All spreadsCritical situations

The Problem and Its Solution

Five cards for a hard situation that will not settle itself: what is really happening, where it grew from, what keeps it alive, what to solve it with and where that leads.

Fits one drawn-out difficulty with a traceable root, not a fork between two paths.

Cards
5
Minutes
7
Reversals
On
AI reading
2 credits
12345
Lay out this spread

Cards and meanings are free. An AI reading of this spread costs 2 credits.

How to read it

The top card is the situation without your explanations; read it aloud and check whether you recognise your own story. The two middle cards work as a pair: on the left the root it grew from, on the right what keeps the problem alive today. The root usually lies in the past and the keeper in the present, and it is the keeper that must be treated. The fourth card is the resource: what you have to solve it with, people and time included. The bottom card shows where the solution leads if you take it on. A resource weaker than the keeper means finding help first.

Positions

  1. What is happening

    The situation as it stands, without your explanations and without other people's verdicts.

  2. Where it grew from

    The past event or decision from which the present difficulty began.

  3. What keeps it alive

    What, day after day, keeps this situation from ending on its own.

  4. What to solve it with

    The resource you already have: a person, a skill, money, time or resolve.

  5. Where it leads

    What follows the solution and at what price this story closes.

More spreads: Critical situations