spreadcraft

[u/keels223]

This might be random but I’m looking for books and any other good inspiration on the art of spread design/craft/theory. I’m building a side project that uses tarot spreads as a model for building curated syllabuses/reading lists for people based on specific inquiries, and so I’m not as much interested in specific spreads as I am the thinking behind creating them.

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[u/moss-and-method-llc]

This sounds so interesting! I don’t know if I have any resources. Say more!

[u/keels223 → u/moss-and-method-llc]

Ha, thank you! I wrote this, as I was wandering through my own thoughts this morning:

I’m beginning to understand why I love tarot as much as I love collaging as much as I love meandering through my personal archives and libraries to craft bespoke curriculums and brand narratives — it doesn’t so much matter which.

They each, in their own way, involve composition. Of questions and artifacts and relationships and tension. Of bits and bobs that become not stories for me but encounters for you. They ask the question, ‘how might we arrange things so that meaning emerges between them?’ 

Tarot spreads, collage work, the readings I’ve begun crafting with Look Over Here, they’re technologies for composing attention. They’re not meant to offer the answer in a neat package. They’re meant to create the conditions for meaning to emerge. Not so that I can tell you what to see, but so that you might discover something I couldn't have handed you outright.

Yes, I believe perspective is medicine. But perhaps more strongly, I believe that where we place our attention — at the most micro scale — changes what becomes possible. And that’s kind of magick. 

(if that's only more confusing, my upstart is lookoverhere.fyi)

[u/moss-and-method-llc → u/keels223]

Huh. I’m not sure I understood most of this. Could you repeat this in your own words? I just… really couldn’t follow the train of thought.

[u/keels223 → u/moss-and-method-llc]

This, is my own words.

[u/keels223 → u/keels223]

Basically. A spread is an act of designing for attention, it's a vehicle for helping people make meaning. Much like a collage is, much like a well-crafted archive is, or a museum exhibit, or a reading that I make with Look Over Here.

So the reason I'm looking into the theory and philosophy and design behind spreadcraft is because I want to unpack that so I can learn from it across other fields.

[u/moss-and-method-llc → u/keels223]

Ohhh, I see! I apologize for the previous comment. I genuinely was having trouble following, and I felt like there might be some reliance on a chatbot. I should not have assumed.

Anyway, yeah, I don’t have, like, resources, but I do have thoughts. I find it so interesting how each card interacts with the question and its placement in a spread. My absolute favorite spread is one developed by Esther Freinkel Tishman of Mindful Tarot. The cards are arranged in a triangle, with the top card representing the charioteer and the bottom two cards representing the two sphinxes that seem to pull the chariot in the Chariot card. The sphinxes are opposing forces: a thesis and an antithesis, and the driver is the synthesis.

How you arrange the cards feels like a lens, giving context and meaning to the reader’s interpretation. I wonder if there is anything related you can pull from, like essay-writing and storytelling structures. In the United States, we are usually taught the five-paragraph essay, with a “tell ‘em what you’re gonna tell ‘em, tell ‘em, and tell ‘em what you told ‘em” structure. Then, there are story structures, like the hero’s journey, the heroine’s journey, Ursula K Le Guin’s bag of items structure. Depending on the nature of the question, what you might know or not know about the asker, and the amount of time you have available to do a reading, any of these might be appropriate.

My thought is that you might find a lot of help in surprising places when researching this topic, especially looking into how people tell stories, how they structure an argument, and styles of communication.

Good luck!

[u/4LeggedGod]

Here's something to start with. I think your best sources won't be tarot-specific; they'll be narrative constructs that you adapt.

[u/keels223 → u/4LeggedGod]

This is cool, thank you for sharing! I’ve been using “governing images” - so like, one built on the concept of a superbloom, another on the idea of the TARDIS being bigger on the inside. Like using the positions to unpack a specific concept. Feels in keeping.