Common Ground

Reading Systems

Tarot, astrology, runes, numerology — the tools people have built for reading a pattern back to themselves. Same rule as the rest of Common Ground: real history stated plainly, including where a system's popular version and its documented version disagree.

Reading System

I Ching

Dense reference guide to the I Ching (Classic of Changes, core text ~1000 BCE, Ten Wings commentary ~400-200 BCE): system mechanics (yin/yang, trigrams, hexagrams, consultation methods), philosophical framework, key individual hexagrams, core themes of timing and position, and translation guidance.

Reading System

Tarot

Reference guide to reading tarot: the 78-card structure (22 Major Arcana, 56 Minor Arcana across four suits), how a reading actually works, five spreads from Daily Draw to Celtic Cross, and how to read reversals.

Reading System

Western Astrology

Reference guide to reading a natal chart as four stacked layers — signs, planets, houses, and the aspects between them — plus what a Sun sign actually is versus a full chart.

Reading System

Chinese Astrology

Reference guide to Sheng Xiao (生肖) — the 12-animal, 5-element, 60-year cycle that reads a lunisolar birth year, not a fixed date range.

Reading System

Vedic Astrology (Jyotisha)

Reference guide to Jyotisha — the sidereal, Moon-centered Indian astrological system, its 27 nakshatras, and the 120-year Vimshottari Dasha timing cycle that has no Western equivalent.

Reading System

Elder Futhark Runes

Reference and casting guide to the 24-stave Elder Futhark — a real Germanic writing system before it was a divination tool, organized into three Aettir of eight runes each.

Reading System

Petit Lenormand

Reference guide to the 36-card Lenormand deck — literal, concrete cards (a Ship just means travel) whose real depth lives entirely in how they combine, not in any single card alone.

Reading SystemFlagged

MBTI

Reference guide to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator's actual history and the real research on it — including the gap between its cultural footprint and its scientific standing, and the Big Five model that has replaced it in serious personality psychology.

Reading SystemFlagged

Enneagram

Reference guide to the Enneagram's 9 types, 3 triads, wings, and arrows — and the documented mid-20th-century construction behind a system usually marketed as ancient Sufi wisdom.

Reading System

Numerology

Reference guide to Pythagorean numerology — reducing a birth date and birth name to 5 core numbers, the only system in this series that uses no element of chance at all.

Reading SystemFlagged

Ogham

Reference and casting guide to the 25-letter Ogham script — a genuinely ancient Irish writing system, honestly separated from its popular "Celtic tree calendar," which is a 1948 literary invention, not a recovered ancient tradition.

Build one

The Pukwudgie

A real yarrow-stalk I Ching casting set — 50 hand-milled cedar stalks and hemp cord, over on the Common Builds catalog.

→