"The Four Corners of the Barn" Tarot Spread

This post is what I’ll call a Blog Dialogue. Another blog I read inspired this response, which I’d like to share with you.

At our last Tarot Blog Hop, tarot colleague and friend Jordan Hoggard wrote a blog on his own experience baking bread. He also recounted some of the folklore associated with Lammas, the holiday that coincided with our Blog Hop. His writings inspired in me a new spread which I’m calling the Four Corners of the Barn tarot spread. Here’s how it goes:
Pull one card, and see that card divided into four equal sections, as if a cross were drawn on it. The lower right quarter is the kneading, the top right corner is the rising, the top left corner is the baking under fire, the lower left corner is the golden crusted loaf.
I’ll do an example using my pre-first edition, hand cut, bark wrapped Postcard Mystereum.
I asked how I can protect my stores for the winter, and pulled Strength.

Divided into four corners, I start with the lower right, kneading. I see blue tendrilling up her arm while her green hand reaches outstretched to receive the incoming flow of red life force as her hand hovers over some phallic lion extensions  (?). Kneading is preparing the dough, so to prepare my stores for the winter I need to first receive the stores, and recognize the potency of being filled with life force. I need to receive first, and educated by Jordan’s story, I know that this is a very hands-on, Sisyphean process–I need to do the steady, tedious work, ask for what I need in order to receive it.

Second quarter, Rising. A primary color rainbow swoops up from her shoulder. The rising of the dough is letting it expand and grow in its own time, left alone. My simple red life force is now expanding out into other colors as I let it sit in darkness. To protect my stores (I’m thinking here of my money and resources; winter can be a slower time for tarot readings), I think planting some small investments that will expand in ways I can’t predict (the red dot that expands into the rainbow). This makes some sense in that a couple of things on the drawing board involve what might work out to receiving a lot of clients for not very much money, but this shows me that if I invite them to continue to participate and them let them develop in darkness, they will grow into a rainbow of clients.

Third quarter, baking under fire. A sun on the horizon is the steady heat that triggers the billowing of cumulus rainbow clouds on this quarter, and I see that the bread continues to rise and expand in the heat of the oven. The blue and purple rainbow clouds show me that the clients most interested in healing and spirituality will stay the longest, lingering and expanding as they grow into what they need. I think my responsibility here is to be the steady heat, not too hot, not too cold, just what they need as they develop in their own ways.

Bottom left, the golden crusted loaf. I love that the long-whiskered lion is here, my stores protected through the winter! He is being revived with the life force that she received from the kneading stage as she transforms into the color of him. I also see on this side a paw and a foot. Fully baked, my stores have one foot of the wild beast and one foot of the life-giving woman; he balances her and she revives him. When I look at this, I think of my cats meowing and nudging and purring and loving when they are hungry (or can see the bottom of the bowl!). This brings me full circle as I again think of the simple expedient of asking for what I want and need. And not to forget that the wild beast in me has some simple, practical needs, like dinner on the table and roof overhead; I remember not to get so lost in billowing spirituality that I neglect the pyramid base. When I ask for it to start with, I’ll have it to feed the beast when the time is come.
Tarot in the Land of Mystereum: An Imagination Primer by Jordan Hoggard is available for purchase at Schiffer Books.
All images (c)2010 Jordan Hoggard and used with permission.
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Joy Vernon has been teaching energetic and esoteric modalities for over twenty years. She is one of the Psychics of Isis in Denver, Colorado and also reads at Northern Lights in Fort Collins. She teaches Tarot, Astrology, Qabalah and Traditional Japanese Reiki. She is a Certified Professional Tarot Reader and a member of the American Tarot Association. Her specialty is Empyrean Key Transformational Guidance, which helps her clients break through blocks and align with their higher purpose. For information on upcoming classes or to schedule an appointment, please visit JoyVernon.com.
© 2013 by Joy Vernon. All rights reserved.