Context as “Master Key”
AUTHOR’S NOTE: I picked another random thought out of Vincent Pistisci’s Genius of the Tarot that is worth contemplating.
For most of us, the suit symbolism of the minor and court cards is the essential factor in determining their general “theme” (the specific images on the cards confer more precise anecdotal import). The “cameo” version is that Wands are about action, Cups are about feeling, Swords are about ideas, and Pentacles are about mundane affairs like money and property. This works well enough but I like Pitisci’s notion that the context of the question and its related elemental “signature” can overrule the “suit” significance of the individual cards in their spread positions, making the latter secondary to the narrative.
Pitisci proposes that the focus area of the question — whether employment, romance, legal matters, home and family affairs, finances, business, health (within limits), etc — defines the situational environment as being emblematic of a particular suit (“element” may be a better principle to use, so I will do so henceforth) and each card of the pull “owes allegiance” (for lack of a better word) to that overarching motif regardless of its own suit. (Although it’s an imperfect analogy, we could think of it as paying rent in the game of Monopoly, except that each positional space in the layout has the same landlord.)
For example, if the question is about a job search, Wands (and by association Fire) would be the “shadow” principle behind all of the positions in the spread. If a position speaks to the interview process and a Swords card comes up, it could be read as “Air of Fire” along with its usual interpretation. If the position describes the job offer and a Pentacles card appears, it would represent “Earth of Fire.” In each case, the principal or “baseline” element would be Fire as befits the overall thrust of the reading and the individual cards would add either complementary or contrasting “color” to the picture according to their elemental nature. They would be either reinforced or debilitated in their potency by the “baseline” element, and this could affect the ease of expression for their inherent (that is, anecdotal) meaning.
This idea adds another dimension to the reading that seems very similar to the Golden Dawn’s idea of “Elemental Dignities.” In the initial step of the “Opening of the Key” method, a Significator card is chosen to represent the Querent (typically a court card). The entire deck is shuffled and then dealt into four subpacks, right-to-left, signifying Fire, Water, Air and Earth in that order. The Significator is located and the Querent is then told “why he has come” according to the area of life reflected by the highlighted subpack. However, each card in the subsequent reading still retains its suit symbolism and its elemental “signature” as the main emphasis for its impact, and its interplay with adjacent cards can either raise or lower its profile.
The difference here is that the client would tell the reader in advance what the subject of the reading involves (although not necessarily divulging the exact question) and the reader would select the “baseline” element for the entire spread according to that input. There is no mystical guesswork and no “beating around the bush.” The cards are dealt and each positional “resident” is read with an interpretive “spin” that acknowledges the underlying purpose of the reading. This isn’t much different from the way it is normally done, except that there is another layer of nuance that can weight the card’s strength according to its elemental cooperation with the contextual “master key:” Fire with Fire, Water with Water, Air with Air and Earth with Earth are greatly empowered in their contribution to the outcome; Fire with Air and Water with Earth are functionally enhanced; Fire with Water and Air with Earth are significantly weakened; and Fire with Earth and Water with Air are passively amiable with one another but aren’t really swayed either way. This creates a “3D,” two-factor (card and position) form of “dignity” rather then the horizontal, “2D” triplet of the Golden Dawn method. It reminds me a bit of the Lenormand “house” system, except the neighborhood is comprised of identical row houses all the same color until the “occupants” move in and “repaint.”
This looks like it will be entertaining and possibly informative to play around with. I think I’m going to create some topic-specific spreads with the idea of an elemental “master key” built into the position meanings.
Originally published at http://parsifalswheeldivination.wordpress.com on July 18, 2023.
