Path Spread

 

 

Difficulty: Easy

For the Path, the querent asks for suggestions on how to behave properly in order to achieve a desired result. The Current column shows how the querent has been acting, and the Suggestedcolumn suggests how the querent should act in order to achieve a certain goal. The chart-like spread uses the standard 3 levels: Rational, Emotional, and External Stance (how one projects one’s self outwardly). When comparing the Current to Suggested cards, the most important thing is to notice the differences between the 2 cards. It is these differences which hint at the behaviors that you should think about changing.

Card #1 is the significator, the card which should reflect the nature of the query and/or the desired outcome.

Card #2 shows the way you are and have been thinking. Card #7 shows how you need to change the way you think in order to serve yourself better.

Card #3 tells you about your emotional attitude. Though it may seem difficult to manipulate one’s own emotions, it can be done if you put your mind to it. For example, acting a certain way such as smiling intently for a few minutes will lead the emotions to follow. If you try this, as silly as the exercise seems, you will find that this evokes the emotion of happiness. For this reading, you should try to make yourself feel the way that Card #6 tells you.

External Stance means how you act outwardly, how you hope others see you. Card #4 tells you how you were acting, while #5 indicates how you should act outwardly, for other people’s sake. It is the differences between these cards that hint at what behavior patterns should be altered.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Your Path Reading with the Thoth Tarot

	Current	The Significator 4 of Cups	Suggested
Thought	9 of Cups		8 of Cups
Emotion	Ace of Disks		9 of Disks
External Stance	5 of Disks		10 of Swords

 

 

 

 

The Significator

4 of Cups

Moon in Cancer – Luxury

This card refers to Chesed in the sphere of Water. Here, below the Abyss, the energy of this element, although ordered, balanced and (for the moment) stabilised, has lost the original purity of the conception. The card refers to the Moon in Cancer, which is her own house; but Cancer itself is so placed that this implies a certain weakness, an abandonment to desire. This tends to introduce the seeds of decay into the fruit of pleasure.

The sea is still shown, but its surface is ruffled, and the four Cups which stand upon it are no longer so stable. The Lotus from which the water Springs has a multiple stem, as if to show that the influence of the Dyad has gathered strength.

 

 

 

 

Current Thoughts

9 of Cups

Jupiter in Pisces – Happiness

The Number Nine, Yesod, in the suit of Water, restores the stability lost by the excursions of Netzach and Hod from the Middle Pillar. It is also the number of the Moon, thus strengthening the idea of Water.

In this card is the pageant of the culmination and perfection of the original force of Water. In the symbol are nine cups perfectly arranged in a square; all are filled and overflowing with Water. It is the most complete and most beneficent aspect of the force of Water.

 

 

 

 

Suggested Thoughts

8 of Cups

Saturn in Pisces – Indolence

Lotuses droop for lack of sun and rain, and the soil is poison to them; only two of the stems show blossoms at all. The cups are shallow, old and broken. They are arranged in three rows; of these the upper row of three is quite empty. Water trickles from the two flowers into the two central cups, and they drip into the two lowest without filling them. The background of the card shows pools, or lagoons, in very extensive country, incapable of cultivation; only disease and miasma tic poison can flourish in those vast Bad Lands. The water is dark and muddy. On the horizon is a pallid, yellowish light, weighed down by leaden clouds of indigo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Current Emotions

Ace of Disks

The Root of Earth

The Ace of Disks pictures the entry of that type of Energy which is called Earth. About this whirling Disk are its six Wings; the entire symbol is not only a glyph of Earth as understood in this New Aeon of Horus, but of the number 6, the number of the Sun. This card is thus an affirmation of the identity of Sol and Terra.

 

 

 

 

Suggested Emotions

9 of Disks

Venus in Virgo – Gain

The number Nine, Yesod, inevitably brings back the balance of Force in fulfilment. The card is ruled by Venus in Virgo. It shows good luck attending material affairs, favour and popularity.

The disks are arranged as an equilateral triangle of three, apex upwards, close together; and, surrounded at some distance by a ring, six larger disks in the form of a hexagon. This signifies the multiplication of the original established Word-by the mingling of 'good luck and good management'. The three central disks are of the magical pattern as in earlier cards; but the others, since the descent into matter implies the gradual exhaustion of the original whirling energy, now take on the form of coins. These may be marked with the magical images of the appropriate planets.

 

 

 

 

Current External Stance

5 of Disks

Mercury in Taurus – Worry

The Number Five, Geburah, in the suit of Earth, shows the disruption of the Elements, just as in the other suits. This is emphasised by the rule of Mercury in Taurus, types of energy which are opposed. It needs a very powerful Mercury to upset Taurus; so, the natural meaning is Intelligence applied to Labour.

The symbol represents five disks in the form of the inverted Pentagram, instability in the very foundations of Matter. The effect is that of an earthquake. They are, however, representative of the five Tattvas; these hold together, on a very low plane, an organism which would otherwise disrupt completely. The background is an angry, ugly red with yellow markings. The general effect is one of intense strain; yet the symbol implies long-continued inaction.

 

 

 

 

Suggested External Stance

10 of Swords

Sun in Gemini – Ruin

The number Ten, Malkuth, as always, represents the culmination of the unmitigated energy of the idea. It shows reason run mad, ramshackle riot of soulless mechanism; it represents the logic of lunatics and (for the most part) of philosophers. It is reason divorced from reality.

The card is also ruled by the Sun in Gemini, but the mercurial airy quality of the Sign serves to disperse his rays; this card shows the disruption and disorder of harmonious and stable energy.

The hilts of the Swords occupy the positions of the Sephiroth, but the points One to Five and Seven to Nine touch and shatter the central Sword (six) which represents the Sun, the Heart, the child of Chokmah and Binah. The tenth Sword is also in splinters. It is the ruin of the Intellect, and even of all mental and moral qualities.