Advanced · 14 min
Elemental dignities II: reading the middle card
Judge a card by the neighbors on both sides, spot the pair that cancels out, and decide whether dignities replace your reversals or work beside them.
In this lesson you will
- Judge the middle card of three by both of its neighbors, including the case where they cancel.
- Read an end card by its one neighbor.
- Choose before you draw whether dignities replace reversals or work alongside them.
Your three-card reading about a tense new team has a quarrel card in the middle: the Five of Wands, youths brandishing staves at one another. On either side lie two gentle Cups cards. Does the quarrel look as fierce in that company as it would alone?
The middle card has two neighbors
In Elemental dignities I: the rules you judged a pair. In a line of cards, each card is judged by the cards on both sides of it, and the middle card of three is where this matters most. Book T has one special case, worth checking first: if the two neighbors are contrary to each other, they cancel out, and the middle card keeps its own strength.
Otherwise, judge each neighbor against the middle card and put the two effects together. Two neighbors of the middle card's own element strengthen it greatly; two contrary ones weaken it greatly; a mix lands in between.
This lesson is part of Plus
Plus opens every lesson of the Practitioner, Reader and Advanced tiers, with practice that explains every answer.
What the lesson covers
- The middle card in four steps
- Dignities instead of reversals, or with them
- Practice
Foundations and the first lesson of every course are free.