I recently came across what was described as an "Italian Romany" method of dealing the playing cards to form a spread. That approach uses 15 cards culled from a larger set of 32 as the result of a preliminary reading. It includes the idea of three "Surprise" cards and a "Consolation" card revealing lessons learned … Continue reading The Romany Cut “Wisdom or Folly” Situational Awareness Spread
Playing Cards
A Tale of Five Pips
As promised, here is my first serious attempt at divination with the playing cards. I used the Goldfield Nevada 1864 giant playing card deck, and I also augmented the five-card spread with the Night Sky playing cards to see if there is interpretive syncretism with any astrological fixed stars that may appear in the constellations. … Continue reading A Tale of Five Pips
Cards of Joy and Sorrow
I believe I've reached a tipping point in my growing desire to begin working with playing cards in cartomancy. I've accumulated a number of online sources for reference material (most notably that of Kapherus and "Auntie Tarot"), and I also have a few names to explore (Regina Russell, Cecily Kent, Sepharial) although I own none … Continue reading Cards of Joy and Sorrow
Playing-Card Insets: A Challenge Worth Taking
I've been working with the Lenormand cards going on nine years now, but I've never put a lot of effort into understanding and using the playing-card insets. Concurrently, I've been studying playing-card cartomancy somewhat casually, first through Dawn Jackson's Hedgewytchery material and more recently through the excellent blog of Kapherus (J. David Arcuri), Art of … Continue reading Playing-Card Insets: A Challenge Worth Taking
Stone Soup
I think it's time I start getting serious about bringing cartomantic (that is, playing-card) meanings into my approach to the numbered - or "pip" - cards when reading. The RWS minor cards with their built-in narrative vignettes are like "canned soup," the semi-scenic small cards of the Thoth deck are closer to "home-made soup" that you start with store-bought … Continue reading Stone Soup
A Cartomantic Adventure
I have a life-long devotion to tarot and astrology that began around 1970, and my fascination with Lenormand goes back to the day I first encountered it in 2011. But I'm always looking for a new challenge, which is why I took on traditional astrology and horary in particular. More recently, I've been eying playing-card … Continue reading A Cartomantic Adventure