How to Read the Glyphs

There are several ways of using cards to look for insights. Here is just one of the methods shown in an introductory booklet. There are simpler ways to read the cards, in ways that make sense to you, as well as more complex ways of laying them out.

Example of a five card tarot spread

A five-card cross tarot spread offers an in-depth view of a situation by revealing the past, present, and future, along with underlying concerns and guiding advice.

You lay out five cards in a cross shape: one in the center to represent the current situation, the top card for the past, the bottom for underlying issues, the left card for external factors or influences from the past, and the right card for future possibilities or what is coming.

Tarot cards sometimes use a "cross" configuration, the same with FUTHARK runes.

Find your quiet space, let your mind focus...

Your receptivity to what you read into these images calls for making a calm space for yourself. A quiet room or a place outdoors away from noise and traffic would be ideal.

Visualize your own thought processes as you turn over the cards, and you will find meanings that may take time to blossom from a few images, as the connections join between the images, the concerns you are addressing, and the relationships between the cards you drew.

The way you feel about what you are seeing is important. Watch your own reactions. Your responses tell you what you need to know ABOUT what the cards are showing you.

One simple, intuitive way of reading the cards

 First shuffle the cards well enough that you know you have truly randomized the deck. Do this between readings, so each time you draw a fresh reading you are allowing chance to play its part.

  • Pick five cards and fan them out in a semicircle, then turn over the middle card.
  • That one will be the “center” of your reading.
  • Then turn over the card to the left of center, that’s your second card.
  • Turn over the one to the right of center for card number three.
  • You now have a CENTER card (#1) with two that stand for influences.
  • Evaluate this configuration to see if the significant central card and its neighbors make a pattern that relates to your concern.

 

 


If you want to clarify or expand further, turn over the leftmost card, #4, and see if that looks like a foundation or commentary.

Then turn over the rightmost card, to see if that presents a new interpretation, sheds new light, or suggests a way forward.


This  highly intuitive way of reading your cards lets the symbols speak to you one at a time, as they form a pattern.