Patterns across the spread

The last lesson began a reading by counting: suits, Majors, reversals. This lesson takes that first look further. When the same number keeps turning up, when one suit fills the table or another never appears, the spread is saying something as a whole, before any single card has spoken.

Readers call these multiples, or patterns across the spread. They don't replace the cards' own meanings. They give the reading its flavour, and they tie together positions that would otherwise be read one at a time.

What to look for

• One number, several times. Two, three or four cards of the same rank. Three Fives, two Kings. The number's theme from lesson XI runs right through the question.
• One suit taking over. More than half the spread in a single suit puts the whole matter in that suit's territory: Wands for drive and energy, Cups for feeling, Swords for thought and conflict, Pentacles for work, money and the body.
• A suit that is missing. In a larger spread, a suit with no card at all can show what the question leaves out.
• Many Major Arcana. When Majors outnumber everything else, bigger forces and turning points outweigh day-to-day choices.
• Many court cards. Three or more courts often mean other people crowding into the question, or several sides of you pulling different ways.
• Many reversals. Far more reversed cards than you would usually get suggests energy that is held back, delayed or turned inward. Lesson XVII has more on reading them.
• A number echo. A Minor card that shares its number with a Major. The Hierophant is card V, so a Five beside it is read as the Hierophant's theme speaking through the smaller card.

What the old tables say

Two famous lists give meanings for repeated cards, and they don't agree.

Arthur Edward Waite printed one in 1911, which he called the recurrence of cards in dealing. It came from French fortune-telling, and it gives a few words for two, three and four of every rank, upright and reversed. Four Kings mean "great honour", three Kings "consultation", two Kings "minor counsel". Three Fives mean "determination".

The Golden Dawn's teaching, Book T, has its own list. A majority of Wands means energy, quarrelling and opposition; of Cups, pleasure and merriment; of Swords, trouble and sadness; of Pentacles, business, money and possessions. A majority of trumps means forces of considerable strength beyond your control, and a majority of court cards means society and meeting many people. It gives three and four of each rank as well, and here three Fives mean "quarrels, fights".

So the same three Fives mean determination to one tradition and a fight to another. Most modern readers treat both tables as hints rather than rules, and fall back on what they already know: the character of the number itself.

How much weight a pattern deserves

A pattern only means something if it's unlikely. Two cards of the same rank turn up in about three ten-card spreads out of four, so a pair in a Celtic Cross is close to noise. Three of a rank in the same ten cards happens less than one time in ten, and that is worth a sentence.

Spread size changes everything. In three cards at least one suit is always missing, so its absence says nothing. In seven cards a missing suit still happens most of the time. One suit filling more than half of ten cards, on the other hand, happens less than one time in a hundred.

Look back at Robin's Celtic Cross from lesson XV. It had five Pentacles out of ten, exactly half: a strong lean towards practical matters, though not a majority. It also had two Fours, the Four of Pentacles and the Four of Cups. In ten cards a pair like that is common, so it is a light touch at most, though it does fit: two kinds of standing still, one holding on and one switched off.

A worked example

Sam is in a writing group that has fallen out. Their question: "How do I handle the falling-out in my writing group?" They lay out a seven-card horseshoe.

The cards, in order: the Five of Wands in Past Influences, the Five of Swords in the Present Situation, The Hierophant in the Immediate Future, the Two of Cups as the Best Action, the Knight of Swords in External Influences, the Five of Cups in Hopes and Fears, and the Page of Swords as the Final Outcome.

Now count, before reading any card closely:

• Three Fives. The Five of Wands, the Five of Swords and the Five of Cups. Fives are the shake-up, the stable thing disturbed, and here the disturbance runs from the past, through the present, into Sam's hopes and fears. In seven cards, three of a rank turns up only a couple of times in a hundred. Waite would call it determination and Book T quarrels; either way, it is the heart of the matter.
• A number echo. The Hierophant is card V. Set beside three Fives, he reads as the answer to their trouble: the shared rules, the agreed way of doing things, that the group has lost. The Fives break the order; the Hierophant restores one.
• Swords lead. Three of the seven cards are Swords: the Five, the Knight and the Page. Not a majority, but a strong showing. Words are where the damage was done, and words are how it will mend.
• No Pentacles. Nothing here is about money or the work itself. In seven cards that is common, so it's a light note: this is about how people treat each other.
• Two courts, one Major, no reversals. Not enough courts to call a crowd, though the Knight of Swords looks very like one sharp-tongued member charging in.

Already the story is there: an old rivalry (the Five of Wands) became an argument someone "won" (the Five of Swords), and the group may grieve what it has lost (the Five of Cups). The way through is a set of agreed ground rules (the Hierophant), reached by meeting one person halfway (the Two of Cups), and it ends in a new, more careful conversation (the Page of Swords).

Patterns tie the positions together

The pattern does more than add a flavour. It links positions that a card-by-card reading keeps apart. Sam's three Fives sit in the Past, the Present and Hopes and Fears: the same upset seen from three angles. Without them, the Five of Cups might read as a separate sadness; with them, it is plainly the same quarrel, felt.

When you find a pattern, ask two questions. Which positions does it connect? And does it change how any single card reads?

In our own readings

Tarot readings here include a section called Patterns across the spread, which does this counting for you and weighs each pattern by how rare it is at the size of your spread. It lists repeated ranks (a pair only in spreads of seven cards or fewer), a suit holding more than half the cards, a suit missing from six cards or more, a majority of Majors, many court cards, more reversals than the expected rate, and number echoes between a Minor and a Major from one to ten.

What to take from this

• Count before you read. Repeated numbers, a dominant or missing suit, many Majors, courts or reversals.
• Weigh a pattern by how rare it is. A pair in ten cards is noise; three of a kind is worth a sentence.
• The old tables disagree. Treat them as hints, and lean on the number's own character.
• Patterns link positions. Ask what they connect, and whether they change a card's meaning.

Next, the other way to read: the Marseille deck, and the numbered card with no picture.