The deck is spread.
The sky is listening.
Draw your cards.
Or .
Shuffle, cut, draw
Choose a spread.
Three of the twenty-four to start with. Or ask a question above and the right one is laid for it instead.
Take one.
The reading.
The houses: twelve cards on the twelve houses, a whole life laid as a wheel.
The oldest division in astrology is not the signs, it is the houses: twelve rooms the sky is cut into at the moment you look, each one a department of a life. The first sits on the left where the sky rises, the fourth at the bottom where it is midnight, the seventh opposite the first because the other person always stands across from you, the tenth at the top in full view. Twelve cards, one to a room, and no question narrow enough to need only one of them.
- 1You, as you arrive
- 2What you have
- 3What you say
- 4Where you are from
- 5What you make
- 6The daily work
- 7The other person
- 8What you share
- 9What you believe
- 10What you are seen doing
- 11Who you are among
- 12What you keep out of sight
The positions, and how to read a card in each
- 11st: you, as you arrive
- The house on the left, where the sky rises. Not who you are underneath, which is the fourth; this is the version that walks in and is met. A card here often describes how you are read rather than how you feel, and the gap between the two is worth the whole reading.
- 22nd: what you have
- What you can actually draw on: money, yes, but also skill, time, the things nobody can take back. The old books make this the house of worth, and the pun is the point. A hard card here is rarely about poverty; it is about not counting what is already there.
- 33rd: what you say
- The near house: how you talk, what you write, the people you speak to daily, the short journeys. This is where a thing gets said or does not. A card here often carries the sentence that has not been spoken yet.
- 44th: where you are from
- The bottom of the wheel, midnight, the root. Home, the family you came from, the ground under the rest. Read it before the tenth at the top, because what is at the bottom holds up what shows.
- 55th: what you make
- Play, romance, children, anything made for the pleasure of making it. The house the Sun is happiest in. A card here answers what you would do if nothing had to be justified.
- 66th: the daily work
- The day itself: the job as it is lived rather than the career, the body, the routine, the small maintenance nobody sees. Where the fifth is the thing made, this is the doing of it, on a Tuesday.
- 77th: the other person
- Across the wheel from the first, because the other person always stands opposite you. Partner, close friend, the open enemy the old books mention in the same breath. A card here describes the relation, not the person.
- 88th: what you share
- What is held jointly and cannot be split cleanly: money tangled with somebody else's, debts, inheritances, what is owed. The traditional house of death, which read plainly is the house of what you cannot keep.
- 99th: what you believe
- The far house: distance, learning, faith, the long view. What you hold to be true when nobody is checking. A card here is often the reason under a decision that was explained some other way.
- 1010th: what you are seen doing
- The top of the wheel, in full daylight. The career, the reputation, the thing said about you when you are not in the room. Read it against the fourth: what shows, and what holds it up.
- 1111th: who you are among
- Friends, groups, the people you are counted with, and what you hope for among them. The house of good fortune in the old books, which is to say: who is in your corner.
- 1212th: what you keep out of sight
- The house behind the curtain: what is hidden, including from you. Rest, retreat, the undoing. A card here is not a warning; it is the thing operating without being named, which is why it is read last.
Already laid this one on your own table? Read the cards you pulled, in these positions, with the same engine.
The cards are Pamela Colman Smith's, drawn in 1909. The draw is sealed before you touch the deck, so it can be recomputed by anyone, and nobody including the engine sees a card before you do. Readings here never give dates except the sky's, and never give medical, legal or financial specifics.
How a reading goes · How one is written · The week ahead · The year ahead
Twenty-four spreads.
The classics, and a few built for one kind of question. Tap one to lay it.One card, twenty seconds. The habit.
1 cardYes or noOne card, cut first so it can fall either way. Upright leans yes.
1 cardPast, present, futureThe classic three, in a line. Where it came from, where it is, where it goes.
3 cardsThe two of youYou, them, and what is between you.
3 cardsShould I buy itNever about the thing. Always about the hesitation.
3 cardsThis or thatTwo roads, and the thing you are not weighing.
3 cardsIs now the timeTwo cards, and the sky answers the third position itself.
2 cardsWhat am I missingOne card you can see. One tucked behind it.
2 cardsPick one of threeThree options in a row, and the card that decides.
4 cardsMind, body, spiritThree cards for the state you are in, not the thing you are deciding.
3 cardsThe horseshoeSeven cards in an arc. A whole situation without the weight of the ten.
7 cardsThe jobTake it, leave it, or stay where you are. Three cards about the work, not the offer.
3 cardsThe one who leftWhat was there, where they stand now, and what you would be going back to.
3 cardsHow they feel about youHow they see you, what they want from this, and what holds them back. A card cannot read a mind, and this one says so.
3 cardsStay or goThe life if you stay, the life if you go, and the fear under both.
3 cardsWhat to do about itThe oldest three: what is happening, what to do, and where that goes.
3 cardsShadow workWhat you show, what you keep back, why, what that costs, and how to meet it.
5 cardsA dreamWhat the dream shows, what it is asking, and what to carry out of it.
3 cardsThe week aheadSeven cards, one for each day, starting today.
7 cardsThe year aheadTwelve cards, one for each month, laid as the year itself.
12 cardsCeltic CrossThe classic ten, the cross and the staff. For a question with a lot in it.
10 cardsThe housesTwelve cards on the twelve houses, the whole of a life laid as a wheel. For when the question is everything at once.
12 cardsTree of LifeTen cards on the ten sephiroth, from the aim at the top to how it lands. Book T's own map, laid as a spread.
10 cardsThis moonWaxing tonight. What to begin, what is in the way, and the Moon itself.
2 cards