Question: Time frame of playing card readings

[Zaniah]

For those of you who read playing cards (I do) I was wondering what your timeframe tends to be. I recently did a reading (standard 21-card) that was fulfilled almost completely within 4 days. I've never had such a kick in the head, and I think I should be paying more urgent attention to my cards. I never realised they might be that close... I had in the past figured a couple of weeks. This puts a new spin on how I read from now on. Thoughts? Comments? The reading is this:

Date: January 1/03
Spread: Gypsy
For: Myself
Re: Anything
Deck: Geometric carpet-type motif (new)

There are 21 cards in this spread, so I won't list them all. The reading is as such: a Sig. is chosen and set aside, deck shuffled and twenty cards chosen. The Sig. is inserted anywhere into the 20-card minideck and they are dealt into three rows of seven, being past, present and future.

Past
Irrelevant, for the most part. The Sig. doesn't appear until the second line, indicating that events of the past have little to no bearing on the situation at hand.
Present
Sig. appears near the centre, Issue of a Bold Move on the left, resulting from doubt of some sort. On the right is the central card of the reading, 6 of Clubs. This is the issue of give and take. On the right of that is imbalance and then my brother.
Future
Partnership and homey goodness/newness.... then an interesting combination: King of Hearts and a King of Spades with a 7 of Spades in between. 7 of Spades is the card for bad choices... In between the two kings it tells me something ominous.

Other points to note (like reading between the lines)
First card is the Joker--> Hidden things. There is also no wish card appearing. The 2 4s that appear indicate that no wishes will be granted at this time.
Last card is I think a new job or source of income coming from a combination of other things.
3 9s indicate success in a creative or business venture, another reason I think the last card might be a new job.
Uncertainty, contradiction and a parting of some sort are all underlying in this reading. The parting is something I think is also related to the future issue with the kings. I think it's related to an issue from the past, as one of the 2s appears in a line of the past and the other in the future (partings are indicated by 2 2s.)...

Upon reflecting on this reading a few days later, it becomes apparent that the King of Hearts was my boyfriend (he's usually the king of clubs) and the King of Spades is the corporation that fired him on the 4th.

That all the cards having been consumed by application within 5 days or so, as today the last card became an offer of a return of his job by his idiot district manager who had no right to fire him in the first place and knows it. at any rate...
Thoughts please? I wasn't sure if this should go into Tarot but a lot of card reading of all sorts comes in here. Thanks.

[tarotbear]

I always find it best to frame the time as part of the original question, putting specifics on it, as it were. In that way I am asking for the results within that time frame. I find i can always go back and ask another question 'later in time' if I need to get a particular insight.

For (simplified) example, I never ask an 'open-ended question. I will specifically ask " Tell me where this situation will go in the next 3 months?" or "tell me about my job performance for the next 6 months from today's date." I find narrowing it down early is better than asking 'So, what's up with my job?'

PS - I also never ask a question that can be answered Yes/No - flip a coin and get a faster answer!

[Dagda Moon~Lily]

I agree with Tarotbear, I place timing into the question. ...like: "What can I do to improve my relationship with my spouse within the next three months?" ...or if I'm doing a general reading...I just think in my mind...."show me what's in store for the next 3 weeks" ...something to that effect.

Sometimes I will make a special space for a "timing" card space in a spread. Swords-winter, Pentacle-autumn, Cups-summer and Wands-spring. Then use the number of the card to indicate the number of weeks/months it is possibly away.

~D

[Zaniah]

Thanks for the ideas. It never would have occurred to me to use the seasons, etc. as a seperate space. I'll take all this into consideration. There are timing signals in my read, usually in cards that follow 2s. But they've never seemed applicable. Very interesting though. Thank you :)

[Zaniah]

Although I seem to recall that different methods of divination seem to have different timeframes attatched. I've always looked at Tarot as more long term, while Runes within the next moon phase, etc. Playing cards just seem more immediate due to the above reading.

Just thought I'd toss that out there. Is there any sort of consensus?