by Marcus Katz
Eight: Speedy
Seven: Removal
Five: Surprise
Three: Tears
The Ace coming with the Eight: Severe sickness
Diamonds
Ace: Ring.
King: Very fair man.
Queen: Queen very fair woman.
Knave: Knavery.
Ten: Money, town journey.
Nine: Money.
Eight: Money.
Seven: Money.
Five: Kisses.
Three: Little girl.
The 10, 9, 8, and 7, all touching, predict an inheritance.
A run of 7, 8, and 9 of clubs, hearts, or diamonds of a single suit or mixed, predict good changes of business, abode, finance, or a way of living.
A run of spades: Troublesome changes.
Three Eights: Changes.
Three Sevens: Marriage, changes.
With these alternate systems in our cartomantic journal, let us now look at a range of ways in which we can read them through a selection of vintage spreads and methods.
Reading Cards for Agony Aunt Questions
The tarot time traveller does not always have to travel in person; books are also time travel devices. In a collection of Agony Aunt letters, we can see that from 1855 onwards the questions asked by people echo all the way back to those asked to the Coptic magician and upon the shrines of Delphi. We will see how cartomancy can answer these questions and their contemporary equivalents.
These questions are modified from a few examples given in the book, Never Kiss a Man in a Canoe by Tanith Carey. She notes that the first Agony Aunt was a magazine publisher, John Dunton, who started answering readers with caustic and straightforward advice. He published in the Athenian Mercury in 1691. Roughly half were questions about romance and relationships. 63
The popularity of answering questions from distressed ladies led in part to the first real women’s magazine, The Ladies’ Mercury in 1693.
Here is a question from that time period:
“I am afraid that as a rich widow, men seek to marry me for my money. Should I pretend to be a parlour maid and seek true love?”
Let us shuffle our playing card deck and select out two cards to answer this question:
King of Diamonds: Marriage; a fair person.
7 of Spades: Expectation.
We might word this as “You place your hope on a faithful man.”
A modern-day version of the question could be; “I feel as if I am being forced into not being my authentic self and it is affecting my relationships. What should I do?”
Again, shuffling our deck and picking out two cards we receive:
9 of Hearts (rev): Tiredness, anxiety.
10 of Spades: Jealousy, tears.
This indicates depression (anxiety) caused by conflict (tears) when comparing one’s own self and life to that of other people (jealousy). The advice of the cards is to stop the comparing, which will go some way to remove the conflict.
We can see in that question that the language and intention of questions can vary from time to time, but they all have a core similarity. We will look next at how we can translate questions—and card-meanings and their interpretation—across time.
Releasing Cards from Their Time
The meanings and interpretations of early cartomancy can be very constraining, in some cases literally variations of “will I be married or not” meanings, scattered with the occasional “inheritance” card. The tarot time traveller will take these interpretations back to their original nature for more flexible readings. This can be done in four steps and allows any card to be read simply for any question.
Here we take a card meaning from Flamstead and Partridge for the 4 of Diamonds which is:
The man who gets the number four,
He must quit[e] his native shore.
If the same be drawn by woman,
She’ll get a sweetheart out of hand.
Obviously, the answer cannot be to leave the country every time this card appears in a reading. These original meanings were meant to be read as a one-off parlour game or amusement, not for serious advice to be consulted daily for life.
We will break down the meaning to get to the cartomantic core for the card.
Step 1: Convert the card meaning to contemporary language.
Example: “must quit his native shore” is “emigrate.”
So that is the first layer of the card, a literal reading of emigration. This may apply to a question such as, “Should I take the job offer abroad?” but may not apply to “Should I make a formal complaint at work about the bullying situation or take it up with the bully first?” It could do, of course; however, it would be a bit drastic to read it literally. It may shake up the person to suggest they leave their job, and it may help them connect to the value of their employment in a positive way.
Step 2: Extract the sense of the card meaning from the contemporary language.
Example: To emigrate is to move, to change location, and it comes from Latin, meaning “to move (out of) a place.”
Now we see how this might apply to the question about workplace bullying. The answer is to move out of the situation in some way, not necessarily leaving the country or the job, but perhaps by moving out of the bully’s reach. We could suggest a move of team or office, for example, in this card.
Step 3: Use the sense of the card as a symbol for action.
Example: Our sense of “moving away” on a more fundamental level brings us to the original question and as a symbol signifies that we must move away from whatever answer feels most like home. So, whichever action makes us most uncomfortable and moves us away from our comfort zone is the one we must take. Here we might suggest that taking it up with the bully first is the answer, if the reporting route was the “home” or originally preferred solution.
Step 4: Break it down to a simple yes/no or affirmative/dissenting response.
Example: The act of quitting one’s home shore or moving away is a somewhat negative or dissenting route. The card is thus a more negative card more than a positive one. In our example question, if we were to take it as “Should I go and report the bullying before doing anything else?” then the answer still agrees with the other layers, which is no.
This method should always start at the top layer and work down until you get to the appropriate level for the question, even if it is simply a one-word answer of positive or negative.
We should note that the reading of the 4 of Diamonds for a woman is about “getting a sweetheart” out of hand, and that may indicate something about the bullying situation, strangely enough.
This four-step method allows us to take any archaic meaning such as, “You will die of the pox” through the levels and remain true to the cartomantic core of the card:
You will get ill and your health will rapidly become worse.
Whatever you are doing is making you uneasy and needs to stop.
The answer to your question is to not take that step and do something else.
No, do not do it.
Now that we can perform a one- or two-card reading, and translate our card meanings and questions across time, we can start to look at larger spreads and methods, and at interpreting the overall look of the spread before reading individual cards.
Overall View of Cards in a Reading
When we perform a reading, we can first take an overview of the cards to get a general flavour of the interpretation. Over time, we will begin to recognise patterns for ourselves, much like a chess master learns pattern recognition of openings, mid-game, and endings rather than every possible combination of pieces and positions. As a beginner, we can take these set positions on their word or as patterns to look out for in our readings.
These patterns are where they are found in the overall majority
of a reading or as a pair, depending on the spread or method being employed.
Diamonds + Clubs: Rapid success in financial or material issues.
Hearts + Diamonds: Energy and pleasure, enthusiasm.
Diamonds + Spades: Accident and negativity.
Clubs + Hearts: Stable relationship and authenticity.
Spades + Hearts: Regret and unhappiness in relationship.
The Qualities of a Cartomancer
The requirements to be a wholly proficient card reader in 1872 is a little different from what would be expected today, but at the same not so; certain phases and beliefs never wane. In the book Fortune-Telling by Cards, ascribed to a Madame Camille Le Normand by the publisher (Robert M. De Witt), it was said that to “acquire proficiency in the art of divination” that one would have to possess such qualities as “patience and the ability to study.” They stress that this would be very much needed, as card reading was “based purely upon mathematical principles.” 64
However, the book does assure us that “it can be learned by any person of ordinary capacity.” At the time, there was a movement to promote the art of cartomancy as a pseudo-science; they warned of the perils of being taken in by those who “assert it to be a divine gift” as they were “simply charlatans and mountebanks” who are after pulling the wool over the eyes of the unsuspecting public. The emphasis was very much put upon the importance of a sound education in divination, one that equips the student with the “fundamental principles of cartomancy.”
We are made aware that the writer considers those who believe that they are “the seventh children of the seventh children” are in some way deluding themselves, and that the notion that the ability to use divination is a gift that is bestowed only on those who have acquired it from a “supernatural origin, are merely impostures, as anyone can become equally, if not better gifted through a careful study of the oracular science.” 65
At the turn of that century, cartomancy was both consolation and amusement; it was a social activity, and it was proposed that it was something that could bring recognition and esteem to the card reader.
In modern-day parlance, the qualities required for the successful study of cartomancy and tarot (and Lenormand and oracle cards and runes, and so on) are much the same as any skill:
Application
Practice
Study
Commitment
Knowledge of symbolism
Self-awareness
Experience of life
Curiosity
Structure
We will add to this list in our final chapter, with the responsibilities and qualities expected of the reader.
We can learn cartomancy most quickly by learning the art as we would learn a language; starting with the basic alphabet, then making words, then forming sentences, and conversation. As we progress, we must practice—and practice more—to tune our language into how it should best be spoken and communicated. Again, we can only do this with practice. Study and practice.
The Cartomantic Language
Here is an example to which we might perhaps aspire in terms of its precision although as ever, it may be unlikely that this delivery of a reading was so accurate:
Now, madam, immediately after your marriage you will depart (8 of Clubs) for the country (8 of Diamonds), where you will be received with glee and merriment, for the Ace and the King of Hearts announce your presence at some scene of festivity, where you encounter a number of country gentleman (the two Knaves), one of them a young man (Knave of Clubs), who once inspired to the honor of your hand. This festival will be given at the house of a country lady (Queen of Diamonds), where you will meet with a lady, a brunette, of about your own age, an old friend of yours who for reasons best known to herself, has deserted the city to live apart from her husband.
Now then, madam, for your surprise. Take the surprise card (King of Clubs) and place on your last card to your left (Queen of Clubs). Ah then, how surprised you will be to find that your friend and her husband are reconciled, for the cards tell me that they, being both of the same color, are reunited. 66
Let us prepare ourselves to be that accurate about the following types of questions, derived from the antique fortune-telling books and like those asked of contemporary readers.
List of Top Twenty Cartomantic Questions
What position shall I hold among men?
Will my circumstances grow better?
Shall I foresee calumny?
Will my expectations be fulfilled?
Will my journey be a pleasant one?
Will my experience avail me?
Shall I be sustained?
What position shall I hold among friends?
Is my principle virtue justice?
Is my principle virtue temperance?
Is my principle virtue reliance?
Is my principle virtue prudence?
What will be the result of a marriage?
Shall I have strength to carry out my plans?
Shall I regain health?
What do others think of me?
Will I die?
Shall I be deceived?
Will I be imprisoned?
Will I become rich? 67
In our next chapter, we will look at a selection of spreads that will answer these and many other questions using the meanings we have now covered. Let us set our time-pod for an English summer at the beach.
[contents]
52 Title page of The New Game at Cards; or, a Pack of Cards Changed into a Compleat and Perpetual Almanack.
53 We are also particularly fond of the Buzzfeed-type titles of chapbooks of the time, showing there is nothing new under the sun. Our favourite title is HelioGabulus’s Magic Tablets: A Never-Failing Key to the Future Fortunes of Enquirers. Also the Silent Language, or How to Discourse without Speaking, and Various Other Secrets Worth Knowing.
54 Some online versions are much the same; however, in a couple of cases, there are different interpretations caused by variations such as “Never will the truth forsake” compared to “For Ever will the truth forsake” for the 8 of Diamonds. We here use the original in the Museum of Scotland, which we visited several years ago.
55 The Anglo-Norman phrase is usually translated as “Evil (or shame) be to him that evil thinks.”
56 Method and card meanings taken verbatim from a copy of Flamstead & Partridge, Fortune Book, c. 1800, in the National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh.
57 For an illustrated history of playing cards, including a selection of important and rare tarot and divination decks, see Catherine Perry Hargrave, A History of Playing Cards (Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2000).
58 Also see www.tarottimetraveller.com for an updated list of resources.
59 See Johnathan Dee, Fortune Telling by Playing Cards (New York: Sterling Publishing, 2004).
60 Cicely Kent, Telling Fortunes by Cards (London, UK: Herbert Jenkins Limited, n.d.), 163–164.
61 Ibid., 23.
62 All card meanings in this section drawn from Cicely Kent, Ibid.
63 Tanith Carey, Never Kiss a Man in a Canoe (London, UK: Boxtree, 2009), vii.
64 Madame Camille Le’Normand, Fortune-Telling by Cards (New York, NY: Robert M. De Witt, 1872), 13. This book, like so many others of its kind, was not written by any relative of Lenormand.
65 Ibid.
66 Ibid.
67 Collated from several fortune-telling books in private collection.
3
Cartomancy Methods
The first step in reading cards is to learn their meaning by heart. Using an old pack for practice, write the meaning of each card on its face. These cards may be used unt
il the meanings are thoroughly committed to memory. The mystifying part of reading fortunes is gained chiefly by being able to glance at ordinary playing cards and tell what they mean.
—Fortune-Telling, 1927 68
19 June, 1978: Blackpool, England
We are getting used to traveling in time now, and this trip is comparatively short. We arrive mid-afternoon on the shore-front road known as the Golden Mile, where the trams are busy competing with the horse-drawn carriages and donkey rides on the beach for the summer trade. Everywhere there are holiday makers, young boys in tracksuit tops, girls with their short-cropped hair or perms according to the weekly trend. Everyone appears to be wearing bell-bottomed jeans, and the guys all sport huge collars. The girls scream loudly as they rocket around the Wild Mouse rollercoaster.
Along the shoreline are lined booths for hoopla, candy floss, and bubblegum. But it is not these to which we are drawn—not only are these booths dotted with fortune-tellers carrying the Petulengro name, but behind the front, in the ordinary houses in the shadow of the amusement park are fortune-tellers of a more recent variety, the kitchen-table tellers. The Romany gypsies have been camped at Blackpool since at least the 1840s, settling to the fortune-telling trade in the 1960s.
However, we are observing a young girl and her mother arriving at a small brick-built terrace house behind the South Shore area. They are greeted by the woman of the house’s husband who takes them through to the small kitchen area. There they meet an ordinary-looking and elderly woman who goes simply by the name of Mrs. T.
The process is always the same: a few cursory pleasantries and then a small payment. Mrs. T asks for an item and holds it tightly for a while in her closed hand, her eyes closed. The woman visiting looks nervously at her daughter … she never visits the gypsies on the pier because they are a little too mystical for her taste. She prefers a straightforward medium like Mrs. T.
The daughter waits for her mother to ask the same question she always asks while Mrs. T puts down the ring and gets out her playing cards, laying them in fans across the smooth plane of the kitchen table. Her mother waits until the cards are ready and then asks as she always does: “Can you see anything about my health? Will I live to see my children grow up?”
