This is a specified relationship spread that uses nine cards to analyse where a romantic relationship is at and where it is headed. The first card shows where it is at now, and can be considered the significator. The second and third cards determine where your partner stands and how it relates to where you are at personally.
Above the stem, the three-card base of the layout, a cup forms. Cards #4 and #5 show each person's desires, meaning what they want to get out of this coupling. Above this, Cards #6 and #7 show the challenge that this pairing presents to each individual. The final two cards at the top form the rim of the cup, symbolic of the taste of the relationship to each person, which shows how things will turn out on each side.
The Future Outcome (To be read in tandem with the card to the right) King of Pentacles |
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The Future Outcome (To be read in tandem with the card to the left) King of Wands |
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Challenges Which May Arise for You 5 of Cups |
Challenges Which May Arise for Your Lover Strength |
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Desires in Relation to Your Question 4 of Pentacles |
Your Lover's Desires The Star |
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Nature of Your Issue Knight of Cups |
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Your Lover's Current Position 2 of Cups |
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The Current State of Things The Hermit |
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The Current State of Things
An old man with a walking stick holds up a lantern to enlighten his path.
Reversed Meaning:
Concealment, disguise, policy, fear, phobia, treason, dissimulation, roguery, corruption, betrayal.
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.
Graceful, and not warlike; riding quietly, wearing a winged helmet, referring to those higher graces of the imagination which sometimes characterise this card. He too is a dreamer, but the images of the side of sense haunt him in his vision.
Upright Meaning:
Arrival, approach – sometimes that of a messenger; advances, proposition, demeanour, invitation, incitement.
A crowned figure, having a pentacle over his crown, clasps another with hands and arms; two pentacles are under his feet. He clings to what he has.
Upright Meaning:
Possessiveness, desperation, obsession, gift, legacy, inheritance, materialism.
Under the stars, a nude woman pours out two vials of water, one onto the land, the other into a pond. Opposite the angel of Temperance, her left foot is on the land, her right on the water.
Upright Meaning:
Youth, beauty, gifts, hope, bright prospects, ingenuity, genius, adept, mastery, gratitude, support, thanks, savvy.
A dark, cloaked figure, looking sideways at three prone cups two others stand upright behind him; a bridge is in the background, leading to a small keep or holding.
Upright Meaning:
It is a card of loss, but something remains over; three have been taken, but two are left; it is a card of inheritance, patrimony, transmission, but not corresponding to expectations.
A woman holds a young lion at bay with her female strength of grace. She is crowned by the lemniscate as the Magician is, revealing herself as his counterpart.
Upright Meaning:
Power, energy, action, courage, magnanimity, boldness, grace, mercy, goodwill, finesse, dexterity, soothing, tact.
His face is rather dark, suggesting also courage, but stubborn. The bull's head is a recurrent symbol on the throne. The sign of this suit is engraved or blazoned with the pentagram, signifying the four elements of nature and the spirit which governs them. This suit is sometimes represented as coins or disks, and is symbolic of money and material goods or services.
Upright Meaning:
Valour, intelligence, business aptitude, mathematical gifts and attainments; success, proficiency, arrival, execution.
The nature to which this card is attributed is dark, ardent, lithe, animated, impassioned, noble. The King uplifts a flowering wand, and wears what is called a cap of maintenance beneath his crown. He bears the symbol of the lion, which is emblazoned on the back of his throne.
Reversed Meaning:
Good-natured, but severe; austere, yet tolerant.