The Daily Reading in Three Parts
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Consider this the “club sandwich” of tarot spreads, or maybe the “lasagna;” it breaks the daily reading into three distinct tiers of interpretation.
Within the field of behavioral conjecture it’s a well-established premise that the human personality exhibits three characteristic modes of response to circumstances: automatic or unplanned (the “knee-jerk reaction”); conditional or adaptive (“Let me think about it”); and noncommittal or circumspect (“only paying lip service”). Jung describes a fourfold model, but his intuition is a bit too abstract for my purpose here so I’ll stick with the factors of sensation, feeling and thinking that he allegedly derived from the Gnostic philosophers.
At the most fundamental level, we operate in the routine, day-to-day sphere of the Minor Arcana by acting without thinking too deeply about it. The commonplace principles shown in the cards are for the most part easily understood, well within our control and readily brought to bear on the pragmatic aspects of life. (In Jungian typology, this would equate most closely to the realm of sensation — we gravitate toward doing what is most comfortably familiar.)
Next in complexity are the psychological and sociological dimensions of the court cards, which can reflect our emotional state as well as the nature of our interaction with other people, who are often identified by one of these cards in a reading. (In Jungian terms, the faculty of feeling exemplifies this activity in most cases.)
Finally, there is the more theoretical (aka “symbolic”) perspective of the Major Arcana, which can be inscrutable (“coming out of nowhere”) and difficult to correlate with our daily experience, often invoking the “token gesture” rather than the substantive action or reaction. These influences can impinge upon us in an impersonal or universal way that may be trying to tell us something we aren’t ready to hear. If we don’t understand exactly what’s expected of us by the presence of a trump card in a reading, we can be prone to extenuate by hand-waving and tap-dancing to get out from under the obligation — which, I might add, seldom works as intended although it might buy us some time. (Because our engagement is implicitly cerebral, Jung’s thinking type best fits the profile.)
I’ve always felt that the one-card daily draw does not speak to this range of possible responses because it will invariably leave two of the three modes unexplored. The three-card pull is a little better but its linear structure invites a “timeline” approach rather than a tiered spectrum of relevance. Here I’m proposing that the three cards be stacked with the trump card at the top, the court card in the middle, and the pip card at the bottom; this will necessitate splitting the deck into three sub-packs before shuffling and dealing.
I would read these cards from bottom-to-top at three different levels of significance: the practical implications of my daily outlook (Minor Arcana); the emotional or social issues I might have to confront (court card); and the mental or rational essence of any “big-picture” overtones (Major Arcana) that could intrude upon my mundane reverie. As a final, optional touch, I suggest calculating a “quintessence” card to summarize the “theme of the day” in a single card. (This will always be one of the Major Arcana in its alternate role as a stage-setting “archetypal” backdrop.)
Here is an example reading for Saturday, March 9th. I asked the usual question, but tweaked it slightly: “What will my day be like in all of its ramifications?” (I opted not to use reversals but I certainly could have.)
The mundane emphasis for the day is shown by the delightful 9 of Cups (Happiness). If you’ve been following me, you will remember that I recently posted a reading that identifies the best day of this week to buy a lottery ticket for the drawing that will occur on Saturday. The 9 of Disks (Gain) revealed that day to be Thursday, so I bought a Power Ball ticket then. The 9 of Cups here seems to be touting the possibility of success. If that doesn’t occur, there could be other reasons to celebrate.
The emotional indicator for the day is the Knight of Disks, a solid (but also stolid) exemplar of material pursuits. He is patient and stable to a fault, not given to excitability or even much enthusiasm, so in a word I expect things to be placidly “normal” in the emotional department.
The Fool in the cerebral realm of archetypes represents the height of abstraction, so unless something unexpected comes to me in the form of a brilliant insight or inspiration completely “out of the blue,” I should be about as far as I can get from the kind of epiphany it conveys. But if that does happen in the form of a radical departure from routine I need to be mentally ready for it.
The quintessence card (achieved by “casting out nines”) was Art/Temperance, so the overall theme for the day should be one of staying poised and juggling my affairs with consummate finesse. The keynote is equanimity in synthesizing any seemingly incompatible elements. (But allow me an unrestrained whoop of joy if I win even a small lottery prize, and if it’s a big one I definitely need to keep my cool.)
Originally published at http://parsifalswheeldivination.wordpress.com on March 9, 2024.
