First Sacred Step: Preparation and Sacred Laws
Before approaching the cards' wisdom, like the Star's serene waters, your spirit must find sacred stillness. Choose a time when your inner eye is clear and your heart at peace. Create your temple of divination with these elements:
Seek a sanctuary free from worldly disturbance, like the Hermit's mountain retreat. Here in your sacred space, with a cup of tea to ground your energy, the cards may speak their clearest truth.
For this sacred work, you shall need:
- The 22 Major Arcana, like the World card's complete cycle
- A black cloth to gather spiritual energy, like the High Priestess's veil
Sacred Laws to Honor:
- Like the Moon's phases, each question may be asked but once
- Keep your deck whole, as the World card teaches completion's power
- Handle cards with reverence, for scattered attention brings scattered wisdom
- Trust the cards absolutely, like the Fool's perfect faith
- Guard against any card's loss, for like the Ten of Pentacles, wholeness holds power
- Maintain focused presence, lest cards scatter like the Tower's lightning strike
Second Sacred Step: Question and Intent
Like the High Priestess before her scrolls, confirm your question before the sacred shuffle begins. Once the cards' dance commences, like the Wheel of Fortune's turning, your query must remain unchanged.
Third Sacred Step: The Sacred Shuffle
Two sacred movements prepare the cards for divination. First, with deck face down like the High Priestess's veiled mysteries, let intuition guide you in lifting portions from center to top. Then, spread the cards in a circle like the Wheel of Fortune's eternal turning, moving clockwise with focused intent on your question.
Let inner wisdom guide when the shuffle should cease. Gather the cards clockwise, maintaining their horizontal alignment like the Emperor's ordered realm.
Fourth Sacred Step: The Divine Cut
The seeker must cut the cards three times, like the Triple Goddess's aspects. Each cut holds sacred meaning - past, present, and future intertwined. The final turn must honor sacred direction: counterclockwise when reading for another, clockwise for self-divination. Like the Hanged Man's perspective, reversed direction changes all meaning.
Fifth Sacred Step: The Sacred Layout
Like stars taking their appointed places in the heavens, each card must find its proper position in your chosen spread. Keep all cards veiled until their moment of revelation arrives.
Final Sacred Step: Revelation and Interpretation
Turn each card from left to right, like the Sun's journey across the sky. Now begins the sacred work of interpretation, as you weave together the cards' eternal wisdom with the seeker's unique path.