Layouts Using the Ogham

The basic past-present-future layout is always a good one to use with the Ogham. Or its variation, the ‘you now-challenge you face-best outcome if you meet that challenge’, is another three-card layout you can use with the Ogham. The Runic Cross is still another layout which would work well with the Ogham. See the illustration below for a refresher on that.

RunicCrossSpread

But I want to introduce you to a fourth layout you can use with the Ogham. I first saw it mentioned in The Celtic Tree Oracle: A System of Divination by Liz and Colin Murray. This layout uses five cards, and calls upon the four-directions-plus-center, four-elements-plus-ether, five-mystical-provinces concepts as its basis of thought. The Murrays recommend laying out three descending circles of five; the past, the present, and the way forward, or future. The basic layout for this approach looks like this:
fivecardsspread.jpg
This layout was devised by the late Colin Murray. He used with hundreds of people who came to him for a reading. It seems more overview-oriented and less here-is-your-problem-and-here-is-how-you-need-to-solve-it. Sometimes, that’s the approach needed. Some inquirers who come to you for a reading don’t have a particular question, or seek a particular way out of their problem. Instead, there’s an issue about which they have a nameless, formless concern, and into which they desperately need some insight, or a new perspective. This spread can be helpful to use in such cases, and not just with the Ogham.