Reading the Square of Nine

[sixdegrees]

Does anyone have any uncommon techniques for reading a nine-card-square spread without positional meanings?

 

In my journey learning to read Tarot de Marseille, I've discovered that the most common method involves a line of three, five, or seven cards without positional meanings. The same is apparently true for a square of nine cards (i.e. three rows of three cards each). In his Playing Marseille set, Ryan Edward features one such reading of a square, but his advice (following his teacher Camelia Elias) is simply to attend to the rhythm and flow of the images overall. This approach is a bit too open for my taste. As a reader, I like a little bit more structure to help check my own desires and wishes in my interpretation of the cards.

 

The square especially appeals to me because its shape lends greater precision to my approach to the Marseille court cards, a method that I will share here at some point when I am more confident in its ability to lend insight. In the mean time, I'm looking for other techniques that I might employ to "read" the square based on its shape and the relations of the cards to one another. Right now I am working on the assumption that the middle line contains the answer to the question, while the top and bottom lines provide context (essentially clarifying why the middle line is the answer). I read each of the individual lines according to the typically employed elements of interpreting non-scenic pips: Notions of regard, increase/decrease, transformations of elements, etc. But that is all I have, and I feel like I might derive more meaning from the shape of the spread itself. One idea that Edward offers in line with my thinking is the notion that the last card placed in the spread might carry special significance--a sort of final verdict on the question, as it were. That suggestion helps form a standard that I could always keep in mind while reading.

 

I am familiar with the following conventional approaches to the square already:

- The three rows or columns might signify past, present, and future in some combination (unfortunately, this structure doesn't really work in concert with my approach to the courts).

- The three rows or columns might signify mental, emotional, and physical aspects of the question.

- The outer rows or columns might signify what helps and hinders the situation, with the middle row/column as a mediator between these qualities.

- One can look to the four corners to understand elements that "frame" the issue in question.

- The center card is the most important for the purposes of understanding the reading.

- Various ideas of mirroring, knighting, etc. borrowed from Lenormand/playing cards.

 

I am looking for suggestions beyond these commonly invoked ideas.

 

One more example that might help clarify what I am seeking: In his approach to the square of nine with the Marseille tarot, Tom Benjamin pays special significance to the center card and the upper left card (the first card that he deals into the square). He says that the center card and the first card combine to create his initial impression of an answer, and then he looks to the rest of the cards for evidence of this answer. That is the kind of technique I'm looking for here--something fairly unique that you do with a square of nine that has yielded fruitful readings.

 

Thank you ahead of time to those who chime in--I look forward to a discussion!

[Decan]

I can give you my opinion on this since these are interesting questions, but from me this won't be an advice though, because I haven't enough knowledges and practice regarding that.

For the Marseille Tarot most of the spreads explained (in French books) are positional spreads for what I remember.

For a Yes-No question maybe a Box of 9 isn't the most appropriated spread, I would say more a short (or very short) line.

You have the French Cross for Yes-No questions, the spread is traditional for the Marseille Tarot and fine for this kind of question (and more), but I personally think that lines and boxes are (i.e. no positional spreads) great options to use!

 

I met the Square/Box of 9 lately with Lenormand. I saw several ways to read it, so there is probably more than 1 method about it. About "past/present/future" regarding a Box of 9, I saw that at times but not all the time, and for me at least I find these notions confusing with a Box, well, just my view here!

Anyway, the central card is a focus and the whole spread will develop from what this card shows. For example if the card in the center refers to love, likely the whole spread will be about the love life of the querent.

You can read the central horizontal line, the central vertical line, and the 2 diagonal lines, like several short lines of 3 cards. They will tell you something about the central card (main topic) but from different contexts.

The corners are often read together too.

Hope that helps, my 2 cents anyway! 🙂

Edited June 20, 2020 by Decan

[sixdegrees]

On 6/19/2020 at 10:05 PM, Decan said:

For the Marseille Tarot most of the spreads explained (in French books) are positional spreads for what I remember.

For a Yes-No question maybe a Box of 9 isn't the most appropriated spread, I would say more a short (or very short) line.

You have the French Cross for Yes-No questions, the spread is traditional for the Marseille Tarot and fine for this kind of question (and more), but I personally think that lines and boxes are (i.e. no positional spreads) great options to use!

Thank you for the clarification. I have encountered the French Cross in my research, and it does seem like a very popular positional spread to use with the Tarot de Marseille. So perhaps it would be more accurate to say that reading without positional meanings is more common with the TdM than with other tarot traditions, and it this quality that interests me.

 

On 6/19/2020 at 10:05 PM, Decan said:

I met the Square/Box of 9 lately with Lenormand. I saw several ways to read it, so there is probably more than 1 method about it. About "past/present/future" regarding a Box of 9, I saw that at times but not all the time, and for me at least I find these notions confusing with a Box, well, just my view here!

Anyway, the central card is a focus and the whole spread will develop from what this card shows. For example if the card in the center refers to love, likely the whole spread will be about the love life of the querent.

You can read the central horizontal line, the central vertical line, and the 2 diagonal lines, like several short lines of 3 cards. They will tell you something about the central card (main topic) but from different contexts.

The corners are often read together too.

Hope that helps, my 2 cents anyway! 🙂

I appreciate these suggestions. I had forgotten about reading the diagonal lines--your discussion reminds me that some people see these lines as identifying less obvious factors than what is indicated by the central horizontal and vertical lines. That seems like a good approach to experiment with!

[Decan]

10 hours ago, sixdegrees said:

So perhaps it would be more accurate to say that reading without positional meanings is more common with the TdM than with other tarot traditions, and it this quality that interests me.

Well, it’s always difficult to know what people really practice (particularly nowadays) in my country regarding the TdM, which is the standard.
Nevertheless I really think it’s the reverse; with the TdM positional spreads are more common and used. Of course not the Celtic Cross since it isn’t a French spread. 
In Paul Marteau’s book there are a few spreads explained if I remember. It’s to check, and I haven’t anymore his book but the spreads that he presented are likely a 3 cards spread (past/present/future), the French Cross (we say « tirage en croix ») and the astrological spread.

[_R_]

The cross spread is by far and away the most common used in French cartomancy, on account of its precise nature (replying to a specific question), on account of its well-defined positional structure, and on account of its relative simplicity (4-5 cards, although it is possible to add more). The exact function of the positions will vary slightly from one author to the next, and in general, the older works tend towards more abstract (and judicial or Hegelian) notions, and more recent ones towards more concrete and practical definitions.

Squares of nine cards and the like are more often seen in divination with Lenormand or playing cards, as far as I can tell, although there is nothing from preventing you from adapting this to the Tarot, far from it.

Bear in mind too, from a structural point of view, that a cross provides the inner frame for a square, something which might fit in with your view of the functional layout.

Incidentally, it is not for nothing that Tchalaï called her layout(s) of the Court cards: “the Great Square."

It is a curious thing to note that one of the - if not the - earliest spreads is a non-positional one, the famous Comte de Mellet spread, which you can easily find by searching for it online or on this forum.

You may also consult this post here, which outlines a number of historical spreads taken from the 19th century cartomancy manuals, some of which are non-positional as well.

[sixdegrees]

I stand corrected, then--I will continue to consider positional spreads that are suitable for the TdM, in addition to experimenting with non-positional spreads.

On 6/23/2020 at 1:29 AM, _R_ said:

Bear in mind too, from a structural point of view, that a cross provides the inner frame for a square, something which might fit in with your view of the functional layout.

Thank you for this observation. I will see what I can make of the idea that the cross stands within the square. I think that it intersects nicely with my own, evolving thought. Recently I've begun thinking about the center, vertical line as containing the most important elements for the reading overall. The center row contains the answer to the question, with the very center card of the square here carrying the most significance. By extension, the center cards in the top and bottom rows might also carry more significance in explaining the why of the answer (perhaps the flanking cards in each of these rows are effects of this element or supplementary details). Thus, the central cross contains both the answer to the question and the most important elements in explaining this answer.

 

In searching online for French cross variants, I was most intrigued by Nei Naiff's approach that Anthony Louis covers on his blog here. I don't think that I would use these ideas in the square of nine, but in general I'm going to think more about incorporating positive/negative "states" into spreads that I use: 1) What is being negated and 2) the condition of this negation, as well as 3) what is being affirmed and 4) the condition of this affirmation. So thank you for the inspiration!

[_R_]

One of the issues here is that the currently available TdM - or Tarot in general - material in English, whether translated from the French or written directly in that language, offers a skewed picture of what methods are actually in use in the French-speaking world. Probably some works like those of Kris Hadar, Colette Sylvestre or Hadès would provide more insight into the "bread and butter" cartomantic methodology, but  that depends on publishers, etc etc. (Or learning French.)

 

Another thing you might find interesting to play around with is to replace each card back into the pack after it has been drawn - in other words, drawing from the full deck each time for each position. Some use multiple decks for this purpose or you could simply note the numbers or use a digital image instead if you prefer. This way, you can also detect repetitions, patterns, and so on, which increases the possibilities significantly... (This is not a traditional technique, but one pointed out to me by a mathematically-inclined tarologist of my acquaintance.)