How to read the 'Pace' or 'Speed' of a card in Tarot?

[Guest]

Hello hello!

 

I was recently told about the 'pace' of the cards. For example Chariot is a fast moving card, meaning any event/idea/thought that I am asking about will happen at a very fast pace, while some have been known to be slow paced cards meaning an event/idea/thought will be executed at a very slow pace.

 

How do you figure out the movement or speed of a card? Is it pre-decided like the meanings of all cards or do we extract the 'speed' factor by reading the imagery on the card?

 

How do I go about this?

[Arania]

In some readings, you will see the chariot as almost standing still. It all depends on the context unless you insist on fixed meanings. None of the cards have fixed meanings for me, and it depends on context anyway. If you go by image, in depends on the deck, if you read intuitively, it will be very different each time in any case.

[Misterei]

1 hour ago, Tan said:

I was recently told about the 'pace' of the cards.

This is actually part of a class I teach on Tarot Timing ... this is *my* method. Others might have their own.

Short version:

I look at Knights as pacing cards. Not every spread gives timing or pacing information ... but Knights do.

I look at suits and elements.

Earth element is slow moving

Water element goes with the flow

Fire can be pretty quick

Air is either instant ... or nothing happens because it keeps looping. Blowing around in circles.

Likewise I only use certain Trumps as timing or pace cards. And Chariot isn't one of them.

Hanged man implies things are hung up. Judgement or Tower can hit suddenly.

 

anyway ... that's the cliffnotes version 😇

[Saturn Celeste]

2 hours ago, Misterei said:

anyway ... that's the cliffnotes version

excellent!

 

A couple of cards to think about is the 8 of Wands and the 7 of Pentacles.  The wand card moves very fast, like things are happening now or about to happen.  The pentacle card is reaping what you sow and it takes awhile to grow a healthy garden full of resources.

2 hours ago, Misterei said:

Air is either instant ... or nothing happens because it keeps looping. Blowing around in circles.

As an Aquarian, I love the "blowing around in circles!"

[Misterei]

3 hours ago, Saturn Celeste said:

A couple of cards to think about is the 8 of Wands and the 7 of Pentacles. 

Yes. I also consider those as timing cards. 8 batons as fast (within 2 weeks) and 7 pents as slow (months or years).

[Guest]

4 hours ago, Misterei said:

Yes. I also consider those as timing cards. 8 batons as fast (within 2 weeks) and 7 pents as slow (months or years).

That is very interesting. Can you also let me know about time frames? How do you judge time frames from the cards in terms of days, weeks, months and years. What I have mostly heard is that  major arcana cards are tied to a zodiac so you consider the zodiac season. And the minor arcana shows us number of days, weeks, months and years according to their respective number. 

 

But I see you mentioned that eight of wands can be two weeks and 7 of coins can take time. I also like the analogy of 7 of coins being about the fruition of a healthy garden which is why it can take a long time.

 

Is there anyway to analyse other cards for timing like that as well? Because the system mentioned in the first paragraph doesnt really work out for me.

 

Would also like to hear @Saturn Celeste input on this

[DanielJUK]

I think we are going into different areas in this discussion.

 

The pace of the cards is looking at the card images, for example those Wands in the 8 of Wands are like arrows speeding through the sky, but then the 4 of Cups figure is not moving and sitting there. The Knights are really fascinating to look at this with. Take them out from the deck and lay them out. Some horses are speeding along very fast, some are big and heavy and just static, that is slow but meaningful progress. This is intuitive reading, looking at the clues of speed in the card.

 

This is different to tarot timings. There are multiple ideas about this and if you are learning tarot, I strongly recommend learning the basics and exploring each card first. With Timings you have to find your own method that works for you and it's widely debated about what works best.

 

Here are some old threads on the forum about timings, note people put different seasons and timing meaning on the cards. There is no one method 🙂

 

 

This is the astrological association of each card in this thread (note: this is a whole field of tarot in itself 🙂 )

 

[Saturn Celeste]

8 hours ago, Tan said:

But I see you mentioned that eight of wands can be two weeks and 7 of coins can take time. I also like the analogy of 7 of coins being about the fruition of a healthy garden which is why it can take a long time.

There are many cards that can give you an idea of time or pace as you originally asked.  The first link Daniel posted has so much information!  If you want, take a minute and look over the conversations on that thread.  I do take into account the seasons and suits of the cards when determining time.  I also have a moon deck that I can look up the moon information (will the moon be waxing, waning, etc) and find dates that correlate to the phase of the moon.

[Misterei]

14 hours ago, Tan said:

Can you also let me know about time frames? How do you judge time frames from the cards in terms of days, weeks, months and years. What I have mostly heard is that  major arcana cards are tied to a zodiac so you consider the zodiac season. And the minor arcana shows us number of days, weeks, months and years according to their respective number.

Hi @Tan. As @DanielJUK mentioned, time and pace are slightly different.

I read PACE from Knights (my method ... dunno if others do it, too) or from suits (as per previous post).

 

Timing (date ranges) I read from Pips. There's a whole calendar in the Pips which you can discover reading Crowley or DuQuette.

I don't muck about with decans per se ... but I use that built-in calendar as the basis for reading dates.

 

I take Aces as seasonal cards ... which pretty much everyone does ... but we all have our different methods which season which ace😇

 

I "test" spreads. Not every spread serves timing cards ... I don't pretend to see them if they're not there. I don't force it.

I will give the client an accurate date range if its obvious ... or tell them, "sorry I'm not getting solid timing cards here."

 

I don't use the Trumps for timing or pace (except for the cards I mentioned in previous post).

The exception is with hybrid astro-tarot readings.  I might read a timing question based on Trumps and the client's Dasha cycle. Or current transits.

These can be longer cycles (sometimes years).

This is an advanced technique mixing Tarot and Jyotish. It's my own.

That being said, it works for me and I teach the technique to advanced students who know both Tarot and Astrology.

 

@Tan said

<<... the analogy of 7 of coins being about the fruition of a healthy garden which is why it can take a long time.>>

 

Exactly. That's how I read it too.

Edited September 19, 2023 by Misterei

[Raggydoll]

I prefer to read pace over timing with tarot cards. Once upon a time I was interested in the astrological dates and the decans of the pips, but I found that when I began to evaluate the accuracy, it didn’t make sense to continue using it for predictions. 
 

So what I personally do is that I use other tools for timing, like the runes. The runes are like tarot in one sense, in that only some runes have a specific pace to them, and that certain runes also have timing correspondences. I have found that predictions that use the timing correspondences of runes are more accurate for me than the ones with tarot. And I have no real explanation for that. 
 

I think that the pacing of tarot cards are a very valuable tool. And I sure that the timing with astrological correspondences can be a great tool as well, I’d just personally make sure to evaluate the accuracy before settling on your method 🙂