The good, the bad, the mad

Sometimes I design 3-card readings for threshold events. For a ritual, I came up with a layout that I call the good, the bad, and the mad.

Get your cards in position – all trumps – and ask them:

• What is good?
• What is bad?
• What is mad?

As all liminal points are points of crisis, I thought of taking the mad as my savior from the boring and the trite, or from the urge to make bad decisions when a situation is not good. I thought of how the mad approach to things can actually save us time, by thus crossing us over the thresholds whose mysteries we don’t always comprehend.

Based on the three cards for each of the questions above, I then also thought of formulating a sentence in the form of a mantra, write it on a piece of fancy paper in black ink, and put it on display in a place where I can see it.

Here is an example:

The Good: Wheel of Fortune
The Bad: Devil
The Mad: Force

In other words, change is good, attachment is bad, and struggling is mad.

But, let’s see how we can turn this around, and formulate it so that it can serve as a mantra for the New Year:

Change beats clinging, and strength overcomes what is not my nature.

In a way, think about it: what is more mad than to fight with the one we’re never on the same page with? Yet what if that is the saving grace, the one that helps us overcome precisely what is contrary to our nature?

I leave it to you to ponder further, but otherwise, that’s it. Short and sharp for the lovers of a good reading like the Devil.

I wish you all a Happy New Year. May 2016 bring you what you wish for.

Camelia

♥

For a sustained practice with the cards:

• Join the Read like the Devil Club.
• Visit also Aradia Academy and sign up for the newsletter that will keep you informed on upcoming courses and cartomantic activities. Note the Off the Shelf offering that also includes free resources.
• Check out my books on the philosophy and practice of divination at EyeCorner Press.
• Get a reading. When I perform a reading, I also teach, simply because I can’t help myself, so you will be twice served.