The chosen cards

Here is another twist on the traditional way to read Tarot cards (see the related articles below):

1. Choose any spread of five or more cards*, and shuffle your deck.
2. If you have one or more spread positions that suggest solutions or actions, draw cards for these positions and place them face down before you. If you don’t have those positions in your spread, go to the next step.
3. For the other spread positions, go through the deck and choose the cards that you think would be appropriate for each position, or that you would like to see. For example, you might choose the Ten of Pentacles for Present, because you feel as richly blessed as the people in the card seem to be. And perhaps you choose the Two of Cups for Future, because you are hoping to find a loving partner soon.
4. You can now also turn the face-down cards face up.
5. Read the spread by making notes of why you selected a card for its specific position, and anything else the card now suggests to you. Also note any additional information from the cards that you had drawn face down (if any).
6. When you have completed your reading, gather the cards and shuffle them. (Only those cards in your spread, not the rest of the deck.)
7. Lay the cards out again. Most of your chosen cards will now fall in different positions than before.
8. Read the spread with the cards in their new positions, noting  the difference between what you selected and the way the spread is now laid out.

You might find that the card you selected for Problem is now your Outcome card, or the You card now falls in the Challenges position.

This technique is good for journaling. It makes you reflect on how you see things and what you want, and then do a traditional reflective reading with the same cards, but in different positions.

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* A spread that I like for this technique has the positions 1. Problem 2. Cause 3. Challenge 4. Consequences 5. Goal 6. What I can’t change 7. Solution.

Any of the traditional spreads such as the Celtic Cross or Horoscope spread also work well.

Related articles:

Where does it go?

The backwards story

The back-to-front reading

An inside-out reading