~ Hidden Influences Spread ~

[Mary Greer's "Hidden Influences Spread" is outlined in detail in pages 223-226 of her book "The Complete Book of Tarot Reversals" - ISBN 1-56718-285-2, © 2002, published by Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd. 2143 Wooddale Drive, Woodbury, MN 55125-2989. Relevant text used by permission of the publisher. All rights reserved.       Text as follows:]

Pick a card to be your significator. Any card with which you currently identify will do. If in doubt, use the Magician if you are male, and the High Priestess if you are female. Keep your significator in the deck.

Shuffle the deck. Cut into three stacks as evenly as possible. (HINT: hold the deck sideways and estimate one-third and two-thirds divisions.)

Look through the three stacks for the one containing your significator. Keep the cards in order. Discard the other two stacks.

With the cards face down, lay all the cards on a large table in the pattern and order shown [on the following page] .. as shown below....

As you lay the cards, place them face-up by turning from right to left.

Note that your pattern will look different depending on how many cards are in your stack. You will probably have twenty to thirty-two cards (twenty-six is exactly one-third).

Look for your significator. This is you! Specifically, it is your key point of awareness. The cards that surround your significator (a minimum of three and maximum of eight) are your major concerns. These cards affect you most directly. You also act as a link or mediator between any two opposing cards like the ones above and below you, and those to the left and right.

  Horizontal Rows:

• Top: Creative desire, inspiration, intention. Fire.
• 2nd: Emotions, feelings, fantasies. Water.
• 3rd: Mind, thoughts, attitudes. Air.
• 4th: Physical manifestation, results, form. Earth.
• 5th: Unconscious motivations, needs, underlying causes.
• 6th: Same as the fifth row but even more deeply underlying.

The row containing your significator assumes extra importance as does its element. For instance, a significator in the fourth row places an emphasis on the Earth element and strengthens cards in the Pentacles/Earth suit.

  Vertical Columns:

Your significator is always in the present. If it is all the way to the left then each column to its right is further in the future. If your significator is all the way to the right then the reading is only about the past and present. If the significator is in the center column then you have:

• Far Left: Distant Past
• Near Left: Recent Past
• Center: Significator's Present
• Near Right: Immediate Future.
• Far Right: More Distant Future.

  Diagonal Lines:

• Any cards in a diagonal line from lower left to upper right indicate energy movement from underlying causes in the past to future inspiration, or vice versa.
• Any cards in a diagonal line from upper left to lower right indicate energy movement from old intentions to future manifestations (row five), or, perhaps, to future needs (row six), or vice versa.

  Indicator Cards:

Certain cards will point to specific kinds of events. For instance, the Lovers and Two of Cups will tell you where relationship issues are. The Chariot or Six of Swords can indicate where, when, and why travel or "getting ahead" might be likely. Money cards will show you where the money is. Balance and choice cards, like Justice, Temperance, or the Two of Pentacles suggest where options lie - look to the cards on either side. Court cards can indicate your style or way of handling the situations that surround them, or they may represent other people.

If you have exactly twenty-six cards, then the single card on the sixth row assumes extra importance as a motivating factor, and points directly to an outcome at the twenty-fourth position, which indicates a new direction taken by the card in the twenty-fifth position.

  Further Suggestions

1. Cards nearest the significator tend to be ones that influence strongly and immediately, but you can also work with and mo most easily. If your significator is in the third (Mental) row, you logic and reason to figure things out, but you will have to go Emotions (second row) to influence your intentions (top row).
   
   
2. If your significator is reversed you are going to be more conscious of the story told by the reversed cards. These are things you can see and understand, and they represent how you are experiencing the situation. Upright cards, in this case, tend to be about things that happen to you. A reversed significator may indicate, however, that the entire reading is about one's inner or spiritual life. Try reading it as a shamanic or mythic journey.
   
   
3. If your significator is upright you are more active, and upright cards tend to represent the choices you make. In this case, reversed cards are more likely to be challenges or obstacles.
   
   
4. Examine only the reversed cards by turning all upright cards face-down so you cannot see their pictures. Try to tell a story using only the reversed cards. Adjacent cards will influence each other, and so their meanings can be blended.
   
   
5. Examine only the upright cards by turning all the reversed cards face-down. Tell a story as in step 4. These cards tend to be more event oriented, occuring in an overt, straightforward way. Note groupings and blend their meanings.
   
   
6. Turn all cards face-up and notice how the two sets affect each other. Read cards in triads with the center card mediating, linking, balancing, or relating the other two. Flanking cards support and modify center cards. Some triads operate in the same time period (columns) but at different functional levels (rows), while others show how the different functional levels operate through time.
   
   
7. If you use Elemental Dignities then apply these principles to important triads, especially those triads centering on the significator or a card representing something the querent wants.
   
   

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