The “Window of Opportunity”
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Here are a few more thoughts on “opportunity” as expressed by the cards of the tarot.
Any discussion of the effective duration of a tarot reading (i.e. how long it is “good” for) carries the implication that there is a “window of opportunity” for action in the matter that will close sooner or later, and in fact the scope of its availability may slowly shrink before it disappears entirely if the querent procrastinates and other priorities intervene. It has similarities to “shelf-life” or “use-by” date: unopened canned goods survive for years, baked goods offer barely a day of optimum freshness.
With the Minor Arcana and court cards, this time-frame is normally ascribed to the suit in question: Wands expire promptly; Swords are slightly more persistent; Cups endure longer still; and Pentacles may “hang open” for a considerable period. The Major Arcana are typically pegged according to their element: Fire is fleeting in its expression; Air abides a while; Water takes its sweet old time; and ponderous Earth may require a “nudge” by events coming to a head. (Note that I have not found the practice of assigning them to the months of the year to be accurate or useful for divination.)
Conventional wisdom is that these assumptions convey “days, weeks, months or years,” respectively, but this cannot be relied on with any confidence and a “fudge factor” must often be applied to predictions, something akin to the “margin of error” that pollsters hide behind. This emphasis is usually applied to the “outcome” or “end of the matter” card of the spread. Here is an all-inclusive table of proposed timing factors; although this table and the following two were created for specific event-timing purposes, the concepts of incremental — or single-point — timing and “block” — or range — timing are close cousins. One attempts to answer “When will it happen?” and the other “How soon should I act?”
Here is another way to parse it:
To the suit-and-element model I have added the numerological placement of each card in its sequence as well as its inherent nature. Among the “small” cards, the Ace of Wands is the fastest-acting (blink and you might miss the opportunity) while the 10 of Pentacles is the most tardy, with a graduated range of hastiness between them. With the court cards, posture tells the tale: the mounted Knights move along briskly and may get away from you; the standing Pages look like they’re thinking about stepping out before you corner them; and the Queens and Kings (with minor exceptions) seem to be embedded in their thrones, “sitting ducks” for the negligent opportunist. With the King of Pentacles you might wonder whether he has fallen asleep or expired. The Major Arcana can also be sorted according to the bearing of the figures on the card and their relative dynamism; I once created a graphic snapshot of this distribution:
Based on these projections, the advice for the querent is either to “strike while the iron is hot” or push the matter to the “back burner” and let it simmer until the time seems right for action. The context of the question should provide the initial “litmus test” for anticipated developments, and the reading will ideally give seekers a good feel for how long they are permitted to dally before acting. Some occurrences are inherently “rapid-turnaround” while others evolve more deliberately and require more conscious steering over a longer period; one of my favorite examples is the “job offer,” which fades in likelihood with the passage of time unless one is proactive about chasing an answer.
Consider, for example, the Celtic Cross reading; its effective interval may extend for up to three months after the moment of delivery, but the “window of opportunity” for the specific action contemplated by the question may occur early or late in that period depending on the “time signature” of the outcome card. “Duration of effectiveness” is only part of the picture. Nobody likes to wait until the last minute to do something and then be caught out; the reading might be “good” for three months but the opportunity may grow stale before the end approaches and any delay can narrow one’s options, especially if there are competing interests (aka “other people”) involved in the matter.
Originally published at http://parsifalswheeldivination.wordpress.com on July 11, 2023.
