Looking Back At The Expanded Four Corners Layout 2023 (Sibilla Indovina/Sibylle des Salons)
A surprisingly useful and simple classic predictive layout in my expanded version; so how did it do?
As you may have guessed, I do have a great fondness for the French Sibylle des Salons/Sibilla Indovina, as it’s one of the earliest 19th century Sibillas and still retains its original design, yet this is a classic layout for the deck that I probably don’t use nearly often enough. I have both the Indovina version, which is the international one, and the updated 2022 French Grimaud version of the original, which renames some of the cards slightly. You may also note that Sibilla Indovina numbers the cards differently from the Sibylle des Salons, even though they are the same decks.
It’s called the Four Corners Spread, and it’s a predictive layout that looks at four life areas, based on the playing card references for this deck. (Remember, the playing card references don’t necessarily tally between oracle decks, which is something I’ll be looking at at a later date). The life areas in the simple version are as follows:
Position 1 (top left): Money & Business (or Enterprise, Action, Thought)
Position 2 (bottom left, when properly done!): Health & Chance Encounters
Position 3 (bottom right when properly done!): Work & Profession
Position 4 (top right): Love & Relationships
Here are the instructions for laying and reading the simplest and most original version of this useful layout:
Now, for my 2023 reading, I used a much expanded version that I created of the original spread, where instead of just two, I have FIVE cards in each section. I accidentally swapped the positions of the Clubs and the Spades also. Yet nonetheless, I must say, I found it highly useful, and it came up with some very interesting predictions, so a happy accident, in my opinion.
Here was the original reading.
Looking Back On This Reading
Let’s check on what it said, and see how well it predicted what happened this year.
Enterprise, Action, Thought, Moneymaking Business (Diamond Area)
Businesses, enterprise, higher learning, thought, changes, action
Blonde Woman—Dark-Haired Man—Trip To The Country—Enemy—Thought
In the area of business, enterprise or higher learning, we may see either a prominent blonde woman, or women in general being seen or portrayed as ditzy and self-serving, by a smart man or men. There’s a sense of escape or “getting away from (or with) things” in terms of what enemies or a particular enemy will think. To mirror the cards, we have the thoughts of or about “a blonde woman” by either a canny young male who is an enemy of hers, or the enemy of this man, and a sense there’s been an escape or getting away from it all.
Update: A “Blonde Woman” (or a Romance, in the renamed Sibylle des Salons card) is really about flirtation and trying to attract, usually from a female character. Here, in the business and moneymaking arena, she attaches herself to a smart man and runs off to escape scrutiny, or that’s what her enemies certainly think. There are a few women in public life who this might refer to, even if the man in question is not dark-haired; Meghan, obviously, and Melania, being the most likely two, and both in the news this year. Although I wouldn’t put Trump as being a “smart young man” but then, neither’s Harry. So it’s very unlikely to be those two who are the men, but it could well be someone like… well, a Spotify exec.
Let’s take a look at the rest!