This in-depth eight-card layout shows various aspects of your personal journey. It is good for exploring generalised personal questions, but can also be used to explore relationships if the couple is viewed as a whole.
This spread progresses through eight stages similar to the tarot deck's Major Arcana, beginning with birth and the realm of fertility. After birth comes the initial growth which leads to a period of adaptation, change, and re-balancing oneself. Once the process has grown enough, security comes into focus, as it is necessary to protect what has been earned. After this, once again growth is important, but concerning the mind and creativitity this time, leading to another phase of personal changes. Finally upon completion of the journey, the rewards become evident, and beyond that, one's spiritual development level will have noticeably risen.
| Matters of Completion, Rewards and Luck.  Ace of Cups |
|||||
Matters of Change and Metamorphosis. 3 of Cups |
Matters of Inner Strength and Spiritual Guidance. Page of Swords |
||||
Matters of Learning, Art and Creativity. 2 of Cups |
Matters of Beginnings, fertility and birth. 6 of Cups |
||||
Matters of Protection and Defense. 10 of Cups |
Matters of Growth, Flow and Energy. Page of Wands |
||||
Matters of Changes, Polarities and Balance. 7 of Swords |
|||||
Matters of Beginnings, fertility and birth.
Children in an old garden, their cups filled with flowers.
Upright Meaning:
Remembrances, looking back, as on childhood; happiness, enjoyment, but coming rather from the past; things that have vanished. Another reading reverses this, giving new relations, new knowledge, new environment, and then the children are disporting in an unfamiliar precinct.
A young man stands in the act of proclamation. He is unknown but faithful, and his tidings are strange.
Reversed Meaning:
Anecdotes, announcements, bad news. Also, indecision and the anxiety which accompanies it.
A man in the act of carrying away five swords hastily; missing two which remain stuck in the ground. A camp is close at hand. He is a thief.
Upright Meaning:
Good advice, counsel, instruction, attempt, wish, hope, confidence, bravery, a dirty job that needs to get done.
Appearance of Cups in a rainbow; it is contemplated in wonder and ecstasy by a man and woman below, evidently husband and wife. His right arm is about her; his left is raised upward; she raises her right arm. The two children dancing near them have not observed the prodigy but are happy after their own manner. There is a home-scene beyond.
Upright Meaning:
Contentment, repose of the entire heart; the perfection of that state; also, perfection of human love and friendship; also, the town, village or country you live in.
A youth and maiden are pledging the love of one another, and above their cups rises the Caduceus of Hermes, between the great wings of which there appears a lion's head. It is a variant of a sign which is found in a few old examples of this card.
Reversed Meaning:
Love, passion, friendship, affinity, union, concord, sympathy, the interrelation of the sexes, and – as a suggestion apart from all offices of divination – that desire by which Nature is sanctified.
Maidens in a garden-ground with cups uplifted, as if pledging one another.
Upright Meaning:
The conclusion of the matter in plenty, perfection and merriment; happy issue, victory, fulfilment, solace, healing.
Atop the waters are water-lilies; the hand reaches out from the cloud, holding in its palm the cup, from which four streams are pouring; a dove, bearing in its bill a cross-marked Host, descends to place the Wafer in the Cup; the dew of water is falling on all sides.
Upright Meaning:
House of the true heart, joy, content, abode, nourishment, abundance, fertility; Holy Table, felicity hereof.
A lithe, active figure holds a sword upright in both hands, while in the act of power walking. He is passing over rugged land, and about his way the clouds are collocated wildly. He is alert and aware, looking this way and that, as if an expected enemy might appear at any moment.
Upright Meaning:
Authority, overseeing, secret service, vigilance, spying, examination.