Once you have "Create a Sacred Place of your Own”Byou you are now ready to spread the cards according to the the circular turn of the Oracle Wheel.
You will need to cast nine cards, which should be read as a whole, although in some cases you may find the answer on one or more placement spots. I say as a whole because the Wheel shows the obstacles, problems, and imbalances present on our everyday life.
The Wheel is the symbolic cycle of birth-death-rebirth found throughout nature, and also within our own spiritual and personal growth. Its turning reminds us that all of what had happened before, will happen once again.
The most precious card is the central one, because it is related to our soul, and will show us the principal learning related to our concerns.
Since the Wheel is in correspondence with the four cardinal points and elements, you may also consider as a favourable season, or propitious moon, the one corresponding to each direction in particular.
"Why are there only nine cards selected?"
I had a sheer reason for choicing this number. It was because, apart from being three times three (other Celtic sacred number), number nine is the most magickal and revered one on Celtic symbolism.
Irish Mythological Cycles relate that nine were the number of waves that retreated the Milesians before their invasion to Ireland. In some Celtic countries like Galicia, in Spain, some females still keep the traditional rite of bathing at the ninth wave on a full moon night in order to favour their pregnancy. Goddess Ceridwen bore Gwion for nine months till he gave him birth.
As you have learned on this book, the Hazel is a tree quite associated to this mumber. According to the Carmina Gadelica Hazel was one of the “nine sacred woods” used in the ritual bonfires of the Celts. It is not only the ninth Ogham letter on the tree alphabet but also it needs nine months before it starts to flower.The Salmon of knowledge, nurtured from the nuts of nine magickal hazels that surrounded the pool, also refered to as the “Well of Wisdom”.
The Welsh bard Taliesin slept nine nights after his transmigration under a human form, and it was King Arthur’s dog Cavall, who chased the mythical boar Twrch Trwyth for nine days and nine nights.
“Placing your Celtic Tree Oracle Cards”
Returning back to the initial explanation, the querent will take the deck in his hands, and will mix the cards carefully inverting them randomly. He will then select nine cards at his will, and place them over the table, cloth, or even a printed copy of the Wisdom of the Woods board design.
Remember that you may find alternate free print copies of the board at my deviantArt site: http://branawen.deviantart.com.
While thinking about how the cards should be layed, I thought it was suitable to employ the “sunwise” (“deocil” in Scottish Galeic) sense of rotation, commonly known as “Clockwise”: from the top to the right, then down and then to the left, and back up to the top. Clocks usually use this way of circular motion, which in fact was applied for their predecessor; the “sundial”. A way quite related to the turning of the Wheel of the Year.
But in order to make the whole spread more associated to the daily rotation of the Earth I decided that a second circle should be layed counterclockwise, for the single reason that the daily rotation of the Earth is counterclockwise when viewed from above the North Pole, and clockwise when viewed from above the South Pole.
It is quite interesting to stress that there is a symbolic meaning on shamanic wisdom regarding these two motions as portals to the spiritual world, the way to get in contact with our Ancients.
At Winter Solstice the sun is at its lowest altitude and many shamans believe a tunnel or portal is oponed on this date in order to make astral journeys easier.
Counter-Clockwise spirals are related to this season since they symbolize the act of rising or going upwards, the celestial shaman flight.
By the contrary, clockwise spirals represent the act of descending or going downwards, the underworld shaman trip. They are related to the Summer Solstice.
According to Benson, Arlene, and Linda Sehgal on their essay “The Light at the End of the Tunnel” in Rock Art Papers vol. 5, edited by Ken Hedges. San Diego Museum of Man. 1987, “...possibly no other artistic motif conveys the concept of the journey through a tunnel as effectively as concentric circles and spirals.”
Hereby is the layout scheme which indicates by numbers the way and order cards should be laid down with the Central Card at the center:
NOTE: If you wish a simple reading, you may also spread one and only card and lay it down on the Center of the board to gain insights about a present problem or event.
On the next post I will blog in detail
“A Sample Card Reading”
Stay tuned!
Stay tuned!
Related Sources:
The featured artworks belong to the WISDOM OF THE WOODS™ - Celtic Tree Oracle - , a
singular set of Decks and Wheel Board, I designed for this
divination system developed as a compendium of kennings and
symbolisms taken from the Ogham Tree alphabet, Druidry, and Celtic
lore. You can place an Online order at its OFFICIAL SITE
For
further information about Celtic Divination, I wrote a whole eBook
was regarding this subject as part of the whole Oracle Deck
project.Please check out the special Kindle Edition at Amazon.com.
The featured images are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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