All spreadsCritical situations

The Alternative

Thirteen cards for a fork where both roads look reasonable. Each road is taken apart in six cards: the step, the demand, the return, the support, the risk and the year's end.

Take it for a major, years-long fork, not for a quick pick between two options.

Cards
13
Minutes
20
Reversals
On
AI reading
4 credits
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How to read it

The top card is the fork itself: it names what you are really choosing between and sometimes shows there is no choice in the usual sense. Then read the blocks in turn without skipping: the whole left road through its six cards, then the whole right one. Keep the order inside a block: step, demand, return, support, risk, outcome. Only then compare the blocks in three pairs — demand against demand, return against return, outcome against outcome. A road whose demand outweighs its return drops out by itself. If the outcomes look alike, choose by price rather than by dream.

Positions

  1. The fork

    What you are really choosing between and why the choice has arisen now.

  2. Road A: first step

    How the first road begins and how soon you must accept its rules.

  3. Road A: the demand

    What this road will demand of you continually rather than once.

  4. Road A: the return

    What the first road really brings: money, freedom, peace, a name or people.

  5. Road A: support

    Who or what will hold you up on this road when it gets hard.

  6. Road A: the risk

    Where the first road can collapse and the sign that shows it beforehand.

  7. Road A: a year on

    Where you end up in a year if you take the first road and endure it.

  8. Road B: first step

    How the second road begins and what must be left behind at its entrance.

  9. Road B: the demand

    The standing demand of the second road: how it will take your time and strength.

  10. Road B: the return

    What the second road brings and how reliable that return is.

  11. Road B: support

    Whom and what you will be able to lean on if you choose the second road.

  12. Road B: the risk

    The weak place of the second road and what exactly can go wrong there.

  13. Road B: a year on

    Where you end up in a year if you follow the second road to its end.

More spreads: Critical situations