The Infinite Tarot:
READINGS
There are many ways to Read. Some are more involved than others, some are a quick guide or reflection on a situation. All intend to introduce an element of randomness into selection.
Randomness can be thought of as surrendering control to chaotic forces, to a higher power or gestalt, or simply dealing with unpredictable input to see how the system compensates and anneals.
There are more traditional, simple Readings that are straightforward Drawings. More complicated ones involve mathematics and numerology, calculating the angle of a new card by finding the intersection of it and older cards. This numerological Drawing is part of how the Infinite Tarot is generated.
1-Card Reading:
1-Card Readings convert an angle on a Spread into a single card, or draw a card from a shuffled deck. They can serve as a grounding within the I-Tarot, the discovery of an identity or naming of a situation.
Finding a card ‘in the wild’ is a 1-Card Reading. It is an overture, a means of inviting others to play The Game at Hand.
Interpretation:
The general meaning of this card is assumed Presence, that what it depicts is currently happening or is about to occur. It is there to act as a suggestion or a reinterpretation, to get a different perspective by ‘recalling’ something in one’s life that is connected to that card.
Readings often act as a means of disrupting the flow of conscious thought, or providing metacognitive awareness of one’s fixations. In providing a Reading, or in self-reflection, the card is there to stress that there is a narrative framing to a person’s train of thought. This framing can then be better understood to reshape or fulfil the narrative.
2-Card Reading:
When used for card generation, these readings convert the angle of the two cards on a spread into a new card at the point directly between them.
Similar to the above, cards in a 2-Card reading can be drawn randomly from a deck.
Interpretation:
The intention of these Readings is juxaposition or contrast, finding points of shared thematic structure, and narrative tension. 2-Card Readings are by nature unresolved, focusing on the tension rather than the ‘end’ of the process in a definitive third point.
Cards in the same F-suit indicate a Transition, that there is a contest or union of two cards that changes their nature toward a median point, an imminent nature that is as yet unrealised. The tension exists to assert that Fate is not fixed or final, that actions shape the outcome of the contest, that the result may depend on the efforts of the ones Reading.
3-Card Reading:
In generating cards, these Readings convert the averaged angles of 3 cards on a spread into a new card.
3-Card Readings are similar to 2-Card Readings, except that they go further than tension to describe the outcome of a contest or juxtaposion. In this sense 2 random cards inform the selection of 1 non-random outcome (a card with the degree that is the average of the 2 drawn cards. Where no such card exists, the Read can choose to round up or down to the nearest card.)
Degrees point to an F-Suit, which itself contains 5 cards. At the beginning of the Reading, the participant highlights what they wish to explore: A Figure, Fate, Focus, Fixture, or Form. This step is an invitation for reflection and framing, for them to declare what exactly they are hoping to understand through the I-Tarot.
Interpretation:
A 3-Card draw is divinatory, offering a future or an insight into the hidden components of a situation. As the complexity of a Reading increases, there is a correspondence to the linearity of how the Reader frames their situation and how it shall play out in their mental framing.
The cards neither predict nor determine the future. Their effect is to offer a meaning, a map for symbols that give understanding of reality. Particularly, it is an invitation to ‘look’ for what is described by the two drawn cards, and then to offer a potential resolution of the tension between them.
4-Card Reading:
These readings convert the averaged angles of 3 cards on a spread into a new card on a 4th spread.
5-Card Reading:
These readings convert the averaged angles of 4 cards on a spread into a new card on a 5th spread.
Readings should be upgradeable. When a 2-card reading has been performed, a new spread can be introduced to upgrade it to a 3-Card Reading.
Trans-Spreads
There can only be one Focus and Fate present in a reading at a time. Forms, Fixtures, and Figures may have two of each present at a time. These Trans spreads permit the idea of symbolic changes from one state to another. Through transitivity, Fate and Focus may be reinterpreted.
