November 1, 2020

I was watching Victor Borge’s skit “The Mozart Opera” for the nth time, laughing my head off as usual, and thinking about Tarot cards at the same time, when I thought why not create a spread based on this? My spread would be an advice spread where each position would represent the function of each character in the opera. Without the comedy, of course, since no querent I ever met came to me for jokes about his or her life, LOL.

Even though I’ll be outlining each function in the spread below, it’s better if you hear the original skit as performed by Victor Borge before we tackle serious business with my spread. (Disclaimer: The video is linked to by embedding the code from the uploader’s YouTube channel. It’s a very good version of the skit, but it’s not here as an endorsement of any of the uploader’s views or for any promotional purpose from me.)

Let’s now move on to the spread, if you can tear yourself away from Victor Borge. The spread will have seven cards to reflect in a way what happens in the opera.

	External Help 1, External Help 2 (The Chorus and The Lover)
The situation (Overture)	External Opposition (The Father)	What you shoot yourself in the foot with (The Soprano)	The Outcome if you DON’T shoot yourself in the foot
	Your false assumptions (The Toreador)

I decided to try out this spread for a friend of mine who was just about to begin working as a nurse in a hospital after recently graduating from nursing college. This would be his first Tarot reading, so I didn’t want to do anything heavy duty. I decided to ask only what he could expect from his first week at work, and I selected a beautiful, though romanticized, indigenous themed Tarot deck by Gayan Sylvie Winter and Jo Dose called the Vision Quest Tarot. (My version is in German because it was much cheaper than the original English one at the time of purchase, and since I always welcome an opportunity to practice my German, I thought why not.)

Here are the cards that came up after shuffling.

For the situation, “Tochter der Luft” (daughter of Air) is similar to the Page of Swords in a regular Rider deck. Even though I didn’t preselect any significator card to represent my friend, this fit perfectly to represent a young man starting out as an apprentice–someone who has had a lot of theory (Air) and sets off to learn more, but also practice what he’s learned.

In such a situation when you start a new job and don’t know anyone yet, it’s normal to look around for any help you might get. The two cards for external help here are “Urvater” (the Grand Father). As with an opera “chorus”, it enjoins my friend to remember all the lessons he learned from his teachers, as well as his forefathers. Out of the two cards for external help, this seems to be the more useful one. The 8 of Cups (Stagnation) there, not much help can be expected from my friend’s new colleagues, at least not for his first week there. The 8 cups are stacked up like nobody had time to do the dishes. The colleagues are probably too tired to spend much time with him at first. It is a hospital after all, and we’re still being affected by a pandemic.

The card below those represents what works “against” him at the moment. Although Überfluß means abundance, and shows four cups filled to the brim with water, nothing more can be added unless they’re emptied first. They’re a sign that my friend is going to arrive full of ideas, many of which he’ll have to be prepared to unlearn and replace with something new in order to function well in his new work environment.

The card below (position 5) is my favourite and is the one that inspired me to create a spread based on Victor Borge’s “Mozart opera” skit. (In the opera a singer arrives on stage only to realize oops he’s in the wrong opera!) It represents the querent’s misconceptions or false assumptions. Surprisingly what appeared here is the Spirit Guide! Although for sure there will be people looking out for my friend and wanting to guide him, he’ll have to read them correctly.

Card number 6 is the one that shows how my friend would normally “shoot himself in the foot”, so to speak. It tells him what he should not do. Very appropriately, the card (5 of Wands) is labelled “Stress”. Chill, don’t stress. Stress would only sabotage his efforts, especially if it’s stress that arises from a sense of needing to compete with others. (The illustration on the card shows five hands waving flaming torches about, and they don’t seem to be working together.)

Finally the outcome depicted by Balance is a lovely card that shows what my friend can expect if he avoids stress and trying to compete, and that is harmony and equilibrium.

I wish you all a lovely day, and if you liked this post, please remember to click on the like button and share on your favourite social medium below. Thank you!