Glossary / Techniques
Proximity (Near / Medium / Far)
Distance from the focal card helps classify what is immediate, developing, or background.
This technique matters because the reading engine is not just summarizing nearby cards. It uses structural relationships on the board to decide which pressures are immediate, which themes are developing, and which patterns belong to the wider story.
- Near cards are adjacent (including diagonals).
- Medium cards are within two squares on the board.
- Far cards provide backdrop influence and longer-horizon context.
Why It Matters In Practice
If you see this technique mentioned in a reading, it usually means the interpretation is leaning on board structure rather than just symbolic keywords. That is often where the reading becomes more precise, because it explains not only what a card means, but how it is acting in relation to the rest of the spread.