I still do readings! Any way that strikes my fancy at the moment. You just drop off a question, could be anonymously, and I lay out some cards for you. Right now it would probably be the Morgan Greer Tarot. I devise a spread based on the question, or use no spread at all. I prefer questions that are pro-active, looking for way to achieve things, instead of passive questions (“what will happen to me?”). Altohugh I’ll read for anyone :)
Is that detailed enough?

Well, here it is. TNS and the upcoming year:

Looking at the amount of Coins and Cups I dare say it’s going to be a very fruitful year. Lots of stability and harmonious feelings. Let’s look at the separate months.

Feb: Page of Coins covering 5 of Coins
The misery, out in the cold and hungry 5 is fading away, taking its place is the optimistic enterprising Page. She doesn’t have much, but the attitude is a lot more positive. Because it’s not how much you’ve got, it’s what you do with it that counts. And you can do a lot.

Mar: Queen of Cups covering 4 of Coins
If you have any reservations about your recent decisions, they’ll all be gone by now. Anywhere you felt you should be withdrawn, just in case, will now prove to be as amazing as imagined (sorry, I can’t get that to make grammatical sense). You are blooming emotionally now. Your feelings are mature and taught you to be adaptive and flexible. This is the mature way of negotiations with your environment and loved ones, without feeling you have to be “nice”, but also without any personal attacks. You are going places!

Apr: Page of Wands covering 3 of Cups
With all that happiness and good fortune, you might have partied quite a lot, enjoyed company at various gatherings. But now is the time to focus on your creativity. In personal life, which is always good, but in your education/career specifically. You are in a good place to give forth from yourself, no demons to haunt you and bind you down. You can really shine now. Not only among others, but also from within. There is great potential for personal satisfaction now. But of course, you reap what you sow, so sow now!

May: Lovers covering 7 of Coins
Well, here’s another type of reaping. It’s definitely a relationship oriented month. And you are getting the fruits of whatever it is you planted at the beginning of the year. What was just a seed all those months back (maybe it’s the one held by the Page in February?), is now ready to feed you (and the hwole family!). It looks very positive (so not a seed of doubt erupting into a breakup ;).

Jun: Devil covering 9 of Cups
And this would be the month to use your awesome new communication skills, you learned from the Queen in March. A little trouble in paradise. When everything is going so well, without adversaries to face together, you might find that some bickering has found its way into your relationship. Picking and nagging at little irrelevant things. Don’t let this escalate. It is a good time to make solid plans. What do you want to achieve? Each of you. How can you make your goals closer to each other? Make clear what you want, otherwise both of you might be sure you’re working for the benefit of everyone, whilst your ideas of what the other person wants are far off the mark. Clearing that up will give you a great springboard to success - combining efforts into a direction that matters to both of you.

Further: Justice covering 9 of Coins
The further into the future, the more difficult telling specific events apart becomes. I think this is a general tip/guideline. It shows the bountifulness you can achieve, but guarding that is the Justice card. You can have the world, as long as you deserve it. Be a fair, strong person, and make yourself worthy of all the wonders the world is waiting to give you :)

Regarding your specific question - travelling/grad school etc. I don’t see any of these cards as suggesting a journey. They are very earthy and grounded cards. Grad school is very likely, looking at the pattern of the Coins - from one to many, walking patiently to the end of the road, seeing to it that your efforts are rewarded.

I just noticed most of the Coins and Cups are odd numbers, meaning a more active “male” energy. Everything is definitely up to you. You won’t have to depend on any external circumstances, or wait for things to happen. You are the mover and maker this year :) So I suppose if you really want to, you can do all the travelling you want and more.

I really hope all this comes to pass :) It sounds lovely.

Hello! Wow, I haven’t realized this has been sitting in my box so long, I’m sorry. I’ll try to get this done within the next 24h. Thanks for your patience, and I hope you’re having an awesome 2012 so far :)

More scenario-metaphors exercises! Except instead of super literally reading the cards, I combine it with the other exercise (first thing you think of looking at the card). # = reversed.

ROY DESPEE#, 5 of Cups, ROYNE DE COVPES#
pickpocket, rose, toast
That is so random I can’t even connect it… I get the impression that the pickpocket might have lifted the rose out of someone’s pocket by mistake but what about the toast? Does he use that story later, at someone’s wedding? It would have to be a thief’s wedding. Ok… Let’s say the metaphor is: find value in the unexpected and teach that ability to others? Uhm.

CHEVALIER DE DENIERS#, 9 of Wands, LA PAPESSE#
helicopter, fan, librarian
Hm… the chopper’s blades thingies detach and crash into a library. You need to stop what you’re doing and do more research, this is urgent.

3 of Cups, 5 of Swords#, LE FOV
pyramid, ice pick, toothbrush
I have no idea what real archeology looks like, but this reminds me of a dig. Starting out chopping through rock and then brushing off little delicate parts of specimens much later on. Therefore… it’s either a great search or something that requires the qualities of an archeologist. Why does spell check say it’s not a word? Or simply lots of tedious work which may or may not pay off, depends if you hit a good site.

2 of Swords, LEMPERATRISE, IVSTICE
violin, Alice, cancer
Aww, Alice (the Wonderland one), is terminally ill and expresses herself through music. Harness the energy of your feelings into something creative/constructive. That’s also one of the tips on dealing with rage or something? Why is it familiar to me? I’ve read it many times. Direct the drive into creating something of value.

LE SOLEIL#, 3 of Swords#, CHEVALIER DE COVPES#
puddle, knot, forest
Puddle in a forest is easy, what is the knot doing there? I can only thing of tying a knot on something to remember… so did someone drop it there? Now they have no chance to remember, without the knot reminding them to not forget. It’s really ludicrous compared to the grandeur of the empty forest. So… it’s ok to forget? Or: focus on things that really matter, not to the impermanent things which flee as easily as memories.

Again just by looking at the cards we already pulled - the card that could signify relationships - the 2 of Cups, is reversed and in the way of the 9 of Cups, which is traditionally “the wish card”. So again: priorities! There are possibilities, but you can’t have everything at once. Distracting yourself with affairs of the heart will slow you down on the main track of your big passion, which is completely attainable otherwise. Maybe that’s where the confusion will come from? Still, I don’t know how “near” this future is, if it’s referring to weeks or months. To be sure, I would devote a couple of weeks on getting the main thing going, and once that is off the ground and looks like it might be getting somewhere, it should be safe to engage with whomever was trying to your attention in the meanwhile.

Hello,
well, knowing now specifically what you had in mind, I look back at the cards and can reassure you - there are no worrisome signs. The stagnation and enslavement represented by the Devil is being left behind. Change is on its way and may knock you off balance for a while, but everything you need to “start living” is there. The emotional and material support is there (in the near future). What could potentially be missing and what you could focus on is a specific action plan and your motivations. What goal do you want to achieve. Why? How will you know that you are finally living life? What will be the benchmarks? You have to clarify your expectations. (That would be the “throwing out of the fish” to make room for real experience and achievement).
:)
Feel free to continue this exchange.

Dear AA,
I have been putting this reading off all day. Not because I don’t want to read for you, but because I’m anxious. I was hoping that I’d be a bit deeper in my studies of this deck before I have a reading request. But here we are. I will try my best to provide insight to you, but please - go easy on me.

If we were having a real life conversation, I would ask you: why are you curious about your near future, are you worried about something? Are you waiting for something to happen? We could then work on a more specific question, for example how to bring that something about, or how to avoid it. Or we could have examined your inner landscape, looking for answers regarding why you feel the need to know. Near future is also a bit problematic - a term meaning different things to different people. Some, who make five year plans for themselves, might think of the upcoming year as the near future. Others might focus on the closest few days.

I decided to use this spread for inspiration and just focused loosely on your future, maybe I can form a clear enough message. Let’s remember to listen metaphorically, as I am sure to make up stories and play with the words. Still, made up stories and poems are true, as long as we can relate and discover something new about ourselves and our situation because of having experienced them. This is a new method for me, if you’re confused at the end just let me know, and I’ll do a more concise reading focusing on more traditional methods.

What the reading is actually about:
Devil coined the wheel,
a cycle started by the wrong person.
Trapped in the ups and downs of money.
You ask because you want to be free.
Things always seem within reach
yet are yanked away at the last minute.
A gamble or gambler.
She came up on top,
now everyone feels stupid to point out she’s still sick.

Present:
Money turned the moon.
A month was enough for the prize to dissipate.
The wheel drops,
the money pile shrinks,
the jackals eat what’s left.
The mother feeds them - lets them eat,
starving herself.

What the present is morphing into:
Wheel mooned the couple.
Without the misfortune,
a relationship wouldn’t have received its light.
The leader is gone.
Without the peace maker
the sides reconcile with their own effort.
A mirror shines.
Opposite feelings.

Which direction the whole situation is being pulled in:
Moon doubled the cups.
The female gives.
A feast.
Except you must “shake out the fishes to enjoy your dishes”.
And from the fishes shake out the moonlight.
Like in the stories, where fish swallow rings
which are found later at dinner
and fate is changed through their magic.
Grandma’s jewelery forgotten in its hiding spot,
in the ugly vase
she insisted was an antique;
nobody had the heart to throw it out
after she died.

Dangerous times,
humans are animals and treat others like animals.
You had no choice but to play into their game,
emotions are stirred.
They will rise up,
with just one ally
you can turn around the entire community.
Don’t worry about material things,
they come and go
and are irrelevant to this issue.
This is about casting off the bonds
you allowed to shackle you,
the ones you’ve been force fed by your caregiver.