Three-Card Spread
Difficulty: Very easy
This simplistic chronological spread can be used to shed light on the influences that have passed, current influences, and what is approaching in the near future. Not much explanation is necessary for this simple tarot spread.
Your Three-Card Reading
The Past The Hermit |
The Present 3 of Cups |
The Future 10 of Wands |
The Past
The Hermit
The variation from the conventional models in this card is only that the lamp is not enveloped partially in the mantle of its bearer, who blends the idea of the Ancient of Days with the Light of the World It is a star which shines in the lantern. I have said that this is a card of attainment, and to extend this conception the figure is seen holding up his beacon on an eminence. Therefore, the Hermit is not, as Court de Gebelin explained, a wise man in search of truth and justice; nor is he, as a later explanation proposes, an especial example of experience. His beacon intimates that – where I am, you also may be.
It is further a card which is understood quite incorrectly when it is connected with the idea of occult isolation, as the protection of personal magnetism against admixture. This is one of the frivolous renderings which we owe to Eliphas Levi. It has been adopted by the French Order of Martinism and some of us have heard a great deal of the Silent and Unknown Philosophy enveloped by his mantle from the knowledge of the profane. In true Martinism, the significance of the term Philosophe inconnu was of another order. It did not refer to the intended concealment of the Instituted Mysteries, much less of their substitutes, but – like the card itself – to the truth that the Divine Mysteries secure their own protection from those who are unprepared.
Divinatory Meaning:
Prudence, circumspection; also and especially treason, dissimulation, roguery, corruption.
The Present
3 of Cups
Maidens in a garden-ground with cups uplifted, as if pledging one another.
Divinatory Meaning:
The conclusion of any matter in plenty, perfection and merriment; happy issue, victory, fulfilment, solace, healing.
The Future
10 of Wands
A man oppressed by the weight of the ten staves which he is carrying.
Reversed Meaning:
Contrarieties, difficulties, intrigues, and their analogies.
