps don’t need to be taken in consecutive order and may be better understood or more useful when organized into groups.  So rearrange the Path cards or stones until you have put them into a Path pattern that makes sense to you.

I hope this spread works well for you.  Let me know if you try it!  I’ll post a reading using it shortly.

“Your Personal Tarot Formula”

I’m a big fan of using tarot for more than divination, so when an interesting tarot practice comes along that uses just the majors, I immediately think, “this would be perfect for Arcana Stones!”

Most of us are aware of the idea of birth cards and year cards based on the numerological reduction of your birth date.  For an insightful and very thorough look at these, check out Who Are You in the Tarot? by Mary K. Greer (Weiser Books, 2011).

I found an interesting alternative personal card method in the Golden Dawn Magical Tarot mini-kit booklet by Sandra Tabatha Cicero and Chic Cicero (Llewellyn Publications, 2000).  (The deck has been republished without the booklet, and I don’t know if this part is included in the new LWB.)  It’s called “Your Personal Tarot Formula,” and it’s based on astrology (sun and ascendant/rising signs) and numerology.  Let’s try it with Arcana Stones and see what happens!

Everyone knows their sun sign!  If you don’t know your ascendant, try one of the many places on the internet that will calculate your chart for free.  (You need to know an approximate time of birth to find your ascendant.)

(I have paraphrased the operations and added my own expanded meanings for the keys.)

If a number is greater than 22, add the digits together.  Fool = 22, but, because some of the operations are subtracting, you could also end up with a 0, which would also be Fool!  Subtract in any order to get a positive number.

Your Personal Tarot Formula

Individuality Key = Sun sign stone.  The real you; your significant traits and potential.
Personality Key = Ascendant stone.  How you present yourself to the world and how you’re perceived.
Problem Key = Individuality plus Personality.  The work to be done or lesson to be learned in this lifetime; what you don’t know.
Solution Key = Difference of (subtract) Individuality and Personality.  What you need to learn to solve the problem.
Means Key = Difference of (subtract) Problem and Solution. How to pursue the Solution.
Integration Key = Add all five other cards.  How all the keys work together to take you to a higher level.

In case you don’t have your Arcana Stones booklet handy, here are the sign-stone attributions to get you started.  (Note that all the keys can be any stone except Individuality and Personality.  They must be one of the stones listed below because they are always signs, never planets or elements.)
Aries = 4-Emperor-Carnelian
Taurus = 5-Hierophant-Orange Calcite
Gemini = 6-Lovers-Rhodochrosite
Cancer = 7-Chariot-Amethyst
Leo = 8-Fortitude-Tiger Eye
Virgo = 9-Hermit-Fluorite
Libra = 11-Justice-Aventurine
Scorpio = 13-Death-Mahogany Obsidian
Sagittarius = 14-Temperance-Rose Quartz
Capricorn = 15-Devil-Hematite
Aquarius = 17-Star-Blue Lace Agate
Pisces = 18-Moon-Mother of Pearl

Here’s my Personal Tarot Formula in Arcana Stones:

Individuality = Cancer = 7-Chariot-Amethyst:  I feel like I always need to have a goal in mind, or at least a path laid out to follow, especially in my intellectual life.  When I think about the Holy Grail being made of amethyst, I am reminded that I’m sure that there is a fundamental good or at least a basic reality that means more than just survival or “getting and spending.”  (See the next key!)  This doesn’t seem to have much to do with Cancer, but I’m reading the stones, not the astrology!

Personality = Taurus = 5-Hierophant-Orange Calcite:  I am a very moralistic person.  I often find myself determining the nature of something based on whether it’s right or wrong.  It seems like that’s just how my mind works . . .  I have always been interested in learning about religions and spirituality.  And I’ve always been interested in learning about anything!  I’ve spent my whole life reading, studying, and learning.  As far as it being how people see me, probably one of the reasons I identify so strongly as a student is because my mom (a Gemini) always encouraged me and made a big deal out of the fact that I was a good reader and a school lover since kindergarten and before.

Problem = 7 + 5 = 12-Hanged Man-Sodalite:  Maybe this is the sum of the previous two keys because they are about having a plan, and that plan is probably based on a traditional, or at least conventional, understanding of the world.  So what happens when things don’t happen as expected?  I get hung up!  My life so far is what happened to me while I was making other plans!  Maybe the lesson I have to learn is that it’s not shameful that things don’t turn out the way you planned.  You just have to keep trying until you get a bit closer and closer to where you want to be.

Solution = 7 – 5 = 2-Priestess-Moonstone:  Spirit, true spirit is the answer, not somebody’s traditional interpretation thereof.  So my impulse toward religion and morality is taking me in the right direction.  I just need to learn my own truth, not someone else’s.

Means = 12 – 2 = 10-Wheel-Botswana Agate:  Buddhist scriptures teach that we are lucky to be born as humans, lucky to live at a time and place where spiritual teachings are available, and lucky to have our basic animal needs met so we have the opportunity consider spiritual things.  I am one of these lucky beings.  This luck is the means by which I will get from hanging around disappointed with where I am to recognizing the truth that the disappointment is teaching me.

Integration = 7 + 5 + 12 + 2 + 10 = 36 = 9-Hermit-Fluorite:  This really does bring all the other insights together.  My interests have exposed me the invaluable tools of meditation and mindfulness.  I also don’t need to be afraid of being alone in the pursuit of the lessons I need to learn.

Visually, the keys increase in transparency as they progress downward, hopefully indicating that things will become clearer and clearer as I move forward on my personal path.

Well, what do you think about “Your Personal Tarot Formula”?  Intrigued? 

What’s your personal tarot formula?

Rachel’s 15 Percent Rule

When are many cards/stones/runes/etc. in a reading TOO many? 

I’m sure most tarot readers have had the experience of laying out a large spread and then feeling overwhelmed by the sheer number of cards to interpret, plus the relationships between them, summarizing them, etc.

I also have a related but different concern:  If a spread uses many, half, or most of the cards in the deck or stones in the bag, then so many meanings are represented that it’s difficult to figure out which ones are important in the reading.  There are so many trees, it feels like you’re working with the whole forest! 

For example, if you get 3 queens and a king in a 5 card reading, that is a meaningful number of court cards.  (Maybe a lot of people are involved in the issue, or the questioner is having an identity crisis!)  If you get 3 queens and a king in a 22 card reading, it’s much harder to tell if that number of courts is significant.

(Thus, I am fascinated by, and rather uncomfortable with, the Lenormand Grand Tableau!)

This concern especially comes into play when the deck or bag holds a smaller number of items than 78, for example:
Ogham = 20 or 25
Tarot majors and Arcana Stones = 22
Runes = 24
Sibillas = 32, 36, or 52
Lenormand = 36
Playing cards = 52
I Ching = 64

To get a useful idea of the proportion of cards or items to use in readings with these various numbers, I thought about the largest spread I was comfortable using with a 78 card deck.  My favorite homemade spread has 10 or 11 cards, and the famous Celtic Cross has 11, too, if you count the significator.  11 is 14.1 percent of 78.  12 is 15.4 percent of 78.

So, to give plenty of leeway for the smallest systems (like ogham and majors), a nice, roundish 15 percent is the rule of thumb I have come up with.

15 percent of 22 is 3.3, which is why I recommend using only 3 or 4 Arcana Stones in a reading, whether using a spread or tossing.  Luckily for us Arcana Stones users, there are a multitude of 3 card spreads that clever tarotists have invented over the years.  (I feel another post coming on!)

For the record, I think the Stone Arrowhead Spread follows the 15 percent rule because only 3 stones are chosen randomly, with the rest of the stones in the spread chosen numerologically based on the first 3.

Since I'm someone who worries about these things, the 15 percent rule has give me stability and reassurance in my Arcana Stones and oracle readings.  Of course, as in all things divinational, everyone should follow his/her own heart--or rule of thumb.  I just thought I’d share mine, and give you the background on my 3 or 4 stones idea.