I’m currently visiting my parents in Italy, so I’m going to keep this short and sweet. I lost my keys. As I probably already mentioned, I hate lost object readings because they are incredibly difficult to decipher, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to try. The cool thing about playing cards is that most people have them at home. This is the reading that came up:
7♠️ – 8♥️ – 10♠️ – 2♦️ – J♦️
If I had to tell you I understood this reading I’d be lying. The one thing that seemed clear to me is that it was in a place made for people (Eight of Hearts), so the living room was an option, though it seemed strange, since I always keep my keys in my old bedroom. There were also those two diamonds indicating messages, which I didn’t understand.
Well, it turned out I suddely lost (Seven of Spades) the keys the previous evening (Ten of Spades) during a dinner (Eight of Hearts), and I was contacted by the owners through a friend of mine who knows them.
Fludd discusses how we may know that geomancy works, and why we should consider it a science of the soul.
1. The Science of Geomancy is the True Act of the Intellectual Soul
Before we speak of the properties of geomancy and of divination from the east (to be discussed later in a separate book), we think that it is appropriate to deal with its essence here, which we will clearly illustrate with sufficiently probable reasons.1
If we consider the origin of this science, we will certainly perceive that it is a very occult and internal science,2 wherefore it is that common men, paying attention only to their senses, habitually blather that this art is merely accidental, foolish, and empty, and has nothing of value to it. In reality, men endowed with a strong imagination are able to grasp the reason of this secret knowledge, and to behold or perceive it with their spiritual eyes, since its consideration passes the limits of ordinary reason.3
In fact, if we try to account for the effects in this science, the work will surely be arduous and painful. Indeed, who, even among the commoners, would not regard him as a foolish man, who, upon seeing a servant carrying out the commands of his master, would wish to inquire about the master’s secret plan and intention and, wanting to know and explore them from that servant, he would directly answer thus: “My Lord usually commands this or that; so, however, that he does not in the same way indicate the account of the mandate to his executors or servants.”4
Thus we receive the feeling of life in a wonderful manner from the higher planes,5 while, however, as to its source, vehicle, and reason, men usually only reason from the effect by conjectures, and do not know or have anything certain. Similarly the divine mind produces wonderful effects in man and acts marvelously, while, however, the obstacle of the flesh and the mind prevents us from correctly knowing the reason of these actions. The mind therefore acts upon the intellect, and the intellect patiently fulfills the acts of its ruler, and yet the principal cause is hidden in the center of the mind, that is, in the divine word.6
Similarly a Lord hands his money to his servant, that he may take it to such and such a city: yet the servant does not understand what his Lord intends to do with such money, since the reason is hidden in the heart of the Lord. that is, of the mind. Thus the intellect and reason impel the imagination to bear and carry the impressions of its king, that is, the mind.
In a similar manner the servant puts his master’s money into the cart, so that he may carry the master’s burdens into the visible world; and in this way also the horses draw the cart to the city. Yet in the meantime reason or imagination or sense do not understand the intention of the mind any more than a servant or a cart, or the horses perceive the secret and hidden will of their Lord. However, human reason can conjecture better than imagination or sense,7 just as even a servant may in a certain way imagine and conjecture to reach the conception of his master, if he wishes to have nothing certain.
From these considerations it is evident, therefore, that just as we cannot know God except a posteriori,8 so also we do not perceive or understand the mind or the reason of its actions, except from the effect. Moreover, from its effect, the Artists9 understood that this knowledge was true and admirable, inasmuch as by means of it the future and the present, even the unknown things of the past, were discovered in a wonderful divine manner.
But if fools wish to penetrate to the center of this act, that is, to the unity and the point of the mind itself, they will indeed waste their time, since there is a level beyond reason and understanding, to which no one can ever reach, unless he takes off his bodily abode: it is sufficient, therefore, that we know the monk by his tunic, and the art by its effect.
And so this knowledge is divine, because it allows one to divine, which is close to prophecy, because through it the mind, by its own power, performs, although weakly, that which it is accustomed to perform at other times (but more powerfully and clearly because of the multitude of higher rays coming to us at the same time) united and conjoined with the divine mind.10
And hence, considering it in the proper manner, we see that the human mind is of the same essence of which the divine mind is, since it usually performs the same to a lesser degree as it performs in a greater one: for a greater power produces a greater effect, and consequently a smaller one also a smaller effect.11
Man’s mind, being at the receiving end of the divine rays, if only it is preserved from the harm of the body and flesh, and is not clouded by darkness, or is not affected by the allurement of the senses,12 can pour out its prophetic power into a sensible effect, and perform miracles, the effects of which are indeed unaccounted for. It is no more possible to account for this, than it is possible to recognize the nature of prophecy itself.
2. Why Geomancy Is Considered an Absurd and Silly Science Among the Ignorant
Those who are ignorant are wont to esteem this knowledge of the soul absurd and ridiculous, since they think that it flows out and proceeds from points made by the movement of the hand.13
But the wise and the learned could answer them easily that there is nothing certain, nor any constant resolution in the mind of man, to execute this or that thing, or to set out to seek this or that place on such a day, and yet that the mind of man is somehow made up, and man accomplishes this regardless of all hindrance.14
Therefore, even though the movement of the hand, constituting points corresponding to the disposition of the mind in its certain number and proportion, appears to accomplish nothing in the projection of the points,15 yet many things are concealed under the multitude of points: namely, the prediction of the soul itself, driven by the ethereal and elemental vehicles of the Microcosm, as far as the twelve signs, the seven planets, and the four elements,16 and their powers are hidden under such points.
For as the mind and intellect could not descend into man without the aforesaid vehicles of the Macrocosm, so also nothing real and essential proceeds from the mind, as from its origin, except through these means.
This movement is therefore not accidental, inasmuch as it proceeds from the human soul, which is the complete essence of man,17 and acts essentially and by itself, unless it is hindered by the accidents of the flesh and the senses.
In this way we also say that the mineral nature of lead and iron tends in its essence to the nature of gold: but by accidents, that is, it is hindered by impure sulphur, so that it cannot reach the goal set by nature.18
But the ignorant will reply that such impediments always happen to the body, because of the impurity of the flesh and the error of ignorance. This, then, should at least be granted: That the more the rays of the mind are impeded in their motion by the pollutions of the body, the more the effect of its action is weakened, just as when a cloud is interposed between our eye and the solar rays, so that the rays cannot penetrate to our sight, and hence their manifest effects are removed.
MQS
Footnotes
As will be seen shortly, Fludd says his reasonings are “sufficiently probable” because there cannot be true certainty in this science, though this is not, for him, a negative thing, but rather a feature of its mystical origin. ↩︎
“scientiam valde occultam et internam.” The word ‘occult’ here is probably to be simply understood as ‘hidden’. ↩︎
The word ‘imagination’ here is not to be mistaken as ‘fancy’. Imagination is treated as a valid aid to understanding. ↩︎
This sentence, like many in Fludd’s writings, is exceedingly convoluted. The metaphor of the servant carrying out the master’s order runs through this section. In this first instance, the general sense (provided my translation is correct) seems to be that asking for proofs about something too mysterious in the same way one would ask for them in everyday matters is useless. ↩︎
literally “from the superior things”. The translation “from the superior planes” probably sounds a touch too modern, but it clarifies the idea. ↩︎
This sentence cannot be understood without reference to Fludd’s Neoplatonic view of the world, which, like all forms of Neoplatonisms, sees the universe as a series of spheres of emanation which find their correspondence in the microcosm of man. The universe, like humans, finds its center in the divine. ↩︎
That is, we can arrive at probable conjectures, even though we cannot be sure. ↩︎
‘a posteriori’ is a philosophical term which means, broadly speaking, that we know something from its effects in our concrete experience, rather than from abstract logical reasoning (‘a priori’) ↩︎
Probably in reference to the ancient geomancers. ↩︎
Divination, therefore, is but a step down from prophecy. The reference to ‘rays’ is Fludd’s way of conceptualizing our relationship with the Divine, as if the divine world sent rays to us, and the more we receive of these rays, the more we approach God in his power and ability (such as seeing the future). ↩︎
Again, this is to be seen within the context of Fludd’s Neoplatonism, whereby the Microcosm of man is like a small replica of the Macrocosm and, indirectly, of God. ↩︎
Neoplatonism’s relationship to the material world of senses is ambivalent. Generally speaking, the material world is seen as the last emanation, and therefore as a final concretization of the divine worlds above it. Therefore, it is good in so far as it comes from a divine source, but it is seen as corrupt because, being the last stretch of being before the abyss of nothingness, in it the perfection of the divine plane is obscured, both in nature and within humanity (through bad behavior). ↩︎
That is, the ignorants believe that geomancy’s powers reside in its exterior signs rather than in the inner chain that links those signs to the divine source. ↩︎
This metaphor seems a bit obscure. Possibly, its meaning is that, just like our external behavior is inconstant and unpredictable, and yet the mind manages to force us to accomplish clear results, so the inner mechanism that makes geomancy work can create meaning in a bunch of hand gestures and lines and points. ↩︎
The points are those traced during the ‘inspired’ section of a geomancy session. ↩︎
All these are the universal symbols that allow us to derive meanings from the geomantic figures. ↩︎
The human soul is not a random fragment of life animating a body. It is a universal power which is found whole within each of us, and is impeded in its manifestation by our imperfect nature to various degrees. ↩︎
This paragraph is a reference to the alchemical and chemical beliefs of the time, and similar statements can be found in many alchemical texts. ↩︎
My translation and comments on Robert Fludd’s Animae Intellectualis Scientia seu Geomantia (The Intellectual Science of the Soul or Geomancy). Please note that I am no professional translator of old texts and sometimes I had to paraphrase. Feel free to leave comments or contact me on how this project could be improved. The translation and commentaries are copyrighted to me, so please ask for my permission before using it.
Introduction Part I – Geomancy is an Act of the Soul Part II – Preparing to Divination, the Hermetic Way Part III – The Mystical Presuppositions of Divination
Book I Part I – Anecdotes on the veracity of Geomancy Part II – How to Prepare to Divination Part III – Basic rules on projecting the points Part IV – Filling out the geomantic shield
Book II Part I – Elemental and astrological attributes of the figures Part II – The Houses Part III – The First Four Geomantic Figures Part IV – The Second Four Geomantic Figures Part V – The Third Four Geomantic Figures Part VI – The Final Four Geomantic Figures Part VII – When the Same Figure is Found in Two Houses
A couple of weeks ago I received a message about the question of whether we, as readers, risk causing self-fulfilling prophecies with our predictions. For instance, if I tell a querent that the relationship she is in is going to end, I may end up causing the break-up. What follows is a slight elaboration on my response.
First off, we need to recognize that some things we can change or at least improve, others we can’t and they will happen regardless of what we do and what a reader tells us. Most people who go about their life with their brain switched on can recognize this. It is only when we get into delulu territory and body-mind-spirit-section pseudomysticism that we encounter people who deny the existence of unavoidable happenings.
On the other hand, sheer fatalism is also a gross misunderstanding. Consider simply this fact: if two people X and Y are exactly the same and go exactly through the same life experience, except that X also uses divination or consults a diviner, this is enough to tell them apart.
The fact that X knows about what is going to happen in advance is enough to make him a different individual, which in turn is enough to change the nature of his fate, because our ability to change a situation is contingent on our knowledge of what the situation truly is. Even if X cannot change a certain fact in any meaningful way, but knows about it enough in advance that he can make his peace with it, the same event Z won’t be the same if X’s attitude toward it changes, because X is part of the event that takes place in his life, and so if X change, the event changes. Even if X cannot bring himself to accept Z, his knowledge of Z is enough to change Z, because X with knowledge of Z is not equal to X without knowledge of Z.
Fate patterns are a difficult topic to tackle without a previous sound philosophical and occult discussion, and I plan on starting that discussion at some point, once I’ve organized my notes. For now, it suffices to say that we, as readers, can play a rather important role in the querent’s life if we are consulted at the right moment.
Yet, this doesn’t mean that we are capable of empowering querents to always turn their life around, and I don’t even think empowering is our mission: our mission is to provide information. On a number of occasions, especially when I was less experienced, I gave querents the wrong prediction on purpose because I didn’t want to disappoint them, even though the cards were clearly negative: Yes, you’ll get the job, yes the relationship is going to last and be wonderful. But it didn’t happen.
On some of those occasions you may even think that because I didn’t bring up the negative aspects, the querent wasn’t prepared to tackle them, so my not bringing them up may have been just as bad as another diviner handing out negative predictions willy-nilly. That’s because I wasn’t able to give accurate information.
It is nice that some things can be changed even if some things can’t, but unfortunately we don’t always know which is which. Therefore, we must also recognize that we have a degree of power over our querent just by virtue of using odd, mysterious counters to give our predictions, and we must not abuse this power.
Whenever possible, we should either frame our predictions as potentials and/or accompany them with positive suggestions. These suggestions, though, must ALWAYS be based on what the oracle describes, never on vague self-help platitudes. Sometimes (many times) it is best to highlight critical points so that the querent can become conscious of them (e.g., “you know, this relationship is headed down a pumpy road. You should address x, y and z if you want to try to make it work”) while avoiding drastic predictions unless necessary.
Furthermore, we must never frame our predictions in such way as to take away all hope. It is not our right to do so. Deluding and disillusioning are the two capital sins that we must avoid, even though striking the right balance is sometimes hard. There is plenty of space between being a pushover to our querent’s wishes and being an insufferable sassy tough-love prick.
If there are positive aspects to a situation, we should emphasize those and try to put them at the center of the querent’s life so that they can address the negative points more positively.
Finally, we ought to always remind our querent that diviners are people and are therefore fallible. In a world where doctors, lawyers, judges, scientists and bakers can get things wrong it would be absurd to expect diviners to always be right. Always encourage the querent to take your predictions as an additional input.
Since I began reviewing my geomancy reading method I started nagging some friends for an opportunity to read for them. I am especially interested in seeing whether we can consider the houses in the shield to be adjacent across the shield (like, for instance, the First with the Ninth), as Peter of Abano seems to suggest in his handbook. This would open up the Geomantic Shield to a whole host of interactions.
A friend of mine was applying for a job, so he asked me if he would get it. This is the Shield I got:1
“Will I get the job?” Geomancy reading. App used: Simple Geomancy
The Querent is represented by the First House and the first figure, Tristitia. The Job is represented by the Tenth House and the tenth figure, Caput Draconis. Tristitia is not a great figure, indicating trouble and difficulties. The querent has been having trouble holding down a job or having contracts renewed, so it is fitting that he should be troubled by the situation. Caput is an encouraging figure, showing things beginning, but without contact between the two houses I wouldn’t predict him being hired.
Fortunately, contact is provided by Tristitia, which springs to the Eleventh House. The fact that Tristitia moves, and not Caput, indicates that the querent will need to put quite a bit of effort into the hiring process. Tristitia also springs to the Third House, and, according to Abano, this seems to count as being in contact with the Tenth House. I cannot make any definitive judgment on this issue. I will merely file it away for future consideration.
The Judge is Fortuna Maior, which is a very encouraging indication of success through effort. Possibly, I thought, the hiring process will stretch out and take longer than the querent thinks. The fact that Maior emerges from a very difficult set of Witnesses adds to the obstacles and the delay.
The outcome, thankfully, was positive. He got hired, but the pay was not as satisfying as he thought it would be (note Amissio as Left Witness) and the hiring process definitely lasted way longer than he thought it would.
MQS
Someone asked me if I do my geomancy readings with the app I use to show the chart. I don’t. I always do my readings with pen and paper. The App is only for presentation. ↩︎
A recent exchange in the comment section made me go back to some notes I’ve been sitting on for a while about how different card spreads used to be in the past, compared to how they tend to be nowadays. A good example for this is the famous spread used by the Golden Dawn, which has become known as the Opening of the Key.
The Opening of the Key is a complex, multi-stage spread that was (and still is) used within the Golden Dawn system and has been adopted by Paul Foster Case’s and Crowley’s followers as well.
From a magical standpoint, the allure of this spread is that it mirrors within its layouts the whole GD system, being therefore a tool for learning it. Since I do not particularly advocate the Golden Dawn system, I’ll leave this aspect to your consideration, should you be so inclined.
From a purely divinatory standpoint, though, the interesting aspect of the Opening of the Key is that it affords us a glance at how card spreads used to work in traditional cartomancy.
Nowadays we are used to what many call “positional spreads“, that is, spreads where each single card is read more or less independently from the others based on the meaning of the position. The most famous positional spread is certainly the Celtic Cross, also taken from the GD system and popularized by Waite. Over time, though, more and more ridiculous spreads have emerged, with positional meanings as abstracted from actual reality as possible.
If we take a look at many books on divinations published before the 60s, when the Rider Waite deck truly took off, and with it the Celtic Cross spread, we find very different spreads.
Many traditional spreads, used both for tarot and for playing cards, share the following characteristics:
They tend to be large and unwieldy. Many of them take up a whole table. In part, this reflects the old idea that you wouldn’t be potentially in contact with your go-to fortune-teller 24/7 via social media, and so the diviner ought to be able to cover as much of your life as possible in one go. There was also a certain old-fashioned mistique to these spreads, it being the idea that your life unfolds like a book that can be read page to page. Furthermore, the way of reading the cards was different: you didn’t waste too much time on each single card, but simply used it as a building block to be added to the others. Therefore, you needed many building blocks.
Very few positional meanings. Many old spreads used to be either sequential or tableau-like, or a mix of the two. If certain chunks of spread did have a particular positional meaning attached to them, such positions were always covered by more than one card (usually three or more). The cross spread I was taught to use with playing cards is one such example.
Strange techniques. In the English-speaking world, the idea that there are special reading techniques has largely gone lost for over half a century, as tarot became a tool for psychological masturbation that eschews all technicality in favor what one’s heart palpitations. This was until some people, tired of how ineffectual and watered-down the new-age version of the tarot had become, discovered Lenormand cards. In reality, reading techniques have been part of many cartomancers’ toolkit for centuries. Two of the most common techniques (though not the only one) used in old tarot and playing card divination were card counting (starting from a card and counting a certain number of cards to land on the next card to be read) and card pairing (pairing the cards on the opposite sides of a row two by two.)
More than one stage. It was not uncommon for many spreads to have more than one stage to them. Back then, divination was not seen as something to run to for every minor inconvenience, but rather as something affording a general overview of one’s main issues and prospects. Cartomancy was, at least in part, a parlor game, though a serious one, with serious implications.
One of the characteristics of the early Golden Dawn, before it became a battle of egos, was its (relatively intelligent) syncretism, as well as its attempt to act as a reservoir of everything the occult Western tradition had created over the centuries. Many of the founding members of the Golden Dawn were very well acquainted with, and even contributed to the then-growing literature on fortune-telling.
It comes therefore as little surprise that THE Golden Dawn spread, the Opening of the Key, is just as much an occult compendium as it is a compendium of quaint fortune-telling techniques. Let’s read the original instructions together (From Book T):
A Method of Divination by the Tarot
THE Significator. Choose a card to represent the Querent, using your knowledge or judgment of his character rather than dwelling on his physical characteristics.
Take the cards in your left hand. In the right hand hold the wand over them, and say: I invoke thee, I A O, that thou wilt send H R U, the great Angel that is set over the operations of this Secret Wisdom, to lay his hand invisibly upon these consecrated cards of art, that thereby we may obtain true knowledge of hidden things, to the glory of thine ineffable Name. Amen.
Hand the cards to Querent, and bid him think of the question attentively, and cut.
Take the cards as cut, and hold as for dealing.
“First Operation” This shows the situation of the Querent at the time when he consults you.
The pack being in front of you, cut, and place the top half to the left.
Cut each pack again to the left.
These four stack represent I H V H, from right to left.
Find the Significator. It be in the HB:Y pack, the question refers to work, business, etc.; if in the HB:H pack, to love, marriage, or pleasure; if in the HB:H pack, to money, goods, and such purely material matters.
Tell the Querent what he has come for: if wrong, abandon the divination.
If right, spread out the pack containing the Significator, face upwards. Count the cards from him, in the direction in which he faces. The counting should include the card from which you count. For Knights, Queens and Princes, count 4. For Princesses, count 7. For Aces, count 11. For small cards, count according to the number. For trumps, count 3 for the elemental trumps; 9 for the planetary trumps; 12 for the Zodiacal trumps. Make a “story” of these cards. This story is that of the beginning of the affair.
Pair the cards on either side of the Significator, then those outside them, and so on. Make another “story,” which should fill in the details omitted in the first.
If this story is not quite accurate, do not be discouraged. Perhaps the Querent himself does not know everything. But the main lines ought to be laid down firmly, with correctness, or the divination should be abandoned
“Second Operation” Development of the Question
Shuffle, invoke suitably, and let Querent cut as before.
Deal cards into twelve stacks, for the twelve astrological houses of heaven.
Make up your mind in which stack you ought to find the Significator, “e.g.” in the seventh house if the question concerns marriage, and so on.
Examine this chosen stack. If the Significator is not there, try some cognate house. On a second failure, abandon the divination.
Read the stack counting and pairing as before. “Third Operation” Further Development of the Question
Shuffle, etc., as before.
Deal cards into twelve stacks for the twelve signs of the Zodiac.
Divine the proper stack and proceed as before.
“Fourth Operation” Penultimate Aspects of the Question
Shuffle, etc., as before.
Find the Significator: set him upon the table; let the thirty-six cards following form a ring round him.
Count and pair as before.
Fifth Operation Final Result
Shuffle, etc., as before.
Deal into ten packs in the form of the Tree of Life.
Make up your mind where the Significator should be, as before; but failure does not here necessarily imply that the divination has gone astray.
Count and pair as before.
There are many characteristics to the Opening of the Key that mirror the checklist I’ve created above:
The spread is large. Especially in its fourth operation, it requires a big table to perform.
Few positional meanings. No individual card signifies anything in particular. What counts is the diviner’s ability to string the meanings together into coherent sentences that apply to the querent’s concrete life. The stacks themselves do have general meanings (business, pleasure, etc.) but these are broad, and you will never find yourself applying them to just one card.
Techniques. These are, more specifically, card counting and card pairing, which are plucked straight out of the fortune-telling tradition.
More than one stage. This is quite evident. Although many GD initiates ended up simplifying the method (more on this in a later article), the complete operation, which could take up upwards of two hours, consisted of five stages which offered a glimpse into the various facets of a situation.
Quite clearly, there is more to the Opening of the Key than what I’ve listed, aside from the heavy occult overlays. For one, the GD added a method for discerning whether the divination is valid: one needs to find the significator in the appropriate stack. This is in part due to the desire to import the notion of ‘radicality’ used by many horary astrologers, according to which certain charts cannot be judged if certain configurations are present or absent; and in part it is a system of magical checks and balances to avoid idle curiosity (again, more on this in a later post).
I already made a post about positive feelings. This is a follow-up on the other side of the coin. As usual, this isn’t meant to be exhaustive. Note that many cards indicating difficult feelings are just reversed cards whose upright meaning is positive.
Three of Hearts Reversed – The Balcony
When upright, the Three of Hearts relates to the sense of sight, both literally and figuratively. Reversed, it can represent someone who is blinded by emotion, especially such emotions as rage or lust (the “red” emotions). It can indicate the inability to control oneself as a result of such emotions.
Four of Hearts Reversed – Love
Aside from being an indication of depravity, the reversed Love card can, and in fact is more commonly found to relate to unrequited feelings, emotional dryness and deep emotional scars from disappointment, usually in love.
Seven of Hearts Reversed – The Scholar
Upright, the Scholar card represents the mind in its best aspects of intelligence, creativity and having a solid grip on reality and on one’s problems. When it is reversed, it represents either someone who is cold and calculating (the lower octave of the mind) or someone who feels impotent and easily overwhelmed by problems.
Eight of Hearts Reversed – Hope
When reversed, the Eight of Hearts is a harbinger of sorrow, disappointment and unfulfilled hopes and wishes. Being a card that is strongly connected with one’s inner optimism, the reversed Hope card becomes one of pessimism or even of mild depression (by itself).
Nine of Hearts Reversed – Faithfulness
Upright, the Dog card of the Sibilla indicates friendship and loyalty, as well as deep and strong attachment to someone, something or an idea. Reversed, it is an indicator of rebellion, unreliability and biting the hand that feeds you, from thankless teens to political activists depending on the context.
Ten of Hearts Reversed – Perseverance
Upright, the Ten of Hearts can indicate solid, reliable people, lasting feelings and certainty. When it falls reversed in a reading, the Ten of Hearts become an indication of turmoil and of not being able to control oneself, one’s instinct and one’s rage.
Two of Clubs Reversed – The Peacock
When it comes up reversed, the Peacock card embodies the negative side of the symbolism of the animal, namely pride, haughtiness, an inflated ego that is easily slighted and self-centeredness. Depending on the surrounding cards this can go from a mild drama-queen complex to serious pathological deviancy.
Seven of Clubs Reversed – Realization
The Upright Seven of Clubs represents our realization in the world, our ambitions and our sense of accomplishment. When it comes up reversed, it shows insecurity, dissatisfaction with one’s existence, and fear, especially understood as feeling under attack in one’s life projects.
Eight of Clubs Reversed – The Reunion
Reversed, the Reunion card has many difficult meanings relating to groups and one’s social contacts. However, it is also a card of disillusion, sadness and depression. It represents someone who has lost momentum and is prey to inner turmoil, self-doubt and similar feelings.
Nine of Clubs Reversed – Merriment
Coming up reversed in a reading, the Nine of Clubs reverses the hakuna matata feeling of its upright counterpart. It becomes a card of joylessness, and it can also represent feeling isolated from others, sometimes even as a consequence of other people taking shots at us.
Four of Diamonds –Falsehood
The Falsehood of this card must be understood broadly as a feeling of “wrongness” and negativity. In this sense it is the opposite of the Dog card. It represents being ill-disposed or displeased with something, and negative feelings brewing right below the surface.
Five of Diamonds – Melancholy
The title speaks for itself. Upright, the card can be an indicator of disappointment, sadness, pining, melancholy and dissatisfaction. By itself it is not a tragic card, but it does slow you down. Reversed, the card becomes much more impactful and its effects long-lasting.
Seven of Diamonds Reversed – The Child
When it falls reversed, the Child card embodies the negative side of children: childishness, in the main, but also a general sense of inexperience and that the world is too complex for us to understand and tackle.
Nine of Diamonds – The Fools
The Fools indicate feelings of unwarranted exaltation and self-confidence, mistaken conceptions, as well as easily aroused feelings of aggression. They depict a volatile atmosphere where things can go seriously south.
Ten of Diamonds – The Thief
The Thief is a card of betrayal, whether literal or metaphorical. It represents ill-will toward someone or something, and the desire to do wrong things. This needn’t be tragic, as there are many situations where the sneakiness of the Thief borders on amorality rather than immorality. Still, this card is always a warning.
Ace of Spades – Sorrow
The Sorrow card is the card of tears, of the broken heart and of the sense of being cut off from one’s source of happiness. In itself it is a very difficult card to go through, but when not piled on by other problematic cards it can show just a sense of discouragement that the person can muscle through with some mental discipline.
Three of Spades – The Widower
Another difficult card, the Widower represents isolation, loneliness and serious interpersonal issues. Being the card that signifies “oneness” and the single individual, sometimes it can show things done alone, with no negative connotation, but more often than not it foretells difficulties in one’s loneliness. When reversed, it becomes a rather tragic card.
Four of Spades – Sickness
Although this is the card that indicates literal sickness, it can also be interpreted metaphorically on occasion. It often signifies feeling sick, disturbed or down, but it can also be the card of sick and morbid feelings which cannot find a healthy expression.
Six of Spades – Sighs
Among the less difficult Spades in the deck, the Six of Spades represents everything we desperately long for and await, hoping it will come to us. It is a less serene version of the Eight of Hearts, as it contrasts its composure with a sense of uncertainty and fear of losing what one wishes to get.
Seven of Spades – Tragedy
Another card of “red” feelings, this one indicates anger and wrath. It shows explosive energy disrupting one’s life, which, from an emotional standpoint, usually signifies that we are feeling slighted or wronged or somehow unable to restrain our ire.
Eight of Spades – Desperation and Jealousy
In the main, the Eight of Spades is a card of literal jealousy and envy, but it can represent all those situations where we look at others with toxic feelings in our heart. It can also signify desperation and tears, and a sense of being trapped in a corner with no way out.
Following up on my article about the Seven of Swords, I want to take a look at another ambiguous card in Waite’s deck: the Six of Pentacles.
As usual, there is a folk intepretation of this card and there is what Waite meant. My comment is not meant to be disparaging of anyone’s interpretation: it is just philological in nature.
Generally, most people see the Six of Pentacles as a card of generosity, philanthropy and giving to others. This is rather odd at first, since for the meaning of the minor cards Waite follows the Golden Dawn system almost religiously (which is proof that he didn’t care much about the minors in the first place, see my article about his disdain for the minor arcana).
In the Golden Dawn system of tarot, all sixes represent the best expression of the suit and are assigned to the sephira Tiphareth, which is indicative of perfect harmony and equilibrium within the element. The harmony represents a balance between the closed stability of the Four and the chaos of the Five, with a direct influx from the Ace coming from above -shown, as it were, by the fact that the Six is directly in contact with the first Sephirah, Kether the Crown:
The Tree of Life as used within the BOTA and Golden Dawn tradition (and OTO as well, with minor changes). Number Six is right in the center
In the Golden Dawn system, the Six of Pentacles is called Material Success. The description of the meanings says (taken from Book T):
Success and gain in material undertakings. Power, influence, rank, nobility, rule over the people. Fortunate, successful, liberal and just.
If ill dignified, may be purse-proud, insolent from excess, or prodigal. Tiphareth of HB:H (Success in material things, prosperity in business).
Clearly, Waite meant the Six of Pentacles to represent material success and influence/rank in that the merchant in the depiction has material success and has influence over the needy underneath him. The other important source of inspiration for Waite is Etteilla, who calls the Six of Coins the card of the “Present” understood as present time, now, immediately. This is in contrast to the Six of Cups, which Etteilla calls the card of the past (when upright) and of the future (when reversed).
With that in mind, let’s see what Waite has to say about this card (taken from The Pictorial Key to the Tarot):
A person in the guise of a merchant weighs money in a pair of scales and distributes it to the needy and distressed. It is a testimony to his own success in life, as well as to his goodness of heart. Divinatory Meanings: Presents, gifts, gratification another account says attention, vigilance now is the accepted time, present prosperity, etc. Reversed: Desire, cupidity, envy, jealousy, illusion.
Note how Waite stresses that the act of giving is “a testimony to his success in life”. Then he adds the divinatory meanings, and he says “presents, gifts”. Why? One may be tempted to say that he is taking this hint from the keywords “liberal and just” from Book T. In reality, Waite may have mistaken the word “present” in Etteilla, taking it as meaning “gift” rather than “now”.
Mistaken is probably an excessive word. Waite knew his French quite well, so it is unlikely he got the translation from Etteilla wrong. What he is trying to do is “drawing a harmony of meanings”, as he often says, between the various sources. This is why he adds the strange meaning “present prosperity”, which mixes the material success of the GD Six of Pentacles and the present time of Etteilla’s Six of Coins.
Note, furthermore, that Waite is not the first to add the keyword “presents, gifts” to the Six of Pentacles: MacGregor Mathers had already done so in his exoteric booklet on the tarot, a book Waite definitely used as a source. Of the two, if anyone was more likely to have misread the French it was probably Mathers, and Waite simply ran with it.
What is interesting about Waite’s interpretation of the card is that it is certainly colored by his Christian mysticism. He says that the merchant depicted in the card has success and “goodness of heart”, which mediates between the stable but unfruitful Earthly Power of the Four and the destitution and Material Trouble of the Five.
What results is a rather dynamic card which ends up representing material success not as something in itself, but as a means to help others, which is the most beautiful (Tiphareth) expression of the suit of Pentacles. This is in contrast to the Ten of Pentacles, which, in GD decks, is often described as “material wealth but nothing beyond”.
Sometimes the Sibilla’s chattiness is exasperating: there you are, trying to get a straight answer about whether he loves you or not, and she just wastes your time telling you about what his aunt thinks about the whole thing. At other times, though, the Sibilla is a drama queen in the type of language she uses. Here’s a simple example of the latter behavior.
It’s an old reading from at least ten years ago, when a friend and I were relatively fresh out of college. She had been desperately looking for work for some time but without success, and, like most desperate people, she’d started looking in unconventional places. She’d answered an ad that would require her to move to Poland or the Czech Republic (can’t remember) for a stage followed by a part-time offer if all went well.
The first contact was by phone, yet she had some suspicions. She didn’t seem to be able to get a straight answer out of the guy interviewing her. So she asked me to pull some cards on the dude, and here’s what came up:
Can I trust him? Vera Sibilla Reading
I don’t think we need much interpretation to see that there’s something fishy at best about the offer, and at worst it’s a total swindle. The Thief and the Enemy can obviously show anything from an actual thief to a mobster to an assassin, depending on the other cards. Here we have no hint of violence, so we’ll stop at swindle.
The most interesting card here, though, is the reversed Six of Spades. When it is upright, the Six of Spades represents someone who sighs after someone or something, whether because he or she longs for it or because they have pangs of conscience about it.
When it is reversed, the Six of Spades can be a good card if surrounded by positive cards: it can indicate letting go of an addiction, for instance, or of an unrequited love. Broadly speaking, it indicates not sighing anymore.
In this case, though, the reversed Sighs card is surrounded by terrible cards, cards that indicate someone who would hurt others, at least financially, for his own profit. Therefore, the Six of Spades reversed simply shows he has no pangs of conscience about it, which in turn makes him even more dangerous.
Well, my friend did some snooping around and she soon came into contact with other people who had answered the ad. By piecing together the information they had, it turned out that it was a swindle. I am not sure what would have happened, had they gone to the “stage”. Probably they would have been duped out of some money. Anyway, I’m sure glad she didn’t go.
Abano discusses the various meanings of Tristitia, Laetitia, Puer and Puella as they derive from other figures.
Laetitia
When from Populus and Laetitia, it means luck, gain, especially in large [or great] things. When from Acquisitio and Puer it means gain, merriment, especially in changeable things. When from Amissio and Albus it means luck, but with mediocre gain. When from Major and Puella it means fixity, gain and good luck.
When from Minor and Rubeus it means mediocre gain or honor or good luck. When from Via and Caput it means gain, honor, positive change. When from Cauda and Conjunctio it means misfortune, evil, but incapable of doing all it wants.1 When from Tristitia and Carcer it means mifortune, difficulties and problems.
Tristitia
When from Populus and Tristitia it means misfortune, danger, evil. When from Acquisitio and Rubeus it means fixity and misfortune, except in in things lascivous or feminine. When from Major and Albus it means luck, gain and honor with firmness.2 When from Minor and Puer it means better3 luck in every question.
When from Caput and Conjunctio it means great fortune, gain and stability. When from Via and Cauda it means mediocre luck, difficulties, problems. When from Laetitia and Carcer it means a good deal of luck, but with more problems than positive things.4
Puella
When from Populus and Puella it means infirmity, lascivousness, luck, gain. When from Acquisitio and Cauda it means mobility, mediocre luck. When from Amissio and Tristitia it means good luck after much toiling and difficulties, gain in venereal5 things.
When from Via and Rubeus it means misfortune and anger, rumors, change, damage. When from Albus and Carcer it means gain, good luck, firmness. When from Conjunctio and Puer it means fortune in everything, luck.
Puer
When from Populus and Puer it means gain, good luck, change. When from Acquisitio and Laetitia it means gain, honor, mirth, goodness in everything. When from Amissio and Caput it means good luck, bood in easy things and in seeking pleasure.
When from Major and Cauda it means unfortunate change, damage. When from Via and Albus it means useful variety,6 fortune, good change. When from Carcer and Rubeus it means major misfortune in everything, loss. When from Minor and Tristitia it means fortune, some kind of gain, strife.
THE END
MQS
Footnotes
It is not clear wheter Abano means that the person won’t be able to do all he or she wants, or whether the evil signified by this combination is not all-pervasive. ↩︎
In this case, it seems that Tristitia’s role is to solidify the good fortune signified by the two figures it comes from. ↩︎
‘migliore’ means ‘better’, but it’s unclear better than what. ↩︎
These two meanings might be hard to harmonize, though maybe not impossible. ↩︎
