Tarot Spread: Toward a Distant Shore
The suit of Swords is full of cards that are difficult to read and to receive, especially if you use a deck influenced by Smith-Waite imagery, but I’ve never shied away from them in the way that some readers have. To that end, I want to examine the suit of Swords through different readings that can help set a new tone and utility to the cards.
There are a number of times when you might want to better understand a particularly troublesome card. You might decide to examine a minor arcanum during the decan that it’s related to, as I sometimes do with my divination challenges. But most often, this will be in a reading where the card seems to make no sense, or where you don’t want it to mean what you think it means. The latter category is usually the easiest to interpret because so often it’s the thing you don’t want to face that’s coming to the surface. The former, however, is a bit trickery. And in either case, you can dig into the meaning by reading into the card itself. (In some ways this can serve as a really in-depth clarifier card.)
Let’s start with an easy one, the 6 of Swords!
For example, you may conduct a reading where you ask about what it is that you’re best at, and you see the 6 of Swords. If you’re using a Smith-Waite deck (or offshoot), you may see the card as one of leaving and think, The thing I’m best at is leaving? If you confirm the card with the 8 of Cups, this may very well be true, but often there’s more to it.
The 6 of Swords can be a card of leaving with a destination in mind. Yes, it’s leaving from somewhere, but it’s also going toward somewhere. And there’s a lot of thought involved since we’re dealing with the beautifully balanced 6 in the suit of the mind! Sure, they look like huddled refugees, and they might be, but there’s a reason that they’re on the move, and it’s a good one. There’s a dream on that distant shore. So let’s go after it.
As a side note, this spread can also of course be used on its own for anyone wanting to look into an upcoming journey, literal or metaphorical.
New Horizons: What awaits me on that distant shore?
Open Water: What can I expect on my way there?
Guide: What will help get me there?
Troubled Waters: Where might my desire to leave stir up difficulties?
Fellow Traveler: To whom can I turn for moral support & reassurance?
Lighthouse: What card will help warn me of potential disaster? (a sensory cue exercise)
See my blog post “Sensory Cues and Intuition” for more on sensory cue exercises.
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