A Career—And Color—Conundrum from Glass Owl

Glass Owl writes that she was considering taking a break from a forum she runs. The decision weighed heavily on her. So she decided to consult the cards. She chose "Future" at random from the face-down deck, then chose "Career" the same way. Once those two cards were chosen, she consciously looked for the Advice card to round out the spread. Here's what she said about using the Deck of 1000 Spreads with her Gods and Titans oracle: 

"I saw the Future as representing the immediate future, pointing out my plan to take a break and how it would help me. I looked at the "Career" card as showing me how the future (this extended break) would affect my career as a forum admin/mod. With Acat appearing in this position, I read this as a positive sign that this break would allow me to wrap up the current project (help me disengage from it and its associated dramas) and allow me to dedicate myself to my next project. I was happy to see that the advice card, which was Garuda, supported Acat, since he represents traveling and expanding one's experiences...So this reading was incredibly spot on and very supportive. 

I have to say that I would have never imagined doing a reading with these card positions, let alone in that order but it worked beautifully!"

This reading brings up a few points about working with the Deck of 1000 Spreads. First is to trust the process and follow your instincts. Glass Owl chose the Future and Career cards at random—a combo she might not have chosen consciously. But she went with it and chose Advice to sort of complete the cycle. I'm a person who always likes to have some sort of outcome card, so that makes perfect sense to me. 

But what I think is really cool is that she somehow chose Future Career Advice to get some future "career" advice...haha. So choosing the cards at random can help you develop questions, as well as divine spreads. 

But what I think is striking, and what I'll throw back to Glass Own for her own private contemplation is this whole topic of color assignations. Look at the way the purple of the Future card pulls out the purple of the Osiris card that sits atop it. Same with the other two cards. It's remarkable. So a way of using just that association as a further exploration in divination is to ask yourself what purple means to you. To me it means intuition, guiding her to follow what her intuition and what the prevailing winds tell her to do. Then what does the green mean...and why is there now added emphasis on Acat's green body and skin? What might that mean? And how come it makes the yellow in that picture seem to rise up (in my eyes, at least)? And finally, the red from that Advice card, for me, really pulls out the hand pointing forward...makes it more prominent, along with the head of the dragon he's riding. What does that spark in the mind of the reader?

This whole thing about color symbolism can be found in any reading. It doesn't need the Deck of 1000 Spreads. It's something I teach in normal classes all the time...to recognize the patterns that repeat throughout a reading and ask yourself what they mean. However the Deck of 1000 Spreads brings a lot of emphasis on color in the cards. And even in those cases where you have a mostly blue tarot card on a red spread card...that can have meaning, too. There is no book on this. I don't even know how the book can be written. Because the symbolism is all determined by you. 

Personally, I usually correlate colors to chakras, but just think about red for a minute. For a chakra it can mean survival instincts, grounding, maybe more instinctual things. But red also makes you think of anger. Or "stop". Or passion. So you base your correlations on whatever it means to you. Experienced tarot readers already have a library of symbols and colors they use. It comes along with learning and honing the craft. But it you're not there yet, consider that. And next time you're doing a reading and see a lot of yellow...or a lot of birds...or a lot of tall objects...whatever....ask yourself what those things mean to you.