Counting-and-Pairing: A Worthwhile Exercise
AUTHOR’S NOTE: In the “Opening of the Key” (OotK) method of divination presented in the tarot “knowledge papers” of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (compiled as Liber T), there are several occasions where a group of cards is to be counted out from the Significator in the direction it is facing, each series presenting a “mini-story” about the subject of the inquiry. In its entirety, this undertaking is not for the faint-of-heart. (I should also mention right at the beginning that what you see below is not the “Golden Dawn purist’s” version but rather my own reductionist take on the model.)
In the somewhat abbreviated Aleister Crowley approach that I use, each descriptive monograph is followed by pairing sets of cards, first the two immediately adjacent to the Significator, then working outward in both directions two-at-a-time until the sequence ends; the purpose of this extension is to add detail to the original narrative. (To be honest, this strikes me as an elaborate way to arrive at what is basically a linked ensemble of line readings with clarifiers, although each vignette is carved out from a longer sequence and is pegged to the Significator.)
The saga can become quite involved across the sequential “operations” of the OotK, but here I’m only exploring the first instance that occurs right after the Significator is located in one of the elemental sub-packs of the initial step of the First Operation (“Tell the Querent why he has come” capped with “the beginning of the matter”). None but the truly ambitious will take it much beyond that because the iterations can become byzantine and yield far too much information for practical purposes. To be honest, trying to answer an inquiry like “Will my ‘ex’ come back to me?” with the exhaustive five-operation OotK strikes me as equivalent to “swatting a gnat with a sledge hammer.” In fact, I’ve taken to using the First Operation as a prologue to a more economical spread like the Celtic Cross (I know it’s heresy; so shoot me).
My method is identical to “counting round” in Lenormand reading. The sequence doesn’t change according to the number, rank or facing of each consecutive card that the count lands on but remains steady throughout; to do otherwise would be to invite chaos. The goal is to add useful inflection to the narrative, not to create a thicket of potentially conflicting meanings (which is already far too likely with a comprehensive take on the OotK). So I choose to apply this practice judiciously and sparingly, only continuing until each card has been given one chance for inclusion. If a card has been passed over when the sequence returns to the Significator, I consider it an “outlier” that is to be read separately much like a “peregrine” planet in astrology. It may not be “by the book” but it works well enough.
Below is an example to illustrate my process. The question involves how a matter of interest might play out for me. My usual Significator, the Knight of Cups, showed up in the Water sub-pack, indicating an issue with some emotional impact. The discerning occultist will see immediately that I’ve pared this down from its full potential as explained in Liber T, but I find it completely satisfactory for my purposes. However, there is no valid reason why the astute (or merely time-strapped) reader can’t skip ahead to one of the later operations and perform it independently as, for example, a stand-alone astrological or Tree of Life reading and limit the counting-and-pairing to that sub-set of cards.
I spread the cards out in the order they appeared and began to count-and-pair. In Crowley’s Book of Thoth the instruction is to count four cards in the direction of facing or gaze whenever a Knight, Queen or Prince is the Significator, treating that card as “1.” The result of this count yielded the sequence Knight of Cups; Lovers; Star; and Princess of Wands as shown in the photograph. The Lovers and the Star suggest being at a crossroads in a scenario that involves a heightened level of discernment as well as some wishful thinking, while the impetuous Princess of Wands indicates that my ambitions could “run wild” and might get out of hand. (I doubt very much that it means a feisty younger woman will cross my path.)
If I continue the count with the Princess of Wands and then the Hanged Man to arrive at the 3 of Disks (thus ending the initial series), I come up with a rather bland, uneven progression that doesn’t add much to the tale and becomes a case of “diminishing returns,” so I decided to stop with the first iteration since it gives me enough to go on in this matter. (For completeness, I’ve included the full scope in the graphic display.) I would advise using your judgment regarding “how much is enough” when it comes to counting and pairing, since no rational purpose is served by overkill.
Pairing the Lovers with the 3 of Disks (Work) creates an elementally unfriendly match (Air and Earth) which seems to be saying that merely “plugging away” at the affair without truly rising to the occasion will not give the Lovers much to work with; this elemental disparity diminishes the clout of the Knight of Cups in the matter, although taken one-by-one the Knight does draw some sympathy from each modifier. The most productive advice would be to “get my head out of the . . . umm . . . sand “ and step up the pace.
The Star joined to the 3 of Cups (Abundance) doesn’t need much explanation: emotional fulfillment is the hoped-for development.
Although I didn’t do so for the purpose of this example, it is also possible to take it “around the corner” and pair the Princess of Wands with the Prince of Swords (a volatile partnership) and the Knight of Disks with the Hanged Man (perhaps a comment on the dubious practicality of the proposal: “the old boy gets hung out to dry”). However, it’s worth noting that, apart from the Air-Earth mismatch of the Lovers and the 3 of Disks, the rest of the pairs are at least elementally “neutral and supportive,” making for a relatively agreeable tableau. As an aside, in his brief treatise on divination Paul Foster Case displays the cards in a circle rather than a line or horseshoe, clearly showing the end-to-end continuity I’m alluding to here.
This leaves the 6 of Wands (Victory) as the unaccompanied remainder, which could mean either that success in the situation is an outlier that I will find difficult to lure into my “den of iniquity,” or that it is free to operate on its own terms (a much more favorable proposition as long as I don’t mind losing control over it in a “be careful what you wish for” sense).
Ultimately, there is nothing too harsh in this forecast. The Hanged Man is far enough away from the main theme to make no difference to the outcome as long as I keep a watchful eye on the Princess of Wands and the Prince of Swords in collusion, which could be warning me against vulnerability to aggressive scammers. (To be honest, though, as a student of human nature and thus a cynic in matters of social discourse, I distrust almost everyone equally so they wouldn’t get far with me.)
You may have noticed that some of the elemental sub-packs are topped with reversed cards. This was an oversight since I don’t intend to read reversals with this technique. I’m not interested in predicting upset conditions at the mundane level, but rather in sketching in the broader dimensions of any opportunities that might arise. My current thinking on reversed cards is that they can affect the mode of delivery and angle of attack but they seldom change the message in any meaningful way, making them irrelevant to this exercise.
Originally published at http://parsifalswheeldivination.wordpress.com on August 7, 2024.
