Gap Analysis: The Three-Card Reading and the Hidden Agenda
AUTHOR’S NOTE: I’m not much of a fan of the three-card tarot reading because, as I’ve mentioned before, it leaves too much up to subjective guesswork in bridging the narrative gap between cards that may have nothing even remotely in common. In the three-card pull, utterly antagonistic cards are the intuitive reader’s worst nightmare since free-association from the images can highlight and reinforce rather than moderate their dissimilarity. What is left is a bundle of loose ends that won’t easily jell into a coherent story-line.
I’ve decided to apply my “numerical midpoint” theory in these cases, which locates the card that sits midway between any two cards in the 78-card sequence and accords it secondary or veiled significance that may be more revealing than the principle cards. I can see treating them the same way I handle reversed cards; they convey potent influences that may “fly under the radar” but are no less critical to a full understanding of the situation. The process of identifying the two intermediary cards creates a five-card layout with two tiers of symbolism, offering quite a bit more range in the narrative. In many cases this will yield a two-card “constellation” because the midpoint falls between two numbers, generating a six or seven-card spread. For maximum convenience, the calculation benefits from having a numerical table at hand to aid in finding the middle cards (see below). Of course, the obvious rebuttal to this is “Hey, you could just pull five cards and be done with it.” But where’s the fun (and the pseudo-science) in that?
Here is an example spread that I pulled at random, along with my expanded interpretation. It exhibits a three-card “hidden agenda” between the principle cards.
The initial sequence, 9 of Swords, Knight of Wands and 5 of Coins, suggests that the Knight of Wands, try as he might to come to grips with the “nightmare scenario” of the 9 of Swords, will wind up “a day late and a dollar short” in the accounting (5 of Coins). He just doesn’t have the mental acuity to decode the message and would rather just beat it into submission or try to outrun it. He needs a less-elusive target for his single-minded attack. He is also not much of a money-manager and needs facilitation on that score. It’s entirely possible that the stress shown in this reading is over financial security and the ill-equipped Knight is caught in the middle, banging his head against the wall.
The Page of Cups as the first midpoint card implies that the emotional fallout from the 9 of Swords is still too raw to endure an energetic beat-down; it needs time to heal and mature. The second midpoint position is occupied by two cards, the Ace and Two of Swords. A fully-realized solution does not yet present itself, and the Knight needs to “settle his mind” and stop wildly extemporizing in order to come up with one. The 2 of Swords in particular indicates that he is stymied by the logistics of leveraging his resources, so he stands to see them trickle through his fingers. In this reading there is not much help from the “hidden agenda” beyond advising the need for patience, a stoic attitude and a competent financial advisor. At least the 5 of Coins does not look like “big bucks” are at stake.
Originally published at http://parsifalswheeldivination.wordpress.com on July 13, 2023.
