Q: What spread do you use most often/prefer and why?
I mostly use the three-card spread called “Within, Without, Advice,” which was introduced to me on Instagram by Patrick Fogarty and Kelly from The Truth in Story. I love it for inner life/outer life daily draws using my most introspective decks, like the Mary-el Tarot and the Osho Zen Tarot shown here. This spread’s themes just flow with these types of decks and always have wonderful messages for both mind and heart.
The message from the Mary-el Tarot was:
Access your owned winged messenger within to see the play of dark and light, sun and moon in the gold and silver of the green Earth manifested, then feel the real beneath the surface of your dreams. Emerge.
The message from the Osho Zen Tarot:
Giving and receiving are the same thing. Two queens, one of fire within, yang, active, giving; one of water receiving. And in the center, the result, the merging of opposites. Your inner fire needs to be balanced with receptivity. Listen as well as speak, integrate those powers and feel the blessing.
But that’s not to say everything has to be Zen or New Age bellybutton gazing (not that the Mary-el generates only calming internal messages—it is very in your face with the illusion and the real of life). I also like to use a three-card draw to get a message about the day’s energies to use for more practical purposes. I also applied Within, Without, Advice to the ever-pragmatic Marseille style (Universal Tarot of Marseille in this case). The message turned out to be:
If you ignore the rules this time (Emperor facing away), your impulsive, life-of-the-party style (7 of Staves) may run you into trouble. But follow at least some of the rules, and you will be able to have fun and keep all your the corners of your World happy.
If you haven’t worked with a Marseille deck before, take a look at my Marseille keywords (taken from Lee Burstyn’s interpretive advice) and let me know how you would interpret these three cards together.
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I found the questions for this series at a Tumblr account that no longer exists. A lovely person named Rhee started the thing. These are great prompts for telling stories about one’s journey through the world of Tarot, so I’ve started the series again on a weekly basis so you all can get to know me better, and also share your own answers to the questions in comments or links to your own posts. I’d love to hear from you!
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