tutorial: using the four directions in tarot

how i use tarot to answer any question about the body or physical environment

Today I’m going to share one of my favorite ways of divining about the energetic patterns in a physical space using tarot. This spread can also be used for answering questions about the energetic patterns of the body (which is, after all, a kind of physical space, too).

This is probably one of my most highly requested essays from friends and clients because I truly use this reading constantly, more than any other kind of divination.

So many people have asked me to teach it to them and, finally, I now have a reference document to share!

I use these kinds of spatial readings whenever I need to survey the energetics of a space, body or object.

I’m teaching this technique using tarot because it’s a familiar and accessible tool, however it works well with any other divinatory system as well.¹ It shines especially when used in conjunction with a horary reading about a suitably embodied topic, something I will write more about on another day.

Before we start, it might be helpful if you’ve read this one first, because this builds on that:

Here are some circumstances that I’ve been known to use this reading for:

• I did magic in a place and I want to make sure I didn’t leave anything imbalanced there

• I changed some component of my living space like painting a room, rearranging furniture, or repairing something broken and I want to check it’s impact on the flow of energy throughout the house

• I want to figure out which part of a room I should set up my altar in

• I want to check the status of an ongoing magical operation in some place or on some thing

• I got sick or feel off and I want to know what kinds of imbalances exist in my body

• I applied some kind of spiritual or magical medicine and I want to see how it’s progressing

• I suspect a space may be haunted

• I’m trying to figure out which room in a building would be good to host a party in

• I made a talismanic statue or other kind of spirit house and I want to know where to install it on the property

Its structure is relatively simple, but it provides a framework for relating to space through the four directions and all of their accompanying symbolism. It is suitable to any question whose nature can be condensed down to something that can be answered with the four directions or four elements.

an edit of Order and Chaos II (Compass Card) by M.C. Escher via WikiArt

What element goes where?

Before we begin, it’s useful for you to have some ideas about what energies each of the directions hold. It’s okay if you approach it differently than me. It’s just important to pick something and stick with it. I try not to be excessively dogmatic about it. Find the system that works best for you.

In some circumstances the four elements feel less abstract than others. For example, if I were doing this kind of reading about an area next to a lake and the lake were to the north of me, I wouldn’t worry about re-orienting the elemental correspondences so that the water element fell in the north. When we do things like this we are taking action to re-align this esoteric technique with the land around us and that is a very worthwhile task. It presents all kinds of questions—like if water is in the north then where does earth go? You’ll have to find your own answers to that!

The magic of this technique is in overlaying the four-fold patterns of the directions and the elements over each other but the question of which direction goes where isn’t actually as important as it might seem, only that we overlay them on each other.

You don’t even have to use the western four elements if you don’t want to—the bāguà • 八卦 element-direction correspondences work great too!

My one bit of advice is to keep the correspondences with the four astrological angles and the directions.

These angles really do mark the origin of the spiritual use of the directions and have a much closer relationship to each other than the elements do—the elements are their own, more independent system. Another more practical reason for this is because some of the interpretive elements of the directions go with each other, most notably that of the North and South. The North represents the imum coeli of the chart and therefore gives insight into the land we stand on, while the South represents the midheaven and literally points to the sky and heavens. This correspondence can be useful in some kinds of questions.

Position 1: Center

This represents the querent, the person who is asking the question. Usually it’s me (or you—whoever the diviner is), but if I’m divining for a client, then this represents the client. I pay special attention to the energetics of this card because it describes the way that all the energies surrounding the person come out in the wash. For those who are familiar with horary, I see this card similar to the ruler of the ascendant.

If this card is very imbalanced, then I begin searching for where the imbalance is coming from. On the other hand, if it’s a very positive or temperate card and I find cards of imbalance elsewhere in the reading we can be assured that the querent is resilient despite the challenges. It can also represent the mindset of the querent. When reading for clients, sometimes it can reveal their hidden motivations.

Position 2: East

This reading puts us at the crossroads of heaven and earth by mirroring the Sun’s apparent passage through the sky throughout the day. For this reason we always start with the East, then proceed clockwise with the directions. You can place East wherever you like—many people might find it easiest to follow the compass rose and put East on the right. I put East on the left because I visualize the directions following the four angles of an astrological chart.

This means that along with the actual physical direction of the East, this position also marks the ascendant. What is rising in importance in this matter? What is being revealed? How does it look physically? What is the starting point? And finally, I give air to the East so all questions of the air (imagination, opinions, language, the mind, the sanguine humor) can be answered here.

I look out for excesses in the non-air elements in the imagery of the cards in this area to determine if there are imbalances in the airy energies which might look like:

• excess of fire: too hot to think, not able to see clearly for the smoke

• excess of water: drowning, not enough air to breathe, stagnation

• excess of earth: trapped in the underworld, something held back from fruition

• negative air cards: vata dosha, racing thoughts

On the other hand, positive cards featuring non-air elements in their imagery might indicate that those other energies are supportive and balancing.

Position 3: South

The midheaven lies in the southern sky for those of us in the northern hemisphere and marks the card at the apex of this reading. For those of you in the southern hemisphere, I defer to you as to what to do with your readings (but if I were to find myself doing a directional reading in Argentina, I suspect I would flip it around so that North was the position at the top of the spread).

This position can answer things like: what is culminating in this question? What is prominent? What is this reading primarily about? What kinds of help can be accessed? For example, in horary questions about illness, the midheaven represents the medicine. In questions about sales, the midheaven is the price. The card in this position can also describe the condition of whoever rules, owns or is in charge of the thing under question. I also assign this direction to the element of fire (motivation, passions, vital force, anger, inflammation and everything hot) and things that are upwards or high (including the sky and heavens themselves).

As I said above, I look for imbalances of fire in this position:

• excess of water: the fire is extinguished, loss of drive or suppressed feelings

• excess of earth: the fire is smouldering, biting off more than you can chew

• excess of air: wildfire, getting too stoked up to get anything done

• negative fire cards: pitta dosha, overheated, too crispy, burnt out

Position 4: West

This marks the direction of the setting sun, the sun’s descent from the waking world into the imaginal worlds of dreams, death and darkness.

What is setting in this matter? What is being covered up? What other relationships are at play in this situation? As this is the position of the descendant, it could represent any relevant friends, partners, teammates and rivals. It can also represent professionals who are being sought out (such as a doctor, in a question about illness, or a seller in a question about an object).

As I assign the element of water to the West, imbalances in this position might look like:

• excess of earth: a sinking stone, disconnection and isolation

• excess of air: storm at sea, unable to find peaceful balance

• excess of fire: boiling pot, feelings that vacillate in an upsetting way

• negative water cards: stagnant pond, emotions clouding your judgement

Position 5: North

For us in the northern hemisphere, the Sun can be found in the North during the dead of night. This position represents the direction anchored in the opposite end of the world from where you are.

Using the horary astrology framework, this position can indicate the final end of matters (which have yet to unfold). What is veiled for now? It also points downward, to the physical ground you are anchored to when you asked this question. What is underground? What is the role of the spirits of the physical land the question was asked on? What about the ancestors, the dead? What will be the completion of the matter at hand?

Giving this direction the final element of earth, imbalances might look like this:

• excess of air: dust in your eyes, overthinking or too stressed to relax

• excess of fire: leaves catching fire, too much concentration in one area

• excess of water: mud, unpleasantly sticky and dirty

• negative earth cards: a cage, spirits of the land/ancestors/dead resisting your efforts

“Expansion in Four Directions” by Max Bill via WikiArt

Position 6: What energies cross the matter?

This position is the least obvious but the most critical. This card defines the relationship between the querent (the person asking the question) and the quesited (the thing their question is about). When we come to the oracle with a question, we sit at the crossroads between us and the thing we want to know about and sample the energetics at that intersection. This final card is what actually lays out the intersection. Following our comparison to horary, this card can be worked with similarly to the Moon or the indicator of the quesited.

This card can only be interpreted in the context of your specific question and by referencing the previous 5 cards. Its meaning is abstract and then made tangible by its presence around the other cards.

In a question about myself, this card represents the way that all of these energies surrounding my physical space lay on my body. Consider the following:

• If the card in position 1 is very dysregulated and I’ve identified imbalances in one of the directions then this card can represent the way these imbalances might be manifesting in my life

• I have also found circumstances where the cards in the middle are both balanced despite finding imbalances in the various directions which I interpret to mean that the energies surrounding the matter are imbalanced in a way that favors my nature

• If the card in position 1 is balanced and all the directional cards are positive yet the crossing card is extremely negative, perhaps it’s my own orientation to the situation that’s causing imbalance rather than the energies surrounding me themselves

In questions concerning an object, this card might represent the object itself, while in a question about an illness this card is the illness in my body—and if it’s a question about a medicine, then this card is the medicine. If the question is about buying/selling something this card answers the question of whether it will beneficial to even go through with the sale in the first place. If it’s a question about a building or another physical space then the four directional cards represent portions of the space while the card in this position is the space taken as a whole. If it’s a question about an event occurring in a space (like the party hosting example at the top), then this card represents that event.

I ask these questions most frequently when I’m inquiring into the progression of a larger magical project or I’ve recently performed a working and I want to see how it’s settling into my body or some other space. In those situations this card might represent the product of the working. Using the example at the top about trying to determine where to put a talismanic statue, this position is the card that represents the talisman itself.

How do you remedy these circumstances?

When working with these diagnostic tools we often find ourselves asking, “okay, it’s not looking great—now what?” It’s one thing to identify potential problems and imbalances, but then what do we do about them?

For one, this is a great tool to use in conjunction with an ongoing remediation practice, whether that be one prescribed to you by someone or developed yourself. I use it to observe my body as I take a medicine or progress through an illness. It can offer up certain tweaks that you can play with—for example in a reading where I’m recovering from a bacterial infection with an antibiotic and I get an excessively dark or earthy card in the south, I might interpret that to suggest that I start adding in more probiotics to my diet to improve the health of my gut flora.

I think the clearest and easiest way to practice these methods are to use them as a way of interfacing with the spirits and energies of your home.

Whenever you add or change something, consider doing a quick directional reading about it and see how everything is responding to it. In this way you can practice with extremely tangible circumstances—perhaps you hang a mirror on the eastern wall of a room (a common feng shui cure) but then you find an excessively fiery card like the 10 of Wands in the western position. Maybe it’s a sunny room and you find that the plant in the western part of the room is getting too overheated from the sunlight reflecting off the mirror and you need to budge it out of the way of the mirror.

I certainly am not extremely knowledgeable in feng shui but I do think it’s helpful to get a general sense of the system to work with along with these directional readings. It will offer a lot in terms of working with your space (especially when you have the directional readings as a tool to use as well). I think Benebell Wen’s overviews on her website offers a strong starting point for solving space-based questions. I also liked this book I picked up: Feng Shui Step by Step by T. Raphael Simons.

Another bit of advice I have for you as a diviner is to think of potential cures for negative tarot cards.

How can we remedy or even work with the difficult cards when they come up? It will make you a stronger and more practical diviner to have some remedies on hand.

An approach that’s become hugely influential to my practice comes originally from T. Susan Chang’s tarot work (it’s cemented itself so deeply in my psyche that I don’t even really remember where to cite her). She suggests doing something to mirror the imagery of the negative tarot card as a way to give that challenging energy a way to manifest.

Here are some ideas I’ve used before

• when I drew the 10 of Swords for a certain room in my house, I relocated my bin of my used HRT needles to that room

• when the 10 of Wands indicated the energy of a certain wall in my living room before a party, I made a charm out of 10 sticks I found in our backyard and sat it along that wall

• I always recommend stacking 5 flat-ish rocks in the shape of cairn somewhere I see the 5 of Pentacles

• when the Devil showed up as one of the walls in my girlfriend’s room, we put hung our collection of collars and leashes on that wall

You get the idea!

Ok talk to you later,

Shuly Rose

shulyrose.com ☾ what i’ve been up to

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1. For example, I very often use this spread for interpreting geomantic readings and in conjunction with a luópán • 羅盤, with flying star feng shui, and with many different kinds of oracle cards.