“When will he ask me to marry him?”
“When will my house sell?”
“When will my promotion go through?”

Questions of timing come up all the time. Rewording those questions into more traditional Tarot Questions doesn’t always leave a client satisfied.

“What do I need to know about him proposing?”
“What can I do to help my house sell?”
“What can I do to help myself get this promotion?”

These just aren’t the same questions. It is these differences that led me to start working with Timing Spreads. Many of us already use one timing spread in the form of a year spread, sometimes called a “Witches’ Wheel” or a “Wheel of the Year”. We divide the year into eight periods according to the eight holy days on the witches’ calendar and draw a card for each period.

Let’s look at the same idea on a small scale. Four-card spreads are very useful for things like Psychic Fairs, so let’s look at a four-card Timing Spread based on the cycle of the moon.

• Card 1 represents the appearance of the first quarter of the moon.
• Card 2 is the Full or second quarter moon.
• Card 3 is the third quarter of the moon.
• Card 4 is the Dark moon.

Using the Pagan Tarot from Lo Scarabeo, I drew:

• 1) Six of Swords
• 2) High Priestess
• 3) The Wheel
• 4) Novice of Wands (Knight)

For the 1st quarter, the Six of Swords image shows us two people in a canoe racing away from a cabin that is on fire. The look on their faces is one of sad determination. In the canoe with them along with their other belongings are six swords carefully wrapped for protection. The message about the timing of this period becomes clear when I look at a calendar and see that this is the week of a house hunting trip my husband and I are taking with our two year old daughter. Anyone who has changed planes with a two year old can guess that this will be a difficult journey. On another level, it will be a difficult week as we are making a final decision about a cross-country move.

The second quarter is the High Priestess card. In this deck the image is of the Priestess leading her coven, with the ghostly image of the Goddess looking on. Looking at the calendar, I see that this card speaks of one of the few times a year when I am involved in high or ritual magick, Samhain. I can’t help wondering what this meeting with the Otherworld will bring.

The third period begins at the full moon and continues as it wanes. The card is the Wheel. The image from the Pagan Tarot is of our young witch looking at a pie chart on her computer. Pie charts are used to show how things are divided. I imagine that she is looking at how she divides her time and resources. This card tells that priorities will be changing. Looking at my calendar there is no clear event to explain this, so I will just have to look for it from day to day.

The last quarter is announced by the Novice of Wands (the Knight). The card shows a young Novice, wand in hand, standing before the awesome changing force of fire. While the week before brought a change of fortune or priorities, this week brings sudden changes more external. This will be a week to be flexible in my planning and thinking. This leads me to try and clear this week as much as possible, so I can be ready to adapt.

It is all a question of timing. The cards not only provide information about a situation or event, they also help us prepare for the way we flow through the river of time.