Tarot Spread: The Cave, or Hermiting Away
I don't love the idea of the Hermit as a scraggle-muffin old man living in a wintry cave, but sometimes you really just do need to hermit away from other people in order to see things as they really are and as you really see them. It's important to know the difference between what you know and what you believe and what other people tell you.
Focus on an issue or concern that you need to examine with greater intent and without external distractors. For example, if you often draw the 2 of Swords, Queen of Swords, or Hermit in relation to an inquiry, you might benefit from following up with this spread when you have time to reflect on the issue. I would encourage you to use that card as an interpretive guide when doing this reading, but you could also use a card representing your area of interest or a standard significator as your guide, or you could use no guide at all.
X. Guiding Card (if any)
1. What do I know to be true about this situation based on my actual experience?
2. Why am I being reminded of this?
3. What do I believe to be true about this situation but for which I don't have any direct experience?
4. What can I next do to validate this belief for my own sense of certainty?
5. What have others told me is true about this situation but is actually just their opinion?
6. What can I next do to validate or refute this belief for my own sense of certainty?
7. What do I need to explore further before making a more informed decision?
Below is the process by which I developed the spread (it’s not that complicated). If you use the spread, please let me know how it works out for you. And please give me credit for the spread. There’s enough love in this world that we can share.
The Concept
I think this kind of self-reflection is always valuable, but it's especially critical as more people embrace the irrational and question what is true, a good sign to me of the nascent "Age of Aquarius." Yes, I place divination and shadow work and even astrology—rationally structured "science" though it is—in that category of embracing the irrational. (I have some self-awareness, people.) The irrational isn't inherently bad after all. It's an incredibly rich resource for us to use as we evolve. But I think that "personal truth," as opposed to the lived-reality truth (or even Truth), can be a dangerous weapon that the unscrupulous use against the unwary. Then again, it's also one of the best ways that someone can examine what matters to them and their life and the direction they want to take their future, so we have to accept risk with potential reward.
There is a bit of an accidental allusion to Plato’s Cave, but it’s at best a general gesture to those ideas about truth and perception rather than anything more intentional or involved. I’m definitely not mad about it though.
The Questions & Layout
The reason for the questions I ask and the wording I've chosen is that it provides coverage of three primary sources of information: the rational, the irrational, and the external (and it doesn't assume, much as I might want to, that the external opinion is bullshit). There's also a little bit more to do beyond just "knowing" the responses since none of this is new knowledge. You're also asked to examine the validity of information, to actually do something and not just passively accept it. The final question offers the opportunity to explore further—to gather more information or to do more—which may frustrate those who want an answer now and don't want to have to keep digging (the purpose of this spread was to answer those questions that have been stymying you), but that's largely on the querent and how they interpret the response. The answer to this question can as easily be "nothing more" or "believe in yourself" as "research X" or "do Y."
As is often the case with tarot card layouts, there are rows and columns. The three columns of cards show the primary pillars of knowledge in this case: the rational (grounding the situation in the central position); the irrational (on the right-hand or “good” side); and the external (on the left-hand or “questionable” side). The rows are similarly structured with the most accessible and immediate datapoints in the central row and the lesser-known aspects underneath. The seventh card crowns it all since it is what will help you actually activate your knowledge. Note that the central card is the one representing what you know from personal experience, the most grounded and evidence-based card. From there, you can spin out to whatever speculations you want, but it’s useful to start with the most concrete information you have so that you have a solid foundation.
Although this spread is called “The Cave,” the layout actually reminds me of the Hermit’s lamp in the Pamela Coleman Smith illustration, with the Guiding Card as the Hermit’s hand. That was an accident more than anything, but choosing to put the Guiding Card on the right-hand side versus the left-hand side was intentional.
Final Note
As a final note, if divination is irrational and from within, then it's all irrational and you don't have a good balance of "rational, irrational, and external" that was part of the concept, so you will want to be firm in how you plan to interpret the cards. For example, you could have firm LWB definitions or you could "firmly" decide that you will ignore book definitions and instead go with first symbol seen or first message "heard" however contrary it is to LWB definitions. You could also use three different sources of interpretation for the three different types of questions: literal "book meaning" for the rational; intuition for the irrational; and some unrelated source, such as another person's idiosyncratic interpretation of that card in a different deck. Read them however it makes sense to you to read them, but take note of your own biases as they are just as likely to limit you as anyone else's biases (mine included).
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