Game Plan Spread

 

 

Difficulty: Easy

When a person has a certain plan in mind, this simple five-card spread presents a choice, hinting at what action or attitude should be taken for their plan to succeed, and what should be avoided to help the plan work out for the best.

The initial card is laid in the centre of the layout, the significator. The following four cards are laid out clockwise around the significator.

In this spread, the second card is about what drives the reader, but also says they are not fully conscious of this, perhaps even completely unaware of it. It provides a hint as to the reason they strive for their goal.

The third card uncovers what others think of the reader and their goals. The reader may or may not be aware of this. Sometimes other people factor into the plans (and sometimes they don't).

The fourth card suggests what not to do. If things are permitted to go down this path, the plan will collapse.

The fifth card is a hint as to how to make this plan work out favourably. The idea this card presents should be followed to make the plan successful. It is the differences between Cards #4 & #5 that should be noted, as the differences provide important clues.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Your Game Plan Reading

Unconscious Drive The Wheel of Fortune		External Influences The Devil
	Significator The High Priestess
How it Will Succeed Death		How it Will Not Succeed The Tower

 

 

 

 

The High Priestess

The two eyes indicate that the High Priestess perceives the polarity in their dualism but doesn't take any valuation into account. The light and the dark side can be seen, as well as the waning and waxing moon and the full-moon, which unites and contains both sides.

The water and the two fish also symbolise the connection, the flow of energy and the dualism. The feather stands for the High Priestess' sensitiveness, the pomegranate for her fertility.

 

 

 

 

The Wheel of Fortune

In the middle of the diagram three discs can be seen. I often use the number three in the descriptions as a basic universal number. The inner disc is blank. On the second disc we can make out the hourly Roman numerals. They appear anticlockwise to show that time's direction is relative.

The signs of the zodiac on the outer disc show a further meaning for the course of time. Around these discs or rings, as though one could present them how one liked, the four elements are arranged. They seem to be rotating and moving in a circle from light into dark and back again.

 

 

 

 

The Devil

The colours black and white show the limits of a polarity, a disconnection, which cannot be outdone. The subconscious has no connection with the conscious. The burning fire points to the fact that the devil is linked with pain and torture.

The five-pointed star is upside down. The goat's horns are pointing downwards; classical symbols of the devil. The square oven symbolises the dependence on material things. Two clenched fists are chained together. Each can free the other whereby freeing itself, but only if it is brave enough to take the key from the fire. For this it has to open its hand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Tower

A small ray of light shines through a crack in the wall and arouses our yearning for freedom and knowledge. The prison walls burst open and we can escape. We have already taken hold of the sword which stands for differentiation, consciousness and independent thought.

The monarch's insignia of the Emperor shows we are prepared to reconquer the seat on our own throne.

 

 

 

 

Death

The circuit of coming and going is symbolised by the serpent, which frames the picture and bites its own tail. The red background portrays sunset, or as the case may be, sunrise. The house and the tree, representatives for the element earth, have fallen into decay and are bare. The three tombstones show the headgear of the pope, the king and the farmer. At death there is no difference.

The skeleton's hand comes from the left and holds a blue scythe, which seems to be a mixture between a sceptre and a sword. The leaf, which is growing out of it, shows that death, due to its quality allowing old things to fade away, makes new growth possible.

The water symbolises the river Styx, which has to be crossed at death so as to reach the next world. The colour blue in the picture stands for disconnection and purification. Like its younger brother sleep, death also has a cleansing property, which is particularly emphasised by the whiteness of the skeleton's hand and the blade of the scythe. What is interesting (I only realised later) is that the scythe's blade itself gives the hint of a crescent moon.