Category Archives: Divination

Card Meanings, Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Occultism and Esoterism, Tarot

Tarot Encyclopedia – Knight of Coins or Pentacles

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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 Knight of Pentacles from the Builders of the Adytum (BOTA) tarot deck

Paul Foster Case (and Ann Davies)

The time period is from the beginning of the third decanate of Leo to the end of the second decanate of Virgo, August 13 to September 12. This period is under the rulership of Mars, Mercury and Saturn. Meanings: Well-Dignified: ability to use actions effectively; good mind, able to see through the veils of sense experience to their true import. In specific divination, a man younger than the King and though intelligent, somewhat matter-of-fact; not original or imaginative; good at carrying out any plan calling for intelligent action on the physical plane.
Ill-Dignified: avaricious, mean, jealous, somewhat violent and cruel. Dark brown hair and dark eyes.
(From the Oracle of Tarot course)

A. E. Waite

He rides a slow, enduring, heavy horse, to which his own aspect corresponds. He exhibits his symbol, but does not look therein. Divinatory Meanings: Utility, serviceableness, interest, responsibility, rectitude-all on the normal and external plane. Reversed: inertia, idleness, repose of that kind, stagnation; also placidity, discouragement, carelessness.
(From The Pictorial Key to the Tarot)

Aleister Crowley

(Note: Crowley and the Golden Dawn make a mess with the Kings and Knights)
The Prince of Disks represents the airy part of Earth, indicating the florescence and fructification of that element. He rules from the 21st degree of Aries to the 20th degree of Taurus.

The figure of this Prince is meditative. He is the element of Earth become intelligible. Clothed in light armour, his helmet is crowned with the head of a bull; and his chariot is drawn by an ox, this animal being peculiarly sacred to the Element of Earth. In his left hand he holds his disk, which is an orb resembling a globe, marked with mathematical symbols as if to imply the planning involved in agriculture. In his right hand he bears an orbed sceptre surmounted by a cross, a symbol of the Great Work accomplished; for it is his function to bring forth from the material of the element that vegetation which is the sustenance of the Spirit itself.

The character denoted by this card is that of great energy brought to bear upon the most solid of practical matters. He is energetic and enduring, a capable manager, a steadfast and per severing worker. He is competent, ingenious, thoughtful, cautious, ‘trustworthy, imperturbable; he constantly seeks new uses for common things, and adapts his circumstances to his purposes in a slow, steady, well-thought out plan.

He is lacking almost entirely in emotion. He is somewhat in sensitive, and may appear dull, but he is not; it so appears because he makes no effort to understand ideas which are beyond his scope. He may often appear stupid, and is inclined to be resentful of more spiritual types. He is slow to anger, but, if driven, becomes implacable. It is not very practicable to distinguish between the good and evil dignities in this card; one can merely say that, in case of his being ill-dignified, both the quality and quantity of his characteristics are somewhat degraded. The reaction of others to him will depend almost entirely upon their own temperaments.

In the Yi King, the airy part of Earth is represented by the 53rd hexagram, Kien. The commentary concerns the flight of wild geese, “gradually approaching the shore”, then “the large rocks”, then “advanced to the dry plains-the trees-the high ~ finally, to “the large heights”. It thus symbolizes slow, steady emancipation from repressive conditions.

The description is even happier than that given by the Qabalah, although in every way congruous with it. Practical considerations are never absent from Chinese thought, even at its most abstruse and metaphysical. The fundamental heresy of the Black Lodge is con tempt for “the world, the flesh, and the devil”, all which are essential to the plan of the Universe; it is cardinal to the Great Work for the Adept so to order affairs that “even the evil germs of Matter shall alike become useful and good”.

The error of Christian Mystics on this point has been responsible for more cruelty, misery, and collective insanity than all others put together; its poison can be traced even in the teaching of Freud, who assumed that the Unconscious was “the devil”, whereas in fact it is the instinct which expresses, beneath a veil, the inherent Point-of-View of each, and, properly understood, is the key to Initiation, and a hint of what seed may blossom and fructify as the “Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel”. For “Every man and every woman is a star”.

But no doubt the judgment of the Adepts Exempt (for it is they who determine, under the guidance of the Masters of the Temple, all such details of doctrine) in respect of this card has been influenced by its transition from Aries to Taurus. It is too often forgotten that Taurus is the House of Venus, and that Luna is exalted therein. The new doctrine set forth in this present Essay makes the primary colour of Earth not black, but green; it insists that every Disk is a living and revolving symbol. The central thesis of the Book of the Law asserts the Perfection of the Universe. In its pantheistic conception all possibilities are equal in value; each and every Point-Event is “a play of Nuit”, as it is written in the Book of Wisdom or Folly, “Bind nothing! Let there be no difference made among you between any one thing & any other thing; for thereby there cometh hurt. But whose availeth in this, let him be the chief of all!” Liber Al. 1. 22. Or, yet more comprehensively and simply: “Every number is infinite; there is no difference.” Ib I.4.
(From The Book of Thoth)

Weirdly adorable AI generated illustration for the Knight of Coins

Golden Dawn’s Book T

A WINGED Kingly Figure seated in a chariot drawn by a bull. He bears as a crest the symbol of the head of the winged bull. Beneath the chariot is land, with many flowers. In the one hand he bears an orb of gold held downwards, and in the other a sceptre surmounted by an orb and cross.

Increase of matter. Increases good or evil, solidifies; practically applies things. Steady; reliable. If ill dignified he is selfish, animal and material: stupid. In either case slow to anger, but furious if roused.
Rules from 20 Degree Aries to 20 Degree Taurus.
Air of Earth

Etteilla

Utility
Upright. This card, as far as the medicine of the spirit is concerned, means, in its natural position: Useful, Advantageous, Gainful, Profitable, Interesting. – Interesting, Important, Necessary, Obligatory.
Reversed. Peace, Tranquility, Rest, Sleep, Apathy, Inertia, Rest, Inactivity, Unemployment. – Leisure, Pastime. – Recreation, Carefreeness, Indifference, Indolence, Laziness, Poltrony, Numbness, Discouragement, Annihilation.

MQS

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

Predictions that Change Behaviors

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I don’t remember if I already talked about a reading I did for myself some time ago. I was expecting a parcel but needed to go somewhere else, so I asked the cards if the package would come on that day. The cards clearly answered in the negative, and I was right: I went out, and the parcel arrived the day after.

Thinking back on this, I was reminded of an experience reported by famous British astrologer John Frawley. I cannot remember if he discusses it in The Real Astrology or in his Horary Textbook, but it goes somewhat like this: he was waiting for some repairman to come to his house, but he also wanted to take a relaxing bath, so he cast a horary chart to know when the guy would come, only to discover that he wouldn’t. So he slipped into the bathtube, and his prediction proved correct

I believe this kind of readings is the most fun and instructive on the nature of divination. Ultimately, divination is intelligence-gathering. Sentient beings organize their behavior based on the information available to them. Therefore, new information is bound to change the being’s behavior.

The more complex the organism, of course, the more factors come into play, but the basic principle remains true. This is not to say that anything is possible, because only someone with infinite knowledge would know how to overcome all kinds of situations he or she finds unpleasant. We humble mortals are always restricted by difficult circumstances. Still, the information we gather through divination is not, in principle, different from the one we gather through other means which are all just as imperfect.

A fatalist might try to defend the idea of an all-encompassing destiny by arguing that the prediction is itself part of the person’s fate. I was destined to pull those cards and go out. But this stance, interestingly enough, invalidates the idea of prediction itself. If everything is destiny, then even knowledge that everything is destiny is destiny, rather than the truth.

I believe that divination is not simply communication with the divine, but also a form of deification: if we take God on one hand, that is, someone who is capable to be the pure consequence of its own choice, and a rock on the other, that is, something that simply passively receives whatever action external forces exert on it, then divination moves us closer to the divine condition of being the consequence of our own choice.

This is also why I am skeptical of airy-fairy forms of divination that try to take the focus away from concrete life in the name of some vapid divine idea. Ultimately, there is far more divine depth to Frawley’s ability to take a bath thanks to a horary chart than there is to questions like “How can I embody the divine feminine and honor my ancestral heritage more fully?”

MQS

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

Vera Sibilla – My Friend’s Misadventures

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It is well-known that the Sibilla is damn chatty, sometimes too much. Every deck can veer off topic if it needs to, but the Sibilla has a penchant for it, whereas, for instance, regular playing cards are usually easier to keep on a leash. Still, I believe what I’m about to show would have popped up with any other deck, since the cards usually warn us of unexpected happenings, whether positive or negative. This is a spread we did for a friend of mine in January. He wanted to know about his love life.

Vera Sibilla Reading, my friend’s misadventure

The thing that immediately struck me is that the cards clearly were not talking about my friend’s love life. Instead, judging by the first line, they were depicting something difficult that was going to happen. I must confess I was not capable of organizing my garbled thoughts into a coherent prediction back then, even though looking at it now it seems obvious. I believe a part of me knew what the cards were talking about but didn’t want to give the news to my friend. I knew the cards were talking about danger at the hand of some people, and that a man would help him. I told him so much, but of course this was too vague to be of help.

Here is what happened around a month later, as told by the cards. While out of his house (Journey) he was attacked (Widower reversed. I made a mistake in reenacting the spread) by a small gang of criminals (Enemy, Fools). Fortunately (Levity reversed) a man saw the whole thing, chased off the strangers and helped my friend (Friend reversed, Fortune reversed). My friend sprained his ankle badly, I’m guessing this is why the Fortune card is reversed, showing delayed fortune, but is otherwise unharmed, except the anxiety (Sighs).

I think part of the problem of reading for friends is that, because you don’t want them to come to any harm, your mind tends to censor you a bit. Still, an interesting case study, and a story that could have ended much worse.

MQS

Card Meanings, Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Occultism and Esoterism, Tarot

Tarot Encyclopedia – The Knight of Wands

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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 Knight of Wands in the Builders of the Adytum (BOTA) tarot deck

Paul Foster Case (and Ann Davies)

Astrologically the Knight of Wands includes the time period from the third decanate of Scorpio through the second decanate of Sagittarius, November 12 to December 11, representing, as we have seen, the combined influences of the Moon in Scorpio and of Jupiter and Mars in Sagittarius. In Divination we find the more specific meanings of each Key, but always remember that as advanced B.O.T.A. members, treading the Path of Return, you must use this art with discretion. It is best not to give querents for your help too specific instruction. Try to act as an emissary for the Hierophant and give them the principles behind their problems as they are unveiled to you by the sequence of Keys. Leave it to those you are helping to apply universal principles to specific problems in their lives.
Well Dignified: an active, generous, impetuous, quickmoving man, younger than the King of Wands. He is secretive, probably interested in the occult, somewhat psychic and mysterious. He is friendly to the querent and may bring him news relating to his enterprises.
Ill Dignified: e vil-minded, false, cruel, bigoted, brutal young man (or situation), dangerous or unfriendly to the querent1 s affairs. This card
sometimes signifies departure or change of residence.
(From the Oracle of Tarot course)

A.E. Waite

He is shewn as if upon a journey, armed with a short wand, and although mailed is not on a warlike errand. He is passing mounds or pyramids. The motion of the horse is a key to the character of its rider, and suggests the precipitate mood, or things connected therewith. Divinatory Meanings: Departure, absence, flight, emigration. A dark young man, friendly. Change of residence. Reversed: Rupture, division, interruption, discord.
(From The Pictorial Key to the Tarot)

AI-generated illustration for the Knight of Wands

Aleister Crowley

(note that Crowley and the Golden Dawn made a mess with the knights and kings)
The Prince of Wands represents the airy part of Fire, with its faculty of expanding and volatilising. He rules from the 21st degree of Cancer to the 20th degree of Leo. He is a warrior in complete armour of scale mail, but his arms are bare on account of his vigour and activity. He wears a rayed crown surmounted by a lion’s head winged, and from this crown depends a curtain of flame. On his breast is the sigil of To Mega Therion. In his left hand he bears the Phoenix wand of the Second Adept in the Ritual of 5○=6□ of R.R. at A.C.), the wand of Power and Energy, while with his other arm he reins the lion which draws his chariot, the chariot which is fortified by a wheel radiating flame. He rides upon a sea of flames, both waved and salient.

The moral qualities appropriate to this figure are swiftness and strength. But he is sometimes inclined to act on impulse; sometimes easily led by external influences; sometimes, especially in trifles, a prey to indecision. He is often violent, especially in the expression of an opinion, but he does not necessarily hold the opinion about which he is so emphatic. He states a vigorous proposition for the sake of stating it. He is in fact very slow to make up his mind thoroughly on any subject, but always sees both sides of every question. He is essentially just, but always feels that justice is not to be attained in the intellectual world.

His character is intensely noble and generous. He may be an extravagant boaster, while slyly laughing both at the object of his boast and at himself for making it. He is romantic, especially in matters of history and tradition, to the point of folly, and may engineer “stunts” or play elaborate practical jokes. He might select some inoffensive nobody, and pursue him for years with every weapon of ridicule) as Swift tormented the unhappy Partridge, all without the least animus, ready to give the shirt off his back, should his victim be in need. His sense of humour is omnivorous, and may make him a mysterious figure, dreaded without reason by people who actually know nothing about him but his name-as a symbol of Terror.

This is due to the influence of the last decan of Cancer upon this card. One of his greatest faults is pride; meanness and pettiness of any kind he holds in infinite scorn. His courage is fanatically strong, and his endurance indefatigable. He is always fighting against odds, and always wins in the long-the very long-run. This is principally due to his enormous capacity for work, which he exercises for its own sake, “without lust of result”; perhaps his haughty contempt for the world at large-which however coexists with profound and ecstatic respect for “every man and every woman” as “a star”-is responsible for this.

When this card is badly dignified, the character degenerates. Each of the qualities mentioned above is found in its antithesis. There is great cruelty in him, partly sadistic and partly due to callousness arising from indifference-and, in a sense, laziness! So too he may be intolerant, prejudiced and idle-principally because it saves trouble. He may furthermore be an empty boaster and a great coward.

In the YI King, the airy part of Fire is represented by the 42nd Hexagram, Yi, which signifies addition, increase. Full of virtue, and confident therein, he contemplates work of stupendous scope, often with the idea expressed in line 5: “with sincere heart seeking to benefit all below”. In this he may achieve immense success. But this course is fraught with commensurate danger. “We see one to whose in crease none will contribute, while many will seek to assail him. He observes no regular rule in the ordering of his heart”. (line 6) This peril avoided, there come “parties adding to the store of its subject ten pairs of tortoise shells whose oracles cannot be opposed-Let the King employ them in presenting his offerings to God….” (line 2).
(From The Book of Thoth)
Note: Crowley clearly sees himself in this card, which is why he depicts the Prince as the adorable occult prankster he saw himself as.

Golden Dawn’s Book T

A KINGLY Figure with a golden, winged crown, seated on a chariot. He has large white wings. One wheel of his chariot is shewn. He wears corslet and buskins of scale armour decorated with a winged lion’s head, which symbol also surmounts his crown. His chariot is drawn by a lion. His arms are bare, save for the shoulder-pieces of the corslet, and he bears a torch or fire-wand, somewhat similar to that of the Zelator Adeptus Minor. Beneath the chariot are flames, some waved, some salient.
Swift, strong, hasty; rather violent, yet just and generous; noble and scorning meanness.
If ill dignified — cruel, intolerant, prejudiced and ill natured.

Etteilla

Departure
Upright: This card, as far as the medicine of the spirit is concerned, means, in its natural position: Departure, Displacement, Removal, Absence, Abandonment, Change, Escape, Desertion, Transmigration, Emigration. – Transposition, Translocation, Transplantation, Transmutation, Evasion.
Reversed: Disunion, Disagreement, Rupture, Dissension, Division, Competition, Separation, Partition. – Faction, Party. – Complaint, Altercation. – Cut, Fracture, Discontinuity, Interruption.

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

A Money Spread – With a Mistake

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Not even the best card readers are 100% correct, and I’m far from being the best card reader. This is an example from some time ago. The querent was a woman she asked me, generally, about her finances.

Cartomancy with playing cards – a cross spread about money

Looking at the spread as a whole, it is clear that  it’s about money. In the upper position there are money issues highlighted, particularly a sudden (Seven of Spades) expense. The position below, which often needs to be connected to the one above, indicates issues connected with authority, possibly a bank or other financial institution (the King of Spades and King of Diamonds). In the past position we have a situation of slowness and difficulties for a long time, while in the heart position there are difficulties, possibly either obtaining something or getting it back (the Six of Hearts can mean that) or just simply difficulties finding one’s footing.

I ask the querent and she tells me that she’s a small business owner and business has been slow, and she’s been having trouble applying for financial help in the form of loans to renovate her business (note the Six of Hearts) and make it more appealing.

Encouraged by how responsive the spread seems to be, a look at the future positions. This is where I got everything wrong. I tell her that, although there is trouble (Six of Spades) she will get a positive answer (the last fan with the Three of Clubs and the Jack of Hearts). Looking back it is quite obvious the cards were saying something else.

She didn’t get the loan. The fan with the Six of Spades is not positive at all, even though I had decided to interpret it positively: it merely shows she will be quickly (Two of Hearts) refused the loan, possibly because she is not deemed to have her finances in order.

However, she later did end up partnering (Three of Clubs) with another woman (Queen of Diamonds) to start something new (Jack of Hearts).

Card Meanings, Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Occultism and Esoterism, Tarot

Tarot Encyclopedia – The Knight of Cups

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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 Knight of Cups in the Builders of the Adytum (BOTA) tarot deck.

Paul Foster Case (and Ann Davies)

The time period is from the beginning of the last decanate of Aquarius to the end of the second decanate of Pisces, February 9 to March 10, under the rulerships of Venus, Jupiter, Neptune and the Moon.
Well Dignified: a man of graceful, somewhat indolent, personality; generous and enthusiastic, when he is really interested. Somewhat impressionable and psychic. Fond of home and probably puts all women more or less on a pedestal. Friendly to the Querent.
Ill Dignified: lazy, untruthful, likely to be effeminate and ‘catty’.
Brown hair, grey or brown eyes.
(From the Oracle of Tarot course)

A. E. Waite

Graceful, but not warlike; riding quietly, wearing a winged helmet, referring to those higher graces of the imagination which sometimes characterize this card. He too is a dreamer, but the images of the side of sense haunt him in his vision. Divinatory Meanings: Arrival, approach–sometimes that of a messenger; advances, proposition, demeanour, invitation, incitement. Reversed: Trickery, artifice, subtlety, swindling, duplicity, fraud.
(From The Pictorial Key to the Tarot)

Aleister Crowley

(Note: Crowley and the Golden Dawn made a mess with Knights and Kings)
The Prince of Cups represents the airy part of Water. On the one hand, elasticity, volatility, hydrostatic equilibrium; on the other hand, the catalytic faculty and the energy of steam. He rules from the 21st degree of Libra to the 20th degree of Scorpio.

He is a warrior partly clad in armour, which seems, however, rather a growth than a covering. His helmet is surmounted by an eagle, and his chariot, which resembles a shell, is also drawn by an eagle. His wings are tenuous, almost of gas.. This is a reference to his power of volatilization understood in the spiritual sense.

In his right hand he bears a Lotus flower, sacred to the element of Water, and in his left hand is a cup from which issues a serpent.

The third totem, the scorpion, is not shewn in the picture, for the putrefaction which it represents is an extremely secret process. Beneath his chariot is the calm and stagnant water of a lake upon which rain falls heavily.

The whole symbolism of this card is exceedingly complicated, for Scorpio is the most mysterious of the Signs, and the manifested portion of it symbolized by the eagle is in reality the least important part of his nature.

The moral characteristics of the person pictured in this card are subtlety, secret violence, and craft. He is intensely secret, an artist in all his ways. On the surface he appears calm and imperturbable, but this is a mask of the most intense passion. He is on the surface susceptible to external influences, but he accepts them only to transmute them to the advantage of his secret designs. He is thus completely without conscience in the ordinary sense of the word, and is therefore usually distrusted by his neighbours. They feel they do not, and can never, understand him. Thus he inspires unreasonable fear. He is in fact perfectly ruthless. He cares intensely for power, wisdom, and his own aims. He feels no responsibility to others, and although his abilities are so immense, he cannot be relied upon to work in harness.

In the Yi King, the airy part of Water is represented by the 61st hexagram, Kung Fu. This is one of the most important figures in the Yi: it “moves even pigs and fish, and leads to great good fortune”. Its dignities and correspondences are manifold and great; for it is also a “big Li”, the trigram of Sol formed by doubling the lines. By shape it suggests a boat, but also the geomantic figure of Cancer, Saturn in Capricornus.

This card is in consequence one of great power; Libra going over into Scorpio is of tremendous, active, critical energy and weight. To such people good will, sincerity, and right mating are the essentials of success; their danger is overweening ambition.
(From The Book of Thoth)

An AI generated illustration for the Knight of Cups

Golden Dawn’s Book T

A WINGED Kingly Figure with winged crown seated in a chariot drawn by an eagle. On the wheel is the symbol of a scorpion. The eagle is borne as a crest on his crown, cuirass and buskins. General attire like King of Wands. Beneath his chariot is the calm and stagnant water of a lake. His armour resembles feathers more than scales. He holds in one hand a lotus, and in the other a cup, charged with the sigil of his scale. A serpent issues from the cup, and has its head tending down to the waters of the lake.

He is subtle, violent, crafty and artistic; a fierce nature with calm exterior. Powerful for good or evil but more attracted by the evil
if allied with apparent Power or Wisdom.
If ill dignified, he is intensely evil and merciless.
He rules from 20 Degree Libra to 20 Degree Scorpio.
Air of Water

Etteilla

Arrival
Upright: This card, as far as the medicine of the spirit is concerned, means, in its natural position: Arrival, Coming, Approach, Landing, Welcoming, Entrance, Reapproachment. – Conformity. – Coming, Approximation. – Access. – Affluence. – Comparison.
Reversed: Deception, Scoundrelishness, Briccony, Deception, Artifice. – Fineness, Dexterity, Cunning, Fraud. – Subtlety, Irregularity. Nefariousness.

MQS

Card Reading, Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Reading Example, Sibilla della Zingara, Vera Sibilla

Sibilla Reading – Why Is He Acting Strange?

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Sometimes the cards speak like directors of a theater piece, ordering characters around in a way that makes almost intuitive sense and gives a visual representation of the issue. This is not always the case (some readings are super hard to decipher) but when it is it becomes almost impossible to doubt that divination truly works.

Here’s an example. A friend of my husband asked me why her boyfriend was acting strange. These were the cards (the reading started out as a three card reading, but I kept adding cards until I was satisfied):

Vera Sibilla Reading: Why is he acting strange

Look how the characters seem to relate to one another like characters in a play. We have Juliette, the Queen of Hearts. Behind her is the Five of Diamonds, Melancholy. She is dissatisfied. Then we have the Jack of Hearts, Romeo. Between them is a card. This can either represent an action or a state of affairs. Because the Melancholy card describes a state of affair, it seems more likely that the reversed Ace of Hearts also represent their current state of affairs, one of miscommunication, instability and a general sense of incompleteness.

Following is the Queen of Clubs. This can be another character, but sometimes she acts as a “pointer”: wherever she points her finger is where the problem lies. In this case, because she is reversed, she points to her right (otherwise it would be to her left). Then we have the card of secrets (the Soldier, reversed) and that of homosexuality (the Love card, reversed) and a male figure. The answer is obvious.

A couple of months after the reading a gay friend of hers saw her boyfriend on an app, who then came out as bi, validating the spread. This is not the first time I’ve encountered this kind of issue. I may even have posted a spread about it before (I can’t remember).

One of my dreams is of writing a book about divination, not explaining any particular kind of divination, but exploring divination as a topic, its foundations and its place in the world. And this kind of spreads has me convinced that life is a drama, and divination is a tool capable of unveiling the script.

MQS

Card Reading, Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Reading Example, Tarot, Uncategorized

So Many People! (Tarot Reading)

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Here’s a recent reading I did. The querent is a man in his early 40s

A work-related tarot reading

The most obvious thing that caught my attention is the Emperor next to the Lovers and Justice. The Lovers is also the center of the whole spread. It can show a meeting but also being in talks for something, and next to Justice it can indicate a partnership.

On the first line we have three bad cards in a row: the Tower, the Hermit and the Hanged Man (the Hermit is not necessarily bad, but it’s sandwiched between difficult cards, so they create a negative cluster together). There seems to have been a long period either of unemployment or of serious difficulties. The Empress could indicate the person’s money but upon asking him he told me that he’s gone through a rough patch in his work life which led his girlfriend to leave him.

Then we have the Popess and the Pope, which usually show an older couple. So I ask him if he’s going into a partnership with such people, and he said these are his aunt and uncle, who are offering him to go into business together. The Sun in the end shows it will be a good move.

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

The Playing Card Pyramid on a Pregnancy

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I don’t believe I ever showed this spread. This is an example of a question by a woman who asked if she would get pregnant.

A Pyramid Spread with Playing Cards on a pregnancy

The first thing I notice is the Queen of Clubs, the querent, falling as the central card in the spread. She is in charge of the spread, and the spread describes her and her life. I also notice that she is mirrored by the Jack of Hearts as the point of the pyramid. This is encouraging, of course. Let’s dig deeper.

She is surrounded by the Ace of Diamonds, which can indicate conception, but it is also the card of news, and the Ten of Diamonds, which is a card of success, especially the success of a long effort.

The first row has the Five of Hearts in it, which is an important card in pregnancy readings. It is surrounded by the Six of Spades and the King of Spades: the doctor. I asked her if she’s been having trouble conceiving, and she responds in the affirmative.

The whole is prefaced by the Seven of Hearts, which can be negative when surrounded by negative cards, and the King of Spades tends to be negative. However, if we take the sequence K♠ 5♥ 6♠ not as something negative, but as a factual description, the Seven of Hearts shows a solution.

I feel suddenly inspired to ask the querent if she’s tried alternative methods of conception, and she nods. So suddenly everything makes sense. I tell her she will have success in conceiving. This supported by the fact that the triangle (7♥ 6♠ J♥) ends with a positive card.

But what about the 3♣ and J♦? Frankly? I don’t know. It is possible the cards were adding details I’m not capable of deciphering (for instance, they may repeat the idea that she would receive the news that ‘it took’). It is also possible the cards were talking about something else and I needed to open the spread to understand it. It is also possible the cards were just filling the spread with ‘filler’ cards, since the other cards gave the clear yes answer. It doesn’t really matter.

MQS