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.