Category Archives: Cartomancy

Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Tarot

Bolognese Tarot – Manuale Pratico di Lettura di Tarocchino Bolognese by Rossella Giliberti (Review)

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In recent years, a small number of new books on the Bolognese tarot have been published to meet the demands of the small but growing niche of afficionados. This, as I explained, is largely the merit of Ingallati’s book, which, in spite of some limitations, managed to create that niche outside of Bologna.

Rossella Giliberti’s book is one of these new books. The title of the slim publication literally translates as ‘Practical Handbook for Reading the Bolognese Tarot’. It is a wonderful title, one that is likely to arouse hope in many people. Unfortunately, it has very little to do with the actual content of the book.

Giliberti uses a similar deck as Ingallati (49 cards plus the Joker). I have already explained in my review of Ingallati’s book why I don’t like this selection of cards, which however is unique to Ingallati’s style and must be accepted as such.

Seeing Giliberti’s choice of deck, one would think that she’s just a copycat of Ingallati. But this would be unfair to Giliberti. As short as it is, her book is filled to the brim with notes on combinations and meanings that Ingallati doesn’t talk about, plus she swaps certain cards for others. It is clear that Giliberti, despite obviously being inspired by Ingallati, also had other sources for learning the tarocco bolognese, and this alone makes her book worth buying if one is serious about this deck.

That said, there are some glaring issues with it. For starters, there is absolutely nothing practical or handbookish about it. It is a very (VERY) disorganized collection of notes which would have been fine as initial preparatory work for a book. After the skippable part (the initial chapter about history, which however is more interesting than that in Ingallati’s work) the book gives the usual rundown of the cards one by one, with their core meanings and a couple of classical combinations. For whatever reason, the picture of the Hanged Man is from the Marteau Marseille Tarot.

The merit of this section is that it is clearer, more concise and less fluffed up than Ingallati’s, and the symbolic interpretation more down-to-earth and more informed by Bolognese folklore, as it should be. The possible drawback is that there is space left for the reader to take notes, possibly in an attempt to make the book longer, with the result that the sections seem a bit disjointed and separated from one another. I guess that’s the ‘practical’ part of the book.

When Giliberti comes to the description of the minor arcana, the book starts to fall apart more clearly in terms of organization, with some cards often repeated, some out of order, lack of punctuation and proof-reading, tips on how to read the cards thrown in the mix in random places, some paragraphs all in caps lock, etc. At this point one would be excused for thinking the book is self-published, but it’s not. Some publisher took a look at this and said “yes, I want our brand to be liked to it”.

Giliberti also offers the meanings of the other minor arcana, the ones that are discarded from the 62-card deck. Unfortunately the meanings are taken from a famous discussion board post dating back several years, where one user had assigned the meanings of the Rider Waite deck to the discarded minor arcana.

Afterward there is a section on combinations, all rigorously in caps lock, all rigorously with huge amounts of blank space left between paragraphs. The wording of some of them even makes one think they were taken from other books that I shall review in the future. Some combinations make no sense (e.g., the Page of Coins and the Ace of Cups is a marriage). Some are repeated multiple times with different meanings. Typos and mistakes abound. Still, for all its limitations, an interesting section.

Then there is another section, organized differently in the form of a table, this time on… Combinations? And then there is another section, organized in yet another manner, which is about… Meanings and combinations, some of which have little to do with the ones presented in the first section, and which are more clearly taken “as is” from other sources.

At the end comes an extremely slim final section with some layouts, one of which is taken from Ingallati’s book (I do not mean the layout itself, which is traditional. I mean the actual spread, down to the cards shown in the example). The thirteen card spread is explained in two different ways. The cross spread is also explained in two different ways. You get the picture.

So, what to think of this book? It depends on how one sees it. As a ‘practical handbook’, as promised in the title, it is a bad joke bordering on false representation. As a disorganized mess of poorly edited notes taken from many different sources, some of which are credible, it is somewhat serviceable, especially if you know where and how to look, where and how to block out the information, and if there are no linguistic barriers between you and the text.

Whether it is worth your money depends on the level of autistic fixation you have for the Bolognese Tarot. As I am definitely on that spectrum, I’d rather have it than not, but I am not going to sit here and pretend it is a finished book worth 20€.

Where to buy: Amazon

MQS

Card Meanings, Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Tarot

Tarot Encyclopedia – The Eight of Pentacles or Coins

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(Note: this is a collection of the meanings attributed to the cards by some occultists in the past centuries. It does not reflect my own study or opinion of the cards. It is only meant as a quick comparative reference as I develop my own take.)

The Eight of Pentacles from the Builders of the Adytum (BOTA) tarot

Paul Foster Case (and Ann Davies)

The time period is the first decanate of Virgo, under the rulership of Mercury, from August 23 to September 2. Meanings:
Well-Dignified: skill in the management of material affairs; industry; gain in subordinate positions through writing, clerical work or travel; gain of ready money in small sums.
lll-Dignified: avarice and hoarding; penny wisdom and pound foolishness; meanness in money matters; loss through travel or writings; the Querent is likely to be in difficulties with superiors and also with inferiors; he may lose through trying to overreach somebody else.
Keyword: Prudence
(From the Oracle of Tarot course)

A. E. Waite

An artist in stone at his work, which he exhibits in the form of trophies. Divinatory Meanings: Work, employment, commission, craftsmanship, skill in craft and business, perhaps in the preparatory stage. Reversed: Voided ambition, vanity, cupidity, exaction, usury. It may also signify the possession of skill, in the sense of the ingenious mind turned to cunning and intrigue.
(From The Pictorial Key to the Tarot)

The Eight of Pentacles from the Rider Waite Smith tarot

Aleister Crowley

The Eight of Disks is called Prudence. This card is a great deal better than the last two [Eights], because, in purely material matters, especially those relating to actual money, there is a sort of strength in doing nothing at all. The problem of every financier is, first of all, to gain time; if his resources are sufficient, he always beats the market. This is the card of “putting something away for a rainy day”.

[…]

The number Eight, Hod, is very helpful in this card, because it represents Mercury in his most spiritual aspect, and he both rules and is exalted in the sign of Virgo, which belongs to the Decan, and is governed by the Sun. It signifies intelligence lovingly applied to material matters, especially those of the agriculturalist, the artificer and the engineer.

One might suggest that this card marks the turn of the tide. The seven of Disks is in one sense the fullest possible establishment of Matter-compare Atu XV-the lowest fallen and therefore the highest exalted. These last three cards seem to prepare the explosion which will renew the whole Cycle. Note that Virgo is Yod, the secret seed of Life, and also the Virgin Earth awaiting the Phallic Plough.

The interest of this card is the interest of the common people. The rulership of the Sun in Virgo suggests also birth. The disks are arranged in the form of the geomantic figure Populus. These disks may be represented as the flowers or fruits of a great tree, its solid roots in fertile land.

In the Yi King, Sol in Virgo is represented by the 33rd Hexagram, Thun, “Big Air”. It means “retiring”; and the commentary indicates how best to make use of that manoeuvre. This is congruous enough with the essence of Virgo, the secret withdrawing of Energy into the fallow Earth. Populus, moreover, is the Moon retiring from manifestation to her conjunction with the Sun.
(From The Book of Thoth)

The Eight of Disks from the Thoth tarot

Golden Dawn’s Book T

A WHITE Radiating Angelic Hand, issuing from a cloud, and grasping a branch of a rose tree, with four white roses thereon, which touch only the four lowermost Pentacles. No rosebuds even, but only leaves, touch the four uppermost disks. All the Pentacles are similar to that of the Ace, but without the Maltese cross and wings. They are arranged like the geomantic figure Populus:

* *
* *
* *
* *

Above and below them are the symbols Sun and Virgo for the Decan.
Over-careful in small things at the expense of great: “Penny wise and pound foolish”: gain of ready money in small sums; mean; avaricious; industrious; cultivation of land; hoarding, lacking in enterprise.
Hod of HB:H (Skill: prudence: cunning).
Therein rule those mighty Angels HB:AKAYH and HB:KHThAL

Etteilla

Brunette Girl
Upright. This card, as far as the medicine of the spirit is concerned, means, in its natural position: Brunette Girl, Passive, Great Night.
Reversed. Empty aspiration, Avarice, Usury.

MQS

Card Meanings, Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Playing Cards

Playing Cards That Indicate Stability

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Let’s move on with our look at the playing cards divided by concept. This time, we see which cards represent stability.

Ace of Hearts
The Ace of Hearts, like in many systems of reading playing cards, represents the home. It is a symbol of durability and stability, since houses tend to be stable things that don’t change. Mostly, the Ace of Hearts symbolizes the house or the family, however, when describing someone’s character, for instance, it shows them to be family-oriented, looking at stabilizing their life, being rooted in traditional values, etc.

Four of Hearts
The Four of Hearts usually brings agreement in all fields of life. However, the type of agreement it shows is effortless, and it resembles more a state of peace where the waters aren’t ruffled (and if they are, the waves calm down immediately). Usually this card indicates harmony, harmonious surroundings and ease.

Six of Hearts
Unlike the previous two cards, the Six of Hearts, which represents such things as reconciliation, healing, etc. does often imply the presence of some disturbing factors (though not necessarily. We need to look at the spread as a whole), but it shows that these disturbing factors, such as a break-up or a disagreement, can and probably will be overcome, returning the situation to its previous stability.

Ten of Hearts
The Ten of Hearts is one of the most powerful in the deck, as it is often capable of diminishing the negative impact of negative cards. Since it is symbolic of paradise, heaven or ultimate attainment of one’s happiness, it hints at a situation either being stable (and happy) or becoming stable (and happy). When it is followed by very negative cards, though, it can show this paradise being lost. In fact, it is sometimes a bad sign when we find the Ten of Hearts at the beginning of the spread without other strong cards, because it shows that the best is already in the past.

Three of Clubs
The Three of Clubs brings union and unity. It causes situations or people to become locked in place, usually by signing contracts, celebrating a marriage of making a commitment to each other or doing things together. Sometimes it can show that a situation perseveres (it remains married to us).

Six of Clubs
A somewhat obnoxious card, the Six of Clubs isn’t tragic, but it brings disturbance. It shows situations that have lost their momentum, and problems that we thought we had overcome reemerging. It shows a sort of static discontent with no disruption in sight, either for good or bad, unless other cards clearly show it.

Nine of Clubs
This is the card of distance, either in terms of miles or in terms of time. As such, it lengthens out the timeframe, but unlike the Six, the Nine of Clubs has no negative undertones, except in the sense that often we want all the good in the world to happen to us quickly, and this card stalls us for some time. However, it can also make a good situation last longer.

Four of Diamonds
Unlike the Four of Hearts, which shows effortless stability and agreement, the Four of Diamonds represents agreement following either tensions or negotiations. Thus it represents all things to do with bureaucracy and the government that seek to regulate life and make it more stable within the borders of a country.

Ten of Diamonds
Of the Ten of Diamonds we can say something similar to the Ten of Hearts, except that the success promised by Diamonds tends to be more material, and doesn’t necessarily imply happiness. However, it does represent situations that have developmed to their utmost in a positive sense and have reached their aim.

Five of Spades
Being the card of prison, the Five of Spades symbolizes constraints, blockages and the need to make great sacrifices. As such, it means that the person (symbolized by the central pip, hemmed in by the four other pips at the corners) cannot move and is bound to a situation. Usually this is in a negative sense. Even when surrounded by positive cards, thus showing a positive commitment, it still indicates a certain sense of being stifled.

Six of Spades
The Six of Spades is the card of illness, and it shows all situations that are ill, broken, suffering, etc. In itself it is not the most tragic card in the suit, but it represents a state of suffering stillness, which may be overcome or lead to disruption, depending on the cards that follow this one.

MQS

Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Playing Cards, Tarot, Vera Sibilla

A Quirk of the Thirteen-Card Spread

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The last thirteen-card spread I posted was interesting for a couple of reasons. One reason I already talked about: the need to be flexible with significators.

Another reason is that it showcases what I suspect to be an interesting quirk of the thirteen-card spread. This is a purely experimental anecdote, so take it with a pinch of salt, but I have found it to be true on more than one occasion.

The quirk is that, in the thirteen-card spread (which I discussed here), the rows seem to be connected not just one after the other, but also alternately, i.e., the first row with the third row and the second row with the fourth row.

I cannot stress this enough: this is NOT a rule, it is simply something I have found to be true on occasion. There are situations where the thirteen-card spread is perfectly smooth from start to finish, reading like a little story with a beginning, a middle and an end. In this sort of situation we don’t need to pair up the rows 1-3 and 2-4.

However, sometimes we can recognize snippets of story mixed together in an odd way. I have found that pairing odd rows together and then even rows together can help sort these snippets out, giving them a more logical order.

In the example of the spread I posted, the second and fourth rows seemed to talk more about material issues, whereas the first and third were more centered on the person’s emotional life. Pairing them odd-with-odd and even-with-even, the spread became more clear.

If the spread is talking about more than one issue at once (which can happen), then this kind of pairing often makes sense. However, sometimes it makes sense even if there is only one topic in play, and this particular case the rows that we pair up talk about subtopics within the same topic.

It may be that this technique simply stems from my limitations as a reader, so that I find ways to circumvent difficulties in the interpretation of the spread. Still, I found this to be accurate enough to bring up, in case anyone wants to experiment with it.

Finally, it may simply be that we need to be very flexible with the rows, and take for granted that they may pair up in unlikely ways. Who knows, maybe I’ll find that the first and fourth row really go well together in some readings. The point is always that the techniques we apply need to shed light on the querent’s life, not simply add flourishes and complications to the interpretation.

MQS

Card Reading, Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Playing Cards, Reading Example, Uncategorized, Vera Sibilla

Three Decks For One Inheritance (Example Reading)

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We did a little experiment with a friend. She wanted to know if the bureaucratic process to get the inheritance from the recently deceased grandfather would finally come to an end, since there had been several delays (leave it to the Italian bureaucracy). We started with the Sibilla.

Sibilla

A three card reading with the Vera Sibilla

In this case, the Handmaid reversed indicates money going out (of the querent’s wallet). The Sighs card simply indicates that the person worries they’ll have to pay money. The Ten of Hearts here is not a positive influence, because it is a card that makes the uncertain certain (in the context of a trial, for instance, it might indicate the sentence being decided). So in this case the worries shown by the Sighs are confirmed.

I asked my friend if she was worried about having to pay some extra money, and she said that this was her and her dad’s worry, but that they had looked into inheritance law and thought they were safe and wouldn’t need to pay . Clearly the Sibilla begs to differ.

Playing cards

A three card reading with regular playing cards

In this case we don’t have the querent’s state of mind (which the Sibilla talked about). However, we do have, once again, the loss of money, indicated by the Three of Diamonds being covered by the Ace of Spades. The Ace of Hearts shows us that the money going out is due to family issues, something which was absent from the Sibilla.

Skat cards

A three card reading with the Skat / Piquet deck

I decided to make an experiment with the Skat cards as well, just for kicks. The Eight of Diamonds is technically the card of work. However, if I understand the meanings correctly, it represents work because it shows the flow of money, money being exchanged. So it can represent, more broadly, the economy. With the Seven of Clubs, which indicates tears, the economy will take a hit. The King of Spades might be the office worker who will give the querent the news.

A week ago they received news that they needed to pay an extra 3000€ to unfreeze the granddad’s money. My friend doesn’t know if the office worker who worked on their case was a man (the King). Still I think the Skat cards were rather accurate.

MQS

Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling

My New (Old) Lenormand Deck

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I was accompanying hubby to the optometrist in another city, when we came across one of those easily overlooked book shops selling second-hand books. And right on display was this deck (I’ll do a flip-through video soon):

An old Lenormand deck

Also, get a load of this: the backs are completely plain, like in days of yore!

The cards’ back

The deck came with a book. The author gives off German Mary Greer vibes, in the sense that he published on a variety of topics while trying to appeal both to the casual as well as to the psychotically fixated at the same time.

However, being an old book (I believe it came out in 1992 or so) I was hoping for less psychology. He has the (suspicious to me) tendency to read way too much into the symbols, bringing in Freud, among others. He also tries to combine the meaning of the skat cards with that of the symbols, with mixed results. Sometimes it makes sense, sometimes it doesn’t.

But this is only from leafing through the book cursorily. Maybe I’m judging him too harshly. An interesting thing is that he uses the Grand Tableau / Große Tafel in the less known 6×6 variant.

However good or bad the book may be, I only bought it because it was attached to the deck, which is lovely, and the set cost only a little over 5€. The deck has an old-timey feel to it. Some of the symbols are a bit hard to see. For instance, the Clouds look more like a sea, and the Mice are actually a single mouse which almost disappears in comparison to the pudding and wine he is stealing: while looking at the card I was thinking “Wait, did the Lenormand deck have a Bistro card?” Oh well, at least the mouse doesn’t have to share the wine with the others.

Still a really cute deck and a good buy. I am not planning on studying the Lenormand deck soon (I have way too many irons in the fire) but I just couldn’t resist it.

MQS

Card Reading, Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Everyday Oracle, Fortune-telling, Playing Cards, Sibilla della Zingara, Tarot, Uncategorized, Vera Sibilla

How Long to Shuffle the Deck?

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This may sound like a silly question, but it is one I get asked constantly in private. I think the reason is that, especially at the beginning, we are very unsure of how to go about the reading and we are afraid we may get it wrong on technical grounds even before the interpretation starts.

Unfortunately, there is no clear answer to this. I know of old-time diviners who shuffle the deck for a fixed (usually odd) number of times, like seven, nine or thirteen. I have never been able to get behind this way of doing things. It is, however, a traditional approach, so I thought it better to mention it.

I distinguish between when I’m reading for myself, or even for someone else, but who isn’t there; and when the person is with me, even just on the phone or on skype (I used to do skype readings for friends all the time when I was in college).

The second case is the easiest, so I’ll talk about it first: when I’m reading for someone and I am directly in contact with them, I simply ask them to think about the question and to give me a stop when they are ready. Meanwhile, I decide which spread to use, then I relax and I take on an attitude of calm focus, without strain.

The person may have me shuffle for two minutes, or they may tell me to stop after two shuffles. After the stop, if the person is physically there, I also let them cut the deck, otherwise I do it for them after knocking three times on its back (that’s my little ritual). As weird as it sounds, the cards always seem to fall into place very well regardless of how long it took to shuffle them.

I believe this is because, in a reading, there is more at play than just two eccentrics’ focus on a topic. We may like to concoct philosophies that give us ultimate power over external reality, but the fact remain that we live at the intersection of cosmic, personal and interpersonal currents, a number of which are beyond our control. Our focus may catalyze these forces, but they are more ingenious than our conscious awareness could be.

In the first case, i.e., when I’m reading for myself or for someone who isn’t there, I need to be especially at peace with myself. If I’m distracted, depressed, in a heightened mood or very sick, the reading won’t go well. Even when I am at peace, there is always a question mark at the end of my readings, like they are never as crisp as when I’m reading for someone else who is there with me.

So, how long do I shuffle in this case? The answer may be disheartening for some, but it’s: as long as I feel I need to. This is hard to explain, but one soon learns to recognize the feeling of a well-shuffled deck. Some may feel the deck becomes heavier, others seem to just get an undefined feeling.

For my part, I usually feel a sensation akin to being full after eating a hearty meal and being unable to take another bite, while at the same time the deck itself seems to oppose resistance to being shuffled as the cards lock into the right place. Your experience may vary.

MQS

Card Reading, Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Everyday Oracle, Fortune-telling, Playing Cards, Sibilla della Zingara, Tarot, Vera Sibilla

Making Sense of Daily Readings

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Daily readings are not my passion. Divination moves from the assumption that something is going to happen. But life is full of uneventful days, where time seems to stand still. Yet the oracle must necessarily tell us something, for the simple fact that we allow it to speak.

This is not to say that the cards (or other means) don’t mean anything, but often we need to tone down the interpretation to such a degree, or retrieve such inconsequential shades of meaning that, unless you are a god of divination, you aren’t going to be able to consistently predict much, and I am definitely not a god of divination.

On the other hand, daily readings can sometimes be easy to read into once the event has come to pass (see my recent example). Reading into the oracle always leaves us in danger of deluding ourselves. The question I always ask myself is: would I be able to see it if I didn’t know it? Often a vaguer prediction that is true to what we can see in the cards is preferable to a highly detailed account that simply regurgitates what we already know or what we have been fed.

Still, sometimes we can afford the luxury of reading-into after the fact, and daily readings can be one such instance, because at least we can learn something, if we are careful. In the example I posted about the pregnancy, the three cards, called at random to disclose a daily influence, could have meant a variety of different things, but news about a pregnancy is without a doubt one possible interpretation. Furthermore, sometimes if we know that something is bound to happen, we may gauge by the daily reading if it is likely to happen on a particular day, or if it is going to go well.

Another thing to consider is that limiting the timeframe is always somewhat arbitrary. Do you seriously think that if you ask the cards what is going to happen this week and in ten days something terrible or wonderful is bound to happen the cards are going to keep quiet about it? Just because you told them to keep it within the week?

Often, if you pull daily cards, a major event or major influence or vibe shift will start manifesting in the cards many days in advance. A romantic reunion happening next week may start manifesting with cards of love now, even if today or tomorrow aren’t especially romantic days.

What I personally prefer to do is occasionally pulling three cards for the day, while knowing that they may describe something happening further along the way. By occasionally I mean every two or three weeks, rarely every week. That way the cards are usually more meaningful than if I stress them every day on how the day is going to go. This doesn’t mean I’m going to be able to predict something, but the careful, tentative reading-into is going to be more certain and less based on wishful thinking.

MQS

astrology, Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Geomancy, I Ching / Yi Jing, Occultism and Esoterism, Playing Cards, Tarot, Vera Sibilla

Flexibility in Divination (and Other Occult Branches)

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In my latest reading, an interesting phenomenon happened: I had to partly go beyond the basic rules of the oracle (in this case the tarot) in order to interpret its message.  Specifically, I had to get past the rule that only the Wand figures represent the querents and accept the Queen of Cups as an alternative version of the subject in question.

There is always a reason why something happens, and in this case I believe the possible reasons were 1) that I was asking about my mother, so the cards described her not only as the protagonist of the reading (Wand) but also as mother of the person asking the question (Cup) 2) the reading was, in part, about her still viewing herself as wife, even though she is widowed, so not only is she the protagonist (Wand) but also a wife (Cup).

I am pretty sure this sort of things (that is, the need to apply the ground rules with discretion) can happen in different respects with any deck. In fact, I think it can happen with any oracle. The late Robert Zoller often showed that good astrologers need to be guided by what the chart is saying, which often requires one to start from recorded knowledge and then stretch that knowledge to cover each individual case. William Lilly, possibly the most important horary astrologer in history, often repeated that one must “mix discretion with art”, that is, understand the rules and then apply them intelligently.

The thing is, divination is not an assembly line type of work: it’s a Hermetic art (where the word ‘Hermetic’ is understood in its classical sense, not the Kybalion-style crap). If even the rules of biology need to be interpreted smartly by doctors in order to cure the human body, then how much more flexible do we need to be to interpret a device whose permutations can give us the blueprint for anything that could happen?

Anything goes vs informed pragmatism

My understanding of divination is a never-ending journey. The way I currently see the rules of divination is as posts along the way in a thick snowstorm. If a post has been put somewhere, that means someone was there before and has figured out something. We do not discard such knowledge lightly, unless the contingent reality of our current situation makes us prefer another route.

This approach is very different from the ‘anything goes’ non-method used by so many, which is almost expected and even bragged about, largely due to the widespread rejection of rationality in our milieu. Too many people who dabble into esoteric subjects today seem to believe that throwing overboard logic is the first step on the journey. In part this is due to mistaken orientalist fantasies, in part to a post-modern Zeitgeist that sees all structures as dispensable, reactionary dead weight only good for restraining us– who wants to be restrained?

The way I currently see rules in the esoteric arts is neither reactionary nor revolutionary. It is an attempt at appraising reality through lenses as simple as possible and as complex as they need to be, a kind of pragmatism that is informed by the past but future-oriented in looking for concrete solutions to concrete issues.

As far as divination is concerned, it is a language, but it is a language with no native speakers, and for which no Rosetta stone exists, except the tentative hypotheses of those who have grappled with the language before. We don’t need to vest them with our superstitious awe, but we do owe them a serious, dispassionate look at the conclusions they have reached before either accepting them as they are, discarding them or expanding them with discretion.

MQS