Making your own spreads: Seven card spreads with a seven-pointed star design

[Nemia]

These are my thoughts about making your own spreads using seven cards. Spreadcrafting is a useful tool when you have a specific question which is not covered by any spreads you may find on the Internet or in books. So you turn the question around in your mind and write down a number of questions. I found the number Seven especially useful; I found that quite often, when making up my own spreads, I landed on seven card positions. 

 

Seven-card layouts are great when you want to explore a situation in depth without getting lost in too many cards or details. Although I often prefer four-card readings, these compact little boxes of yes/yes, yes/no, no/yes and no/no, they can be too watertight and lack dynamism. Three-card spreads are great as well, thesis, antithesis and synthesis, but sometimes, you need more information.

 

Just combine the two, and you have a seven-card spread. 

 

 

Now the wonderful thing about laying out the cards in the shape of a heptagram, seven-pointed star or elven star is the dynamism of the spread. 

 

 

You lay out the cards from position 1 to 7, and that's how you read them. 

 

 

This is an example from a reading I did this morning, using the wonderful Tarot of the Abyss. 

 

Now you start moving from one card to the next, but this time, you don't follow the perimeter but the arrows that connect them. You move from 1 to 4, from 4 to 7, from 7 to 3, from 3 to 6, from 6 to 2, from 2 to 5 and from 5 back to 1.

 

 

This element of movement can give you great new insights. 

 

You can now group the cards in a triangle shape - every card is connected to two other cards. 

 

 

Here, we have 1, 4 and 5. You can now turn them into a three-card reading. 

 

 

You get seven three-card readings out of this one spread. The card that is connected to the two other cards is your central card, while the other two cards show the aspects of this one card. If the central card is the question, the others tell you about its past and future, or negative and positive potential. The cards themselves will tell you which role they play. 

 

You can also look for the three cards that are not connected in any way, neither neighbours nor connected by the lines of their sequence. 

 

 

They can tell you things that you overlooked before, unexpected developments, hidden problems or solutions that you haven't considered before. 

 

Not each and every three-card reading will give you new insights, but a surprising number of them might give you important clues that you missed before. You play with the cards by you're using a system, and keeping the balance between freedom and rules is often the secret of success. 

 

In short, this way of laying out the cards has so many built-in opportunities for combining and reading them, and since they're circular, you always land back on the spot where you started. And that can be really satisfying. 

 

I have often said that I prefer to squeeze everything from the cards I have on the table, and never draw additional "clarifiers" anymore (after having them turn into muddifiers too often...).

 

This beautiful elven star is a good solution, especially since this is how the days of the week work. Just to remind you: put the seven visible planets in the sequence of their distance (which is also the speed of their movement - the farther away, the more slowly they move), and you get Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury and Moon. Write them in that sequence onto your seven-pointed star. 

 

 

 

Now all you have to do is follow the connecting line, and you get the sequence of the day of the week: Saturday, Sunday, Monday etc. (Source for the graphic and more information about that magical Elven Star here). 

 

By using the seven-pointed star, you bind your reading back to the magic of counting time, of eternal cycles and rhythms. And that can only be a good thing. 

 

 

[Misterei]

@Nemia I've always liked your 7 planets / 7 days spread. The way you discuss the dynamics of following the star lines and triangles reminds me of a spread I made based-on the enneagram of Gurdjieff. Similar idea, there is a movement flow within the enneagram 1, 4, 2 ,8, 5, 7, then a separate triangle of 3,6,9. Ennegram hexagram describes how processes develop and flow. The triangle shows stop points or inflection points [the 3-6-9 triangle]

 

I created the spread, but found it a bit too heady to use tbh. I couldn't easily use it for clients. But now you've got me thinking along those lines again. Hmm. 

 

 

Edited Thursday at 02:58 AM by Misterei

[Nemia]

Oh, that's fascinating. My sister-in-law is very much into the Enneagram system and now I'm going to read the book she gave me. What a fascinating model. Odd numbers always have an inner dynamic, while even numbers are more like a closed system and are more static. We should consider that when choosing the number of cards for a spread. 

 

I'd love to know more about the spread you created! This sounds like a great idea for plumbing the depths of a life situation or really important question. 

[jupiter]

There was a time some years ago where I got quite deeply into the Enneagram and read most of the books available on the market. Really interesting concept and I did find a lot of truth in it - which I now find backed up, doubled up and tripled up in tarot and astrology. Fascinating how everything really is connected and some truths seem to be universal.

[Misterei]

17 hours ago, Nemia said:

Oh, that's fascinating. My sister-in-law is very much into the Enneagram system and now I'm going to read the book she gave me. What a fascinating model. Odd numbers always have an inner dynamic, while even numbers are more like a closed system and are more static. We should consider that when choosing the number of cards for a spread. 

 

I'd love to know more about the spread you created! This sounds like a great idea for plumbing the depths of a life situation or really important question. 

Disambiguation between Gurdjieff enneagram which was a piece of sacred geometry based on Pythagoras vs. the psychology enneagram which is a personality typing system. To get the sacred geometry enneagram -- read Gurdjeff or Ouspensky. or sources derived from them--not the psychology stuff.

• My spread uses the Gurdgieff / Pythagoras basis. 
• the hexagram 1, 4, 2, 8, 5, 7 shows how the situation will develop -- a projected sequence. If it's another person involved you might also read yourself at 1 and the Other at 2. 
• the triangle 3, 6, 9 shows factors [events or people] which might either stop the energy, change its direction, or enhance it. These might be similar to your triangle of things you didn't expect. If the hexagram is a closed system of things developing along expected lines--3,6,9 are the inputs that might change things or keep them going I actually like your wording--
  <<They can tell you things that you overlooked before, unexpected developments, hidden problems or solutions that you haven't considered before.>>
• Finally, the circle ties it altogether in more of a linear time progression.

Enneagram spread was fun to develop and play with the concept--but as mentioned--I found it nearly impossible to use with clients so it fell by the wayside in my practice. But i think you can see why your Elven Star Heptagram spreads made me think of it again.

11 hours ago, jupiter said:

There was a time some years ago where I got quite deeply into the Enneagram and read most of the books available on the market. Really interesting concept and I did find a lot of truth in it - which I now find backed up, doubled up and tripled up in tarot and astrology. Fascinating how everything really is connected and some truths seem to be universal.

 

Which enneagram? Gurdjieff / ouspensky? Or the psychological one?

How did you see it relate to tarot and astrology?

 

Edited Thursday at 09:46 PM by Misterei

[Misterei]

@Nemia @jupiter

A cool comment I read in the text of a video. Video is here he talks about both kinds -- psychological and geometrical

 

Enneagram of Actualization:

1. Begin (initiate)

2. Continue

3. Knowledge - recognition of a potential or possibility to be actualized

4 Rest (rhythmic pause - review)

5. Renew efforts

6. Understanding = knowing how to actualize the possibility - neutralize resistance - connecting the dots to get the point

7. Completion: Calibration - Correction - Refinement

8. Actualized possibility/response

9. Wisdom = competent application of knowledge fully understood to create a desired outcome - actualize a possibility

Edited Thursday at 10:09 PM by Misterei

[jupiter]

9 hours ago, Misterei said:

Which enneagram? Gurdjieff / ouspensky? Or the psychological one?

How did you see it relate to tarot and astrology?

 

 

The psychological personality types according to Riso/Hudson. I read all of their books and a couple of other ones, for example one by two German authors that focuses on relationships between different Enneagram types.
This was around the same time I first had my natal chart made and explained to me and I remember how it all made so much sense together. At the time (2019 according to my purchase history) Gurdjieff seemed hella funky to me 😄 and I was on a massive self-discovery journey after a jarring event in my immediate family.

 

And now, when I research correspondences of astrology and tarot, I again find many aspects I remember from the Enneagram. Obviously this is all very subjective as I only looked at my own and my husband's natal charts, and my long gap in reading tarot doesn't help.

[Nemia]

Two German authors? By any chance Rohr and Ebert? I have their book and have to confess, I haven't read it yet (and will probably download the Kindle Unlimited version because I'm sooo attached to the comforts of Kindle...). Do you know the authors and would you recommend it? 

[jupiter]

No, it was this one Das Enneagramm unserer Beziehungen
From memory, it was quite good but it also didn't reveal too much new stuff after having already read the Riso/Hudson books. I can't say anything about Rohr/Ebert.

[Misterei]

9 hours ago, jupiter said:

The psychological personality types according to Riso/Hudson. I read all of their books and a couple of other ones, for example one by two German authors that focuses on relationships between different Enneagram types.
This was around the same time I first had my natal chart made and explained to me and I remember how it all made so much sense together. At the time (2019 according to my purchase history) Gurdjieff seemed hella funky to me 😄 and I was on a massive self-discovery journey after a jarring event in my immediate family.

 

And now, when I research correspondences of astrology and tarot, I again find many aspects I remember from the Enneagram. Obviously this is all very subjective as I only looked at my own and my husband's natal charts, and my long gap in reading tarot doesn't help.

Ah. I got into the Personality Enneagram 30+ years ago. I was mis-typed as an 8 at that time and it didn't fit -- but i didn't know what did -- so I abandonned ship on the whole idea.

 

This thread got me reflecting and researching on the topic. There is so much more available online now. I took an online test and it typed me as #4. Ugh! I'm horrified to discover this -- but it hits. 

 

So now I am revisiting this personality enneagram as a type 4. I can't say yet how it might fit with my astrological chart. The two systems seem quite different. Yet I remain open to observing where they might intersect. 

 

I must say I adore Gurdjieff. I went through experiences with a spiritual group that was very right hand path--very in to purity with all sorts of rules. Yet in my observation it just created people who were squeaky clean on the outside but hid the same darkness and shadows as anyone else on the inside. Gurdjieff unapologetically smoked cigarettes and drank alcohol. Toasting the Idiots tickles my fancy. At table drinking toasts with Armagnac to different types of idiots. It evokes the Fool from Tarot for me. And by this i mean the old TdM and Tarocchi fool. The madman and wanderer. Not the elevated fool of RWS. I find that I love a spiritual path where we accept that we are all Idiots [Fools].

[jupiter]

I am a 4, too.

I encourage you to have a deeper look - and I shall give Gurdjieff another chance! "unapologetic" is word that attracts me. 

 

As for tarot spreads with the Enneagram, I could really imagine a great number of ways to ask questions about each of the type's basic fears, growth and stress directions, and so forth. 

 

Then, to make matters MORE complicated 😉 another deck that I found really helpful with this sort of Enneagram-powered self-introspection was the Symbolon, game of remembrance. This one contains all the many emotions (for lack of a better word, the deck calls them inner persons we carry within us) AND attributes them with zodiac and planets.

[Misterei]

12 hours ago, jupiter said:

I am a 4, too.

I encourage you to have a deeper look - and I shall give Gurdjieff another chance! "unapologetic" is word that attracts me. 

WOW! Hello fellow 4 💖 My first love was an obvious 4.

But at that time I didn't know enneagram. And when I first discovered it, although i could easily type my ex as a 4-- I thought I was an 8. [to be fair other people told me this, too.]

I am still trying to wrap my mind around the 8-ness of my teen and young adult years. For the whole rest of life 4 hits, tho.

 

As far as a quick and easy intro to G. I like this website for his quotes and aphorisms.

G is easier to approach by reading Ouspensky. But that being said, I read Meetings with Remarkable Men at age 15 and it created a lifelong resonance with 4th way even before I understood what that meant.

12 hours ago, jupiter said:

As for tarot spreads with the Enneagram, I could really imagine a great number of ways to ask questions about each of the type's basic fears, growth and stress directions, and so forth. 

Hmm. I will consider this. Sounds fun. I rejected personality enneagram for many years due to the mistyping--but now I am embracing it.

12 hours ago, jupiter said:

Then, to make matters MORE complicated 😉 another deck that I found really helpful with this sort of Enneagram-powered self-introspection was the Symbolon, game of remembrance. 

I had to look this one up. Beautiful artwork!