Waking Hours: A Daily Draw in Three Acts
AUTHOR’S NOTE: I like working with “prepared” decks that let me create discrete layers of significance in a single reading. This typically involves splitting the deck into trump, court and minor-card sub-packs and dealing them separately. I’m also not a fan of the vague, single-card daily draw: “Today it’s going to be wall-to-wall 10 of Swords, every minute from midnight-to-midnight. You might as well stay in bed.” This is useless information; I want to see the opportunity for even a little change over the short term. Here I’m bringing the two together.
The premise is that in a daily draw only the waking hours of the day (when something is more likely to happen) are important to the divination, so I’ve developed a spread that breaks down into three “active” periods as expressed by the columns: early to mid-morning; midday and mid-afternoon to evening.
The rows show three tiers of influence, with the trump cards conveying the background theme or atmosphere of each sub-range; the court cards showing human factors, whether encounters with other people or the querent’s psychological state of mind; and the pip cards supplying pragmatic event triggers that may result in the “something” mentioned above appearing in concrete form (or at least the potential for it to occur). The trumps are environmental stage-setters, the courts can be interactive and the pips express the empirical “boots-on-the-ground” dimension.
Depending on one’s circadian schedule, the time divisions may be different, and some fluidity can be expected. I knew a man who was up and on the road at 3:00 AM every weekday, was done with work by 11:00 AM and was in bed by early evening. Reversal can also reflect the drawn-out evolution of one or more of the phases. Beyond the daily draw, this spread could be used for any situational drama that has a discernible beginning, middle and end; a business meeting is one possibility, as is a job interview (getting there, engaging in dialogue and assessing the likely outcome).
Here is an example reading for today:
The day (or the situation) starts out strong, with a lot being accomplished (Universe; Princess of Disks; 4 of Disks). However, despite the abundant creative energy (Lust), the enthusiasm begins to fade into resignation (Queen of Cups) and the momentum starts to evaporate (10 of Swords). It looks like the period (or occasion) may end in disarray, with Death throwing a “wet blanket” on progress; the Princess of Swords reversed becoming snarled in details; and the 5 of Disks reversed suggesting an inconclusive “early retirement” with little gained (although there is also more than a hint of insomnia in the conclusion). I might excuse myself from attempting anything too demanding today, and just let “the chips fall where they may.” There’s always tomorrow.
UPDATE: Last night (after having performed this reading in the morning) I decided to end a social activity I’ve been involved in for over a year because I’m not a masochist and it just isn’t fun any more. This was the second and last time I’m going through it. The third column (particularly Death) and the 10 of Swords stand out clearly as the harbingers of this decision.
Originally published at http://parsifalswheeldivination.wordpress.com on December 18, 2024.
