Calculating the Quint - how and why?

[Page of Ghosts]

Hi tarot pals, I was wondering if any of you calculate the quint of a reading, how you do it and what you think it brings to the reading. I've been dabbling with it a little bit myself but I was curious to hear about your methods. So far I've been thinking about it as giving the reading an essence or a theme (these might be in the name of "quint"?) and I've been using the numbers of the Majors (The Fool hasn't come up yet but he might be 22 or else he is not counted as 0, poor Fool :( ) and the numbered Minors. The courts are numbered 11-14 for me to keep it simple. I sometimes do this with Lenormand too but I don't know if that is a separate discussion since it's a different system, or if it falls under the same ideas :)

[Jenessa]

The quintessential card is representative of that which is essential to the reading.  & As such it can reveal the essence of the reading, or identify it's theme.  & It can also be viewed in terms of being 'the thread that bind the cards together'.

 

I use it to test my interpretation, in the sense, that the quints meaning is intended to support my interpretation.  & It's meaning can also be used to narrow down possible interpretations in instances when there is more than one way to view the cards.  So in the later instance it can be used to clarify the throw.

 

The method I use to calculate the quint is one that I intuitively adopted, given that i've chosen to subtract the value of any reversals that appear, keeping in mind that I always read with reversals and have assigned meanings for cards whenever they appear in the reversed position. 

 

I was also taught that all the cards in the throw should be counted, so like you I assign the values of 11,12,13,14 to the Courts. 

 

However, to my mind the energy of a reversed card is not flowing normally, in the sense that there is a difference between its meaning versus the meaning that would be assigned to it if it appeared upright.  So to account for this difference (blockage) i've chose to count reversed cards as having a negative value.

 

For eg.: If the upright cards that appear in the throw total 16, but the negative cards total -20, then the result would equal & otherwise have a value of negative -4, and thus would correspond to the major arcana card 'The Emperor' as it would be viewed in the reversed positon .. for eg.: a situation that is out of control, etc.

 

So in a nutshell, I add up all the upright cards, and I also add up any reversals that appear, then I subtract the value of the reversals from the total value of upright cards and the result is the corresponding Major Trump of that value, tho if the end result is negative then the Major is viewed in terms of its reversed meaning.

 

-- Another Eg.: 2 Cups + 5 Cups + Ace Cups (rx), therefore 2+5 -1 = 6, which corresponds to the Lovers in the upright positon

 

-- OR by way of comparison: 2 Cups (rx) + 5 Cups (rx) + Ace Cups upright, therefore -2 + -5 = -7 + 1 = -6, thus Lovers reversed.

 

& Just so you know this method works well for me.  But then again, I always read with reversals.

 

REGARDS/jenessa

 

   

[Page of Ghosts]

Thank you so much for this reply. It makes a lot of sense since "quintessence" is supposed to be like.. a distillation of the elements into one thing that is the sum of them but also more? Going off my knowledge of the early 2000's comic book W.I.T.C.H. by the way, where Will was the leader of the gang. Her friends had all the 4 elements while she had the magical pendant that transformed them into magical girls and the quintessence power. I've mostly used the quint as an overview or theme of the reading and the way you use it makes a lot of sense to me too ;)

 

I decided to dabble with reversals since I sometimes struggle with finding the right interpretation when there are multiple options so using the quint how you described would surely be helpful for that too. I also like your take on giving reversals a negative number which can make the quint itself a reversed card.

[Jenessa]

Thank you so much for this reply. It makes a lot of sense since "quintessence" is supposed to be like.. a distillation of the elements into one thing that is the sum of them but also more?

I really like your take on this .. tis a perfect analogy!

 

Going off my knowledge of the early 2000's comic book W.I.T.C.H. by the way, where Will was the leader of the gang. Her friends had all the 4 elements while she had the magical pendant that transformed them into magical girls and the quintessence power.

I'm not familar with this, but then again i'm behind the times for the most part.  I'll have to ask my sons girlfriend about this tho, because she's into "comics".

 

I decided to dabble with reversals since I sometimes struggle with finding the right interpretation when there are multiple options so using the quint how you described would surely be helpful for that too. I also like your take on giving reversals a negative number which can make the quint itself a reversed card.

This really/really WORKS for me.  In fact I just started a thread (very lengthy/detailed) in the your readings section re: death of Gord Downie, and when I get to my next (upcoming) post (also in this thread), so as to tackle the 7 cards that fell from the deck, when you see how the quint was calculated and the conclusion my method of doing this resulted in, you will begin to appreciate just how well this works for me re: quints that seem to really hit the mark/REGARDS/jenessa

[Page of Ghosts]

I don't know if it was a big thing in your location, but it was really cool: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W.I.T.C.H.

 

It was an Italian comic book series inspired by manga art that I was super into when I was like... 12-14 maybe? There was an animated series made that was really disappointing compared to the comics. I was so sad when I watched it haha. I didn't keep up with all the issues but I wish I still had mine around, but I sometimes see them at thrift stores. The magizines had ideas for spells and magic. I remember one of the issues came with a deck of cards. It couldn't have been too big because I only remember the Zodiac signs being represented there, but at the same time 12 cards seem like too little to actually shuffle well. All the issues came with little treats like that! I got a "how to draw" magazine of the characters when I was 16 and I wish I still had it, would have been really cool to try and draw them now.

 

I'll give your quint tecniques a try to get better at my readings, and have a look at your thread too :)

[EmpyreanKnight]

The quintessential card is representative of that which is essential to the reading.  & As such it can reveal the essence of the reading, or identify it's theme.  & It can also be viewed in terms of being 'the thread that bind the cards together'.

 

I use it to test my interpretation, in the sense, that the quints meaning is intended to support my interpretation.  & It's meaning can also be used to narrow down possible interpretations in instances when there is more than one way to view the cards.  So in the later instance it can be used to clarify the throw.

 

The method I use to calculate the quint is one that I intuitively adopted, given that i've chosen to subtract the value of any reversals that appear, keeping in mind that I always read with reversals and have assigned meanings for cards whenever they appear in the reversed position. 

 

I was also taught that all the cards in the throw should be counted, so like you I assign the values of 11,12,13,14 to the Courts. 

 

However, to my mind the energy of a reversed card is not flowing normally, in the sense that there is a difference between its meaning versus the meaning that would be assigned to it if it appeared upright.  So to account for this difference (blockage) i've chose to count reversed cards as having a negative value.

 

For eg.: If the upright cards that appear in the throw total 16, but the negative cards total -20, then the result would equal & otherwise have a value of negative -4, and thus would correspond to the major arcana card 'The Emperor' as it would be viewed in the reversed positon .. for eg.: a situation that is out of control, etc.

 

So in a nutshell, I add up all the upright cards, and I also add up any reversals that appear, then I subtract the value of the reversals from the total value of upright cards and the result is the corresponding Major Trump of that value, tho if the end result is negative then the Major is viewed in terms of its reversed meaning.

 

-- Another Eg.: 2 Cups + 5 Cups + Ace Cups (rx), therefore 2+5 -1 = 6, which corresponds to the Lovers in the upright positon

 

-- OR by way of comparison: 2 Cups (rx) + 5 Cups (rx) + Ace Cups upright, therefore -2 + -5 = -7 + 1 = -6, thus Lovers reversed.

 

& Just so you know this method works well for me.  But then again, I always read with reversals.

 

REGARDS/jenessa

 

 

 

I'm curious tho, what if it sums up to a value greater than 22? Do we restart again (so that 23 is the The Magician, 24 is The High Priestess, etc) or do we add the individual digits (23 = 2 + 3 = The Hierophant, 24 = 2 + 4 = The Lovers, etc). This sounds mighty interesting.

[Page of Ghosts]

I personally add the digits together to get a smaller number, 22 or less. Recently the cards added up to 51, which is 5 +1 = 6 - The Lovers to me. It could be interesting to see if your other suggestion gives some other numbers.

[EmpyreanKnight]

Thanks, Page of Ghosts! I usually draw a base card whenever I eant to get a general grasp of the situation, and I usually draw it from the bottom of the stack. I'm curious as to how I'd fare with quints tho, so I'm going to try it as a sort of footnote to my readings.

[Lonely]

Hi I was wondering what if the total was like 108 would that be 18 or 9?