Opening and closing a reading

Opening can be as simple as: I am here, this is the question, I will look honestly. Closing can be as simple as: this is the reading, I am putting the cards away, I am back in the room.

If you read for others, closing is part of not carrying them home. If you read for yourself, closing is part of not living inside the spread until next Tuesday.

You may keep something small and true of your own, as long as it actually starts and actually stops. Theatre you will feel silly saying will not last. Ordinary words will.

Open: ground. Name the question out loud. Shuffle until the question is the thing in your hands. Lay the cards. Pause before the first interpretation. Observe first.

Work: the Method. Image, number, energy, light and shadow, question, position, surrounding cards, intuition, then traditional note, then one coherent reading. Speak it clearly if someone is there. Write it if you are alone.

Close: restack. Thank the table if that is true. Hands. Room. A sentence that the reading is finished. Aftercare. Do not keep a card out on the desk all week unless you have chosen that as a study, not as a leak.