Cult of Tarot Forum

Howdy! Since so many of us have the Button Soup deck, I'm excited to do a circle this month exclusively for use of the Button Soup Tarot!

Sign-up here. Partners will be assigned on the 10th and readings will be due by the 24th. Feedback by the end of the month.

The spread will be a version of the French Cross. This spread is most commonly associated with the Tarot de Marseille, but it can be used with any tarot deck. There are several versions. The one I am recommending has a past-present-future structure to it.
PPF French Cross

.........3..........

1........5.........2

..........4.......... 1: Pro; things in favor of the querent
2: Con; things against the querent
3: Past
4: Present
5: Answer/Outcome

I'll join. It's going to be a bit of a challenge for me, as it's not the type of deck I use normally. But challenges are going to be our lot for a long time on the planet, so why not start out easy I told myself with a Tarot deck that uses foreign concepts.

In the words of Kirsty MacColl, it's you and me, baby.

Well I'm helluva lucky then. I have one of the best tarot readers on CoT as a partner. You however, have't been dealt such a good deal.

I have a question. As I'm not used to working with decks that have LWBs that are actually meant to be read (the TdM ones are rubbish as everyone knows), am I to follow the meanings given by the card creators - and extrapolate and refine if necessary - or does one just follow one's instinct/intuition and read what one sees, not taking into account the meaning in the LWB?

I'm not really sure how to answer that question but, no, I wouldn't dream of letting some entry in a LWB tell me what the 4 of cups means. That isn't to say that I won't allow my interpretation to be modulated by idiosyncrasies of the imagery nor that I won't reference the book in order to gain insight on a particular symbol that's present or to get a better handle on the author's line of thought.