Cartomancy has a rich tradition in Italy. It was believed until some years ago that cartomancy had been brought to Italy by Napoleon, but then some cartomantic meanings dating back to before the Napoleonic period were discovered, as well as even some scattered early modern literary references to tarot as a tool for fortune-telling in Italy.

Cartomancy (i.e., divination by cards) has always been a Folk tradition, as opposed to Astrology, which required an advanced knowledge of math. Therefore, the practice of cartomancy was always mingled with odd traditions, beliefs and superstitions. Here I gather a couple of folk anecdotes that were passed down to me and that I later discovered to be widespread. I don’t share these as rules (they aren’t) but only as interesting bits of trivia.

The Cards Must Have Been Used to Play Games

The cards were always originally used as game counters (including tarot). No esoteric woowoo. When I first started learning to read playing cards, my teacher told me to get a deck that was “giocato e bestemmiato“. This literally means, a deck that has been played with (giocato) and that players have used swearwords and profanities over while playing (bestemmiato).

This may sound curious, but it is a widespread belief among Italian fortune-tellers. I don’t have a definitive explanation for why this is so, but I do have a theory: the Church has always condemned card games as tools of the devil, because they caused people to gamble away their money (which they ought to give to the Church) and it tarnished their soul because it caused them to use swearwords and profanities.

When fortune-telling evolved out of card games, it was of course equally condemned as witchcraft and devil-worship, as it was believed that the devil moved the cards to form the messages. Therefore, some card readers must have believed that the cards that some people had used to play while using profanities had already acquired some kind of demonic connection with hell that made them work better (note that profanities are an important part of some strands of Italian witchcraft).

A more angelic variation of this belief is that the cards must have been used either by a virgin or by children, due to their purity.

Although I don’t think the cards have anything to do with demons, I must confess I always use used decks, simply because they feel better when I touch them.

The Little Spirit In The Cards

There is a widespread belief among old-time fortune-tellers that the cards work because they are inhabited by a little spirit or sprite that moves them through the reader’s hand (traditional folk beliefs in Italy, as well as around the world, tend to have animistic undertones.) Not only this, but it is believed that, in each deck, one particular card is home to the little spirit. For instance, in some Italian playing decks the spirit is said to inhabit the Ace of Swords, where a little angel is depicted.

In the regular playing deck, it is said that the spirit inhabits either the Ace of Hearts or the Ace of Clubs, depending on the tradition. My teacher also seemed to believe that, in the Sibilla deck, the spirit resides in the Peacock card, probably due to its esoteric connection.

Needless to say, it is widely believed that if the card inhabited by the spirit is lost or destroyed this is a portent of bad luck.

Passing Down The Meanings

In many Italian traditions it is said that the meanings of the cards must be passed down excusively either on Christmas Eve or in the week preceding Easter. The same holds true for many magic formulas. But don’t worry, the cards work regardless of when you learned to use them.

Knocking On The Deck

Possibly a consequence of the belief in the little spirit in the cards, many fortune-tellers have the habit of knocking on the deck before dealing out the spread as a way to respectfully ask the cards to speak the truth. I have preserved this habit from my teacher: I always knock three times (some even say seven) before dealing out the cards. It’s not that I think the cards wouldn’t answer anyway. It is just a tip of the hat to my tradition.

Paying For Consultations

There are, as usual, two contradictory schools. One says that readings must absolutely be free. The other, more common, is that readings must absolutely be paid to avoid incurring bad luck. This latter belief probably comes from the fact that cartomancy was a popular way for women to make some money, especially in the countryside, and this often led them to become both respected and feared.

Honestly, it was much more common for the old cartomancers to be paid not with money but in different ways: a chicken, a jar of preserve, a pie, some free repairwork. Cartomancers of old became integrated members of the community by offering their advice in exchange for other people’s goods and services.

Clearly, doing free readings is not really problematic from an esoteric standpoint. I’ve been giving free readings my whole life and I’m still alive. I’ll probably soon start offering paid reading from this site and I don’t think this will interfere much with my fate.

The Ace of Hearts

As in many systems of cartomancy with playing cards, in Italian cartomancy the Ace of Hearts is the house. There are many traditions connected to it. One of these traditions is that some fortune-tellers will have the Ace of Hearts blessed by a priest (if the priest is against such practices, then the Ace of Hearts is simply slipped under something else that the priest will bless) and then put somewhere in the home for protection. Usually this somewhere is next to the entrance door.

Leg-crossing

This isn’t exclusively Italian, but still interesting. Some fortune-tellers believe the querent should never cross their legs during the reading. While I don’t really believe this, the interesting thing is that in some countries, during the Middle Ages, judges were encouraged to cross their legs when ruling so as to avoid external interference. Fortune-tellers clearly want the querent to be energetically open, and so encourage the opposite.

MQS