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) 8 of Pentacles |
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The Future Outcome (To be read in tandem with the card to the left) 7 of Swords |
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Challenges Which May Arise for You The Lovers |
Challenges Which May Arise for Your Lover The Fool |
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Desires in Relation to Your Question Knight of Pentacles |
Your Lover's Desires 6 of Pentacles |
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Nature of Your Issue 9 of Wands |
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Your Lover's Current Position Knight of Wands |
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The Current State of Things 8 of Cups |
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The Current State of Things
A man of dejected aspect is deserting the cups of his felicity, enterprise, undertaking or previous concern.
Upright Meaning:
Giving joy, mildness, timidity, honour, modesty; the decline of a matter, or that a matter which has been thought to be important is really of slight consequence.
A man on a journey, armed with a short wand, and although armoured it is not on an errand of war. He is passing mounds or pyramids. The motion of the horse is a key to the character of its rider, suggesting his mission.
Reversed Meaning:
Rupture, division, interruption, discord.
The figure leans upon his staff and has an expectant look, as if awaiting an enemy. Behind are eight other staves – erect, in orderly disposition, like a palisade.
Reversed Meaning:
Obstacles, adversity, calamity, troubles.
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 person in the guise of a merchant weighs money in a pair of scales and distributes it to the needy and distressed. It is a testimony to his own success in life, as well as to his goodness of heart.
Reversed Meaning:
Desire, cupidity, envy, jealousy, illusion, resentment, rivalry, grudge.
An angel unifies two lovers which are Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
Upright Meaning:
A choice, decision, attraction, love, beauty, trials overcome, happiness, fulfilment, romance, variety, pleasure.
A watchdog warns a foolish youth that he is about to carelessly walk off a cliff. The Fool seems totally ignorant of his surrounding and the danger he is in.
Reversed Meaning:
Negligence, inertia, carelessness, apathy, mistake, trespass, transgression, blunder, failure, bungle.
An artist in stone at his work, which he exhibits in the form of trophies.
Upright Meaning:
Work, employment, commission, craftsmanship, skill in craft and business, preparedness, readiness.
A man in the act of carrying away five swords hastily; missing two which remain stuck in the ground. A camp is close at hand. He is a thief.
Upright Meaning:
Good advice, counsel, instruction, attempt, wish, hope, confidence, bravery, a dirty job that needs to get done.