TdM Tableau w/ Significators (spread example)
Posted: 04 Sep 2019, 04:08
Hi Rachelcat,
Your post made me think. Although I certainly do it myself, especially with esoteric decks, I'm not super comfortable with the idea of using majors as significators, especially in Marseille. Part of the reason for that, I think, is that the major cards definitely have their own meanings and content. When you use that card for a significator, you're losing it's meanings as an independent quantity in the deck.
I wanted to see what it would look like to have the Emperor and a separate signifier for the boss interacting in a reading. In order to get that, I came up with the idea of doing a 6x4 tableau spread using all of the majors and a signifier each for both the boss and the employee. Here's what I came up with. It actually seems to have worked quite well. That is, of course, with the understanding that there aren't any real people or real situations with which to verify the reading. The idea is that the tableau will show us a picture of each person and their relationship. I'm borrowing heavily from the kind near-far attendance practices that are common in traditional Grand Tableau reading.
Open image in new tab to see right side up.
So we see the employee (Knight of Wands) focused on The World while ignoring authority (the Empress). The World could mean a number of things, the exact nature of which probably isn't important in a fake reading. Let's just think of it as The Knight's own agenda. S/he has their own take on things, which could lead to some personal triumphs but is also quite risky (wheel). This risk taking is not unnoticed by the higher-ups (Wheel vertically attending Empress). Notice, also, that The Devil is sitting on top of the Chariot. Even when the employee "wins" one of their "bets" they probably aren't feeling the appreciation and satisfaction that they should. We'll come back to that.
As for the immediate supervisor (King of Coins), he's focused mostly on his own power and authority (strength, emperor). While the knight's agenda/focus might be based on their theoretical understanding of the field/job/tasks (world mirroring pope where pope = things like guiding principals and theoretical/technical knowledge), theory is beneath the boss/king, whose interests are influenced by his own acquired knowledge (Hermit over King). I'd draw two minors to ask what the hermit is studying. So the boss is interested in flexing his own power (strength and emperor) for his own interests what ever they may be (Hermit plus fantasy pips). We can see though that in focusing so closely on his own interests, the Hermit's back is turned to the whole second row, which has most of the bad cards: Death, Moon, Devil. If we wanted to read it linearly, we could see that in order to fulfill his ideas (hermit) he chooses to cut out (death) the emotions (moon) which leads to (fool) that sense of repression (devil) in the office that weighs down on the employee's feeling of accomplishment (chariot).
Taking the first three cards as a line of advice, the querent is urged to balance their judgment with a sense of team play and collaboration.
Your post made me think. Although I certainly do it myself, especially with esoteric decks, I'm not super comfortable with the idea of using majors as significators, especially in Marseille. Part of the reason for that, I think, is that the major cards definitely have their own meanings and content. When you use that card for a significator, you're losing it's meanings as an independent quantity in the deck.
I wanted to see what it would look like to have the Emperor and a separate signifier for the boss interacting in a reading. In order to get that, I came up with the idea of doing a 6x4 tableau spread using all of the majors and a signifier each for both the boss and the employee. Here's what I came up with. It actually seems to have worked quite well. That is, of course, with the understanding that there aren't any real people or real situations with which to verify the reading. The idea is that the tableau will show us a picture of each person and their relationship. I'm borrowing heavily from the kind near-far attendance practices that are common in traditional Grand Tableau reading.
Open image in new tab to see right side up.
So we see the employee (Knight of Wands) focused on The World while ignoring authority (the Empress). The World could mean a number of things, the exact nature of which probably isn't important in a fake reading. Let's just think of it as The Knight's own agenda. S/he has their own take on things, which could lead to some personal triumphs but is also quite risky (wheel). This risk taking is not unnoticed by the higher-ups (Wheel vertically attending Empress). Notice, also, that The Devil is sitting on top of the Chariot. Even when the employee "wins" one of their "bets" they probably aren't feeling the appreciation and satisfaction that they should. We'll come back to that.
As for the immediate supervisor (King of Coins), he's focused mostly on his own power and authority (strength, emperor). While the knight's agenda/focus might be based on their theoretical understanding of the field/job/tasks (world mirroring pope where pope = things like guiding principals and theoretical/technical knowledge), theory is beneath the boss/king, whose interests are influenced by his own acquired knowledge (Hermit over King). I'd draw two minors to ask what the hermit is studying. So the boss is interested in flexing his own power (strength and emperor) for his own interests what ever they may be (Hermit plus fantasy pips). We can see though that in focusing so closely on his own interests, the Hermit's back is turned to the whole second row, which has most of the bad cards: Death, Moon, Devil. If we wanted to read it linearly, we could see that in order to fulfill his ideas (hermit) he chooses to cut out (death) the emotions (moon) which leads to (fool) that sense of repression (devil) in the office that weighs down on the employee's feeling of accomplishment (chariot).
Taking the first three cards as a line of advice, the querent is urged to balance their judgment with a sense of team play and collaboration.