5. Tell the Querent what he has come for: if wrong, abandon the divination.
So I got to line #5 last time, and I personally would not abandon the reading no matter which stack the Significator turned up in. And before we get to line #6 I think you should do a 'Question Overview' of the situation. This is recommended in Regardie's book, 'The Golden Dawn' [R-GD] as well as on Paul Hughes-Barlow's supertarot web site. But it's not in the quickie directions given in the Book of Thoth, The Equinox, Mathers Book T, or in Paul Foster Case's book, 'Oracle of Tarot'.
Recall that we have the deck split into 4 stacks using the following layout.
.. 4 .......... 3 ........... 2 .......... 1 ...... .Earth ....... Air ........ Water ....... Fire .... Material . Intellectual . Emotional . Motivational [States]
Note: Use whatever meanings for the position/elements that work for you. See: First Operation: Part #1
Some folks make a great deal out of the following, while others don't bother to do it at all. Recall that you should have cut the 4 stacks into equal piles [as equal as possible]. Without rearranging the order of the cards - pick up each stack and simply count the number of cards in each stack [you might/could do this while looking for the Significator]. Place the stack back where it was and maybe use a sticky note, piece of paper, etc. to jot down the 'number of cards in each stack'.
The optimal breakdown would be two [2] stacks with 19 cards, and two [2] stacks with 20 cards [19+19+20+20=78].
Say we have the following [the Significator is the King of Swords and is in stack #1];
.......................................... S ........ [Significator] .. 4 .......... 3 ........... 2 .......... 1 ........ [Position Numbers] .Earth ....... Air ........ Water ....... Fire ...... [Background Element] Material . Intellectual . Emotional .. Motivational . [Elemental States] . 13 .......... 24 .......... 16 ......... 25 ....... [Number of cards per stack]
As you can see I didn't divide the stacks all that equally [sloppy cutting]. But this can actually tell you a lot according to some people.
The situation is lacking some stability or materialism [stack #4 - Earth-only
13 cards].
The problem seems to be both Intellectual and Motivational since
we have 24 and 25 cards respectivily in the Air and Fire stacks [#3 and
#1].
The Water/Emotional state seems to be lacking just a bit with just 16
cards in the pile [stack #2].
Of the four [4] stacks there appears to more
emphasis/stress on the #1-Fire stack than the others, so the seeker may have
motivational/job/career issues because of the 25 cards in this stack.
We'll see what happens with the rest of the goodies to come!
Make sure all the stacks are turned upside down [face-up] so you can see, and thus read each card. Remember which stack holds the Significator because it usually will have more weight. Read the top 4 cards taking into consideration the elemental dignities of the cards and the background elements.
Continuing the example above;
........................................... S ........... [Significator] .. 4 .......... 3 ............ 2 .......... 1 ........... [Position Numbers] .Earth ....... Air ......... Water ....... Fire ......... [Background Element] Material . Intellectual . Emotional .. Motivational ..... [Elemental States] . 13 .......... 24 ......... 16 .......... 25 ........... [Number of cards per stack] 8 of Pents .. Lovers ... 8 of Swords . Wheel of Fortune . [Facing Cards] .Earth ....... Air ......... Air .......... Fire ........ [Card Element]
This may look confusing, but it's not really. Let's cut it down to just four [4] lines to make it easier.
........................................... S ........... [Significator] .. 4 .......... 3 ............ 2 .......... 1 ........... [Position Numbers] .Earth ....... Air ......... Water ....... Fire ......... [Background Element] 8 of Pents .. Lovers ... 8 of Swords . Wheel of Fortune . [Facing Cards] .Earth ....... Air .......... Air ........ Fire ......... [Card Element]
You must know elemental dignities in order to understand the following but I will try to be as succinct as possible.
Starting with position #1 we can see that The Wheel of Fortune - which is associated with the element of Fire is at HOME and well-dignified in the Fire position of #1. It is also friendly to the 8 of Swords in pos #2, making The Wheel of Fortune very, very strong in the reading. In other word we have Fire + Fire + Air = a very strong card since Fire and Air are friendly elements that strengthen each other. But can you say 'to much of a good thing'? The Wheel of Fortune may ber 'very well-dignified' elementally but it's being pumped up TOO MUCH in my opinion. This could indicate that the seeker is trying to force things to happen instead of taking it slow and easy and letting things happen naturally. Look what I said above when counting the number of cards per stack.
"The problem seems to be both Intellectual and Motivational since we have 24 and 25 respectivily in the Air and Fire stacks [#3 and #1]. Of the four [4] stacks there appears to more emphasis/stress on the #1-Fire stack than the others, so the seeker may have motivational/job/career issues because of the 25 cards in this stack."
In pos #2 we have a Air card in the 8 of Swords sitting on a Water elemental background. I read Air and Water as neutral elements so the Water background will neither strengthen or weaken the 8 of Swords.
But to either side of the 8 of Swords we have friendly elements in The Lovers - another Air card, and the Wheel of Fortune - a Fire card. So the 8 of Swords is also 'very well-dignified' because these two cards are pumping it up. A pumped up 8 of Swords - depending on how you read elemental dignities can be either a lot worse - or a lot better than its normal crappy meanings. Either way it tells you the seeker is having deep emotional issues. But look what I wrote about pos #2 after counting the number of cards in stack #2.
"The Water/Emotional state seems to be lacking just a bit with just 13 cards in the pile [stack #2]."
Water/Cups can be tough kids. Any time there is either to much Water or not enough Water then things can go one of two ways.
a.) Lack of emotions, feelings, etc.
b.) Excess of emotions, feelings,
etc.
With the 8 of Swords being 'very well-dignified' I'd have to say that we probably have some heavy duty emotional issues going on - NOT a lack of emotions as I stated previously. Some of the cards that were in this stack were The Tower, the 3 of Swords, The Devil, 10 of Wands, 4 of Cups, 7 of Cups, etc. Yuck, LOL.
The Air of the Lovers is at HOME in this position so is gaining strength from the positions Air background element. It's also gaining strength from the Air of 8 of Swords to its right. But it's losing strength from the Earth of the 8 of Pentacles on it's left since Air and Earth are unfriendly [adverse] elements. So the two cards on it's right and left are putting a lot of stress on The Lovers but the background Air element is helping considerably. Which I read as the seekers choices being a bit iffy because their intellect is a bit iffy/fuzzy at this time. They are very possibly not thinking all that straight.
The Earth element of the 8 of Pentacles is friendly with the Earth background element but unfriendly with the Air of The Lovers. This makes the 8 of Pentacles what I call 'elementally stressed'. So I'll add a little to the following which I wrote above;
"The situation is lacking some stability or materialism - probably dealing with money and finances [stack #4 - Earth-only 13 cards].
You should now do a synopsis of what you now know using the above procedures [if you do them]. This then would be the 'Question/Situation Overview'.
Question/Situation Overview
"The seeker seems to be forcing things - and is probably in something of a panic. Probably about money, finances, business, or more likely their job/career, or the lack of one which is even more likely. This in turn is causing them [and those around them] heavy duty emotional issues which are more than likely turning into trouble, quarreling, and even conflict - due to the seeker, and probably those around him or her not being able to think straight."
As far as I'm concerned, counting the number of cards in each stack - and deciding what that means, and then doing and reading the elemental dignities of each of the 4 cards on each stack against their elemental backgrounds is well worth doing.
Don S.