The Fortune Tellers Society

Ah Mildred Payne, your wiles have enticed me to research ways you might have read your Secret Pocket Oracle and Mildred’s Letter cards.  I research this because I think, you little tease you, that the very simple card spreads that were shared in your brown paper bag handouts, were not nearly the depth of what you could do with these delightful cards.  I do so hope you don’t mind……

Pentagram Spread

This is a spread that I have used, as many other have, for Tarot and various other oracles.  Here I have taken it and “twisted” it in a fashion that I believe Mildred Payne herself would approve of – it not perhaps used, who’s to say?

pentagram spread

The above link will bring you to the numbered layout of the above pictured spread if you would like to view it that way.  It will make it easier to follow if you are new to this spread and of course print it out to use as you feel needed.

What to use the Mildred’s Pentagram for?

First off what this spread is best at when I use it – have a question of how best to work with a situation, issue or relationship.  It is a problem solving spread if you will, not so much a foretelling spread.

The parts of Mildred’s Pentagram dissected!

The Pentagram is broken down into Six parts, the Center and each of the Five points of the Pentagram.  The points are laid out in a pagan method (there is more then one way of doing this, modify as you feel suited) of the Four Elements with Spirit/God Force as the top point.  If you are not comfortable using Spirit/God Force you may substitute this with the term and energies of Outside Influences and work with that.  Mildred loved Spirit(s) so I have no doubt what she called upon when viewing that point, other might call it their Spirit Guide point.

How to read the parts of Mildred’s Pentagram

First make sure that you have a good problem/issue/relationship solving question written down and that as you shuffle Mildred’s Cards you focus on that.  How you shuffle and layout down the Cards is up to you,  follow your intuition on this – the points are merely numbered (in the link above) for your reference, not for how you feel you should lay down the Cards.  Proceed to lay out the cards and read using the following criteria to help you along, never hesitate to ask Mildred for some help as you go along, I have when using her cards and I have always been pleasantly surprised at how thing become more clear when I do!

Please note you will of course need Mildred’s delightful cards and the accompanying handouts to know the meanings of the cards, they are as of the writing of this blog post, available at Deviant Moon – Mildred Payne Collection just click and enjoy, its a great website!

Center Card #1 – The Focus of your question

This gives you the main energy or thought form you should be working with and interacts with all Five points of the Pentagram.  See it perhaps as the filter you use to view the other cards through.

Now before we proceed to the outer points please note each has two cards, a left and a right.  The left card is always the challenging or Shadow aspect of the point, the right is always the rewarding or Light aspect of the point.  Sometimes they need to work together, other times the right card needs to correct the left card and then we have the case where the left card is overpowering the right card.  I hesitate to use the words positive and negative, that throws some people and in the case of the negative they try to “fix it” to read as positive instead of taking the advice it offers, hence why I that left card Shadow or challenging.  How will you know which way to interpret the cards from the three choices I showed you?  Remember to take into consideration that Center Card #1 is having an effect on all other cards, and then use your common sense AND intuition to make the choice.  Once you get the hang of the two cards interacting with each other while the Center Card #1 is having an overall influence it becomes second nature but, yes it takes a little bit of practice.

Onto the Outer Points, bear in mind Even Numbered Card are the Shadow/challenging facet, Odd Numbered Cards are the Light/rewarding facet.

Lower Left Pentagram Point – Earth cards #2 & #3

The Earth cards gives us the material or physical parts of the issue that need to be considered or worked with.  How we ground ourselves or “anchor”  can also be shown here.   Shadow cards here can show a lack of being grounded or being too involved or dependent upon the material world – again the cards will speak to you if you take your time with them.  Light cards can show where we are stronger in our foundations within the material or physical parts of the issue and what should be more worked with within that realm

Upper Left Pentagram Point – Air cards #4 & #5

Air cards bring us into the realms of thought, mental focus and clarity as well as all things intellectual or learned.  Shadow can show our lack of focus or where we are weak and need to study the issue or a part of it.  Judgement, is an Air factor as well and in Shadow it can show as poor judgement or being overly judgmental.  Light is where we can see how we are using our mental abilities well or should be using them well.  Another Air facet is that of communication, keep that in mind as you read the cards within this point, and perhaps how you getting your point across or not is the issue?

Upper Right Pentagram Point – Water cards #6 & #7

Water will bring us to the areas of emotional, spiritual (your spiritual abilities), as well as what can being going in in the depths of your subconscious mind.  This point is all about how we feel, in all aspects including intuition, and how we use these feelings.  Shadow may well be showing us our lack of recognition of feelings or where we depend on them too much, Light how we best utilize these feelings.  After having worked this spread before with different cards that are not Mildred’s (sorry Mildred), I have learned to very much let intuition rule how I read this point.

Lower Right Pentagram Point – Fire cards #8 & #9

Fire rules this point bringing with the energies it embodies – passion and the motivational forces which often sum up into a get moving/get it done mode.  Its all about our energies and how we engage them, or in Shadow’s case how we don’t.  Light leads us into where our passions and energies are best spent, Shadow about how we are misusing energies or squandering them.  Fire is VERY goal orientated when used properly, very destructive when not – think of Fire in real life, it can cook your dinner or….. it can burn down your house, it all depends on how you use it.

Top Pentagram Point – Spirit cards #10 & #11

You need to take in your belief system when working the cards of this point.  If you do not practice any spiritual beliefs then this is, as noted above, Outside Forces which are out of your control.

Now many will take issue with having a Shadow card here, preferring to think of Spirit, God, Goddess, Spirit Guides, Spirit (insert your term here please) as only being of pure good or Light.  This is up to you and perhaps you will only be laying one card here and modifying the spread, that’s up to your way of working.  What I would suggest is challenging yourself and seeing that this point could well have a Shadow side, remember for every force in the Universe there is an equal and opposite force.

Perhaps Light is how we should perceive Spirit and how it is to work within the issue being read for, Shadow is when we are not perceiving it at all or incorrectly.  Shadow can also be when we are following what we deem as “our path” when Spirit is trying to guide us otherwise, the Light card.  This point can be the easiest to understand or the hardest, that I think, is up to the person reading the cards.  Relax and breathe when you receive what can be perceived as a challenging card in the Light card placement, it all makes sense – don’t rush this point or any of the previous in trying to perform a reading – there in lies the biggest mistake, being in a rush to find an answer, we often misread our cards!

So here we have it, a Pentagram for Mildred.  I sat down and typed this up so that any of you so inclined would have a format with a few more cards in it and see how they could interact with each other.  I am not part of Deviant Moon Inc. nor do I pretend to represent them, I just love this deck and had to have a go at working with Mildred’s Card more in-depth, I do hope you will comment on this post if you use the spread or if you see away it could be used differently.   I may craft/modify another spread to use with these delightful little cards in the future, time will tell.