The Proverbial “Spaniard:” An I Ching/Tarot Reading Attempt

John Lennon once wrote a book called A Spaniard in the Works. Its title appears to have been a puckish allusion to the British expression for an unforeseen problem: “a spanner in the works.”

As it turned out when I attempted to use this spread, my memory was faulty. Not all of the Thoth Minor Arcana have I Ching correspondences in The Book of Thoth (and the 777 tables were no help either), so I went to the Haindl deck, which has hexagrams on all small cards from the Two to the Ten. But then I found that two of the three hexagrams I cast had no associations in either deck, mainly because there are 64 hexagrams and only 40 small cards. I went looking for a table on-line to tie it all together, and instead of a Thoth cross-reference I found this alternative system, which brings trump and court cards into the mix. I haven’t closely examined the rationale for the assignments, but it’s probably as good a system as any for experimentation.

http://hermenes.com/Homepage/ichintaro_en.htm

I have extracted the interactive table I intend to use.

I The Magician	1. The Creative Асе of Wands	2. The Receptive Асе of Swords	31. Influence Асе of Cups	32. Duration Асе of Pentacles
II The High Priestess	3. Difficulty at the Beginning Two of Cups	4. Youthful Folly Two of Pentacles	33. Retreat Two of Swords	34. The Power of the Great Two of Wands
III The Empress	5. Waiting Three of Cups	6. Conflict Three of Swords	35. Progress Three of Wands	36. Darkening of the Light Three of Pentacles
IV The Emperor	7. The Army Four of Swords	8. Holding Together Four of Pentacles	37. The Family Four of Wands	38. Opposition Four of Cups
V  The Hierophant	9. The Taming Power of the Small Five of Cups	10. Treading Five of Pentacles	39. Obstruction Five of Wands	40. Deliverance Five of Swords
VI The Lovers	11. Peace Six of Cups	12. Standstill Six of Swords	41. Decrease Six of Wands	42. Increase Six of Pentacles
VII The Chariot	13. Fellowship with Men Seven of Swords	14. Possession in Great Measure Seven of Cups	43. Break-through Seven of Wands	44. Coming to Meet Seven of Pentacles
VIII (XI) Justice	15.  Modesty Eight of Swords	16. Enthusiasm Eight of Wands	45. Gathering Together Eight of Pentacles	46. Pushing Upward Eight of Cups
IX The Hermit	17. Following Nine of Pentacles	18. Work on What Has Been Spoiled Nine of Swords	47. Oppression Nine of Wands	48. The Well Nine of Cups
X Wheel of Fortune	19. Approach Ten of Pentacles	20. Contemplation Ten of Cups	49. Revolution Ten of Wands	50. The Caldron Ten of Swords
King of Wands	21. Biting Through  XI (VIII) Strength	22. Grace King of Pentacles	51. The Arousing King of Swords	52. Keeping still, mountain King of Cups
Queen of Cups	23. Splitting Apart XII The Hanged Man	24. Return Queen of Swords	53. Development Queen of Wands	54. The Marrying Maiden Queen of Pentacles
Knight of Swords	25. Innocence XIII Death	26. The Taming Power of the Great Knight of Cups	55. Abundance Knight of Pentacles	56. The Wanderer Knight of Wands
Page of Pentacles	27. Corners of the Mouth XIV Temperance	28. Preponderance of the Great  Page of Wands	57. The Gentle Page of Swords	58. The Joyous, Lake Page of Cups
	29. The Abysmal XV The Devil	30. The Clinging, Fire XVII The Star	59. Dispersion XVI The Tower	60. Limitation XVIII The Moon
	61. Inner Truth XIX The Sun	62. Preponderance XXI (0) The Fool	63. After Completion XX Judgement	64. Before Completion XXII (XXI) The World

Clicking on the links reveals that the author used the RWS cards for his associations, which I think may be useful for my purpose since it breaks the connection between the incomplete Book of Thoth references and the I Ching. Unless I come across a more complete index for the Thoth deck, I will be running with this one, opening up the possibility of using other decks. I will probably augment the RWS-style decks with the Thoth-based Haindl when there is an I Ching cross-tie between them. An example reading will be forthcoming in a future post.