The Double Jester

The two Jesters are used by the Nomadic Oracle to extend the language of a reading. They are the ‘not cards’, similar in English to prefixes such as un-, im-, ab-. When a Jester appears in a reading, a second card is always placed next to it. For example, Nourishment becomes not Nourishment - the situation is not nourishing or this issue is not about nourishment. When two Jesters emerge one after the other, a third card carries the meaning but the double negative effect of the Jesters produces the sense of very, extremely, infinitely. Hence Jester ... Jester ... Abundance would show that your situation may become very abundant.

Patterns and Spreads

New users might expect that their experiences with a tarot, angel pack or a similar card-based oracle may be sufficient and that they may be encouraged to use a favourite and familiar spread. This will, of course, work to some extent. The universe never lies and often seems to be knocking at the shutters of our incomprehension. However by using a number of strategies the Nomadic Oracle can deliver high levels of guidance in a range of frequencies, show direction and changes over time and link itself temporarily to the user’s ongoing future life experience. These unique strategies show themselves in the spreads. Although certain procedures may be familiar, the Oracle’s underlying methods are new.

" As an artist I know that it is thought rude and probably arrogant to attempt to steer an audience towards a particular interpretation. Even a writer may have difficulties with this. Generally I have accepted the cultural condition that when being 'creative' we can only do 50% of the work, leaving the other half to the Recipient. The Oracle really does require a different sort of agreement. The 'way' it works and the inherent 'why' should become more obvious to you over time. It is a seriously powerful object. To understand what is being suggested here may require an honest 'suspension of judgement'. Hopefully you will see what I am seeing now and excuse me for my rudeness."

~ Jon Mallek

Below is an extract from the Guide to the Nomadic Oracle which describes methods which may allow an easy communication with the energy of the Pack. Please cut and paste as required. This and other extracts are also available by downloading a free zipped pdf file following this link.

The Basic Spread - a terrestrial reading

Making friends with the pack is a good starting point to any reading. Choose three or four cards at random. Look at them closely - many of the illustrations contain detailed information. Some work either way up. Some are abstract. Some, for example 'Give & Take' and the pack’s compass card 'Perspective', can be rotated. Take your time, bring your question into mind, shuffle the pack and deal, or otherwise select five cards, placing them face up in front of you. Be confident. In some odd way the universe already knows the cards you will select and it is impossible to get this step wrong.

The first card shows you the context within your question the oracle will focus on, like a friend saying, “that’s a fair question. Let’s look at this part of it and together we may see the wider picture.”

The second card represents the here and now, the heart of the matter, the present situation.

The third is terrestrial, practical guidance. This may represent the possible consequences of an action you have in mind. It may be a future prediction. It depends how you see this or how you phrase your question.

The card in position 4 represents the undercurrent - the energies of a problem, for example, which are capable of impacting on you personally, or on a situation directly.

Card 5 is the overview, a panoramic view which may also be shared with or be obvious to others.

Now, add two more cards. This pattern is the basic seven-card spread. The card in the 6th position shows what you have been receiving or may choose to receive about the issue.

The 7th position is about creative opportunities - those you may choose to create or might consider creating the conditions for.

The seven-card spread offers three points of guidance - practical, grounded advice (in position 3) - guidance as to what may be received (position 6) - and an insight into the creative solution (position 7). In many situations no further action will be necessary. The seven-card spread has often given clarity and benefits from the simplicity of the method.

When the context card is first played, followed by the ‘here and now’ and practical, terrestrial guidance cards (1,2,3), all three are in a line representing the subtle frequencies of earth. Position 2 is the central card for the whole reading, the heart of the matter. Later it will be called the ‘Om Point’. Below this is water, a suitable place for the undercurrent(4). Above, in the frequencies of air, is the overview(5). Below the undercurrent, and in fire, lies the ‘deep’ receptive(6), and above all, in consciousness, is the creative(7).

Except for the Jesters, each card has a relationship with one or another of the frequency zones, and therefore has a natural or neutral place within the spread. Descriptions of individual cards and their relationships with frequencies are shown in Part 2.

Interpreting a Basic Reading

Approaching a new reading, one method is first to check whether any of the Senses and/or Elements & Spirits cards have emerged. This gives you a general idea of the energy of the reading. Remember, depending on the question, the Senses and the Elements & Spirits maybe linked, and through this they may show a direction. The Senses start with what has been sensed and are potentially creative, the Elements & Spirits begin beyond the self, and represent what might be incoming. The ‘breakpoint’ between the two is the here and now.

Hence, the Elements & Spirits of Fire in the overview (in air) might show that the situation may, for example, include disharmony (Fire in air may be explosive) or that other people who share this panorama are actively adding to it (through Fire’s association with action), whereas it’s companion card, Scenting Action ~ the Sense of Smell in consciousness, may show that there is an opportunity for you to put knowledge and awareness to work physically (Fire in the creative). More help with interpretation is discussed throughout the book.

Additional cards

If the results of the first reading seem incomplete, unclear, or are ambiguous, the best solution may be to wait for an hour or two and take note of any subtle inspiration and feelings which appear to clarify the picture.

Alternatively, you might ask the pack for help. Reshuffle the remaining cards and place one next to, and slightly behind, any card which seems to be unclear. In the diagram, two cards have been added in positions 3 and 5. These cards are supplementary to the originals and represent extra information. They do not correct a ‘wrong’ card as no such card is possible. Interpretations may seem a little off-key or even gibberish at first sight perhaps, but the selection and placing of the cards is always a matter of the universe acting with precision.

The ‘Information Angel’ - an ethereal reading.

Once a spread has been ‘established’ - once each card has been understood for it’s equal contribution to the sense of the whole, you may wish to convert the reading into a form called an ‘Information Angel’. This requires no changes to the existing spread, but is a matter of changing the direction of the reading and converting the context card into a second point of terrestrial guidance.

This ‘context return’, that is, reversing the original direction of the context card, is like plucking fruit from a tree. From the oracle’s point of view, it might be the moment to remind you that quality information is always worth having but if the guidance doesn’t suit you, no problem, its your choice. From a reader’s perspective, it may become an act of harvesting and thankfulness.

The ‘context return’ is the beginning of a visualisation which adds to the original seven-card interpretation. In the oracle all interpretations build on the original one. The direction of the interpretation rotates from horizontal to vertical, a shift centred around the om point. Cards 1 and 3 now radiate outwards from this centre in the terrestrial, perhaps as the Angel's left and right hands. They may suggest the idea of "on one hand you could do this and on the other hand that, but you may choose to do it or see it both ways." The card in position 1 occasionally may also suggest a return to the status quo.

The card in position 6 - the 'deep' Receptive - begins the journey. The new context is the established original seven-card interpretation - that reading has already provided information, the question now is how to proceed. The details contained in this card, which earlier gave guidance as to what you might receive, becomes the basis for a further, deeper interpretation. The activity of appealing to the oracle itself is embraced as a part of the process, through the beats of time. The Information Angel is subtle. It uses the same spread but flies to a higher level of awareness and it is position 6 which sets the stage. All the cards contain a subtle range of meanings - the practical now gives way to more subtle, ‘higher’ interpretations.

Chakras, the Eagle and the Information Angel

The chakra system is an arrangement of energy centres distributed throughout the body. These come together in a line of intensities running the length of the spine and through the skull. This is the basis of many ancient and alternative healing disciplines such as acupuncture and reiki. There are many sources of valuable and insightful information on the subject far beyond the scope of this book.

The basic system concentrates on the points of intensity which are generally called the chakras. Traditionally they are given numbers, with the ‘root’ chakra between the legs being number 1; the ‘sacral’, located 2-3” or so below the navel being number 2, the third being at the solar plexus, and so on. The physical, emotional and intellectual energies of an individual are all contained within the first three chakras, all sited below the rib cage.

The fourth, fifth and sixth chakras represent the ethereal self - respectively the heart (universal love, Om) the throat (psychic communication) and, in a position between and slightly above the eyes, the third eye (expanded consciousness). These energies are all connected to different ‘layers’ or frequencies of the human aura. Oddly, but perhaps crucially, some of our most intense experiences, the pleasure of sex, a love of sport or an intention to resolve a particularly complex crossword puzzle seem to have been difficult to locate. Writers differ about this. The received experience of being human is that they are blends.

This disagreement may be about the role of the emotions, something of which, collectively and historically, we appear to have little understanding. If they do not frighten us, they certainly confuse us. We can do an amazing job educating the mind and working out physically yet leave some of our most powerful energies to care for themselves. No time is granted to an emotional education of a child, except via a parent and the peer group, a failure which can result in a lifetime of misery. We are left with incomplete information - it can take years of introspection to understand there is a difference between the emotions and the feelings. As a profession, doctors have only recently begun to accept that an untended, unloved emotional body not only creates ill health but can be a killer or a suicide, such is the power of the energies involved.

Ironically, we do all pay at times huge sums for emotional re-education - one example being for the horrifying, dominating and depersonalising techniques used in any army boot camp. Some people imagine themselves to be unemotional and may choose to believe that the emotions simply don’t exist, or if they do, that they are valueless. These people have work to do but, in the interim, should probably stay away from the bedroom. Whole societies have evolved in which any display of emotion is considered to be a weakness, to such an extent that friends are embarrassed to touch each other in public.

A key to understanding the chakra system is to relate the emotional body directly to the second chakra, the root chakra being the physical, the third being the mental and intellectual. The received human experience variously blends the first and second chakras, the physical with the emotional. The oracle names this blend ‘fire’, and in the same way, an emotional/intellectual blend of the second and third chakras it calls ‘water’.

In evolutionary terms, our early ancestors were unique in two ways - in the size of the brain and in the ability to walk upright. There is not sufficient evidence to explain any ‘reasons’ for this or the speed at which these attributes evolved. It has been thought that they may be the result of an environmental shift from forest to grassland and that the habit of standing straight to see further exposed our ancestors to energies which, in some way, resulted in a massive and rapid increase in brain size, and hence, in awareness.

Some cultures, famously the mysterious Toltec, appear to have worked with the belief that terrestrial energy is horizontally divided into frequencies. This they may have referred to as the ‘Eagle’ after the bird’s ability to hover effortlessly on invisible currents of air for long periods of time. The Toltec were noted for the sophistication of their culture and their shamanic knowledge. Clearly this knowledge was not simplistic - there was no suggestion for instance that altitude specifically affected the frequencies. Toltec sculpture, totem poles with or without bird beaks and wings from around the world, and even the mysterious Easter Island moai figures seem to share, aesthetically if not anthropologically, the feeling of a layered exposure to horizontal energies.Those who have developed an ability to receive energy directly from nature may also have noticed that they can tune these abilities. It is possible to meditate on a beach and tune to the deepest rhythms of the ocean. This is a reiki meditation. Flowing water and still water alike have long been associated with feelings of peaceful relaxation.

Putting all this together we can see that an entire chakra system may act as a sort of multifrequency antenna for external energy. Terrestrial energies are multidimensional, it is our ability to receive them through our own energy body in its play with the aura which lends them a sense of being layered.

It does not matter whether this speculation is physically, metaphysically or metaphorically true, it provides a visualisation which leads to a whole new level of understanding. When the Information Angel is placed in position, it is possible to see the whole picture. Everything - the spread, you, your senses, the cards and the surrounding environment are in harmony. All are related to the rainbow of the elements, nothing is excluded.

Interpreting an Information Angel

Starting with the card in position 6, a reading moves upwards - an irreversible, vertical direction towards the light, which is a small part of the Spirit’s path. All challenges, no matter how painful or difficult they are or appear to be, exist so that we may develop greater consciousness and a clearer relationship with the higher self. This card, which earlier provided insight into the receptive, now re-enters the reading as guidance for the physical and its relationship to the emotions. Position 6 is therefore a duality which needs a moment to comprehend. Fire represents action, it is the element, for instance, of physical work. It relates to energies of the lowest frequencies and highest density.

You might see the receptive as a cooking pot on the stove. As the raw ingredients - packets of information energy from all sources - are put into the pot, the play between Shakti - the receptive, and the subtle energies of fire begins to work and the process ascends towards the creative. This process is continuous and irreversible through the action of time. No one can recreate the raw ingredients.

Remember, the information contained in whichever card is in position 6, which previously gave guidance as to what you might receive, becomes a call to action and determination because a time shift has taken place. The seven-card reading has already provided knowledge about the issue, the suggestion now is what to do about it. The Information Angel is ever more subtle. It uses the same basic information - the cards do carry slightly different meanings at higher frequencies - but flies to a new level of awareness and it is position 6 which now sets the tone.

In the same way, the card which previously spoke of the undercurrent(4), the energies in the situation which were affecting you, is now re-established as guidance for the emotions in their play with the intellect - the mindset for instance necessary to maintain focus, and above all, optimism. Remember, any negativity here is not personal to you but may be flowing through you. See a ‘difficult card’ as something to become aware of perhaps.

Beyond this point, the Information Angel begins to enter a second order of reality. The collection of cards, surrounding and including the heart of the matter - the om point(2) - speak of the choices we may make which will help in an interface between ordinary reality and that which lies beyond the bubble of our perception. As noted earlier, there are now two points of guidance. They may present a choice although it is perhaps more accurate to see this as a classic case of an either/and - a range of possibilities which may assist you to stay on your path. They represent the left hand and the right.

Above this, in air and further into consciousness, the information refers to silent knowledge, subtle whisperings of feelings and insight. These cannot truly be described directly. If these cards give no further communication, one answer may be to wait and be aware that, in dreams or at odd moments, the process is still working. It will come when you are ready to receive it.

Colour mapping helps - drawing the reading in colour on a piece of paper has proved to be highly effective. The activity itself focusses the mind and many subtle details may emerge or inspiration occur which otherwise might escape attention. Meditating on the drawing works well, as does bringing it to mind during the day. It can help to support you as a point of visual focus when dealing with awkward situations or confused densities in the flux.

In the early stages of working with the cards, it is important to take your time, stay fresh and not become overwhelmed or soured. Later, as you become familiar with the pack and the way the spreads work with energy, it will be equally important to take time and not fall into the trap of overstepping the information by becoming casual.

Special Cards

Two cards - 'Portal' and 'the Drum' - are thresholds. The descriptions of their individual meanings are in Part 2 but they also may play a special role in shaping and extending an existing reading. Whenever either of these cards lands in the terrestrial guidance(3) or in the creative(7), they suggest that more information about the original context is available and that the spread can be continued beyond that point.

Either of these threshold cards in the terrestrial guidance position suggests the use of an additional six cards taken from the remaining pack and the creation of a second spread in which the threshold card itself provides a link and continues the sense of the original context. When there is a threshold card in the creative it is left to the intuition of the reader how many additional cards are needed. The pack is saying “crea>te a gateway here.” You may be guided to use an entire second Information Angel or limit the addition to a few extra cards. As with any complex spread, colour mapping the resulting reading will help with understanding.

The compass card, 'Perspective', carries with it a sense of seeing things from a different point of view or that there is more than one path to follow. You may already know the reason, but if not, use the pack and add two, three or even four extra cards in whichever position 'Perspective' has emerged. Like the cardinal points on a compass, these cards could help you to understand what is being suggested by the Oracle. It is not always easy to see things from more than one point of view.

The Vectored Spread

A vector is anything which has both speed and direction and hence, over any given time, an individual’s life path can be thought of as a vector. To create a vectored spread, ask the oracle a question in the normal way, or simply request an update. Establish the reading, using extra cards where necessary, to create a spread in which all parts are clear to you. Suspend the reading, ideally leaving the spread undisturbed where it lies, and go about your day as normal, taking note of any particular occurrences which may seem significant, odd or bizarre.

Later, perhaps in the evening or whenever you have a chance to relax, review the spread, remembering what it was suggesting to you earlier. Now add extra cards to whichever parts appear to have been particularly active during the day. Re-establish the reading, noting the subtle movements caused by the ‘flavour’ of the additional cards and compare these changes with the day’s events. This is a very simple procedure which has proved to deliver extraordinary, almost unnerving, insight.