Historic Tarot spreads

[Razdrez]

Hello everyone,

 

I've been searching for "historic" spreads aside from the Celtic Cross and the Opening of the Key.

 

I have used the CC so far and I am very interested in learning the OOTK but that's for later considering the amount of work required. So, I was looking for an alternative to the CC that would have some historical/influential origin but I haven't found anything...

 

Do you have any recommendations?

[katrinka]

For old spreads, look to old books, and don't neglect books on playing card reading.
The Chien de Pique is a good one, as are lines, boxes, horseshoes, tableaus and pyramids.
Additionally, I posted a couple of spreads here that were included with a 1935 deck, but whether they're purely traditional or just invented for that deck, I couldn't tell you. The second spread utilizes counting, which IS an old technique that tends to be neglected these days.

 

A lot of old spreads are kind of ritualized and time consuming. It's a way of getting "into the zone" that people seem to have moved away from. Now they just arrange crystals all over the table, lol.

Edited September 24, 2020 by katrinka

[Razdrez]

Thank you for the complete reply. I had not heard of the Chien de Pique (and I'm French...) it seems interesting but I see it is used for cartomancy rather than Tarot? Any suggestions in terms of book titles? Actually you made me think and I picked up a book I had never finished reading, "Le Tarot des imagiers du Moyen Âge (1927)", Oswald Wirth. And there is a very simple 5-cards spread that looks interesting and simple!

 

I'll definitely have a look at the link you sent but for now it seems that I do not have permission to see it, maybe because I am too new on the forum.

 

Yes I agree about the old spreads and I do think the kind of knowledge you can acquire from such spreads is tremendous. But considering our lives nowadays we need to find quicker ways to practice...

 

 

Edited September 24, 2020 by Razdrez

[katrinka]

Cartomancy spreads are fine for Tarot. Tarot is a deck of playing cards, after all. For some you might want to remove the Majors, most will work with the full deck.

 

I agree, a quick 3 cards or a Lost Man that never even touches the table is often the way to go. But if I have time, I prefer the old spreads to arranging rocks and snapping photos for instagram, lol.

[_R_]

5 hours ago, Razdrez said:

Actually you made me think and I picked up a book I had never finished reading, "Le Tarot des imagiers du Moyen Âge (1927)", Oswald Wirth. And there is a very simple 5-cards spread that looks interesting and simple!

 

This is possibly the most commonly-used spread in the French tradition. Typically, it replies to a specific question, rather than provide a general reading, for which the astrological wheel or tirage complet is usually used (there are others), although the current trend seems to be to minimise the number of cards instead of using large spreads as was common in the past.

 

Historically, the tirage en croix goes back to the late 19th century; Wirth learned it from his mentor Stanislas de Guaïta, who supposedly learned it from Joséphin Péladan, although the latter never wrote on the Tarot.

 

You may be interested in the rather unusual method of dealing the cards described by the Comte de Mellet, apparently the oldest documented spread, and there are some details online, here and here. Of course, if you are French, you can read the original directly, here (pp. 58-61). It does not appear to have attracted any attention in any of the French Tarot books I have ever seen.

 

Another article of interest compiles some of the historic French spreads here (in English).

[Kath]

7 hours ago, katrinka said:

I agree, a quick 3 cards or a Lost Man that never even touches the table is often the way to go. But if I have time, I prefer the old spreads to arranging rocks and snapping photos for instagram, lol.

 

Sorry to hijack this thread, but I've seen you refer to the Lost Man a couple of times now, but I can't find any information on this spread. Can you please describe it, or provide a source for me to read up on it?   Many thanks.  

[Razdrez]

7 hours ago, katrinka said:

Cartomancy spreads are fine for Tarot. Tarot is a deck of playing cards, after all. For some you might want to remove the Majors, most will work with the full deck

 

Ok, yes of course the Tarot will correspond, I may have a go at the Chien de Pique then.

 

All right, thank you very much for the insight and the references, I have now heaps of options to choose from!

 

I totally forget to search in my French... I am so used to have more results in English on any other subject that I tend to forget that so many magickal resources are available in my own language...

 

3 hours ago, _R_ said:

although the current trend seems to be to minimise the number of cards instead of using large spreads as was common in the past.

 

Yes this is what I found out as well, and I also noticed that the reasoning behind the modern spreads is sometimes missing. I will still mostly use use the CC and eventually learn the OOTK but I need some quick spreads to practice. There is probably nothing wrong with the fast paced modern spread but I do not find the depth I am looking for when doing a reading.

 

[katrinka]

2 hours ago, Kath said:

 

Sorry to hijack this thread, but I've seen you refer to the Lost Man a couple of times now, but I can't find any information on this spread. Can you please describe it, or provide a source for me to read up on it?   Many thanks.  

You decide on a significator for what you're asking about (job, relationship, person, etc.) Leave it in the deck, shuffle and cut. Then just fan the cards out, locate the significator, and read it with the cards on either side of it (usually the two before and two after, but you can do more or fewer cards.)

 

You can do this laying the cards on the table, too. But it's really convenient to just fan the deck when there's no table handy. 😉

[Kath]

Thank you Katrinka, I really appreciate it 🙂  it sounds like a pretty nifty way to read the cards.