Compiled by David C. Jones (djones@ponder.csci.unt.edu)

Copyright, 1996, David Clark Jones.  Please see the table of
contents for the location of the full listing of the copyright
notice.

1.47) Ladder Spread (#78, C9) (Peach)
Layout:
                      77
                    75  76
                  74  73  72
                68  69  70  71
              67  66  65  64  63
            57  58  59  60  61  62
          56  55  54  53  52  51  50 *
        42  43  44  45  46  47  48  49
      41  40  39  38  37  36  35  34  33
    23  24  25  26  27  28  29  30  31  32
  22  21  20  19  18  17  16  15  14  13  12
 Q  01  02  03  04  05  06  07  08  09  10  11 

* - see variation below

Deal:  Choosing a Querent card; note which direction s/he faces. 
If the card faces to the right, place it in the lower left corner
and deal as shown.  If the card faces left, place it in the lower
right corner and deal each row in the opposite direction shown.

Reading: Five timing cards should appear somewhere in the spread. 
These will be the only method by which the reader can judge past,
present, and future.  Clear your mind and try not focus on a 'story
line', the main idea with this spread is to look at the overall
picture.  Ask the Querent not to interrupt you during the reading;
provide him/her with a pencil and paper to write down questions if
any come to mind, and ask them after the reading is over.  Because
you are trying to grasp a large picture by means of a spontaneous
approach, you don't want to interrupt the flow of the reading.
Begin the reading; no order of reading the cards is specified. 
Once the reading is over, the querent may ask any question, but do
not refer back to the layout for the answers; since you have seen
the overall picture (even if it lies only in your subconscious)
your answers should come out naturally.  Peach puts a strong
emphasis on not thinking while analyzing the layout or while
answering questions; again the idea is to let the pattern work into
your subconscious and allow thoughts to form there.

Variation: In the layout shown in the book, the layout stops at
card 50 and an arrow is drawn to indicate to continue the deal. 
There is no indication as to whether this means to finish only that
row or whether to lay out the whole deck as shown above.

Comment: Having not finished reading this book, I am uncertain as
to what it meant by the 'five timing cards'.  Each of the four aces
is assigned a season of the year as follows:  Wands - Spring, Cups
- Summer, Swords - Fall, Pentacles - Winter.  You can also refer to
section 7.2 for further assistance.  Other than that, use your own
discretion.