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Thanks for answer!

Thank you for your comment.

I was wondering though, when I was reading part 2 yesterday, that why the ninth card was moved to the right of the second column instead of the middle … that the second layer (the 7th+8th cards) should divide (like the red sea) so that the ninth/outcome card take the central position.

The reason we are moving the 9th card to the right is to transform the Signature Spread to the Magic Square so it can be read using elemental dignities; and this is the only reason the 9th card is moved – unless of course you deal the cards in this formation from the beginning, ie, by using the Magic Square instead of the Signature Spread.

If we moved the 9th card to the middle column and not on the end one, we would be knocking the cards out of their natural sequence of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9. It’s most important to keep the sequence intact, and so the 9th card naturally belongs on the end.

If you think of the Scene Setters, the cards underneath the top two (7 and 8), they are laid out in the sequence of:

1, 2 and 3 on the top row,
4, 5 and 6 on the bottom row.

If you keep this sequence in mind when transforming the Signature Spread to the Magic Square, then it stands to reason that the natural order for the upper row (the very top layer), is 7, 8 and 9.

It’s important for you to remember when working with elemental dignities, that we’re not working with positions as such, and so while the 9th card in the Signature Spread is one of the outcome cards – cards 7 and 8 play an important role here too, in the Magic Square, there is no outcome card. The elemental dignities will help work out the outcome, but it won’t necessarily be confined to one card – card 9, or any other.

The Six of Cups plays a significant role in Part Two where we read with elemental dignities, it does present itself as the outcome card as it showed itself to be strong elementally. However, the Princess of Disks still plays a huge role in that reading, showing herself to be a prominent player, and so in some senses, she is still part of the outcome.

In other words, the corresponding time these cards indicate may overlap or span across the whole year. How do we make head and tail of it?

In my reading the Minor Arcana played a big role in the timing. I used the Golden Dawn system of the 36 decanates; and as your comment shows, you’re familiar with this system.

We do need to be very careful where timing is concerned. There are sometimes cards that can overlap, like you say. However, it’s important to keep in mind that we will only be looking at the timing of the cards within whatever reading we are working with.

In the case of my reading, I worked with the cards that I felt had the most relevance to my question, ie, the Disks, as they represent money, business and careers etc. I brought the Six of Cups in because of its close proximity to the date of the reading. The Tower itself, with its reputation of being a close happening event, had to fall before the Six of Cups because of the happiness brought by it.

Of course it’s feasible the Tower may happen after the Six of Cups, but as sometimes happens, we need to use our intuition. Working so closely with the reading, and using such academic systems as elemental dignities, it’s important to let your intuition have its say too – and sometimes you have to make the call and go with your gut.

Timing is an interesting topic to discuss, but isn’t one that will be so well covered in a comments section. I plan to write a post topic on timing soon and hope that you will join in the discussions on that too.