@Moon-Hermit Most of what comes now won't be news. It is neither "da best" nor generally binding. Its how I fare with the three cards you mentioned above: the Key, the Mountain and the Snake For the Key I take note where the bit points, that is the card unleashed; the locked one is the one on the side of the shank. They do differ per pack, indeed - Dondorf and Blue Owl open up the right side, the Brepols the one to the left - and then there are cases where it is ambiguous, such as with the Game of Hope. If things are not so clear, I default to sequence of layout, that is, read the card to the left as locked, the card to the right as unleashed. With the Mountain, I mind the sequence as well, say if I lay the line out from left to right, a mountain to the left is less troubling (sometimes kind of beneficial, even) than one to the right. Same with top and down. Mountain atop is much heavier than one at the feet. So, not much going by picture with that one for me. And the Snake. Depends on - Where's my dictionary? - how much "to the fore" she is, concerning the read. If she's just sitting there at a distance, I do not care much about what she is facing and where, save for the moments my attention is somehow captured by her - when she's close, I do observe what she wants to get (direction she's facing) and what matter she complicates/clings to (card behind or the side where the tree is). The card she's looking at can also be something she's pissed about. It is a deduction from what she wants to get - rid off, in this case. Why exactly she wants what she wants I read best from whats above her head if there is anything, if not: see below. Card No.7 has a strange feature: There are few decks where the Queen and the head of the snake face in the same direction. There is a tendency to read what is at the back of the head of a court card as, well, what's at the back of the head of the person represented by it, in other words, their intention or reason. I find it works, however, with the snake I have to watch which one appears more striking to me - the Queen or the Snake - and read accordingly. With the Brepols, it is the Queen, with the Blue Owl, it is the Snake. No idea why, though. Still works. The old Dondorfs are particularly nice in that regard, they look in the same direction. So to her left is her target, to the right her reason (in a line) or the matter she complicates by clinging to it, which will most likely have something to do with her reason.

Okay, I don't know why I didn't notice this earlier but I came across it in Andy Boroveshengra's book (mine is the new 2015 edition) and here is what is said about the Snake: "Why would this woman want to deceive you? To discern this little detail, we could look at what the Snake is facing." This is mentioned in the section on how to build combinations, under the heading "by direction". I think for the Mountain it is also mentioned that some decks illustrate one with a peak, so the side which you would use to climb up to that peak would be more difficult than the other one, in my opinion. I am not sure yet. It would kind of make sense though, as the deck I use (Dondorf) shows the rising side on the left and the falling side on the right. If the mountain shows up in front of/after another card, it would be a more difficult obstacle than to the card that comes after it. It blocks whatever comes before.

I just finished watching the first season of the British crime series called Cooper & Fry. It is based on the books by Stephen Booth. Many of the episodes contains British folk lore, and there is also a character (the mother of police officer Ben Cooper) who does multiple tarot readings which tie into the cases that the polices are investigating. I really enjoyed this series and I feel like the episodes kept getting better and better. In the beginning I was a bit unsure about the interpretations that was given about some of the cards, but as time went on, I could see that they had put effort into understanding tarot and doing something clever with it. I also found that the readings gave clues about how it was all going to end. If anyone else has seen it, it would be fun to hear what you thought!