These last few months, I have been experimenting with a spread described in Mary Marco’s 1989 book. She calls it “réponse immédiate à une question précise”, which could be translated to “immediate response to a precise question”. It consists of 3 lines of 5 cards.
What attracts me to this spread, is that it has a sufficient number of cards to give a fair amount of useful information, and a the same time it is still read free form. The best way to approach it is to start with what first attracts the eye, and to continue by making a narrative, incorporating lines and columns at the same time. Interpretation should be flowing, no card has a special position or status. At the same time, the response can still be short, concise and to the point. I have also found the spread large enough to be able to apply efficiently the rules of proximity and distance.
To illustrate how I read it, Sophie came to see me a few days ago, she’s been married for about 15 years and the relation with her husband has become quite troubled. She wants to know where her relationship is headed.
At first glance, things don’t look too good as the Cross sits in between Sophie and her husband.
A marriage which was successful at first (ring, sun) is moving into a danger zone (ship, scythe), deep feelings seem to be gone (fish, coffin). Communication between them has become quite nasty and unhealthy (fox, letter, tree), resulting in that pain between them (man, cross, lady). This marriage is rapidly losing its shine (rider, cross, moon), she feels alone, isolated (lady, tower).
If we add proximity and distance to the reading, we can get quite a few more details. The Ring to the left and so far away from Sophie is a very bad omen, the marriage is in real danger of breaking up. The Sun is far away, not providing much needed warmth, and that Coffin to its right is killing all potential vitality. The Tree being so near shows how unhealthy the situation is becoming. The only real positive point is the Moon near Sophie; Moon being about recognition, even with the pain of that Cross topping it, she still sees some value in the marriage.
We can also add that most of the gloomy cards are clustered around Sophie’s husband. With Coffin and Cross we can certainly speculate that the bad mood is mostly coming from him, including the mistrust created in their communications (fox, letter).
I’m afraid that at this point the situation is overwhelmingly negative, the past romance can quickly turn into a complete ruin (rider, moon, tower), they’re quickly reaching a point of no return.
Deck: Lilac Dondorf.
