SPREAD: A Walk In The Woods

One of my favorite Tarot haunts is Aeclectic Tarot. AT and 78Friends both provide me with much needed interaction with other students of Tarot.  I often find really intriguing spreads there from other Tarot enthusiasts who, like me, love to design layouts.

This one was posted October 10, 2005. I found it six days later. It was love at first read. I did this for myself, my partner at that time, her children, our friends–pretty much anyone who wasn’t moving faster than I could shuffle and draw.  I wanted to test it, you see. It simply wasn’t possible that this simple spread was so accurate. I couldn’t believe it.

And I was wrong. So wrong. This spread has become one of my favorites in my personal repertoire. I don’t read it as one of my “paying” spreads because it is not mine and I never asked permission. I think that’s so important, don’t you? If you are trying to make money off of someone else’s ideas, shouldn’t you at least credit them somehow?

Anyway! I wanted you to have a chance to try this spread out for yourselves. I would appreciate it if you would put a link to your blog entry (if that’s how you share it) or maybe share some of your insights via a comment to this post so others can see more opinions on this layout.

Without further adieu, I give you Pamela Adkin’s A Walk In The Woods.

A WALK IN THE WOODS

a Tarot spread by Pamela Adkins

………………….
………1………..
……..2…………
………..3………
……..4…………
………..5………
…….6………….
………………….

(This is supposed to look like a winding path.)

1. Stepping out into the crisp Autumn air, you go for a walk in the woods. This is where you are starting from.

2. As you walk down this path, you hear a twig cracking in the brush. These are the fears you will encounter.

3. So you wrap your shawl tightly around you, and grasp it tightly as you quicken your pace. This is that which you will find comfort in.

4. Off in the distance you see a deer with it’s fawn crossing appearing in your path. This is what you don’t expect.

5. A wise owl swoops above your head and lands on a far up branch. This is what you will learn along this path.

6. As you reach the end of your journey, you ponder all that has happened and what has resulted. This is the outcome of your journey.

Now I thought I would also do this reading for you on myself. 🙂 I will be using my Faerie Tarot by Nathalie Hertz (US Games 2008). I’m hoping it survived the dousing I gave it with Diet Coke (sob).

A Walk In The Woods Reading For Arwen Lynch

1. 7 of Pentacles (Rx): Rx stands for reversed. I don’t normally read reversed but this deck was all jumbled up so I thought I’d leave it that way.  Positioned this way the coins seems to be over the person’s mouth as if it is preventing them from saying what they need to say.  I am starting from an emotional block about money and how I deal with my money.

2. Ace of Pentacles: A bird perches on a coin. At first I thought the tail was a haystack on a wagon but when I focused, I saw the bird. These are my fears I encounter on this path and this is again about money. I actually fear something about the seed energy of money. I believe this is my own fears and worries about my Tarot business. Will it take off? Have I put enough energy in? Too much? All those fears you hit yourself with are in this Ace of Pentacles in this position.

3. Four Of Pentacles: This is what I will find comfort in. A woman gathers up four pentacles. She is leaning over or in the middle of a pond with lotus blossoms. Lotus blossoms have a hidden meaning for me of meditation and enlightenment based on a personal journey I took with a lotus meditation. She seems very calm here working her arms around these four coins. I am involved in several things including my Tarot, my day job in tech support, my writing life and my back to school efforts. I see this as me taking comfort in the many ways I bring money to my world. (Is it me or is this ALL about the money? lol! And I swear I shuffled these cards!)

4. Three of Pentacle: It is taking all I have not to turn over the next cards to see if I get all coins in some sort of Universal GOTCHA game.  Here a brownie sits on a pentacle while balancing pentacles over his head. This is what I don’t expect. This card is a card of group effort to me. We see five ladybugs coming to his rescue. I wonder if this means I will find those willing to mentor me and help me move forward. I am taking a pretty fabulous marketing class. Hmmm.

5. Judgment: A beautiful blond woman hovers in the sky. She holds a horn from which a starry spiral pours forth. This is what I will learn along this path. Judgment is the final call in many cases. I believe this means I am going to finally learn what it takes to be successful in the things that make ME happy and not others. Maybe I’m projecting (I often do) but I see this as me learning to be my own judge and to release others from that role in my life. (And look! It wasn’t a pentacle card! Whee!)

6. Ten Of Cups: A happy fey couple holds hands lovingly as they stare out at me. 10 full to the brim cups sparkle around them. The liquid in them is effervescent. They look like a bride and groom Butterflies frame the lower half ot the card. This is the outcome of my journey. I see this as a relationship. Whether it is with myself and my bank account or another person, I see this as a lovely ending to this path.


9 thoughts on “SPREAD: A Walk In The Woods”

  1. The title caught my eye – the spread sounds like a good way to step back and see the journey. Thank you for sharing this tonight, the words you offer are a blessing.

    Reply

  3. Hey – I want to try this spread – it looks great! And guess what my little Virgo self found? My Norse deck! Yeay!! But I am not sure if I want to do this spread with that deck or not. At least not right now. I need to reintroduce myself to it first.

    You know those Norse – I jump in & start asking questions & I am sure to get a smack down. hehe.

    Must email you soon to update on life….
    things are better.
    Love you!
    Me!

    Reply

  5. Whoohooo! We couldn’t wait! Ancestral Path Tarot, by Julie Cuccia-Watts… Gryph shuffled and drew (my hands cannot shuffle *sigh*). We stated while he was shuffling that we want to live in That House with Margaret (the ghost who animates the house–we love her) and our furbabies.

    Any insights the TX Self might pick up are welcome. *smiling*

    1. Seven of Sacred Circles (Pentacles)–our starting point–the rewards of hard work, the bounty of the harvest… at the beginning of this walk, long before we heard about That House, I said to the Goddess and the Ancestors, “if You wish us to do this work for You, we’re happy to do it; but we need a better place to live. If You wish us to live as we desire in the greenest way possible, we need a house…”

    2. The Magician–our fears–who could this be but the current owner of the house? We have had to ask him to finance the repairs and carry the mortgage, and our fear (my fear especially) is that he will say no. He has great power over our future because we want him to carry the mortgage.

    3. The Star–our comfort–trust in the universe and oneself; giving without fear of loss. We clean a little more of the house each time we go. Yesterday we not only cleaned the mold off the interior doors, I turned the heat up and we will send the owner a check to help with the electric bill–whether he sells us That House or not. And then yanno… we swept the snow off the front porch and steps, because that’s what the house needed.

    The trust comes in when we say the Mantra–“may we prosper in all things, especially financially!” Each time we say it, we reinforce for ourselves that the universe WILL provide.

    4. Ten of Sacred Circles–the unexpected–extended family, kinship, clan; the accumulated wealth of experience offered by the extended family. The most unexpected was the reaction of Community Housing… they won’t finance us, but they did send their contractor out to take a look at the house and he is asking a mason to come and give us an estimate on rebuilding the brick walls. He answered every question we had and actually seems quite willing to help us out in a mentoring kind of way.

    Also unexpected was the initial help we received from a friend, who lent us money to get the process started with the first inspection.

    5. The Hierophant–what we’re learning–a spiritual leader or teacher, ritual, ceremony, insight, self-acceptance… etc… this one is harder to understand, unless it’s about learning the lesson that ritualized manatras do work. Maybe it means we’re learning to be better at we do through practicing positive-mantra-wise?

    6. The Moon–the outcome of this walk–perceiving patterns, creating patterns of meaning in life, weaving destiny. It does seem to me that we’ve taken our destiny into our own four hands and are refusing to allow “common knowledge” or the limits other perceive to stop us from seeking what we want.

    As for you and your Pentacle-heavy reading, lol, we sure thought it was all about the money! So, darlin, here is our giuft to you: May you prosper in ALL things, especially financially! So mote it be!! Aho!!

    I repeat that every time I feel afraid or anxious about money, Gryph’s job, our housing, etc… it helps a lot, gets me re-oriented in a positive direction. Hope it helps you too!

    Cath and Gryph

    Cath´s last blog post..That Glue-torial I mentioned 🙂

    Reply

  7. MM Arwen:

    The title caught my eye and I thought this would be a wonderful way to see my journey. I am going to use the shape shifter tarot deck.

    Thank-you for this awesome spread. I think this will reveal many things for me. I am wanting to start an Egyptian Mystery Coven/School. This may give me the insight that I need.

    Brightest Blessings,
    Aloni

    Reply
  8. Pingback: Spread: A Walk in the Woods « The Counsel of Cards: A Tarot Blog

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *