This week we will be focusing our attention on the number Eight. Eight represents circulation within closed systems, circuitry, waterworks, intelligence, cleverness, language, the bridling of the passions, and the arts of magic and alchemy.
Accordingly, this spread pattern is alchemical in nature. Throwing it will instigate a movement towards integration of 8 key life energies: Illumination, Communication, Individuation, Wealth, Grit, Adventure, Family, and Learning. The eight chambers are part of a whole ecology of energy. It is notable that “love” is -perhaps surprisingly- not assigned one of the chambers. This is not because it is absent from the spread, but rather because it is ubiquitous to the spread. The Whole of the Cauldron is Love - hence, love of the divine is an aspect of illumination, love of ideas and of our fellows is an aspect of communications, love of self is involved in individuations, The attraction of abundance and wealth involves the love of prosperity, the perseverance of love through hardship is grit, erotic experience is an adventure of love, love of spouse and children and family is well… family, and love of knowledge is an aspect of learning. There is no compartmentalizing of love - rather the aim is to find love in each of the eight chambers of the Cauldron. Ask yourself in each case - how do I love here?
So how do you throw this spread?
Orient yourself towards the east - you will be casting the reading in a circle in front of you that begins in the east- where the sun rises.
As always, get into the magickal mindset in the way that works best for you. Personally, I visualize the deck as a bowl, ready to receive energy. I empty the bowl of contents, clean it in a waterfall of light, heal any chips or cracks (think kinsugi!) and then I place my felt question, like a spark, into the bowl. I shuffle the deck while visualizing that spark within it, and when it feels right, I stop.
When you feel you are ready, deal eight cards in a circle as shown above. Deal them face down first, and oriented upright.
East: Illumination
South East: Communication
South: Individuation
South West: Wealth
West: Grit
North West: Adventure
North: Family
North East: Learning
Turn the cards over one at a time and let an interpretation weave itself together out of your associative imagination. Use the cue-words, above, as starting points for each spread position, but don’t feel restricted to them. Let “learning” take you where it will - education, or observation… similarly, let “wealth” take you when it needs to - luxury, money, culture, friendship, etc…
Once all of the cards are revealed, create a story that draws it all together. Look at the polar opposite piles - family and individuation, for example, and ask you how they help drive each other. Find the non-dual thread that brings it all together like the blooming of a flower. Hint - if you focus on love, you will find this. Love is the elixir and love is the stone. Without beginning and without end.
Pro Tip: Instead of facing to the east and making an eightfold circle in front of you, if you have the space, you can actually make the circle all around you, with the eight cards all around you in the eight directions. This requires considerable space, but if you have it, use it. Put down a throw of some sort first so that the cards do not directly touch the floor. Sit inside the circle and meditation on the energies.
The whole of the cauldron is Love.
Here we have a picture of a person who wisely abandons an activity that is counter to their spirituality and re-distributes the freed energy to new ends (8 of cups). They are in the process of refining their communications into a highly potent form - less talk, but truer words (Temperance). In order to become fully individuated, they must fully face their fears and anxieties of judgement (9 of Swords). They are undergoing a vast transformation in their understanding of wealth - they are becoming truly open to prosperity (Judgement). In a sense, they no longer are required to do battle - they are allowed to rest - they are proven tough, and even the tough must take their opportunities to refresh and rest (4 of swords). Accordingly, now is not a time where this person wants new adventures - it is, for them a time to process and appreciate the adventures they are already on. They must learn to appreciate the wonders the universe offers with gratitude (4 of cups). In their family they are a leader and a master of ceremonies. They are responsible for making clear and well thought out decisions, and for standing up for healthy boundaries and reciprocal relations. They are tasked with being the arbiters of fairness (King of Swords). Now is the time to fully commit to learning - slow and steady like the tortoise. The path is long, but the rewards for the diligent are exceptionally prosperous. It is possible to develop an almost monastic level of commitment to knowledge and education (Knight of Disks).
Summary: This is a picture of someone about to retreat from the superficial and commit full to what matters most in their lives. There is a sacrifice of useless habits and a dedication to a much greater, long-term vision. This is a time of profound transformation for the sitter - they are going fully into their practice and their role as familial leader, and leaving the vicissitudes of the broader social sphere behind them.
In this example, the cards have been carefully overlapped to create a diosil (clockwise) circular flow. This programs it towards “daytime” or personal alchemy. If you perform the spread widdershins (counterclockwise), it will be programmed towards “nightime”, or universal alchemy. The first form coagulates, the second form dissolves.
Note, the bottom cards are not “reversed”, they are upright relative to the center of the circle.
Pro Tip - You can add a central axis by introducing an “Open Phase”. Briefly, before the reading, you ask the sitter to touch three of the major arcana while focusing on how they feel - not what they are thinking. You then ask them to stack them in order - one on top, one in the middle and one on the bottom. You then take this as a register of their unconscious’ needs, and build the 8-fold cauldron around it, creating in essence, a sphere of 10 directions, with the central axis representing levels of consciousness that the sitter can, more or less, control and reframe. They can always change the order of the stack and search their feelings for a sense of “fit”. The purpose of this is to add a layer of agency and personal direction to the reading. It is also a mandalic sphere suitable for meditation - project inside to the “middle” card of the axis and envision all the cards around you in the 10 directions (NW, N, NE,SW,S,SE,E,W,U,D)
In the above example the sitter has selected the Magician, the Wheel of Fortune, and Temperance, and places Temperance atop the head, Mage in the middle of the heart, and the Wheel of Fortune beneath the feet. Use this as a key to turn the 8-chambered cauldron into a meditation sphere.
Consider: This spread is deceptively simple looking, but is actually founded on a deep and profound mathematical/alchemical architecture. If you would like to learn more about the process behind the generation of spreads like this, consider my 32-week flagship course, The Meta-Magick Tarot, available from Perseus Arcane Academy, Here.
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