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 Tree of Life: ten cards on the ten sephiroth, from the aim to how it lands.
The Golden Dawn's own map, laid as a spread. Book T puts every card on the Tree of Life before it gives any card a decan, so a card that lands on its own sephira here is a coincidence you can check. Ten places on three pillars: what expands on the right, what contains on the left, and the middle from the crown to the ground.
- 1What it is for
- 2The drive
- 3The limits
- 4What you are given
- 5What opposes it
- 6The heart of it
- 7What you want
- 8What you think
- 9What lies under it
- 10How it lands
The positions, and how to read a card in each
- 1Kether: what it is for
- The crown, the top of the tree: what this is for, before any of the reasons. A card here is the aim behind the question, which is often larger or simpler than the question itself. Book T puts every ace here, so an ace in this place is the suit's root at the root.
- 2Chokmah: the drive
- The force pushing it, before it has a shape. Not a plan; a pressure. Read it against the third card, its opposite on the other pillar: drive without limits is the first pair on the tree and the first thing to check. Every two lives here.
- 3Binah: the limits
- What gives the thing its shape, which is also what confines it: time, money, a body, another person. Read this card as the container rather than the enemy. Every three is Binah's.
- 4Chesed: what you are given
- Mercy: what has been handed to you in this, unearned. Resources, luck, the people who showed up. A hard card here says the gift is not what you thought it was. Every four.
- 5Geburah: what opposes it
- Severity: what pushes back, and what has to be cut for the thing to go on. The card people take as bad news; read it as the pruning, which is the tree's own word for it. Every five.
- 6Tiphareth: the heart of it
- The centre of the tree and of the reading, read after the two pairs above it because it is where they meet. This is you as you are in the matter, not as you present it. Every six is Tiphareth's, and so is the Sun.
- 7Netzach: what you want
- Victory: desire, feeling, what you would choose if choosing were free. Read it against the eighth, its opposite: a wanting that the thinking does not support is the tree's most common argument. Every seven.
- 8Hod: what you think
- Splendour: the mind's version, the plan, what gets said out loud. The card here is often more confident than the seventh, and the gap between them is where the work is. Every eight.
- 9Yesod: what lies under it
- Foundation: the ground the whole tree stands on, the habit or the fear underneath. The card people skip and the one that explains the last. Book T puts every nine here, and the Moon.
- 10Malkuth: how it lands
- The kingdom: the matter as it arrives in the world, in a body, a house, a bank account, a Tuesday. Not a prophecy; the direction the nine above it are pointing, which the fifth card can still change. Every ten is Malkuth's.
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 · Past, present, future · Mind, body, spirit
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