Today I have an interesting kind of case. I’ve come across this pattern once before, back when I first started learning the cards. It mixes the cards’ meanings with the relationships between each card’s element in an interesting way.

Usually, I have the person ask their question first, then draw the cards one at a time. Sometimes I use a spread and sometimes I don’t, but in this case I used a spread, where each position means:

• Position 1: what’s happening now
• Position 2: the overall picture, the things involved in the week after this
• Position 3: problems, obstacles, challenges
• Position 4: how things end up at the end of the week
• Position 5: other advice

The owner of this case is a younger colleague at work. They drew the cards one at a time, and these are the cards that came out:

Question : What will the week after this be like?

When it was asked: during the Thai New Year holiday (mid-April)

Deck used: Tarot of the New Vision

• Position 1: Four of Swords
• Position 2: The Hierophant
• Position 3: Knight of Swords
• Position 4: Four of Cups
• Position 5: Queen of Pentacles

Taking a quick look at the whole spread:

• Most of the cards feel very still, except card 3, the Knight of Swords, which has movement.
• The Knight of Swords is hemmed in by as many as 4 still cards. It feels cramped.
• The elements are mixed (Earth, Water, Air), with no Fire.

Let’s look at the meaning of each position.

• Position 1: what’s happening now
  • Four of Swords: shows stillness, relaxing, resting after being worn out or after just pushing through obstacles. This past week my colleague was very tired, because there were lots of problems at work, and right now the mood is starting to be “I want a break, I don’t want to deal with work”.
• Position 2: the overall picture, the things involved in the week after this
  • The Hierophant: what’s likely to happen next week can be read in 2 ways:
    • One is going to do a good deed during the holiday.
    • Two is something at work.
    • The priest card, as I personally read it, is a serious place with rules and order, which would include temples, schools, workplaces and government offices.
  • So I thought that in the time after the reading, they’d probably have to be at work or go to the temple, and then meet the obstacle in position 3.
• Position 3: problems, obstacles, challenges
  • Knight of Swords: shows rushing energy and aggression. It may mean that in the coming week they’ll run into an obstacle, or a conflict that comes up fast, at work or at the temple. It might be being asked to go and do a good deed when they don’t want to.
• Position 4: how things end up at the end of the week
  • Four of Cups: shows boredom. In the end, this week goes by a bit boringly, nothing exciting. The obstacle that comes up is only something small, something they’ve met before, been through before, already solved before.
• Position 5: other advice
  • Queen of Pentacles: this card can be read in 2 ways:
    • One is a person who will have an effect, maybe their mother. As advice for dealing with the obstacle: just go along with what Mom wants. (I only found out later that they had once been made to go and do a good deed together when they didn’t want to.)
    • Two is advice for my colleague themself: don’t worry, you can handle it. You have both the knowledge and the plan to deal with it.

In short, reading the meaning of each position gives us:

• Next week they may meet a problem or obstacle at work, maybe quite suddenly. But they’ve met this kind of problem before, maybe so often they’re used to it, so there’s no need to worry. They can definitely handle it.
• The other thing is at home: they may be asked to go and do a good deed together, but they may not want to go, and that could cause some bad feeling. The best way out is to just go along with what the family wants.

Besides reading each position, let’s look at other kinds of relationships, such as numbers and elements.

• What stands out: the Knight of Swords is in the middle but hemmed in by as many as 4 cards. It shows a wish to get out of the situation they’re in now, which may mean wanting to go on a trip or take a break from work.
• Numbers: the numbers that appear are 4 and 5
  • 4 shows security, stability and stillness, so still you don’t want to move anywhere
    • Four of Swords: I want a rest now, I want time off work now.
    • Four of Cups: I’m bored now, I don’t want the same things over and over any more.
  • 5 among the Majors is The Hierophant: a feeling of tension, of having to stay inside rules and order.
• Elements: Air, Water and Earth
  • No Fire may mean no inspiration, no energy for work or for creating anything new. Even though there’s an active Air card, the Knight of Swords, it still lacks the boost from Fire. It shows wanting to rest, wanting to get out, but not having the energy to.
  • Earth – Air – Water:
    • The Knight of Swords is hemmed in by The Hierophant, which is Earth, and the Four of Cups, which is Water.
    • The Hierophant is Earth, which weakens the Knight of Swords because it’s Air. It means wanting to get out, but being stuck with rules and work.
    • The Four of Cups is Water, which doesn’t strengthen the Knight of Swords. So besides not getting to go anywhere, they also have to face boring things.
  • Air – Earth – Air – Water – Earth:
    • And it’s hemmed in by another layer: the Four of Swords and the Queen of Pentacles.
    • The Four of Swords is Air, true, but it doesn’t give the Knight of Swords more strength, because The Hierophant sits between them. It may mean that even though they want a rest and want to go on a trip, they’re still stuck with work.
    • The Queen of Pentacles is Earth, which seals it shut even more and makes the push to break through or solve the problem even harder. It could be read as being stuck with a problem at home, or with not having enough money to go on a trip, or maybe needing to ask this woman for help.

In short, reading the numbers and elements gives us:

• Right now my colleague really wants a rest and wants to get out, but is stuck with problems on several fronts: work, money, or even the place to go, which may not be quite to their liking (from the Knight of Swords facing the Four of Cups).
• To solve the problem, deal with what weakens us, which means dealing with The Hierophant, the Earth card. But because it’s a Major, they may not be able to escape it. They have to face it, which means using the rules on leave and swapped days off that they’re entitled to. Once they can take leave, they can go on the trip.

From this reading, you can see that one set of cards can be read in many different ways. But from my colleague’s feedback, the most accurate part was wanting to go on a trip but being stuck because of work, which came from reading the overall picture with the help of numbers and elements. Other things were partly right too, such as the same old problems at work (from reading each position).

From this experience, I learned that I should use the feeling the cards give me first, then dig deeper step by step, maybe one card at a time, or by looking at the overall picture plus the relationships between the cards, especially numbers and elements.