Ankh Spread

Ankh Spread

 

 

Difficulty: Kind of tough

The Ankh Spread is for questions about the causes behind trends. It is similar to the Celtic Cross and Secret of the High Priestess spreads, but it covers the reasons behind the circumstances in question differently, perhaps giving a better explanation of why things are the way they are.

The loop of the upper section of the ankh reveals the spiritual background and causes of the situation, while the stem of the base focuses on prospects for the outcome.

The first two tarot cards represent the two parent causes of the situation. They will either complement each other or show two opposing sides of a conflict, depending on how they relate. These are the significator cards of the Ankh spread.

3. This tarot card shines light upon the early causes of the trend in question.

4. Pinpoints the causes that triggered the current situation.

5. Reveals the spiritual perspective of the subject at hand.

6. This card examines the reasons why this course of action had to unfold, as a means to this end.

At this point, it is good to pause to soak in the meaning of the first six cards before moving forward to the last three cards. The last three reveal prospects for the future.

7. The Next Step gives clues about the immediate future.

8. Surprising Experiences encountered en route to the result.

9. This represents the result.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Your Ankh Tarot Reading with the Book of Thoth

  Higher Perceptions

The Star
 
Early Causes

8 of Cups
  Triggering Causes

The Emperor
  Necessary Conclusions

6 of Cups
 
Significator #1

Adjustment
  Significator #2

2 of Disks
  Next Step

3 of Swords
 
  Surprising Experiences

4 of Cups
 
  Outcome

Ace of Cups
 

 

 

 

 

Significator #1

Adjustment

Libra

Balance against each thought its exact opposite. For the Marriage of these is the Annihilation of Illusion.

Justice, or rather justesse, the act of adjustment, suspension of all action pending decision; in material matters, may refer to law suits or prosecutions. Socially, marriage or marriage agreements; politically, treaties.

 

 

 

 

 

Significator #2

2 of Disks

Jupiter in Capricorn – Change

The number Two, Chokmah, here rules in the suit pertaining to Earth. It shows the type of Energy appropriate to Two, in its most fixed form. According to the doctrine that Change is the support of stability, the card is called Change.

The card represents two Pantacles, one above the other; they are the Chinese symbols of the Yang and Yin duplicated as in the Hsiang. One wheel is dextro- and the other laevo-rotatory. They thus represent the harmonious interplay of the Four Elements in constant movement. One may in fact consider the card as the picture of the complete manifested Universe, in respect of its dynamics.

 

 

 

 

 

Early Causes

8 of Cups

Saturn in Pisces – Indolence

Lotuses droop for lack of sun and rain, and the soil is poison to them; only two of the stems show blossoms at all. The cups are shallow, old and broken. They are arranged in three rows; of these the upper row of three is quite empty. Water trickles from the two flowers into the two central cups, and they drip into the two lowest without filling them. The background of the card shows pools, or lagoons, in very extensive country, incapable of cultivation; only disease and miasma tic poison can flourish in those vast Bad Lands. The water is dark and muddy. On the horizon is a pallid, yellowish light, weighed down by leaden clouds of indigo.

 

 

 

 

 

Triggering Causes

The Emperor

Aries

Pour water on thyself thus shalt thou be a Fountain to the Universe. Find thou thyself in every Star. Achieve thou every possibility.

War, conquest, victory, strife, ambition, originality, over-weening confidence and megalomania, quarrelsomeness, energy, vigour, stubbornness, impracticability, rashness, ill- temper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Higher Perceptions

The Star

Aquarius

Use all thine energy to rule thy thought: burn up thy thought as the Phoenix.

Hope, unexpected help, clearness of vision, realisation of possibilities, spiritual insight, with bad aspects, error of judgment, dreaminess, disappointment.

 

 

 

 

 

Necessary Conclusions

6 of Cups

Sun in Scorpio – Pleasure

This card shows the influence of the number Six, Tiphareth, in the suit of Water. This influence is fortified by that of the Sun, who also represents the Six. The whole image is that of the influence of the Sun on Water.

The lotus stems are grouped in an elaborate dancing movement. From their blossoms water gushes into the Cups, but they are not yet full to overflowing, as they are in the corresponding card below; the Nine. Pleasure, in the title of this card, must be understood in its highest sense: it implies well-being, harmony of natural forces without effort or strain, ease, satisfaction. Foreign to the idea of the card is the gratification of natural or artificial desires. Yet it does represent emphatically the fulfilment of the sexual Will, as shown by the ruling Sephira, planet, element, and sign.

 

 

 

 

 

The Next Step

3 of Swords

Saturn in Libra – Sorrow

This card is dark and heavy; it is, so to speak, the womb of Chaos. There is an intense lurking passion to create, but its children are monsters. This may mean the supreme transcendence of the natural order. Secrecy is here, and Perversion.

The symbol represents the great Sword of the Magician, point uppermost; it cuts the junction of two short curved swords. The impact has destroyed the rose. In the background, storm broods under implacable night.

 

 

 

 

 

Surprises

4 of Cups

Moon in Cancer – Luxury

This card refers to Chesed in the sphere of Water. Here, below the Abyss, the energy of this element, although ordered, balanced and (for the moment) stabilised, has lost the original purity of the conception. The card refers to the Moon in Cancer, which is her own house; but Cancer itself is so placed that this implies a certain weakness, an abandonment to desire. This tends to introduce the seeds of decay into the fruit of pleasure.

The sea is still shown, but its surface is ruffled, and the four Cups which stand upon it are no longer so stable. The Lotus from which the water Springs has a multiple stem, as if to show that the influence of the Dyad has gathered strength.

 

 

 

 

 

The Outcome

Ace of Cups

The Root of Water

This card represents the element of Water in its most secret and original form. It is the feminine complement of the Ace of Wands, and is derived from the Yoni and the Moon exactly as that is from the Lingam and the Sun. The third in the Hierarchy. This accordingly represents the essential form of the Holy Grail. Upon the dark sea of Binah, the Great Mother, are Lotuses, two in one, which fill the cup with the Life-fluid, symbolically represented either as Water, as Blood, or as Wine, according to the selected purpose of the symbolism.

Above the Cup, descending upon it, is the Dove of the Holy Ghost, thus consecrating the element. At the base of the Cup is the Moon, for it is the virtue of this card to conceive and to produce the second form of its Nature.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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