OOTK | Part II | Hunt the (scary!) Lady!

Published by Alison Cross on

Kali: Do not go home to her
with a burst pay-packet

So, following on from the earlier post about the initial stage of the OOTK spread, we move on to the second procedure but remember, you need never move further through the spread than this section, if that’s what you’re comfortable with.

Here I’ve used the Haindl Tarot, for the question:  So, what do I do next with my Tarot aspirations?

For my significator card, I chose the Queen of Wands (because she is generally the character to whom I aspire!) and in the Haindl, she is the somewhat bum-clenchingly scary Kali. <- I usually pick the Queen of Wands for more, erm, WHOLESOME reasons πŸ™‚

Given that my question involves ‘work’ I would be expecting it on either the Fire pile or perhaps the Earth pile…. and lo! there she was right at the top of the Earth pile.


Here are the four stacks:

Looking at the photo, from left to right we have Mother of Wands, The Magician, Justice and the Daughter of Wands. If you click on the photo, it will enlarge.  I think.

Hmmm – what do you think of that?

Kali was right on the top of the bundle, but if you need to search for your Significator, don’t disturb the order of the cards as you edge through them.

Once you locate your Significator, spread them out in a line or fan shape.  Run it onto two lines if you’re a bit short of space.  As I was.

And now we count! My authority for counting is Crowley’s Book of Thoth:

* Knights, Queens and Princes (Kings, Queens and Knights, depending on your deck) – count 4
* Princesses (Pages) – count 7
* Aces – count 11
* Major Arcana – count 3 for Elemental Majors, count 9 for Planetary Majors, count 12 for Zodiac””
* Minor Arcana – count the face value (ie 3 of Stones, count 3)

When counting, include the card itself as your first count.

And, basically, make up ‘a story’ <- direct quote from Crowley there!

You stop counting once you have ended up back on a card that you have previously landed on.

You may also count in the opposite direction, just to see which cards REALLY have relevance (cards that come up when counting both ways) and which cards are resolutely refusing to get involved (cards that you never alight on!)

In some versions, you can even CHANGE the direction that you are counting on in mid-stream, depending on what way your Pages/Princesses are facing, if you fancy it – but I don’t recommend that or you just end up in the most awful guddle!  Or maybe that’s just me πŸ™‚

When creating your story, you can refer to the cards either side of the card that you land on, using elemental dignities or just straightfoward Tarot interps, to create meaning and structure.

Here’s a little slideshow to show you how my cards turned out:

I know.  Oliver Stone I am not πŸ™‚
I appreciate that it all goes a bit quickly, so here are the photos so that you can see the images a bit more clearly:
9 Swords Cruely, flanked by 2 Wands Dominion and Hierophant

5 Wands flanked by 8 Swords Interference and Ace of Wands

8 Cups, flanked by Mother of Stones (QoP) and Father of Stones (KoP)

The Hierophant, flanked by 9 Swords Cruelty and The Lovers

“” Please sing out if you would like me to put up a list of which Trump is in each category.


Alison Cross

The Tarot's Court Cards are my specialist area.Β  They talk to me. Not LITERALLY though ....

11 Comments

Identity_Concealed · 29th July 2012 at 5:22 pm

Hi Alison

I have two questions. When you read the top cards of four piles,for gaining insight to the situation, do you read from left to right or right to left? because we spread them out from right to left, so shouldn't we read them from right to left too?

Second question, I got my significator card for a relationship reading in pile 3, water, and I have 16 cards, some really nice cards too, in the pile. but using counting I get Queen – Tower (surrounded by 7 of Swords and Chariot) and Nine of Pentacles, surrounded by 6 of cups and 2 of cups. and counting from Nine of Pentacles I reach the Queen again. So just three cards. what about rest of the cards?

Thank you

    alisoncross · 29th July 2012 at 10:21 pm

    You read from the right hand bundle – Fire to the left-hand bundle πŸ™‚

    But as far as the spread out counting section goes – it can be very revealing counting in both directions to see which cards remain absolutely untouched by the card counting and which ones come up counting from both directions.

    Count in the other direction and see what happens – do you touch upon different cards? Sometimes you do just get 3 or 4 cards in the story. E-mail me if you want to talk about the reading off-blog, so to speak πŸ™‚ Ali x

Carla · 22nd July 2012 at 2:05 pm

I love that you've used Haindl here! I've recently decided to get it out again. I didn't even realise that getting this deck out perfectly coincides with this new wort moon. Hmm, I think I need to do a reading for this month using the Haindl!

    Pixl · 24th July 2012 at 5:10 pm

    Sooooo – did you do a reading yet, Carla?

    alisoncross · 29th July 2012 at 10:22 pm

    …and I inadvertently left my son's ID open when I posted that comment, Carla! Sorry for the confusion – it was really me asking, have you done that reading yet?!

    Ali x

alisoncross · 19th July 2012 at 9:08 pm

I should have chosen a longer piece of music to accompany the slideshow – may remix it and repost it so that it doesn't run so fast!

Ali x

Alison · 19th July 2012 at 12:05 pm

I had to watch the video about 6 times, stopping it frequently, but eventually I got there! A very intriguing spread – thanks for all your hard work!

Inner Whispers · 17th July 2012 at 7:57 am

Now you see, I don't read those cards as negatively as you seem to! In terms of your tarot aspirations, the 9 of Swords flanked by the 2 of Wands and the Hierophant seems to say that you worry too much about the choices in front of you, expecting yourself to be perfect and fulfill some external notion of the "right way" of doing things. The 5 of Wands flanked by the 8 of Swords and the Ace of Wands suggests that you feel like you have to compete with something or someone, but that's only because of your own assumptions. In fact, the competition is mainly with yourself, a challenge you set yourself that can bring you new energy if you take it on. The 8 of Cups asks what you consider to be failure – failing to help and nurture others, or failing to make money and rule the world? The Hierophant says that the wisdom you need is actually in you if you can just stop worrying so much and focus on choosing what uplifts your heart.

For the rest – I LOVED your slideshow! Very clear and helpful, and shows this technique nicely.

Cxx

    alisoncross · 17th July 2012 at 1:17 pm

    Chloe – you are very kind about the slideshow. I actually DID make an actual film of the process (to AC/DC backing track!) but it was taking HOURS to load up, so had to abandon it and do a slideshow instead.

    I was really disappointed because it had taken hours to do – fancy transitions, tailoring it so that the music fitted what I was doing with my hands…… adding text screens *sigh*

    By the point where I realised that it wasn't going to work, I was feeling very uncharitable about the cards that were highlighted. Actually, now that I think about it, I maybe wasn't specific enough about my question – and maybe the spread simply reflected the trouble I was about to have with the filming lol!

    Ali x

Bonnie Cehovet · 17th July 2012 at 4:30 am

Ali –

Very well done! It does, however, have that Marx Brothers flair to it! πŸ˜‰

Blessings,
Bonnie

    alisoncross · 17th July 2012 at 1:14 pm

    Bonnie – lol! 'You don't fool me, there ain't no Sanity Clause' – was that from a Night at The Opera?!

    Ali x

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