this has to be easier than I'm thinking it.

Houses = grand tableau laid out in card order, House 1 is rider, House 36 is Cross. Yes? 

So if I do a 3 card spread and take houses into account, are the houses always Rider/Clover/Ship? 

Regardless of how many 3 card spreads I do, with however many different questions? 

 

I love the idea of houses creating deeper readings, but coming from tarot maybe that is unnecessary filler?

Or absolutely pointless unless a grand layout? 

The latter: absolutely pointless unless it's a GT. Even then it's not always done, and you don't read ALL the cards in relation to their House. It's just a technique you can use to get a little extra information. In a love GT, you might check the house the significator(s) and the Heart fall in. Maybe a couple of others, but no more. When you factor in other things like Knighting and Counting, you'd be there all night, lol.

For three card spreads, for awhile there was a vogue for laying the cards on top of three random cards, and calling it "mobile houses". But Houses, as we know from the zodiac, are in a set order. So this wasn't really reading cards in their Houses, it was reading three pairs. The Houses are 1-36, in order.

thank you. In the night (there are no new ideas under the sun) I realized it could be done in a sense by drawing three cards from a different deck to use as houses. 🙂  Probably about as useful as relying on flippers, bottom cards, clarifiers... gloss and dross.