Pressure-Points: Triggering a Reaction
AUTHOR’S NOTE: I’ll flatter myself by saying that I do some of my best tarot writing (as well as tarot divination) via the use of storytelling tropes (and humor, but that’s more incidental). I’ve settled on two analogies to bulk up the present, rather slender topic. The first is an electronic “touch screen” with its pressure-sensitive membrane that is designed to produce a specific response when certain “hot-spots” are stimulated by a stylus or fingertip (think of an alphabetical or numerical “touch-pad”). The second one is the game of “Whack-a-Mole” in which, just when we think we’ve nailed down one problematic aspect of a situation, an equally-annoying one pops up somewhere else.
Particularly when using positional spreads with a designated scope for each location in the sequence, the appearance of a motivating card in an especially sensitive position can prompt seekers to consider whether they should take some kind of action regarding its advice and, in the most fortuitous instances, to actually follow through with it. (Note that “motivating” does not always mean positively so; for example, I view the “crossing” card in a Celtic Cross spread as the source of “major motivators” that can depict either challenges or opportunities, and which it will be depends on the temperament of the card.) As mentioned in a previous essay, I tend to make a broad (“gestalt”) overview of an entire spread before getting down to card-specific interpretation, and this idea of “pressure-points” plays right into the concept of spotting key themes in the pattern that can be exploited.
The question then becomes “What do we make of them once we find them?” Although I never physically move cards around in a spread to highlight their relative importance, I may look at the layout as a figurative topographic or isometric map with pronounced peaks and valleys. In the image below, the tallest structure becomes the “command center” for the community and the other buildings represent administrative outposts. In this way I can pick out a main focus for the narrative and align all of the other cards with it to the extent they fall naturally in place. When they don’t, we can wind up in “Whack-a-Mole” territory. The reader’s task in the latter situation is to smooth out the “bumps in the road” to create a seamless, smoothly-flowing account. In my opinion, this scenario is where we as diviners demonstrate our mettle and earn our fee.
Originally published at http://parsifalswheeldivination.wordpress.com on May 13, 2024.
