Since I last read on this subject (a planned trip to Boston with my brother), I’ve contracted another nasty head cold (my fourth or fifth one since last November; I think I know where they’re coming from but that isn’t important here). I did a reading with the Traditional Kipper deck to see how this situation will impact our plans.

The top row of the spread has the Prison, the House and the Expectation/Patience card, clearly showing that I will be confined to the house (“house arrest”) and will just have to wait it out.

The second row starts with  the “worry” card (literally, Grief and Adversity), and the image even looks like a man holding his head in anguish. (My brother is deathly afraid of catching colds, so this could also be showing his reaction.) Following it are the “change” card and the “lots of something” card, suggesting that a significant change (ideally for the better) should occur.

In the bottom row are the “work” card and the “small child” card, with the “journey” card at the end. The implication is that if I work diligently in small ways to improve my condition, I should still be able to make the trip. (The Journey card at the end strikes me as what Rana George would call “validation” of the reading – in other words, the ideal topic card appeared randomly at a critical point in the spread.)

The columns tell basically the same story. The Prison-Worry-Work series indicates that I should endeavor to “dig my way out” of my misery.

House-Change-Small Child imply that improvement will be modest at first, and come from staying close to home.

Patience-“Abundance”-Journey should show rewarding results as long as I don’t push it, leading to our embarking on the trip. However, there are only three days left and the timing of the Journey card is around a week. I’m not entirely confident it’s going to happen.

The Change card at the center shows that this isn’t a static situation and should improve with patience and attention to the small things. The corners reflect that leaving my quarantine (Prison+Journey) depends on diligence and patience (Work+Expectation/Patience).

I was just watching Malkiel’s video on the Kipper Master Method, and notice that I have three “master cards” in this spread: the House (20), Patience (28) and Big Money (11) in the upper-right corner. It looks like a twist on the proverb “All things come to those who (stay at home and) wait.”