This 1-card dynamic elemental tarot spread is based on the question and what suit/element it best fits. See ==> Basic Suits and Elements.
Example: Lets say your (or the seekers) question is one about a personal relationship. This type of question would fall under the suit/element of Cups/Water.
Suit: Cups ... Element: Water
Relationships, emotions, feelings, receptivity, reflection, subconscious, vision, imagination, moods.
Question:
"What can the cards tell me about my relationship to (with)
so-n-so?"
Using the Dynamic 1-Card Elemental Tarot Spread shuffle and cut your deck as you would normally - while thinking about the question.
When you are ready start dealing cards out starting on the left and dealing right in a linear fashion until you pull up a 'Cup' card. Or if you want you can simply stack the cards, one on top of the other.
1 .. 2 .. 3.. and so on.
Lets say for the question above I drew the following cards:
2 of Pentacles .. The Empress .. 9 of Cups
After dealing out the 9 of Cups I would stop dealing. Our answer is in the 9 of Cups and you might read it has the seekers wish will be granted, they will get what they want out of the relationship, etc. If more clarification is needed start reading the card, or cards to the left (or under if you stacked the cards when dealing) starting with the first one to the left, or the next one down in the stack.
9 of Cups - the seekers wish will be granted, they will get what they want out of the relationship.
The Empress - the seeker will get the nurturing, harmony, and peace from this relationship they are looking for.
2 of Pentacles - it might take some juggling and balancing but the relationship should work out nicely.
IF .. you draw the suit/element associated with the question at hand with the first card drawn then you have a few options.
1.) Read the single card and hope you don't need clarification.
2.) Draw more cards until another card of the suit/element comes up.
3.) Or decide that no answer can be gotten from the tarot at this time.
Example:
Question: "What can the cards tell me about my employment situation?"
You decide to use the suit/element of Wands/Fire for this job/career type question (you could have also used the suit of Pentacles for this type question). You shuffle and cut the cards while thinking of the question and then start to deal.
The first card that comes up is the Page of Wands. You could read this card which indicates that something new is coming - probably involving job or work. Or you could deal out more cards until you reach another Wands/Fire card. This time I stacked the cards into a single pile so I could read down the stack if need be.
Page of Wands (bottom card)
The Magician
Ace of Swords
King of Swords
King of Wands (top card)
If you were to read all the cards then things look good for/about the seekers employment situation other than the fact that things might be, and probably are in the hands of other people because of the 3 court cards.
So if you think about it option #3 above actually would have worked here:
3.) Or decide that no answer can be gotten from the tarot at this time.
The answer/outcome appears to be in the hands of other people, prospective employers, the seekers boss/manager, etc.
And there you have the Dynamic 1-Card Elemental Tarot Spread.. Give this simple but effective spread a try and see if it works for you.
The Dynamic Elemental Tarot Spreads is copyright 2004 by John Gilbert and the Tarot Institute, all rights reserved. Tarot News may be used by teachers to assist students in learning tarot as long as the source is quoted and students are taught how to access Tarot News on-line. Our web address is http://TarotInstitute.com and the archives for this newsletter are at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TarotNews.