Diving In with The Empress Spread

So. Let's just...dive in, shall we? I'm going to (sporadically) post here stuff about the tarot. As my little bio on the right there states, I've been doing the tarot for over 20 years, and currently teach the tarot here in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I don't earn a living doing the tarot, but do on occasion get paid to read the cards for people.

I do this speech whenever someone new joins my tarot group or comes to me for readings, about what I call the 'whackadoo-woo-woo,' which is my loving term for the over the top witchy, hippy-dippy folk who sometimes come out of the woodwork. Here's the thing: I'm a pagan. I'm a solitary witch who mostly does kitchen witchery, and who is often heard to say, "Whoah, look at the moon!" I don't do rituals or cast spells (much) and I don't go in for the spirit guides and animal totems and karma and high vibing and reiki healing and all that hoopajoop. I'm not a psychic, nor am I a psychic tarot reader. What I am is a student of the mind, of psychology, and a good, objective listener. I find that the tarot is a wonderful tool to open doors to conversations one might not normally have otherwise. They are symbol and archetype laden clues that we place in spreads or layouts and then infer meaning from them.

So chance, coincidence, and good listening skills are, in my opinion, all you really need to be able to read the cards for others. For yourself - don't ask me, I'm usually crap at it. I'm too biased. That said, I will be doing self readings here often, as I try out new layouts or want to teach about the layouts I primarily use.

The tarot classes I teach here in Tulsa are ( I teach two different classes, on alternating Saturdays) Tarot and Breakfast, where we go over each of the cards in the deck over time, and discuss the symbolism and meaning within them, and a Tarot Practicum, where we practice actually performing readings. I try to help others learn to connect the dots between the cards in a layout to tell a story, rather than just rattling off what the individual cards mean and then not linking them in meaning to one another.

So for this, my inaugural post, lets talk about a layout a friend and student sent me this evening to try:

The Empress Spread, from Sasha Graham's 365 Tarot Spreads

Here's a pic of the spread, this is the picture my friend sent me to share it with me, so I can't tell you where she got it.

She followed the photo with the following instructions:

"Use this spread to answer any question. Pull The Empress from your deck and place her in the center, casting your cards around her.
1. What do I love?
2. How do I nurture others?
3. What emotion is flowing?
4. Who am I?
5. What power do I exert?
6. What stability do I maintain?
7. What is being born?
8. What fertile grounds await?"

So I drew my cards, dutifully placing the Empress in the middle, although beyond the title of the spread I haven't figured out why she needs to be there.

The Empress's keywords are: fertility, wisdom, earth-mother, prophecy, love of nature, spiritual essence, healing, nurturing, emotion, creation, cycles, balance, fruitfulness, contentment.

Looking at these keywords, I can see that perhaps this spread is called the Empress Spread because the keywords in her meaning inspired the questions for each position. Some of them certainly do line up well.

In drawing  the cards for this layout, I got:

1. The 6 of Wands, Reversed

2. The Hermit, Reversed

3. Strength

4. The High Priestess

5. Gaia, Reversed (aka, The World)

6. The Fool

7. The 4 of Swords, Reversed

8. The 6 of Cups

Note: My preferred deck is the Mage: the Ascension deck, which I have been using since about 1997. I call it the most honest deck I have ever used. It's my 'tell it like it is' deck. The suits are named differently, and a few cards have different names, like Gaia for The World, but otherwise the deck was created using the tarot gold standard of the Rider-Waite deck as a guide.

So let's work our way through this reading, shall we?

Position 1: What do I love?

I drew: The 6 of Wands, Reversed.

Keywords: delay, conquest, defeat

Position 2: How do I nurture others?
I drew: The Hermit, Reversed
Keywords: immaturity, foolishness

Position 3: What emotion is flowing?

I drew: Strength

Keywords: strength, passion, creativity, risk-taking, overcoming fears, lustiness, confidence, intuition, domination, harmony.

Position 4: Who am I?

I drew: The High Priestess

Keywords: enlightenment, intuition, resourcefulness, independence, meditation, growth, evaluation, consciousness, mystery.

Position 5: What power do I exert?

I drew: Gaia, Reversed

Keywords: sloth, incompletion, limitation, restriction, negation.

Position 6: What stability do I maintain?

I drew: The Fool

Keywords: possibility, courage, ecstasy, creative expression, risk-taking, trust, adventure, choice.

Position 7: What is being born?

I drew: The 4 of Swords, Reversed

Keywords: solitude, repose, economy, precaution, circumspection, exile.

Position 8: What fertile grounds await?

I drew: The 6 of Cups

Keywords: initiation, pleasure, regeneration, revitalization, memory, ecstasy.

The next step here is to connect the dots between these eight cards, and tell a story about me. However, it is almost 3am here in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and I have three kids to get to school in the morning.

Also, my brain probably stopped working properly a couple of hours ago.

Next blog: Interpretation and connecting the dots - storytelling with the Tarot.