How to read layers in tarot

The straight way, and then with a fucking hammer

Let’s have a look at these Soprafino cards above and acknowledge from the start that it’s not always easy to perceive immediately what is happening, due to the fine lines and details in the design.

We could go like this for the creation of context, especially when no question is on the table. Yet.

The Pope issues a warning to the Knight: ‘if you pursue the coin that’s not in your hand irresponsibly, you’ll end up a Fool.’

‘Yes, but, oh how I desire that cash,’ we can almost hear the Knight of Coins saying, turning his potential failure to get his hands on a sack of 8 polished coins into a mirror: ‘at least I saw the face on it, how shiny.’ Yes, the face of the ruler on the Ace of Coins does look alluring, but as I like to put it, in my book 1 coin is a lot less than 8, so if money is the aim, the economy that rests on mere reflection is no good.

‘You have to work harder for the 8 Coins,’ the Popess right below this card chimes in, to which the Knight, now raised to the status of Charioteer, has this to say: ‘Okay, I’m out of here.’ Judging by both his gaze and that of his horses, we can already see the Charioteer making a move for the exit. ‘Work harder’ is so not the idea…

That was the straightforward reading beginning with the top layer and going down to the bottom through a fold, that of the Popess at the center, and right below the object(s) of desire, the coins.

Now, let’s see if we can get more out of this, read more layers, and in the process smash with the hammer a new, favorite phrase in tarot town: ‘I’ve always thought that…’ in connection with a reading practice that, to all in the know, is actually brand new to the one claiming a whole personal history of engaging with it, ‘the thought,’ that is. Just out of curiosity I went checking the validity of ‘I’ve always thought that…’ in the entire published oeuvre of the claimant, and as anticipated, I found no evidence of either the thinking or the practice referred to. So it goes, another act of opportunism.

I name no names here, since as I’m not invested in what others claim and how that coheres with what they do in actuality, but in the following, I want to make a point about ‘what we always think’ when we read the cards as part of a process of layering the reading.

The unpacking of what’s going on here goes to my paid subscribers, with thanks. The substantial text following this short reading includes the question that these cards were cast for and theories about working with rhythmic layers in a reading, the impact of raw tonality in the cards, and ephemerality as a changing agent.