DanielJUK Posted May 25, 2022 Posted May 25, 2022 Today (the 25th of May) is World Tarot Day! It's a day that was started in 2003 by Den Elder founder of the International Society Helping Tarot, to celebrate Tarot in it's diversity and promote it! Also today is World Towel Day, a day to celebrate The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Douglas Adams. Back on Aelectic, @Nisaba created a spread especially for this day and covering both things. She would start a thread discussing it every year, like this one from 2010 here. So I wanted to bring her spread over here, so we have a record of it. This was the original thread of her creation here. I think it was posted sometime in the 2000's. It still makes me smile just seeing it 🙂 The spread is huge, it's 42 cards and should be done on a towel and here are the rest of the details of it..... ---------------------------------- Nisaba's 42 card spread for World Towel Day / World Tarot Day This spread is to be carried out on the 25th May and laid out on a Towel that you choose to carry around for the whole day in honour and memory of Douglas Adams, may-he-rest-in-pieces, creator of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, in which a little lost earthling, Arthur Dent, is tossed around the galaxy accompanied with only two certainties: his large tin container of olive oil and his Towel. Everybody should always know where their towel is. So, laying one's Towel out flat one lays the cards like this. 36..37..38..39..40..41..42 29..30..31..32..33..34..35 22..23..24..25..26..27..28 15..16..17..18..19..20..21 8....9...10..11..12..13..14 1....2....3....4....5....6...7 Row One, the bottom row is the Big Bang Burger Bar, briefly referred to in the volume called "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe". The Big Bang Burger Bar is a tourist-trap at the very instant of creation. These seven cards, when viewed and interpreted together, will give you an overview or "story" of the fundamentals of the place, person (or even the celebratory day) that you are reading for. Row Two symbolise "Slartibartfast's Favourite Fijords". Slartibartfast was an elderly man whom promotion had passed by, whom in the scale of planet-creation was a menial - he only ever got to do the Crinkly Bits around the edges of continents. These seven cards, read together, tell you what has been firm and reliable forever in the situation, but what may one day start to crumble. Row Three symbolises Deep Thought. Long ago, a computer of this name was devised by a bunch of confused toga-wearing philosophers to arrive at the answer to Question, the Great Question, the Question of the Meaning of Life, the Universe and Everything. The answer, of course, was 42. This row, read together, symbolises whatever needs your deep and profound thought, now and in the future. Row Four is Marvin the Paranoid Android. Marvin is a man-shaped robot with a "brain the size of a planet" and sharp pains through all the diodes down his left side. Humans treat him badly, in one case actually leaving him in the basement of an office block to park cars for six trillion years. Marvin's Row illustrates those issues about which you feel powerless, and which make you actually feel worse than you need to, despite any evident positivity in the cards. Row Five is the Improbability Drive. These cards show you what is supremely unlikely, and therefore almost certain to happen. If I can segue from one great master to another, Terry Pratchett described the force powering the spaceship with the Improbability Drive very well when he said "research wizards have ascertained that one in a million chances pay off nine times out of ten." These cards express that which is most incredible and improbable in the situation which will therefore come to pass. Row Six, the top row, is the Dolphin's Row. Man feels he is smarter than dolphins because he discovered fire, the internal combustion engine, guns, pollution, and digital watches. Dolphins feel they are smarter than man for *exactly* the same reasons. They are about play, and when the earth was about to detonate, they all left, leaving behind a message which read "So long, and thanks for all the fish". Dolphins, and the Dolphin row, are all about having fun and avoiding catastrophe. These cards tell you what to enjoy and what to run like hell from, depending on whether they are "positives" or "negatives". Enjoy. And on the 25th May, when you try out this spread for the first time, don't forget to lay it out on your Towel! ------------------------------
gregory Posted May 25, 2022 Posted May 25, 2022 I remember that. GOD do I remember that. The Power Animals. They did rather well, actually. Sadly the readings thread is no longer there.... I think I still have it somewhere though....
TheFeeLion Posted May 26, 2022 Posted May 26, 2022 This looks like so much fun lol I could imagine it would take a while to get through though! It would probably be good with multiple decks too, like a different one for each row
gregory Posted May 26, 2022 Posted May 26, 2022 I FOUND IT in my personal archives: Enjoy. the 42 card readings for World Towel Day - Aeclectic Tarot Forum.pdf
Nisaba Posted June 6, 2022 Posted June 6, 2022 I'm so sorry I didn't come here for so long. Don't worry, I did pull out a deck on the day. I didn't take a towel into the world, though, because I didn't leave the house. Every time I think about that 42-card spread, I like it more and more.
fire cat pickles Posted June 6, 2022 Posted June 6, 2022 8 hours ago, Nisaba said: I'm so sorry I didn't come here for so long. Don't worry, I did pull out a deck on the day. I didn't take a towel into the world, though, because I didn't leave the house. Every time I think about that 42-card spread, I like it more and more. 1 hour ago, gregory said: You have been missed. Kindly stick around. Yeah what's up with that?
Nisaba Posted June 12, 2022 Posted June 12, 2022 Hee, hee, hee. I drop by from time to time, but since the Purple Pages went belly-up, I don't find the same sense of community. YOU know where to find me, though, FCP.
gregory Posted June 12, 2022 Posted June 12, 2022 You might get a sense of community if you showed up to get into the - um - COMMUNITY, lady. I know where to find you too, but we need you to be HERE as part of the - wait for it - COMMUNITY.
Kmartin60 Posted May 26 Posted May 26 I finally remembered to do this spread this year! Still have not got it deciphered yet but at least I finally did the spread. (It has been so long) Did anyone else remember to do their towel reading? 🙃
Libra 58 Posted May 27 Posted May 27 I do have the book but have not read it! I think it´s somewhere in my 30 ....bookcases, but don´t know where.🤔 Maybe I do the spread someday without knowing what the book is really about?😄
Morwenna Posted May 27 Posted May 27 (edited) I don't know the book either (hubby did and tried unsuccessfully to indoctrinate me), but I believe the instructions are sufficient to be able to read this spread. But I also remember that at the time, the same date was designated by the Discworld fans as Wear The Lilac Day in honor of Sir Terry. And I mentioned it in posts but that never went anywhere with the AT community, as far as I could tell. And yes, Nissy, stick around please. There are more of us still here than you might think. Edited May 27 by Morwenna
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