The Diamond

This is a simple spread that makes use of special features of the Decktet. It is good for answering specific questions, but not so good for general readings.

Shuffle the deck and set it on the table in front of you. If you want the reading to address a specific question, ask it aloud at this time.

Now pick up the cards and begin dealing cards face up into a stack. Stop when you have dealt a personality card. Then begin dealing cards into a second stack; stop when you have dealt a location card. (Location cards have a divided circle in front of the card name.) Then a third stack; stop when you have dealt an event card. (Event cards have a filled circle in front of the card name.) Then a forth stack; stop when you have dealt an ace.

If you deal through the whole deck without completing the four stacks, then the cards will not speak on this matter— put the kettle on and make a cup of tea. If you complete all four stacks, set aside the deck. The spread consists of the four cards on the tops of the stacks.

If your question could be answered by a yes or a no, the answer may be interpreted in this way: If the ace in the spread is a Sun or Knot, then the deck says yes. If the ace was is a Wave or Leaf, then the answer is no. If the ace is a Wyrm, then there is no direct answer— matters are more complicated than that. If the ace is a Moon, then there is something more important than your question that the cards have addressed.

In addition, the ace in the spread serves to set the tone of the answer. Other cards that share a suit with the ace should be read as more significant than cards that do not.

The other cards in the spread should be read as describing a significant person, place, and time relevant to the matter at hand. If there was no specific question, they will describe whatever matter has been or will be important to the subject of the reading.

The Window

This spread provides an open tableau and invites open-ended interpretations.

Deal out nine cards in three rows of three, so as to make a box. Then deal a tenth card to one side.

The last card is the focus card and sets the tone for the other nine. The first row of three cards represent the past, the middle row the present, and the third row future.

Pay careful attention to suits that occur in both the past, present, and future, especially if they are also shared by the focus card. These mark important threads that run through the fortune.

Personality cards may represent people in the subject's life, but they might instead represent the subject themself. If the subject faces choices or changes, then multiple personality cards may represent the subject.

The Bow

This is a more focused spread than the Window, without being about a specifically formulated question. If addressed to a given problem, it can be used to see the bigger picture.

Deal out eight cards in the configuration shown. You may wish to deal them out face down and turn them over one at a time, interpreting each in turn.

1. focus: This sets the tone. Take note of later cards that match suits with the focus.
2. present: This summarizes the status quo, what is going on now.
3. immediate past: The immediate past may be the last few days or the last few years, depending on the context, but it is more recent than the distant past.
4. resource: This is something from the past that is relevant to the future.
5. distant past: This is the earliest time relevant to the matter. It is at least as far back as the resource, perhaps further.
6. immediate future: This may be the next few days, the next few months, or even the next year. It is the time leading up to and into the obstacle
7. obstacle: This is the challenge the future has in store. If it is a positive card, then perhaps there are no obstacles worth mentioning.
8. distant future: This typically represents the time after the obstacle. The aftermath or one possible resolution.

the Author The Author is an artisan, like the Painter and the Bard. The important difference between them is their relation to the facts that they present. As a Moon card, the Author faces mysteries. So the Author is a character of investigation, enquiry, and at most partial answers.

the Bard The Bard speaks and people listen. Whereas the Painter can paint the world as it is, things become the way the Bard says they ought to be.

the Battle Struggle with forces that are half in shadow. It is not always obvious what those forces are until they have done their worst.

the Betrayal Even a soft hand can wield a sharp knife. This is a time to be wary.

the Borderland The edge of things. A place of chance and uncertainty, harbouring threats and resources in equal measure.

the Calamity Death so sudden that there is no time to bury the dead. Although it can be mitigated by other cards in the spread, the Calamity is always a bad thing.

the Castle The Castle is a community. It is a place of civility or power, but only rarely of both.

the Cave It is home to grim things and a place of challenges. Things that fall below the surface may be found in the Cave, even if they were long thought lost or destroyed. To enter and return from it once should be enough.

the Chance Meeting Two stories half-written find themselves writing one another. The Chance Meeting is a card of possibilities.

the Consul is both wise and cunning. He is a useful source of advise and a surrogate authority, a conduit for knowledge and power. But perhaps he keeps the better part of both for himself.

the Darkness The Darkness can settle on familiar places and hides all manner of things. Although one may hide there or seek for what is lost there, it is best not to tarry there too long. Unlike the Cave, it is sometimes best to illuminate and dispel the Darkness rather than to flee from it.

the Desert Barren and without life, the Desert offers a certain grim clarity. Yet clarity might itself be a mirage.

the Diplomat The Diplomat mediates between opposites: darkness and light, patience and action, the one and the many.

the Discovery Something buried or lost is found. The Discovery may be the end of a quest or as surprising as a sudden storm.

the End The End can appear as either a location or an event. As an event, the End is the conclusion of the cycle before the beginnings of the next moment are even buds on the branches. As a location, the End is a terminus at the border of known lands with nothing on the other side.

the Forest The Forest is usually a literal card representing a forest or wooded place. In a crowded city, however, sometimes even a single tree can be a forest.

the Harvest Things come together. What was sown may be reaped. Patience is rewarded. Unlike the Windfall, the Harvest requires preparation and demands labour.

the Huntress The Huntress finds her mark, like an arrow loosed from a bow. She is a seeker, even if she is unsure what she is seeking, and she is on a quest even in her idle moments. The Huntress stands in the natural world, like a tree in the forest. In some ways, she acts just like an animal; she moves without reflection, in accord with her nature.

the Island combines the unexpected elements of the DISCOVERY with the dark isolation of the CAVE. Whether you go to the island by accident or by choice, you go there alone.

the Journey The Journey is in between. It is its own story, written between departure and arrival.

the Light Keeper Averts danger. Unlike the reactive Watchman, the Light Keeper prepares for the worst in an attempt to create conditions under which danger is overcome even before it arises.

the Lunatic The Lunatic sees things that no one else sees. Perhaps these are deeper truths, perhaps they are delusions. Watch the great tumult around her.

the Market The Market can appear as either a location or an event. As a location, the Market is a place of trade. As an event, the Market is commerce. Unlike the Pact, it does not suggest a great confluence; an exchange, and the matter is resolved.

the Merchant For the Merchant, wealth is its own end. The Merchant amasses riches, but worries all the while about losing them.

the Mill The Mill is a place of craft and production. The tuneless song of the miller is lost in the roar of the water and the ceaseless turning of the wheel.

the Mountain A quest leads to the peak. Especially if the Mountain appears in a spread with the Journey, to the peak may be more important than at the peak.

the Origin Morning light shines through clear water. The Origin can appear as either a location or an event. As an event, it is morning light. As a location, it is a living spring.

the Pact When the two kings agree, the stones themselves agree. Even a Pact between just two parties has ramifications for the community and the broader world.

the Painter The Painter is a figure of revelation. The Painter sees through posturing and portrays things as they need to be portrayed.

the Penitent A higher calling hides a darker past. Redemption is never entirely complete for the Penitent.

the Rite records the passage of time and the consequences of its passage: sacrifice and accomplishment, ascension and decline.

the Sailor On the wall of the sailor's house: He is not at home at home. The Sailor is a traveller by nature, uneasy when not underway.

the Savage Even if the Savage presents a pleasant face, the wild lurks in his heart.

the Sea The Sea is often literally some large body of water. As a symbol, it is the source of storms.

the Soldier Like words to the Author or money to the Merchant, war is craft to the Soldier. Although the conflict might not be a literal war, the Soldier lives for it. The soldier's craft is wrought in stillness and motion. Of all the personalities, the Soldier shows the least difference between its two faces.

the Watchman Waits for danger to arise and responds, but he may be too late if the he is not perceptive or lucky enough.

the Windfall One might have quested for it, if one had known, but it comes unannounced. The Windfall on its own is always a positive card. If there is any cost or caveat, it must come from somewhere else.

the Window allows you to see out and allows the world to see in, but it is also a barrier separating the two.

THE Abbey A large domain with many resources. A library, a kitchen, orchards, and fields. On afternoons in late summer, they make jam. The jam is probably a metaphor.

THE Amber Crown Genteel but uncompromising. The Amber Crown is playing the long game.

THE Appointment The time has come, and the place is here. What slept as possibility awakens into actuality.

THE Arrest Innocent or guilty. Harmless or dangerous. These are differences to be sorted out later. This is the moment of capture, not of judgment or justice.

THE Auditor The Auditor counts what comes and what goes, what is and what is not. The Auditor does not play the game but has a watchful eye on the score. Everything is tallied and reckoned.

THE Blizzard The world obscures and pushes back. Stay inside, unless you know with confidence where you are going and what you are doing. Even the sure-footed can lose their way.

THE Confidant The Confidant can keep a secret. Even though the world is uncertain and everyone wears three masks, in the end you must trust who you trust. The Confident is a key to the Nemesis' lock.

THE Defenestration In a moment, your world contracts to a point. Yet the wider world continues. You are the focus of your own attention, but just a brush stroke on the great canvas.

THE Depths For everything that moves beneath the surface, there is another thing larger and deeper.

THE Drydock You can't sail a ship in Drydock, but without it there can never be a ship at sea. It is a place where things are made but where they are also out of place.

THE Emerald Crown There is a right moment to assume power, and a right moment to pass power to someone else. Now is a moment to take responsibility or to let someone else take it, and figuring out which is key.

THE Eruption A quiet thing rumbles, a reliable thing fails, a restful thing jerks to life, and the hidden bursts into view.

THE Exhibition} The Exhibition exposes everything. Idle eyes come to rest on every detail.

THE Eye There is a stable point in the middle of things, and to miss it even slightly risks losing everything.

THE Farrier Diligent to a fault, the Farrier's business is to make everyone else's business possible. The Farrier's rest is like anyone else's industry.

THE Festival Sometimes you play the lute, and sometimes the lute plays you. At the best of times, these are the same thing.

THE Forge The Forge can beat swords into ploughshares. It can beat ploughshares into swords. The furnace is hot and there is work to be done.

THE Fortuitous Loss You might sacrifice something to save part of yourself, or you might sacrifice part of yourself to save a treasured thing. You can argue after the fact that price was too high, but who is to say that everything wouldn't be much worse if you hadn't paid it?

THE Garnet Crown Say what needs to be said when you have an audience, because it is no use talking to an empty throne. When asked a question, be careful not to make promises which you can't keep.

THE Gate The gate is in the way while you are on the way somewhere else. Remember to come prepared and leave time for it.

THE Golden Crown The difference between a privilege and a duty can be a matter of perception. The flush of power can be drowned in the tedium of responsibility.

THE Grove Creatures, human and otherwise, go about their lives in the cool shadows of the grove.

THE Hermit The Hermit is alone in the world and must be vigilant against danger. Some dangers lurk out there, some the Hermit brings along.

THE Memory It is too late to change the past, but the power to see the past is a mundane kind of magic which should not to be taken for granted.

THE Miller The Miller's days are spent working, but the Miller is not another fixture of the Mill. The Miller goes home at night and lives a life.

THE Mountebank The Mountebank presents the spectacle of commerce, but nobody needs what the Mountebank is selling.

THE Navigator The Navigator plans the Journey but is wary of travel. If they do not pack a bag yesterday, then they will still be here tomorrow.

THE Nemesis Few accomplishments are so final that they cannot be undone by the Nemesis. The Nemesis speaks your words to unravel your meaning. The Nemesis is a hammer to the Confidant's nail.

THE Pillory There is no place to hide here. Matters are laid bare for inspection.

THE Regent The Regent is power and glory in the gaps. There cannot be a monarch always and everywhere. When and where there is not, a Regent fosters and protects the kingdom.

THE Reversal Many different things are ultimately the same, when you get around behind them. But even the most familiar thing can reveal surprises, when viewed from another side.

THE Rogue The Rogue owns everything. It is just that nobody else knows this yet, and the Rogue's task is to teach them.

THE Sanctuary A moment of safety, regardless of what lurks elsewhere.

THE Sapphire Crown A place set aside for you, to make of what you will. Isolation can be a gift.

THE Sculptor The Sculptor creates by destroying. Anything incompatible with the Sculptor's vision is chipped away, one hammerstroke at a time.

THE Silver Crown When chaos seems to have taken over, the Silver Crown steps in with a glimmer of order.

THE Strand The cusp of land and sea, wedged between power and comfort.

THE Stranger A puzzle with missing pieces. A Stranger is not a friend, but that does not necessarily make them an enemy.