When The Clarifying Cards Clap Back: 3 ways to get more information from your clarifiers
Something kind of wacky happened when I was doing a virtual reading this week. I’m eight days in on my “12 days of tarot” holiday promotion, which includes holiday themed readings like “The Mistletoe” for love and “The Clark Griswold” for family drama. I am LOVING doing this and really all things Christmas-y right now. I took my little nugget to the Gaylord National Harbor to see the ICE grinch and Christmas village, he’s already seen Santa, we decorated our tree and house the other night, and we’ve been watching Christmas movies at night.
So I was cheery as a frickin Christmas elf when I sat down to do a virtual reading this week. A lot of my tarot and woo friends probably already know where this is headed - it’s right at those moments when the cards bring us back down to earth and can get a little grinchy (see what I did there?).
The reading itself was not bad - it was actually really interesting, showing a clear progression from chaos and turmoil to something more peaceful and settled. The deck’s attitude came out a little when I decided to pull some clarifying cards. I used the good ol RWS deck for the reading and the Fountain tarot for the clarifiers.
I wanted to clarify (1) the 3 of wands, (2) The World, and (3) the 10 of cups. The Fountain deck shot out another 3 on the 3 of wands, another 10 on the 10 of cups, and… The World upright on The World upright.
I tried to use the help of a probability calculator online to tell me what in the sweet hell the odds are of this happening, but math has never been my strong suit. Out of a 78 card and 79 card deck I have to think the odds of this are very very VERY small.
But what does it mean when the cards repeat like that, either with the same number repeating or, in the case of The World in this reading, the exact same flippin card?
1. Pay attention to the position - in the case of this reading, the positions the cards I clarified were in were the near future, energy around you, and outcome. To me the repeating cards just emphasized that these are going to be key areas of focus. The combination of suits also was interesting so I noted that for the client also.
2. Read up on the repeating numbers - I’m very attuned to numerology in the cards and connections between the minor and major arcana numbers. I like giving some information on the overall meaning of a certain number and point to the significance when the numbers repeat, especially like that when they repeat as clarifiers. It’s sort of like a signal to focus on whatever those numbers mean. I like asking clients what numerological year they are in or - for the outcome and near future cards - what year number they will be in next year and see if that has any significance or matches the numerology in the cards. I also really loved in this particular reading that the spread had a ten clarified by a ten and the world clarified by the world… basically they got four “ten” cards clustered together (since the world links back to tens), which REALLY strongly suggests ends of a cycle, closing chapters, and the opportunity to start a new cycle coming.
3. Take the first card at face value - When The World popped out as the clarifier for The World, I couldn’t help but laugh. For any Bravo fans the very first thing that popped into my head was Nene Leakes shouting during a reunion “I said what I said!”.
That is exactly how spirit was answering my request for more information through a clarifying card. “You don’t need to know any more right now and frankly F you for even asking.” OK point taken. I do like that even if I didn’t get more information those to popping up together definitely and strongly indicated that this was something very critical to the client to know and just affirmed what I was already picking up from the reading before even putting clarifying cards down.
At the very least, repeaters like this give me a little validation that someone up there is listening and trying to help, even if they’re going to be a little Nene about it.
xo