Tarot Exercise "Cause and Effect"
 

I had an idea for another Tarot exercise - something a bit more exciting and challenging to get our brains working.

The first card is the "cause" and the second card is the "effect" following on from the first card.

I thought we could do the same sort of thing as the first exercise - one person picks two cards and thinks of a "cause and effect" for those cards. The next person thinks of a "cause and effect" for the cards already chosen by the first person, and then picks two of their own cards and thinks of a "cause and effect" for those two cards. Then the next person does the same, and so it goes on.

I thought that way, we can hopefully learn from what other people think of for the same cards we chose, and it may help us see connections with the cards to help in readings.

Whatever you think makes sense to you - whether it be in the first person or a situation, or a pretend person - doesn't matter - as long as it makes sense to you and you learn.

Seven of Wands (Cause) 8 of Wands reversed (effect):

I was constantly hammered at work from all directions (cause) which led to me being unable to get anything achieved on time (effect).

Seven of Wands (Cause) 8 of Wands reversed (effect)
Because he was so busy resisting other people's ideas, (cause), he was unable to develop his own (effect).

2 of Swords Rx (cause), 7 of Swords (effect)
Because he made an ill informed choice (cause), others around him lost out (effect)

(All of these cards are sounding like my work place and colleagues)

I was going to say, (but forgot) to pick the cards however anyone feels inclined - either randomly, by shuffling, or two card combinations that give you grief, whatever helps whoever - there are no hard and fast rules. Also put in as much or as little information as you want.

I don't know if you shuffled your cards - the 2 of Swords reversed and 7 of Swords fit my situation to a tee! How bizarre! I'm going to shuffle my next cards just out of interest to see what comes up and if there's any relevance.

2 of Swords Rx (cause), 7 of Swords (effect):

Because we failed to look into the council's dwelling regulations, we made the wrong decision (cause) and ended up having to vacate living in the shed (effect).

(I'm using the Llewellyn deck, and the 7 of Swords actually shows someone leaving their "tent" abode, which is high off the ground (We were living on the top floor of the shed). When I did a reading for myself a couple of months ago asking if we would have to move out of the shed - I got the 7 of Swords, which I thought was a definite "yes"). :laughing11:

7 of Cups Rx (cause), 2 of Pentacles Rx (effect):

I'm seriously lacking in any work options at the moment (cause) which is making it extremely difficult to stay above water and pay all the bills (effect). :laughing7: Another very accurate one for me!

7 of Cups RX (cause), 2 of Pentacles Rx (effect):

Because I have a strong desire to complete many projects at once, I need to pare down my notes and focus in...

8 of Swords (cause), 6 of Cups (effect):

I fear criticism moving forward, and the effect has me wallowing in the past.

8 of Swords (cause), 6 of Cups (effect)
The constraints of adult life (cause) makes me wish for the freedom of childhood (effect)

X Wheel of Fortune Rx (cause), VIII Strength (effect)
When things keep going wrong (cause) you find the courage to battle through (effect)
This reminds me of the saying that 'women are like teabags, it's only when you put them in hot water that you realise how strong they can be'. :laughing6:

8 of Swords (cause), 6 of Cups (effect)
I was so tied in with the demands of a stressful job (cause), that the kids had to go to the neighbours to be looked after when they finished school because I couldn't get away from work (effect).

10 of Swords (cause) 6 of Wands reversed (effect)
After leaving his job unexpectedly (cause), he found it difficult to get another one because his self-confidence was shot.

10 of Swords (cause) + 6 of Wands rev (effect): Someone had a recent setback and was unable to regroup enough to overcome the next challenge; they might also have withdrawn at the last minute because they didn't have the confidence.

Whoo! I asked my cards for a "cause" and "effect" card for me...

2 of Swords (cause) + 6 of Swords rev (effect): Slight state of "NO TAKERS", meaning I'm not moving forward. It's a literal rejection of any change, new influences, new challenges, any kind of stimuli, with the effect of me staying put rather than moving forward. Ooh, might be important not to stay here too long...

2 of Swords (cause), 6 of Swords Rx (effect):
I didn't bother to wait until the topographic map arrived for a trip, and couldn't decide which track to go on (cause). Unfortunately, I ended up taking the wrong track and drove around in the dark for hours, totally lost (effect).

Yep, that's happened a few times ... :icon_lol:

Has anyone noticed how we seem to pick an awful lot of swords cards for this exercise? :icon_scratch:

(Spoke too soon) ...

5 of Cups (cause), the Hermit (effect):
A long term relationship broke up, which I took really badly (cause), so I thought I'd better see someone to help me get over it and get on with my life (effect).

5 of Cups (cause), Hermit (effect)
All I keep getting in my head is the book Eat, Pray, Love, (after a serious of bad relationships {cause}, she left to find god {effect})
However,
After breaking my spectacles and failing to find my spare pair (cause), I had to visit an optician (effect).

Ace of Coins (cause) 4 of Wands (effect).
Due to a salary bonus (cause), I built an extension on my house (effect)

Ace of Pentacles (cause), 4 of Wands (effect):
My father gave my fiancee and me some money (cause) so we were able to put down a deposit to buy a house (effect).

Strength Rx (cause), 2 of Pentacles Rx (effect):
I was unable to overcome my gambling addiction (cause), which meant I didn't have enough money to pay my bills (effect).

I wanna have a go. I don't normally do reversed cards, so this is a tad odd :p

Strength Rx (cause), 2 of Pentacles Rx (effect):
Recalibrating my female & masculine energy (cause), has me off-kilter, slows me down while I try to integrate a new balance (effect).


Pentacles 6 (Cause) - Cups 4 (Effect):
Having to accept alms -thus being dependent on others- (cause) makes me feel grumpy and oblivious to the beauty of what's right in front of me

6 of Pentacles (cause), 4 of Cups (effect):
When my father died, my siblings got a larger inheritance than I did (cause), which made me feel very depressed and wondering why I didn't deserve the same as them (effect).

9 of Swords (cause), 6 of Wands (effect):
I spent most of the night trying to figure out a way to solve a work problem which came up during the day (cause) but managed to come up with an answer and averted disaster (effect).

9 of Swords (cause) + 6 of Wands (effect): Pulling all-nighters (in spirit if not in action) and doing whatever it takes to get across dat line!!! Whoo go Pandora

Here's me pulling two cards to try and explain why I've been consistently waking up ~3-4am the past few mornings:

Star rev + Str rev: Aww, for realsies? C'MON INNER TEALILY, I BELIEVE IN YOU! YOU CAN DO THIS!

This is a bit of a sad combo - it usually speaks of people feeling hopeless and not having anything to look forward to/any guidance, which leads to a massive dose of low self-confidence and 'give up before it's begun' type mentality.

The Star rx (cause), Strength rx (effect):
Having cold showers in the middle of winter makes me seriously bad tempered. (I have no idea why that popped in my head).

7 of Pentacles rx (cause), 5 of Wands rx (effect):
A bad back ache after working in the garden (cause), put an end to any physical activity for the rest of the day (effect).

(Those were a bit left field :icon_confused: )

7 of Pentacles rx (cause), 5 of Wands rx (effect): Someone's walked away from a situation that was unsustainable/lacked adequate potential - in doing so they might feel that they're a cop-out, but in reality I think it's more that they've walked away from an endlessly high level of stress/conflict.

I'm pulling two cards to try and understand why a group project I'm currently involved in is having difficulties.

The Fool (cause) + Queen of Cups (effect): Ah, two cards up my alley! I don't think things are that bad at all - they're just outside our known comfort zone. We're having to try something new, which means we're going to need to be creative. I can be creative :D BRING IT!

The Fool (cause) + Queen of Cups (effect):
Jumping off the cliff (metaphorically, of course) and having faith in my abilities (cause), brings out my intuition and makes me a better reader (effect).

(I must be living in dream world!)

Well, this is strange. I did shuffle them ...

King of Cups reversed (cause) + the Fool (effect):
Having too much to drink (cause), can lead to nasty accidents (effect)

King of Cups reversed (cause) + the Fool (effect):
After suffering a depressive episode (cause), my life took a very different course (effect).

Knight of Coins (cause), 8 of Swords (effect)
Chasing his career ambitions (cause) left him isolated from personal relationships (effect).

Knight of Coins (cause), 8 of Swords (effect): Ouch! This guy worked himself so hard, that he literally built a wall around himself and now he's kind of locked in his work. It's going to take a bit of clever adjustment to get him out.

6 of Swords rev + 8 of wands (effect): A HA! If you "stop", things will actually move more quickly. Or "Rest now because all kinds of shizz is about to go down". I'll take that as a message that I should rest rather than work hard today.

Yes, I've decided to knock off for a few hours and have a bit of a rest - I've been flat out working/studying without having time to scratch myself.

6 of Swords rx (cause), 8 of Wands (effect):
A serious boat accident (cause), required the injured to be transported by helicopter asap to the nearest hospital (effect).

5 of Cups (cause), 7 of Wands reversed:
The death of her mother devastated her (cause) and caught her completely off guard (effect).

Holy s***, I'm so glad I stayed at home today instead of going out for groceries. Shizz did indeed go down majorly and there was a frantic hour spent on the internet - we have a new major deadline in less than 24 hours.


5 of Cups (cause), 7 of Wands reversed (effect): Ouch - grief leads to turning inwards and away from external conflicts. I don't think it's unhealthy though - maybe it's a wise time to focus on healing rather than continuing to fight stuff out. Doing honour to the healing process :)

Knight of Cups (cause) + 6 of swords rev (effect): Hmm! Something nice comes along (real or imaginary) and stops one in their tracks.

Knight of Cups (cause), 6 of Swords rx (effect):
The love of her life finally took the plunge and proposed (cause), so she stopped in her tracks and decided not to move away afterall (effect).

Isn't that romantic ... :love7:

8 of Swords Rx (cause), Ace of Wands Rx (effect):
By the time she got the courage to face her fears and leave her old job (cause), the job she was hoping to move into was taken (effect).

8 of Swords Rx (cause), Ace of Wands Rx (effect): Ah! Liberation! Except there's always a pause between suddenly being freed and knowing what to do next - a transition step. Value dat.

I'm pulling two cards here to try and describe what I'm feeling inside right now:

6 of Coins rev (cause) + Knight of Coins rev (effect): Ah, I see. This points to a massive discrepancy between 'cost' and 'benefit' - namely, that it's all cost right now and no perceived benefit! The Knight of Coins in my deck (Fountain) is half-hidden behind a wall, which my eyes keep getting drawn to, which gives the impression that he feels "locked in" and desperately wants out.

6 of Pentacles Rx (cause), Knight of Pentacles Rx (effect):
Getting retrenched from his job (cause), put the dampener or any future plans to move forward in the company (effect).

2 of Pentacles Rx (cause), 9 of Swords Rx (effect):
Unable to decide what to do first from taking on too many things at the same time (cause), makes it very difficult to cope with the stress (effect).

2 of Pentacles Rx (cause), 9 of Swords Rx (effect): Ouch! Something just fell out of grasp - and someone's epically beating themselves up about it. Lighten up, my friend. We all make mistakes and bad stuff happens. Instead of throwing knives at yourself, accept that the bad event is now in the past and focus instead on avoiding the same problem happening again.

3 of Wands rev (cause) + 3 of Cups rev (effect): Eek, another ouch. 3 of Wands rev is about trying to move forward, but not quite having the skills or circumstances to pull it off. 3 of Cups is about limited/short-term joys. You may need to believe in yourself and keep practicing - the outgoing effort may correlate with the rewards.

3 of Wands rx (cause), 3 of Cups rx (effect):
Something you were waiting for hasn't materialised yet (cause). Unfortunately, it's not quite the time to celebrate just yet - you may have to wait a bit longer to get the reward you've after (effect).

3 of Swords (cause), 8 of Pentacles (effect):
A project getting shelved (cause), means you're going to have to go back to the drawing board and try and improve on the original plan (effect).

3 of Swords (cause), 8 of Pentacles (effect): Ouch! Shizz is hard right now, which means you might have to work harder than normal to pull stuff off. But on the bright side, there's also a suggestion here that getting into work will help re-align your emotional energies :)

4 of Pent rev (cause) + Ace of Cups rev (effect): Two potential definitions here. The first is that dropping your perceived value leads to emotional unhappy. On the flip side, being tooo clingy with your goods may lead to emotional unhappy. For advice, I would suggest you consider what's an appropriate level of investment, kind of like the Goldilocks approach. Not too much, not too little... "just right!"

4 of Pent rev (cause) + Ace of Cups rev (effect):
When the MP was caught taking bribes, (cause) the electorate voted him out of government(effect).

6 of Coins (cause), Ace of Swords (effect)
To decide on which online auction seller to use (cause), he sought out previous customers feedback (effect)

6 of Pentacles (cause), Ace of Swords (effect):
He started to do charity work (cause), which went down very well on his resume when applying for a job (effect).

8 of Wands rx (cause), the Hermit rx (effect):
He was in such a hurry to get a result that he didn't focus on the best way to go about it (cause). Consequently, he ended up not finding the right information he was looking for (effect).

Strength Rx (cause), 2 of Pentacles Rx (effect)

(True story :smile:)
The manager was an egotistical tyrant (cause), and the staff were over worked for minimal pay (effect)

Wheel of Fortune (cause), 9 of Cups (effect)

Thanks to winning some money on the horse racing (cause), Trevor bought everyone in the bar a drink (effect)

Yep, 9 of Cups guy is known as Trevor in my deck :D

Wheel of Fortune (cause), 9 of Cups (effect):

Hahaha. I can't get Pisces Moon's answer out of my head ... it's so fitting for these two cards.

All I can think of when I look at the Wheel of Fortune is the Tardis!

He decided to take a punt and start his own business (cause), which turned out to be everything he'd ever hoped for (effect).

8 of Cups (cause) the Sun (effect):
He felt he couldn't progress much further in his job, so left in pursuit of something better (cause) and ended up in a job that was much for satisfying (effect).

8 of Cups (cause) the Sun (effect): Sadly walked away from something onto something WAY better! :D

Str rev (cause) + Queen of Swords (effect): Going from a place of fearfulness to calmer rationality.

Strength reversed (cause), Queen of Swords (effect):
Not changing his troublesome ways (cause), meant he was up in front of the principal for detention (effect).

7 of Wands (cause), 7 of Cups reversed (effect):
His arrogant and belligerent behaviour in his workplace (cause) limited his options because the company wasn't keen to further his career (effect).

7 of Wands (cause), 7 of Cups reversed (effect): Fight hard!! Your firm resolve might just cut through any indecision. Be in the moment and don't doubt yourself.

World rev + King of Pent rev: F*** :/ Anyway - someone's world is slightly in shambles, which has paved the way for this shady guy to slip in. He's much gold and prestige on the surface, but inside he's bitter and twisted. DON'T WALK, RUN!

World rev + King of Pent rev
Because she was scared of ending up alone (cause), she found herself attracting insecure, jealous dysfunctional partners.

10 of Pents (cause), 0 The Fool (effect)
Because his parents could afford it (cause) he went off backpacking around the world (effect).

10 of Pents (cause), 0 The Fool (effect)
The situation was rife with symbolism (cause), so she needed a walk.

Knight of Wands (cause), 10 of Wands (effect)
Uh oh..He was indeed perceived as a player (cause), and unfortunately suffered a bit some, from that perception (effect).

Knight of Wands (cause), 10 of Wands (effect):
Waving his stick about in public (cause), created such a mayhem, he had to try and hide his face at work (effect) hahahaha!

9 of Pentacles rx (cause), 4 of Cups rx (effect):
Poor Matilda invested all her life savings and ended up losing the lot (cause). She consequently found it very difficult to trust any advice she was given afterwards (effect).

9 of Pentacles rx (cause), 4 of Cups rx (effect):
The stigma of living on state benefits (cause) gave her the drive to get a job for her own self respect (effect).

II High Priestess (cause), 2 of Swords Rx (effect)
With the skill she had learnt in her job (cause) she took the decision to take the position offered at a different company (effect).

High Priestess (cause), 2 of Swords rx (effect):
When she got the right information (cause) she was in a position to make a good decision (effect).

Knight of Pentacles rx (cause), the Hermit rx (effect):
He dropped out of his studies for lack of patience (cause) ending up being refused just about every position he applied for (effect).

Knight of Pentacles rx (cause), the Hermit rx (effect): Spending too long in your cave, buddy - now you're too isolated and have no-one waiting for you at your graduation party!

5 of Cups rev + King of Cups: This is a nice combo. It shows someone moving on from their grief - and by putting the past behind them, they have learned to 'weather the storms' and yet still show capacity for compassion and love :)

5 of Cups rev + King of Cups
Appreciating what he had in life (cause), made him thoughtful and considerate to others (effect)

10 of Wands Rx (cause), 4 of Wands (effect)
After quitting his rat race lifestyle (cause), he found joy in living g a simpler life (effect).