Tarot Of The Day July 7, 2018 - Day 19: The Raven’s Prophecy Deck - Practicum 3: The Hanged Man Spread and The Sideways Card Question

Tarot Of The Day July 7, 2018 - Day 19: The Raven’s Prophecy Deck - Practicum 3

The Hanged Man Spread and The Sideways Card Question

I have begun the creation of an 89 day tarot course in a group I am a member of on Facebook ('A Kaleidoscope of Magical Perceptions' is the name of the group, please feel free to request membership - it is full of fun people and really great posts about all manner of topics) and I thought I would cross post the information here to this blog as well. Once the initial 89 days of the course have passed, it will start over using a different tarot deck. The text of the nineteenth session follows.

Inspired by the recent going-over of The Hanged Man card, I came up with this little 5 card spread.

The first two cards represent the trials the Hanged man (or the client, or you) have gone through to get to where you are at the point of doing the spread. The third card represents a sacrifice you have made or will make in your journey, the fourth card is the wisdom that you will or have already gained  from the trials and sacrifice, and the final and fifth card is prophecy: a message from the universe/deity/the powers that be, your ancestors or spirit guides, whatever it is that might have a message to send you regarding this particular part of your path.

I drew, for the purpose of this session, I drew the following cards:

Trials - 6 of Cups
Trials - 7 of Coins
Sacrifice - Judgement, Reversed
Wisdom - Queen of Swords
Prophecy - 6 of Wands

Now, I use reversals in my readings, some don’t. When a layout calls for a card to be placed on its side, as I have done here, a common issue arises:

HOW do I read a sideways card???

Some people choose whether a card that is placed sideways is reversed or not based on which direction - right or left - the top of the card  is in.

Some people deal the card as normal, note whether the card was reversed or upright, then turn the card per the layout.

Other people treat the sideways cards as to be read ‘normally’ or generally read as "upright"--but keep in mind that, as in the ubiquitous Celtic Cross Spread, that the card "crosses" the person, and is therefore an obstacle. So even if the upright card means that the card is positive, it still has a negative connotation of being the thing that's getting in the way.

How YOU read a sideways card is entirely up to YOU, in other words. The tarot, for all that it is a structured thing, has no real ‘rules’ and lends itself to intuitive methods of use and interpretation.

Now, back to interpretation. The 6 of Cups is about initiation, pleasure, regeneration, revitalization, memory, and ecstasy - or in reverse, retirement and endings. In terms of trials, I find it likely that the upright meaning is the correct one here.

My second Trial card is the 7 of coins, which is about re-evaluation, indecision, failure, fear of success, and delay, OR impatience and uncertainty when reversed.

The Sacrifice card, Judgement, in reverse, represents death, disillusionment, loss, criticism, and judgmentalism. Here I think it might also be good to state that a sacrifice doesn't have to mean something you gave up that was good - it could be simply something that you stopped doing in order to do something else. Every person's view of what constitutes a sacrifice may differ.

The Queen of Swords stands for the Wisdom card, which I find fitting, because she represents wisdom of a kind; perception, confidence, rationality, objectivity, and consulting intelligence. So the wisdom gained here appears to be a clearer vision, sight without the wool over the eyes, and confidence to see and think about what is seen clearly.

Finally, the Prophecy card I drew is the 6 of Wands.  He represents victory, success, advancement, revitalization, energy, and expansion.

All in all, this series of cards is reading, to me, like an episode from my past, and the prophecy here is just a reminder that it all turned out okay in the end, and that my future is bright.

Did you lay out some cards and try the spread? How did it go?

Tomorrow - The Tower

***TOTD will cover the entire 78 card Raven’s Prophecy Deck alongside the Rider-Waite deck for comparison. In order to not completely burn out, this course of lessons will be 89 days long, so that every Saturday I can break the lessons up by doing a practicum lesson. Practicum lessons will take the form of a layout or spread that I will walk you through the steps of interpretation for. After the first 89 day session ends, we will start over with a one day break for a poll to be done to see what deck everyone wants to see next round. ***