This is a specified relationship spread that uses nine cards to analyse where a romantic relationship is at and where it is headed. The first card shows where it is at now, and can be considered the significator. The second and third cards determine where your partner stands and how it relates to where you are at personally.
Above the stem, the three-card base of the layout, a cup forms. Cards #4 and #5 show each person's desires, meaning what they want to get out of this coupling. Above this, Cards #6 and #7 show the challenge that this pairing presents to each individual. The final two cards at the top form the rim of the cup, symbolic of the taste of the relationship to each person, which shows how things will turn out on each side.
The Future Outcome (To be read in tandem with the card to the right) Ace of Pentacles |
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The Future Outcome (To be read in tandem with the card to the left) The Hermit |
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Challenges Which May Arise for You 3 of Swords |
Challenges Which May Arise for Your Lover Knight of Pentacles |
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Desires in Relation to Your Question 10 of Cups |
Your Lover's Desires King of Swords |
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Nature of Your Issue 4 of Wands |
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Your Lover's Current Position The Hierophant |
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The Current State of Things 7 of Cups |
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The Current State of Things
Strange chalices of vision, but the images are more especially those of the fantastic spirit.
Reversed Meaning:
Desire, will, determination, project, ambition.
Seated on his throne, the Pope symbolises the male understanding of the spiritual workings of the world and traditional values. Two monks flank him on either side.
Upright Meaning:
Tradition, custom, light, truth, marriage, alliance, captivity, servitude, mercy, inspiration, understanding, spiritual awareness.
From the four great staves planted in the foreground there is a great garland suspended; two female figures uplift nosegays; at their side is a bridge over a moat, leading to an old manorial house.
Upright Meaning:
Country life, haven of refuge, a species of domestic harvest – home, repose, concord, harmony, prosperity, peace, and the perfected work of these.
Appearance of Cups in a rainbow; it is contemplated in wonder and ecstasy by a man and woman below, evidently husband and wife. His right arm is about her; his left is raised upward; she raises her right arm. The two children dancing near them have not observed the prodigy but are happy after their own manner. There is a home-scene beyond.
Reversed Meaning:
False heart, indignation, violence, deception, in-satiety.
He sits in judgement, holding the unsheathed sword. He recalls the conventional symbol of justice in the Major Arcana, and he may represent this virtue, but he is rather the power of life and death.
Reversed Meaning:
Cruelty, perversity, barbarity, perfidy, bad intentions, a sharp tongue, insulting, insecurity, arrogance.
Three swords piercing a heart; cloud and rain behind.
Upright Meaning:
Removal, absence, sorrow, emotional pain, delay, division, rupture, dispersion, dissolution, a mental breakdown.
He rides a slow but steady horse, which is just like him. He holds the pentacle, but does not look therein.
Reversed Meaning:
Inertia, idleness, stagnation, placidity, discouragement, carelessness, blame, irresponsibility, affliction, hardship, trial, burden, stress.
A hand reaching out from a cloud holds up a pentacle.
Upright Meaning:
Perfect contentment, felicity, ecstasy, sharpness, intelligence, a quick wit, gold.
An old man with a walking stick holds up a lantern to enlighten his path.
Reversed Meaning:
Concealment, disguise, policy, fear, phobia, treason, dissimulation, roguery, corruption, betrayal.