Tarot Leap Year Spread
Leap year almost slipped by me! It wasn’t until last week that I realized that this was a leap year, and that it might be good to create a spread to honor it. When working with this spread, should you choose to do so, please keep in the back of your mind some of the overall qualities of 2012: (1) it is a number five year, (2) in the Tarot it is the Year of the Hierophant, and (3) in Chinese lore it is the Year of the Water Dragon, indicating that the fiery, passionate energy of the dragon is tempered by the element of Water, so that we don’t run amok taking action without thinking things out.
6
4 5
1 2 3
1. What do I need to know about this leap year?
2. What do I bring to this leap year?
3. What do I need from this leap year?
4. What is my best focus for the next four years?
5. What is my best action for the next four years?
6. How can I best honor leap year in my life?
I drew the following cards:
1. Ten of Wands
2. Four of Wands
3. Justice
4. The Hermit
5. Six of Cups
6. Four of Swords
What I need to know about this leap year (2012) is that it is both creative and destructive. I need to view life from a more spiritual perspective. I have reached a certain level of being, and I need to accept that and integrate with it.
What I bring to this leap year is the need to release (or, as Marie views it, burn away) parts of my old life, my old self, and use that energy to create a new life, and a new self. This is a spiritual trial by fire!
What I need from this leap year is justice – a sense of balance in my life. I need to learn to stand up for, to fight for, what is right from my perspective, to own what I have earned.
My best focus for the next four years is a very strong, and a very humbling one. The Hermit is one of my Birth Cards (the Moon being the other one). I need to go within myself, find my truth, then bring it out and hold the lantern up for others.
My best action for the next four years is that of opening up to my own creative nature, to live fully, from an open heart.
I can best honor leap year in my life by taking a small “time out”, by finding my own truth, and being willing to express it.
I hope that each of you draw your own cards, and see how this spread works for you. It will be interesting to see which deck demands to be the deck used for this little exercise!
Scans are from the “Mary-El Tarot”, Marie White, Schiffer Books, 2012.
© February 2012 Bonnie Cehovet
Perspectives On Tarot 
Pip
March 1, 2012 at 8:43 pm
I pulled cards last night and…interesting:
Death, King Pents, 2 Swords
6 cups, Ace Cups
Wheel
I like this spread. 🙂
Bonnie Cehovet
March 2, 2012 at 12:06 am
Pip –
Happy to hear that someone actually did this spread! 😉 You drew some really stong cards!
Blessings,
Bonnie
mystereum
March 2, 2012 at 1:31 am
What a great spread! I love the immediate-across-the-year and near-long-term working together like a tetractys except with 6 cards. Really pulse-pushes time forward in a near and far synchromesh.
1. What do I need to know about this leap year? 3 of Pentacles
~ What I need to know about this Leap Year is the importance of working in solid groups: the solid groups of my multi-disciplinary background, and solid groups of supporting people. And, to forget all else from my focus except for 3 things working solidly together at any given time.
2. What do I bring to this leap year? King of Cups
~ What I bring to this Leap Year is a massive amount of fluid things to work with to build big.
3. What do I need from this leap year? 8 of Pentacles
~ What I need from this Leap Year is to get back to basics across the (8 of Pentacles card of perfect work–that 100-yard stare in the space-time between the hammerstrokes) plateau of the whole Leap Year. Discipline of the ritual is to be my single abiding over-riding rule daily — whether it’s work or frisbee.
4. What is my best focus for the next four years? 9 of Wands
~ My best focus for the next four years is to more fully let the moon of my intuition fill my preparation-is-complete structure.
5. What is my best action for the next four years? The Star
~ My best action for the next four years is to Silver-Surfer fluidly follow my celestial groove.
6. How can I best honor leap year in my life? 7 of Swords
~ I can best honor Leap Year in my life by periodically pausing in the chaos to out any sneaky things hiding in plain sight, by blowing away blind spots fuzzed in by the sloppiness of past-their-prime expectations, and to mind a pointed attention to my health in oreventitive ways.
Thoughtful feedback is welcome.
Bonnie Cehovet
March 2, 2012 at 3:56 am
Jordan –
This is quite a reading! To the King of Cups, aside from fluidity, I would also note connection with your creative self. The Star asks for belief in self. 🙂 You have quite the four years coming up! 🙂
Blessings,
Bonnie