52 Card Wonderland

Halloween Playing Cards by Kipling West

2011-10-23T04:10:00.000-04:00

US Games Systems, Inc. has recently published a new playing card deck by Kipling West. The Halloween Playing Cardswill be familiar to those who have the The Halloween Tarotby the same artist. The playing card deck features the same artwork as the tarot deck, but obviously utilizes only 52 of the images. Also, the images are framed so you see only bits and pieces of the scenery fully featured in the tarot deck.

I'm using the two decks together for readings this week on my tarot blog. It's going to be a tremendously busy week, but if I have time, I'll try to post a playing card reading here as well.

Happy Halloween Week!

Twilight Marathon

2011-07-12T15:06:00.000-04:00

This morning's cards immediately brought to mind the Twilight series. The Nine of Spades is a card that refers to something sucking the life out of you, draining you. It doesn't get more vampire than that. And the Two of Hearts means love. The Three of Diamonds is a card I have personally come to know as the "stitches" card, which can be meant literally or metaphorically. In this case, it's literal.

The 9S + 2H made me think of the vampire love story of Twilight. And the stitches of the 3D made me think of the scene in New Moon where Carlisle stitches up Bella's arm.

My daughter loves the Twilight movies, and we've been meaning to have a marathon, re-watching all three DVDs, either in one day, or one per night for three consecutive evenings. So after seeing these cards, I asked her if she wanted to start tonight with Twilight (which we've seen a kajillion times). She said yes, so we're on!

Deck: Emily the Strange Playing Cards (published by Dark Horse)

Reminiscing on Childhood Freedoms

2011-06-29T16:24:00.000-04:00

Today's cards reflect something I was thinking about yesterday.

The Nine of Diamonds is the Knight in Shining Armor of the deck. I personally think of this card as the "Superman" card. Someone swooping down to save the day and add a bit of adventure to life. The Six of Spades is a card which refers to the past. And the Seven of Hearts indicates healing, and like I saw in it the other day (here), this little guy is suffering from the loss of his balloon, the subject of loss being what needs healing.

The cards read together tell of my remembering my own childhood, and how one of the freedoms I had is unavailable to my own kids. In an oracle reading I did yesterday (here), I mused about my kids not having access to the world of nighttime outdoor play as I did as a kid. But last night we took a walk in the dark night, which was a fun adventure for us all.

The surprised bunny in the Nine of Diamonds shows the spontaneity and slight nervousness about the adventure. The Six of Spades accurately reflects the sentiment of childhood and the Seven of Hearts illustrates the feeling of loss I have been thinking about, while reflecting on my childhood magical nighttime adventures.

On the flip side, as a whole, my children have infinitely more freedom than I did as a kid. They are unschooled and allowed to make many of their own decisions about their lives that I was never allowed as a kid. So where one door closes, another naturally opens. They're just experiencing different types of freedoms than I did, and their childhoods are magical in their own way. :)

Deck: Untitled Playing Card Deck by Sora Oda

Car Repairs = Financial Anxiety for Dad

2011-06-27T15:24:00.001-04:00

I drew some playing cards today to see what was going to be happening around me, in a mundane every-day sort of way. And I knew immediately what these cards were referring to. My dad had emailed me yesterday to let me know that he was going to take his car in today to get his tire changed, and some other car work done. He had been driving on a flat tire for a couple weeks, filling it up every day. Very dangerous, and he's very lucky it never blew out on him.

The Nine of Spades is so beautifully apt here. It's a card which, in Ana Cortez's deck (The Playing Card Oracles), features a spider and the analogy of something sucking/draining the life out of you. How perfectly this describes a leaky tire, being drained of air! The illustration on this card reminds me of the Nine of Swords in the tarot. Anxiety keeping you up at night. This is a financial burden that my dad didn't need, so I'm sure he's not happy about the drain this will cause to his bank account. Notice how the little devil in the card is spewing numbers at the boy in bed, making him sweat with anxiety. The King of Clubs is also referring to numbers, holding up his fingers to show the number "2". (Along with the tire, my father found out more work needs to be done to his car... isn't that always the case?)

The Kings in the spread represent my father and the service man working on his car.

All cards are black, which indicates inner turmoil and gives the impression of dark clouds. The majority suit is Spades which is the practical, physical, laborious side of life.

Crappy day for Dad. But not the end of the world.

Deck: Untitled Playing Card Deck by Sora Oda

Emotions Behind Moving

2011-06-26T20:07:00.000-04:00

I've been wanting to use these playing cards my mom got me awhile ago. They feature adorable (Japanese?) illustrations.

I'll be moving soon, and wanted to know if there was anything about the move that I didn't yet know about, but which would benefit me to know.

All three cards I drew were Hearts, indicating emotions. And it's the same character in all three cards.

The Seven of Hearts is a card of healing. In the image, there's a little dear one losing a balloon. My kids will have to say goodbye to their grandfather and friends when we leave here. It's always hard as a kid, saying goodbye when moving far away.

The Five of Hearts indicates illusions. The little guy is now being distracted by sweets. A lollipop in one hand and ice cream in another. The act of moving, seeing new sights, and the excitement of it all will serve as distractions for my kids, to help the healing of moving away. But these are mere band-aids, and I should not underestimate their real emotions while they experience the initial feelings of loss.

The Eight of Hearts is a card I relate to good times and community. When we move, I plan to involve the kids in more social settings where we can surround ourselves with like minded people. The card reminded me of Superman's cape, and the word bubble above says "Guts!" I think this will be a good move for us, and we will be all the happier for it.

Deck: Untitled Playing Card Deck by Sora Oda

A Fortuitous Answer to a Forgotten Question

2011-06-08T20:57:00.000-04:00

I just did a series of super quick readings, asking on all sorts of things. These cards are the answer to the last question I asked. But after I asked it and turned over the cards, before I could look at them I was interrupted by my daughter. I had to tend to her for a few minutes, and when I returned to the cards, I looked down at them, and for the life of me I couldn't remember what my last question was!

But I wanted to post this here, in case the question came back to me. Because by the time that happens (if it ever does), I will surely have forgotten the cards' answer by then!

The Queen of Cups I assume is me, and I'm looking at two bright and shiny cards. The Ace of Diamonds is to me like the golden key. A resounding Yes! A green light to Go. Money, good luck, buried treasure found, etc. The Eight of Diamonds is like the Ace, but multiplied by eight! It symbolizes great fortune, success, the Midas Touch, jackpot! It's like the Tarot's Wheel of Fortune, World, and Ten of Pentacles all rolled into one.

So although I don't remember the question, it's a mighty fine answer. And I'm okay with that! I'll just take it as a message I'm meant to revel in right now. And revel I will!

Deck: Bicycle Tragic Royalty Playing Cards

The Cards Provide Gift Ideas

2011-03-31T16:52:00.000-04:00

My dad's birthday is coming up, and he's hard to shop for. So I thought I'd ask the cards for gift ideas.

The Queen of Hearts + Eight of Diamonds tells me that whatever I give him will be a success (8♦) as long as it comes from the Heart (Q♥). Good to know. But I wanted more tangible advice.

So I looked to the card on the left. The Two of Clubs. With this one, I ignored the "meaning" of the card, and instead used it for physical, symbolic clues. The "2" stuck in my mind... I should get him two gifts. The top (upright) club reminded me of a shamrock. My dad is Irish, and he enjoys Irish tokens/items. So maybe something along those lines. Maybe something having to do with Notre Dame ("Fighting Irish") or the Celtics.

And for the second gift idea? I looked to the bottom club. I let my eyes sink into the card, allowing the world to disappear while I let it form into a symbol for me. What the image of the upside down club looked like to me was a beaker with a bow tied around it. A beaker of liquid... cologne! Bingo. He's always running low on cologne.

So that was super easy. Now I don't have to rack my brain for gift ideas. Very helpful indeed.

Deck: Highlander's 1864 Poker Deck (published by U.S. Games Systems, Inc.)

Did I Win the Lotto?

2011-03-26T21:30:00.009-04:00

I wanted to play with my 1864 Poker deck a bit this evening, but didn't really have anything to inquire about. So I thought I'd ask the cards if I won the lotto. I bought a ticket yesterday. So basically, I was interested in seeing how the cards would show "No, you didn't win the lottery" in a three-card spread.

The Seven of Hearts is known as the Sword of Healing. The Ten of Spades is a young lady, and in her book, The Playing Card Oracles: A Source Book for Divination, Ana Cortez refers to her as a Cinderella type (pre- fairy godmother). The Six of Hearts represents the home. In these three cards, I saw an image of a poor, homely girl licking her wounds. Not a great lotto-winning vibe.

Directly afterwards, I went online to check my ticket against the winning numbers. It was not a winner. I had only one matching number: 32. Which is interesting, because these three cards add up to 23, which is 32 flipped. And 23 was also one of the winning numbers.

This was a fun little reading. Sometimes when I don't have anything to read about, but feel like playing with the cards, I like to ask questions I already know the answer to (or am 99.9% sure about, like not winning the lotto), just to see how the cards will illustrate the answer. It's good practice to see what images or scenes you can see in the card combinations.

Looking at the cards again, another image I see in them is a girl crying... the Lady in the middle, representing a girl's physical (spades) face, and the two water (hearts) cards on either side, like tears streaming down her face. Again, not a great indicator of a winning lotto ticket. But nice intuitive imagery.

Deck: Highlander's 1864 Poker Deck (published by U.S. Games Systems, Inc.)

My Dexter Deck (or a Review on the Karnival Dead Eyes Playing Cards)

2011-03-14T21:23:00.001-04:00

About a week ago, I got a new playing card deck. I call it my Dexter deck. But it's actually called Karnival Dead Eyes Deck. When I saw images of the cards online, I had to have it. Like my favorite Bicycle 1800 Vintage Series, it has that dirty, aged look to it. But even more dramatically so, as its "dirt" is darker, and the edges are beautifully darkened so that they look sort of burned. I'm a sucker for these antiqued decks.

But there's much more to this deck than just the aged look. And this deck definitely won't be for everyone, due to its slightly gruesome nature. There is blood spattered on every card (Enter Dexter). Each of the numbered card sets have the same spatter design (ie: the spatter is identical on all the 2's, and then all the 3's have matching spatter, etc.). I was a bit disappointed by this, as it seemed a bit lazy. But it's not really that noticeable when reading with the cards, so it's not a big deal.

Another unique feature of this deck is that along both sides of each card, the name of the card (example: Six of Clubs) is spelled out in ransom-letter font. It seems overkill, especially along both edges, and makes the cards feel a bit cluttered. But if they had to do it, the ransom font makes it at least interesting enough to be unique, and it's preferable to regular font. The words are hard enough to make out that I have to really look hard to read them, so for me, it serves as more of a design than any helpful wording.

Courts and Back

I love the colors on the court cards. The tone of the yellow used is great. And the contrast of the yellow and red on the aged background is really nice. The courts all feature blacked out eyes, in the form of censor bars. And if you look closely, you'll find some of their eyeballs in unusual places. The Queens have either one or two of their eyes in the center of the flowers they hold. The King of Diamonds holds a scalpel, with his eyeball skewered on it. There is an eyeball on the tip of one of the swords on both the King of Spades and Clubs cards. The King of Hearts' eyeballs are nowhere to be seen.

The Jacks of Hearts and Spades both hold medical tools that look like forceps of some sort. The Jack of Hearts is holding his eyeball with the forceps, on both ends of the card. The Jack of Spades does so on only one side, with empty forceps on the other side. The Jack of Clubs' eyeballs aren't seen, but it looks almost as if the skin is removed from his lower face. It's hard to describe, even when looking really closely at the image. The Jack of Spades is rather neutral... just the black bar over the eyes and minimal blood spatter. No eyeballs, stitching, etc.

The Kings' and Queens' mouths are stitched closed (though on the Queen of Hearts and Queen of Clubs, the stitching is on the chin, which makes me wonder if this was intentional or if it was misaligned when printing). The Queens all have smudged bloodied marks on the neckline of their blouses, though there are no wounds apparent.

It all sounds much more gory than they really feel (at least to me) when seen in real life.

The backs of this deck (see image above, beside the court cards) feature a reversible image of a cadaver. As far as cadavers go, it's not all that grody. No guts spilling out or anything. The chest cavity is empty/skeletal. The side of the guy's face is stitched. And in the center of the body is an eyeball. In the top right corners, there is a bit of humor added, with three hanging pine tree air fresheners. Death is stinky.

Aces

The Aces are what really got me. After the dramatically aged look initially caught my attention, it was the Aces that sealed the deal. In most decks, it's only the Ace of Spades that gets the close up. In this deck, all the Aces come front and center. And they are all smudged, which I love. And they all have subtle stitches running through them. They have so much character. Hands down, the best Aces of any deck, bar none.

Jokers and Blank Card

The blank card included is really nice, and I'm thinking of ways to incorporate it into my readings as a wild card of some sort.

The Jokers are nearly identical. They both feature the profile of the inside of a person's head/neck. Inside one, we see a brain. In the other, the head cavity is empty except for the presence of a single card, the Ten of Spades. "HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!" is featured at the tops and bottoms of the picture, and "JOKER" is printed at the bottom of each, with lower case "j" at the top left of both ends of each card.

Reveal Card (Back and Front)

This is a deck designed, I'm assuming, for the magician crowd, as it comes with a blank card, and a "reveal" card. The advertisement side of the reveal card is the grossest thing in the deck, and I'm super glad it didn't make it to the backs. On the back of the reveal card is an advertisement for the publisher, Karnival Inc, featuring a huge spade suit symbol cutting into this guy's neck, with the apex of the spade coming up through the other side of his skin. Yuck!!! On the front side of the card, we see the same cadaver as shown on the backs of the cards, though only one-sided. Below his chest is a diamond with the number 5 in it, and at the top of the card is written: "You will choose 5 of Diamonds". Thankfully, as a reader, I have no need for this card.

Like I said, although this deck will definitely not be for everyone, the cards really don't look all that gruesome when in hand. And I really love the feel of the deck. It shuffles really nicely. Much smoother than the thicker Vintage 1800 cards. The dirty/aged look is done superbly. And the blood spatter looks just as much to me like splattered paint as it does blood. I love the Aces and numbered cards, and the Courts are very original. All in all, it's now one of my favorite playing card decks.

If you're planning on doing playing card readings for Halloween, you really can't beat this deck. I'll definitely be using this one on the nights I shuffle along while watching Dexter next season. And I've been using it for my own every day readings for the time being.

Deck: Karnival Dead Eyes Deck Playing Cards (published by Bicycle)

Zippered Pouch for my Playing Cards

2011-03-03T19:21:00.000-05:00

Today I finally sewed a bag for my favorite playing card deck. I had crocheted a bag for it months ago, but I've been wanting to upgrade to a zippered pouch for awhile. I bought this playing card fabric ages ago, specifically for this project.

<== Here's the back side.

I'm very happy with how it turned out. I keep taking the cards out and putting them back in, just like a kid playing with a new toy. :)

Using the Cards to Find a Lost Object

2011-02-28T22:06:00.000-05:00

I misplaced a particular book and have been looking for it for weeks now. I have searched high and low without success. I finally decided to consult the cards. I thought if a Four showed up, it would point me in a specific direction, and if not, I could maybe intuit some clues from whatever cards showed up. So I was delighted when the second card I turned over was indeed a Four! The Four of Spades, which is the North Wind. Now, logic would dictate that I search on the north side of the room. However, my intuition strongly told me that "north" was referring to my location in reference to the missing object. So I instinctively turned south.

The other cards gave helpful clues as well. The Six of Clubs is The Bridge, and I intuitively thought "under the bridge"... meaning it was hidden underneath something. The Ace of Spades (reversed) confirmed this, as it indicates something hidden below the surface.

So I headed south. I looked under my bed, under my dressers... nothing. Along the south side of my wall, I have my laptop set up atop a couple of book storage units which serve as a desk. Thing is, I had removed my laptop and desk items, and searched the contents inside twice already in the past couple of weeks, searching for this book. But I decided to trust my instincts and go ahead and check again. And... there it was! I had overlooked it twice, so I never would have checked there again if I hadn't been guided, by the cards and my intuition, to the south end of the room, feeling it to be "under" something.

Next time I'll consult the cards a lot sooner and save myself a lot of trouble!

Deck: Bicycle 1800 Vintage Series Playing Cards (published by Ellusionist)

One-On-One Time With the Kids

2011-02-25T11:18:00.000-05:00

For the past few nights, I have been sleeping with my deck under my pillow. So this morning when I woke up, and was still groggy and half asleep, I pulled out my deck and shuffled them rather meekly. I said good morning to the cards and just wanted to see what their return good morning message was for me. I turned over the Jack of Clubs, Eight of Clubs and Ten of Spades. The message was instantly clear to me, just as though the cards had answered in voice.

The Jack♣ and Lady♠ are two of my kids, and they just happened to be the two who were awake at the time. My youngest, represented by another card, was still sleeping. The Eight of Clubs is a card that I relate to alone time. A time for spiritual retreat and reconnection with self. So the message I saw in the cards was "alone time with each of my kids". This was my instant interpretation, so the split second after I turned over the cards, I lifted my head and asked my kids if they each wanted some one-on-one time with me today. They both immediately responded with a resounding "Yeah!". So I will definitely have to carve out some alone time with each of them today.

Deck: Bicycle 1800 Vintage Series Playing Cards (published by Ellusionist)

What Card Would Indicate Blindness?

2011-02-25T10:49:00.001-05:00

Last night I was getting ready to watch Grey's Anatomy. I saw a preview for the episode which focused on Meredith's vision becoming impaired. I was holding my deck in my hands, just shuffling aimlessly. I wondered to myself, "What card would indicate blindness?" And before I allowed my brain to search for an answer, I thought I'd let the cards answer for themselves. I asked them to show me how they would portray blindness.

I turned over the Ace of Spades. Reversed. I was shocked at the accuracy of this. It pretty much blew me away. When working with the playing cards, I have found that it's important to make the meanings your own. So I have tweaked with meanings here and there, not dramatically, but just enough so that they make natural sense for me.

The Ace of Spades, upright, to me, means an ending. The End. Stop. No. The Death of a situation.

However, when the Ace of Spades is reversed, I see a spade that looks like a shovel digging into the ground. So when it's positioned upside down, it means something that's hidden or secret. Something that's out of reach. Something you'd need to dig to get to. Something you can't see. I asked the cards to show me how they would illustrate blindess, and they show me a card that means something you can't see. Wow, right?

Now, of all the cards in the deck, this is the only card that, for me, has a different meaning when it's reversed. So of all the 52 cards, it gave me the Ace of Spades, and somehow, it managed to come up reversed. Gotta love these magical moments of perfect connection with the cards!

Deck: Bicycle 1800 Vintage Series Playing Cards (published by Ellusionist)

Harboring Resentment

2011-02-21T11:25:00.000-05:00

Today what I saw in the cards was communication with an ex. The Ace of Clubs indicates communication or writing, or in this case, I feel it will be both, communication by writing (email). The Lady (10) of Hearts I saw as a younger version of me, as she is seen walking away from the Lovers in the Two of Hearts, which gave me the imagery of an ex. She's blindfolded, so she is no longer even glancing backwards.

When I pulled these cards, the next two cards came right up along in my hand, as a pair, wanting to be a part of the reading. So I set them down together, to the right of the other cards.

These cards confirmed my thoughts about an ex, giving me quite a startling visual. The Lady of Diamonds has (in my case, metaphorically) ripped off the head of her lover, and the severed head is what I now imagined to be in the Lady of Hearts sack above! (Again, as it's another Lady, it confirms me at an earlier age.) The Jack of Hearts stands by watching his head being cut off, and he's none to happy about it. He stands with a dagger behind his back, as future protection.

This gives me a bit more background information than the first three cards did alone. If the cards are referring to who I think they are, this particular ex and I are on friendly terms. I wonder if he is harboring some pain and resentment that he isn't sharing with me. The Jack of Hearts has a secretive side to him, and doesn't reveal all he knows, does or feels. I know that, at the time, many years ago, I broke his heart by leaving the relationship, but I would be surprised if it still pained him. We didn't speak for many years after the split, and then when we reconnected, we were immediately friendly. We never discussed the break up, or how it affected him, though at the time, I learned through mutual friends that he took it hard.

Looking at the Jack, I'm wondering if maybe we're not as good of friends as we could be, because he is on his guard around me. Is protecting himself his natural reflex with me now/still? That would make me sad if it were true. I'm not sure what I'll do with this information. I believe the cards came up because it's something I was meant to know, but I'm not sure whether confronting him about it would be helpful or hurtful. I'll need to think about it a bit.

Deck: Playing Card Oracles (by Ana Cortez & CJ Freeman, published by US Games Systems, Inc.)

The Fire Starter

2011-02-20T11:39:00.000-05:00

Today's cards appeared to me to be a continuation of yesterday's. The same Jack appears in the same place. And today, something really stands out in the card which I took no notice of yesterday. The flames on the tightrope upon which he balances. Diamonds are the suit of fire, so he is the Jack (young male spirit) of Fire. These flames are significant to the story. The reading yesterday indicated an on again, off again relationship between my kids and a boy on the block. I assumed it was referring to this one particular boy, but it turns out it was another.

I heard yesterday that this boy had been caught playing with gasoline and matches and had lit a fire in his backyard! It's funny, looking back, that I labeled that reading as a "Hot and Cold Friendship"... little did I know that metaphor would turn out to indicate the temperature of the actual event!

So today I see more of the story, with the Jack of Diamonds having to face the Queen of Spades, which I assume is his angry mother. This Queen is not one to be messed with. She's scary. And between the two is the Five of Spades, which indicates fear and feeling trapped. (The imagery and meaning of this card always makes me think of the Hitchcock movie "The Birds".) This card illustrates several things. First, the boy's fear of his mother and of the consequences of his actions, and probably the fear of the fire itself once he lit it. The trapped/restricted feeling of this card probably also relates to his punishment of being grounded. I also see the fear as belonging to the Queen as well, scared for what might have happened to her son had the fire not been put out quickly.

The other day I was at the store with my girls, and we saw a mother take a toy away from her little kid. The kid immediately started screaming and throwing a huge fit. I turned around and hugged my girls, telling them how grateful I was that they had never felt the need to do that. Not one of my kids has ever thrown a fit. Whenever I hear kids screaming in the stores, I always think how grateful I am for not ever having had to deal with that. I'm always initially shocked when I hear a kid screaming like he's being murdered just because he can't have something he wants... because it's just something I've taken for granted as not part of my life. So it was yesterday when I heard about the boy with the matches and gasoline. All three of my kids came in, separately, to tell me the story, all three of them shocked at his stupidity. I was a glad mom to hear that. (Then I reminded them that their grandfather tried such a stupid stunt as a kid and burned his eyebrows clean off! And he's lucky that's all that happened to him!)

Deck: Playing Card Oracles (by Ana Cortez & CJ Freeman, published by US Games Systems, Inc.)

Hot and Cold Friendship

2011-02-19T10:52:00.003-05:00

Today I drew the Jack of Diamonds, which indicates a young male. He is followed by two 2's. The Enemies in the Two of Spades and the Friends in the Two of Clubs. This Jack is a bit theatrical and enjoys drama in his life, as supported by the two following cards.

These cards reminded me of how friendships between kids is often hot and cold. They're best friends one day, then enemies the next, and the day after that best friends again. So these cards made me think that there will be some sort of drama with one of the neighborhood boys today. That there will be some argument between him and one of my kids, but that it will blow over soon enough.

Deck: Playing Card Oracles (by Ana Cortez & CJ Freeman, published by US Games Systems, Inc.)

My Geomancy Layout Technique

2011-02-18T21:38:00.002-05:00

(This is a post that I originally published here. I wanted to copy it to this blog as a reference point.)

I have been using Ana Cortez's method of playing card reading, which incorporates geomancy into the readings. This post is for those who are already familiar with her method, as I merely aim to share a technique I have created to make the geomancy calculation easier for me.

When I started using Ana's method, I found it cumbersome that I always had to have a pen and paper handy to jot down the geomantic figures. I wanted to be able to calculate the figures easily for readings on the fly, with nothing but my playing card deck. It finally hit me to use the cards themselves!

After laying out the "Cat Spread" of four cards, I then take the remainder of the deck and use the cards (face down) to lay out the geomantic figures. For a "1", I lay the card vertically, and for a "2", I lay the card horizontally. The cards combine to form the easily recognizable figures.

Below is a sample spread using this method. Please note that I go against the grain by laying my geomantic figures out from left to right, as that's the way my brain works best. The column of cards (face up) is the original four in the reading. The following three columns are the geomantic figures.

The left column is the First Witness, the one calculated by NUMBER.
The middle column is the Second Witness, the one calculated by COLOR.
The right column is the Judge, the sum of the Number & Color columns.

I hope this technique proves helpful for some of you using the Playing Card Oracles method of reading with geomancy.

Deck: Bicycle 1800 Vintage Series Playing Cards (published by Ellusionist)

A Home for my Playing Cards

2011-02-18T18:43:00.003-05:00

I have set up this new blog as a space to record my experiences with playing card readings. I have been writing for over three years on my tarot blog (Tarot Dame), but I wanted to keep the two methods separate.

I have dabbled in a few different cartomancy methods. The only one that really clicked with me, and has stuck, is Ana Cortez's method. Her book is fantastic... I highly recommend it. Both her deck and book are between publishers at the time of this writing. But if you can find a copy of the book, you can use it with any playing card deck. She also incorporates geomancy and timing into her method, so I will undoubtedly be sharing some of that here as well.

There are so many different sets of meanings and methods for reading with playing cards. My best advice is to research and undergo a bit of trial and error until you find one that seems authentic to you. And then allow your intuition to come into play... tweak meanings until they become your own... enjoy the learning process!