looking at a tirage en sept
Hey there. For my first proper Tarot Blog entry I want to explore a classic spread with my new classic-ish deck (the mass market Tarot de Marseille from Piatnik). I’ve seen this “draw of seven” done a few ways, but I’ll most closely follow what I’ve seen on the cartomancier.com website.
I’m using the whole deck, contrary to the traditional French method, and I’m not asking a question seeing as it’s supposed to be good for general spreads and figuring out what the potential issue might be.
The cards drawn were, in order: Seven of Rods, Le Diable, King of Swords, Page of Swords, La Maison Dieu, Eight of Cups, Seven of Coins
I like the shape of this layout, you can immediately tell the standout cards – the first one, the last one, and the “peak” one. Like in other French cartomancy methods I’m sure you can do a quick at-a-glance reading based on those, I’d need to do more of these to figure out what means what. It seems the peak card could be the kind of the “quintessence” position, like in the classic cross of five – kind of an underlying theme, tying all parts of the reading together. The first card could be just a quick problem defining card. Not yet sure about the last one.
Alright. Step one is reading every fifth card, which results in the following string: Seven of Rods, La Maison Dieu, Le Diable, Eight of Cups, King of Swords, Seven of Coins, Page of Swords.
Loss of inner drive connected to big disruption, resulting in a binding. Sounds like my recent physical issues interfering in my pursuit of interests and passions, crashing my special interest hyperfocus. Community questioning my demanding follow-the-plan attitude (which judges my physical failings), and suggesting instead a more curious, flexible approach. Looks like the exchange I had with Dr. Rua M. Williams about internalized ableism, following their webinar on hacking executive function for neurodiverse folks.
Step two is reading the triads. I think anything after step one is just adding details, the broad strokes having already been placed.
Cards 1, 2, 3: The logical King isn't even looking at the complex web of demons. He can defend himself from their attacks, but he can't actually attack by himself and unravel the root of the problem. True – I can't really hack myself into compliance, there's not enough knowledge in the world about how our brains work, plus it's so individualized too, even between autistics.
Cards 5, 6, 7: It's interesting to me that all of the cards have kind of the same main shape – a column with a wider top and bottom. The edge cards both speak of a “brokenness”, a challenge. The arrangement of the coins looks like the arrangement of the cups, but collapsed. As if the collapsing body can be propped up by love and community, whether it's a big impairment or something smaller. Yes, I need to work on many levels here, as I read the cups to be both about relationships and matters of the spirit. As much as I could probably ask for help more, I can also acknowledge our shared struggles, and afford myself similar compassion as I would to any other ND person.
Cards 3, 4, 5: I love how the King is looking to the Tower, but the Page is there in the middle, saying “I got this.” It's a general mind shift from frustration/strictness to curiosity and adaptability. The “body problems” are an example of a situation where this is most direct, but with two Sword cards it also makes me think of broader mental application – addressing passed down cultural messaging (from King to Page) and how it manifests in unhelpful/outright harmful self-talk.
Step three is about pairing up the cards from either end of the spread.
1+7: Seven of Rods and Seven of Coins – energy/motivation crises are related, I'm a whole being. 2+6: Le Diable and Eight of Cups – find my community with the other ND “outcasts.” 3+5: King of Swords and La Maison Dieu – trying to find and keep a strong grip on my brain is unsustainable and doomed to fail. (Again the leftover 4 seems most important, presiding over the whole spread.)
Ok, that was pretty neat. Not only did it address a kind of past and present situation but also managed to join them and suggest some solutions from slightly different angles. Cool, I can pick one depending on whatever I'm feeling that day – some days I'd be driven by anger and spite (tackling ableism and capitalism), others I'd be more moved by compassion and belonging etc. I'll definitely play more with this method.
Note: I did this reading and drafted this post around a week ago, but then decided to squish in a few 2022 posts before the “official” switch-over of tihs blog to a tarot space. So it's not technically the first post, and it deals with issues no longer at the forefront of my mind.