Category Archives: Vera Sibilla

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

Vera Sibilla Cards That Indicate Stability

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We’ve already talked about the cards in the Vera Sibilla deck that indicate change. Now let’s see which indicate stability. As usual, do not take this as an attempt at exhausting the meanings of the cards. We are just comparing some similarities.

Two of Hearts – The House

Your house is, of course, pretty much the most stable thing in your life, considering its imposing structure. The Two of Hearts therefore represents stability, especially in love readings: it shows serious intents, the desire to start a family and a constructive attitude. It represents those couples that stay together and work out their problems together. It is, therefore, a positive stability.

Nine of Hearts – Faithfulness

Unlike the Love card, the Nine of Hearts show stable success, especially in love, and it represents deep attachment to someone or even something (this is the card of patriotism, attachment to ideology, etc.) On a less positive note, when surrounded by difficult cards, it can show those difficult situations remaining faithful to us, while in fact we’d much rather they cheated on us.

Ten of Hearts – Perseverance

This is THE card of stability. When surrounded by positive cards, it shows that those positive situations will persevere, but unfortunately the same applies to negative cards. Either way, the Ten of Hearts indicates a situation that perseveres. It also shows constancy of character.

Two of Clubs – The Peacock

Due to its symbolism of completeness and totality, which is similar to that of the World card, the Peacock represents situations that reach their peak, their complete perfection, and if it is not followed by negative cards it says that the situation will stay that way for the forseeable future.

Seven of Clubs – Realization

A card of strong material realization, the Seven of Clubs is responsible for the concretization of our aspirations, allowing them to take root in our life. In general, when surrounded by bad cards, it indicates the lack of this kind of stability rather than the stabilization of the negative things (such as was the case with the Ten of Hearts).

Ten of Diamonds Reversed – The Thief

When reversed, the Thief card represents, in the main, insurmountable problems. It therefore indicates situations that remains blocked, possibly forever depending on the other cards. Therefore, the stability brought by this card is always negative, as it shows situations that are unlikely to ever improve.

Four of Spades Upright/Reversed – The Sickness

When upright, the Four of Spades signifies sickness, but also a situation that is structurally compromised and is therefore unable to flourish or to offer positive solutions. When reversed, it is a card of long blockages and delays, among other things, so it indicates being stalled, isolated, unable to change a situation.

Nine of Spades – The Prison

The Prison card indicates something binding us, restricting us, whether physically, mentally or emotionally. It represents tight bonds (sometimes, when surrounded by positive cards, even positive bonds). More generally, it shows obstacles that last a long time, and therefore situations that stagnate. Similarly to the reversed Four of Spades, it can show isolation.

MQS

Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Everyday Oracle, Fortune-telling, Occultism and Esoterism, Playing Cards, Sibilla della Zingara, Tarot, Uncategorized, Vera Sibilla

Folklore of Italian Cartomancy

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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

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

Fantasy in Divination: A Double-Edged Sword

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I’m currently still doing readings in exchange for recommendations for when I  decide to start offering readings from this site. After a short reading with a querent we began chatting about the process of divination, and he asked me if fantasy is required to interpret the cards. I thought this was a really great question. I’m taking fantasy as a synonym with imagination, that is, the ability to conjure up images in one’s mind.

First off, we need to distinguish fantasy/imagination from (true) intuition. True intuition is relatively rare and it does not originate from the limited structure of the personality. It is, for all intents and purposes, otherworldly. Before being appropriated by boss babes on TikTok, intuition was rightfully considered a gift of the gods. It is hard to obtain and even harder to train, although the practice of divination, as it leads to the divine, does allow for the development of intuition.

Fantasy or imagination is mostly the product of neurons bouncing together, and it is at least in good part under our control (though whether imagination is also merely a personal power is up for debate. Many occultists think it isn’t, and I agree.)

Imagination plays a large role in modern magic, and, it could be argued, in the magic of all times (though with different implications and within different frameworks), but I’ll leave this discussion for another time. The point is that imagination is one among the many legitimate sources of understanding that we have at our disposal, including in the occult world.

Ordinarily, if someone asked me what’s the one thing that is required in order to become a diviner, I would answer that they need to understand the vocabulary, grammar and syntax of what is essentially a divine language.

Yet, in philosophy of language, and even more in philosophy of science, there is a concept called underdetermination. In its most frequent use, the principle of underdetermination states that, given a number of facts, there exist more than one theory that can explain those facts and account for them. How we then choose the most appropriate theory has sparked a debate that largely goes on to this day between scientists, philosophers, psychologists and anthropologists.

Something similar happens with divination: given a spread of cards, or a chart, it is often the case that more than one explanation might appear plausible at first. True, the more cards we string together, the fewer the possible interpretations are, just as a single word out of context might mean many things, but the more words there are, the more we understand the sentence.

But take a sentence like “we saw her duck“. Was she avoiding a bullet or does she live on a farm? This is a form of underdetermination, because the possible mental images evoked by the sentence cannot be reduced to the sentence itself.

Probably if we had a perfect understanding of the language of divination we would get unambiguous results, but we don’t. We must therefore use logic and context to weed out the less likely predictions, yet even so we might be left with more than one possible image of the future in mind. The word image here is key.

Can we predict a future we cannot imagine? That is, can we predict a future (or reveal a past) that we cannot put in the form of a picture or series of pictures? If one asks me: would you be able to understand a sentence you’ve never heard before? The answer is: if I know the language, yes. We hear sentences we’ve never heard before everyday and we rarely have problems. But going back to “we saw her duck”, if I didn’t know that duck can also be a verb, I would interpret the sentence univocally, as I wouldn’t be able to create a mental image corresponding to the interpretation of “duck” as verb instead of noun.

In real world languages the ambiguity is often removed by clear context. But in divination context is not always clear, meaning it is harder to exclude possible interpretations, and we need to be capable of creating mental images of all the most likely interpretations of an oracle before choosing which one is the most likely.

We need to be able to extrapolate the many possible meanings a spread can have before submitting them to inquiry. The ability to construct mental images or scenes from the divination tool we are using is consequently incredibly important. In other words, yes, imagination is key in divination.

But the imagination I am talking about is not the unbridled imagination that so many mistake for intuition, and which usually leads either to error or to unverifiable predictions. Imagination is the ability to create possible images derived from our (limited) understanding of the medium we are using, so that we can then see which one is more likely to be accurate by finding testimonies in the spread or by asking the querent.

Like all other occult arts, divination therefore requires the cooperation of both sides of the brain (to which we may add the importance of bodily grounding, but that’s a matter for another post).

MQS

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

Do You Need To Believe In It For It To Work?

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One of the questions that occupy way too many people in the esoteric community is whether divination or even magic require the person to believe in it in order for it to work. If you’ve ever watched the movie The Skeleton Key, you’ll know that this concept has seeped into the collective consciousness enough for it to find its way into mainstream products (I will not spoil the movie here, since it is actually a fun watch, but it depends heavily on its twist).

If you open most premodern books on magic, you’ll be stunned to discover that their content bears very little resemblance to the post-Golden Dawn landscape. This, by the way, is neither good nor bad. Things change. But we need to be aware of the change to avoid being unconsciously ruled by it. One clear difference is that the magician’s will1 or his imagining/manifesting faculties are barely taken into consideration in older sources, at least outwardly.

This is not to say that there aren’t sources that encourage the practitioner to be of firm mind and clear intent (after all, you’d want your doctor to focus, too, even though their focus is not what make their science work), but even those old sources do not consider, generally speaking, the magician’s mind to be the cause of the change. Broadly speaking, when dealing with sources that date back to before the invention of modern psychoanalysis and psychology, we must be extremely careful when interpreting their concept of mind, soul, psyche, etc.

An example will suffice. In his De Vita, Neoplatonic Renaissance philosopher and magus Marsilio Ficino encourages us, among other things, to “think solar thoughts”, or jovial, or venusian, depending on the aim. Similar remarks are found, in various form, in many old sources. A contemporary practitioner might be tempted to interpret Ficino’s invitation as saying that we must envision solar things in order for them to manifest. But neither the language nor the substance of this interpretation belong to his worldview.

Ficino’s view of the cosmos is essentially the same as Agrippa’s and that of many other premodern magi: we are surrounded by chains of sympathy and antipathy between universal powers (typified by the planets). When we think “solar thoughts” we are doing essentially nothing except stepping inside a current of power that has its own metaphysical reality regardless of our attitude toward it. This is because in Renaissance naturalism, the mind is essentially like the body, i.e., a part of the cosmos, and a movement of the mind is like a movement of the body, and just like the body can create a talisman or a concoction, so can the mind shape images that allow it to shower in certain currents of universal power.

Thus, the invitation to think certain thoughts found in Ficino (and others) is not a precursor to manifestation, attraction and other modern concepts, but a natural consequence of the old view of the mind and the world.

On the other hand, from a postmodern standpoint, reality is for us to create at will. Yes, I am exaggerating, but not too much. Therefore, there is the widespread idea, or at least the widespread implication, that what happens happens because we believe in it.

Let us leave magic alone for now and concentrate on divination. Does divination work because we believe in it? Well, no. Certainly divination doesn’t require the querent to believe in it in order for it to work. In fact, it is my belief that, considering how many frauds there are in this field, a querent should be borderline psychotic to blindly believe in divination without a healthy dose of scepticism.

What about diviners? Do they need to believe in divination in order for it to work? That’s complicated, in my view. On the surface of it I would argue that, again, no, we don’t need to believe in divination for it to work. Divination systems work because they have their own internal consistency. The most obvious is Natal Astrology, which presents us with an objective set of symbols that have nothing to do with the manipulation of counters on the part of the diviner.

On the other hand, we need to allow for the fact that divination is not a mechanic set of behaviors, especially with the overwhelming majority of divination systems that do require manipulation (cartomancy, geomancy, dice, etc.) As I often repeat on this blog, divination is and remains something extraordinary. The honest desire for an answer, or at least for a picture of the future, tends to guarantee a crisp and clear answer. This is because the honest desire for an answer allows us to honestly connect with the symbols in a way that makes them fall in the appropriate order.

The querent doesn’t need to be honest in his or her desire, unless they are also the diviner. But if the diviner does not have at least a degree of confidence in what he or she is doing, then the question they put to the system is not the surface question (e.g., “Does X love Y?”) but “Do you really work?” which is an impossible question for the system to answer (if the answer is no, then the system does work).

Even then, I would be cautious in overexaggerating the importance of the diviner’s attitude. As I believe I have mentioned, one of the ways my teacher trained me was by asking me to discover secrets about her past. Clearly, the exercise was not meant to discover something new that might benefit my querent or me, but rather to build my confidence and skill. Yet it worked, and it worked well. Maybe the diviner doesn’t need to believe in divination (I know I am always skeptical until proven right), but they do need to at least be open to the idea that this is a legitimate way of receiving information, just enough to enter into the system rather than operating it from the outside as a scientist would manipulate a bunch of molecules.

My general belief at this point is that the esoteric arts do not require our consent in order to work, but they are also not the product of the mechanistic application of abstract principles. It is indeed a fine balance.

MQS

  1. Let’s leave aside the fact that the concept of Will found in modern magic is actually more complex than what it appears to be on the surface ↩︎
Card Meanings, Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Everyday Oracle, Fortune-telling, Sibilla della Zingara, Vera Sibilla

Vera Sibilla Cards That Indicate Change

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Change is a vague concept. Much of contemporary occultism is predicated on the equation of change and stability, so that essentially everything is change. Still, even if we subscribe to this notion, our everyday life is made up of things that change relatively as opposed to things that remain relatively stable. It may be true that my body is a Swiss cheese of chaotic particles constantly being swapped with new ones, but from the standpoint of our daily experience, my body is a relative constant.

Therefore, divination does deal with what changes and what stays the same. Here I talk about cards that indicate change. As usual, the list is not meant to be exhaustive.

Ace of Hearts Reversed – The Conversation

When upright, the Ace of Hearts, aside from being the card of words, represents a relatively stable situation (as indicated symbolically by the table in the image). When reversed, the Ace of Hearts represents change, transformation, revolution. This may be good or bad, depending on the cards that follow.

Two of Hearts Reversed – The House

Again, when upright this card indicates a house, a very stable thing. When reversed, it shows instability. This time the connotation is quite negative, as it can indicate a couple breaking up, a family falling out, and similar situations depending on the other cards. This is rarely a positive card when reversed.

Five of Hearts – Happiness

As I discussed in the article for this card, the Five of Hearts is the card of commitment to someone or something. Traditionally it is the card of engagement, a transition phase between being single and being married. As such, the Happiness card symbolizes a positive, happy transition (when upright). It often rids us of problems and shows fidelity and the ability to honor commitments.

Ten of Hearts Reversed – Perseverance

When upright, the Ten of Hearts represents things that persevere, go on, stabilize. When reversed it shows situations going legs up, becoming shaky or stormy. It is a wildly negative card of volatile emotions and deep instability.

Three of Clubs Upright or Reversed – The Journey

When upright, the Journey card is indicative of travel, that is, change of place. However, it also indicates physical movement, or even mental movement, such as changing one’s mind. It is a card of transition, seen in a neutral to slightly positive sense (but always take the other cards into account). When reversed, the Journey card becomes intensely positive, representing the interruption of negative trends, freedom from addiction or vicious cycles in general. It represents situations starting to evolve in a positive direction, unless followed by very negative cards.

Five of Clubs Upright or Reversed – Fortune

Representing the power of fate in our life, the Five of Clubs is emblematic of strokes of luck, situations taking a different (usually positive) turn, things getting into motion in a positive way. When reversed, the card is slowed down and weakened, and it acquires the meaning of long-term transformations.

Ten of Clubs Reversed – Levity

Much like the Fortune card, the Ten of Clubs reversed represents strokes of luck shaking up the routine, offering us opportunities and chances. Its power, however, is much smaller.

Five of Diamonds – Melancholy

The Melancholy card is rather static in itself, especially when hemmed in by cards indicating a negative situation. However, it can also show situations which were once positive and are starting to show some cracks or situations that are negative but which won’t be negative forever. Therefore, in spite of its mild negativity, often the card implies future change.

Eight of Diamonds – The Handmaid

A symbol of social and personal ascent thanks to its symbolism of the stairs, the Handmaid indicates positive evolution, transition from one phase to the next, entering new segments of one’s life. This is especially true when it shows between cards indicating different situations, or when it shows up at the beginning of a spread. In general it represents positive change.

Two of Spades – The Old Lady

It may seem strange to find the static Old Lady card on this list. However, when we think about it, the Two of Spades is about things that are old and are reaching their natural conclusion. When followed by cards indicating a different situation, therefore, the Old Lady can act as a card of transition (for instance, showing that a contract is expiring.)

Four of Spades Reversed – Sickness

The Sickness card reversed is usually a card of deep stasis and blockage. There is, however, one exception: when it is preceded by negative cards and followed by positive cards. In this case, it indicates the end of the negative situation (tha situation is blocked in favor of what followed.) Of course, when the situation is reversed, i.e., with positive cards before and negative ones after, it shows a change for the worse.

Five of Spades – Death

The most archetypal card of change, the Death card usually indicates a sharp and often difficult cut in one’s life. The result is not necessarily bad, as the outcome depends on what follows. However, since it is a Spade card, it is always difficult and comes at a great price.

Six of Spades Reversed – Sighs

When upright, the Sighs card signifies sighing for something, pining and waiting. It is very static. When reversed, one of its (many) meanings is of showing the end of sighing. This doesn’t necessarily mean you get what you’ve been sighing for. Often, it shows giving up on something and moving on, letting go of it.

Seven of Spades – Tragedy

In spite of its name, the Seven of Spades can indicate a sharp turn for the better if followed by positive cards (if followed by negative ones then, yes, it can indicate being struck by tragedy). What it does imply is that the situation followed by the other cards strikes us from the outside, without us planning it, and usually in a very sudden way.

Nine of Spades Reversed – The Prison

This card acts in very much the same way as the Sickness card reversed. Attention must be paid to the cards preceding and following it.

MQS

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

Vera Sibilla Cards That Indicate Positive Feelings

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In the Vera Sibilla, every card can indicate some type of feelings. I have singled out some of those that indicate positive feelings. As usual, the list is not meant to be exclusive.

Ace of Hearts (A♥️) – Conversation

This card is broadly connected with words and self-expression. However, when discussing someone’s feelings, they indicate someone who is capable of expressing their feelings to someone else and reaching some kind of communion with them. In general, it shows an attitude of openness toward others.

Two of Hearts (2♥️) – The House

Usually the Two is the card of the house and of places in general. However it is also connected with harmony between two people, and it shows a constructive attitude, especially, though not exclusively, in a love reading.

Four of Hearts (4♥️) – Love

The Love card is, wouldn’t you know, the card of love, but also of strong feelings of affection in all personal relationship. It is connected with the motions of our heart, and as such it shows emotions above and beyond reason. The caveat here is that this card is not stable, and it requires other more grounded cards to promise lasting happiness.

Five of Hearts (5♥️) – Happiness

The Happiness card indicates everything connected with joy and good intentions. Being the card of the bethrodal, it also shows a certain degree of commitment to someone, and is therefore also a symbol of fidelity.

Seven of Hearts (7♥️) – The Scholar

The Scholar is a rational card, one of planning and long term prospects. When not damaged by the presence of difficult cards it shows the desire to create something lasting, as well as a helpful attitude.

Eight of Hearts (8♥️) – Hope

Hope is the positive feeling par exccellence. It represents optimism, honesty, someone who takes the high road, is elevated, spiritual, reliable. The exception is when the Hope card is not supported by stronger cards, as in this case it tends to show flirts, due to its connection with ease and lack of trouble.

Nine of Hearts (9♥️) – Faithfulness

Contrary to popular belief, the Nine of Hearts (not the Four) is the best card when it comes to feelings. Not only does it show love, but unlike the Love card, it also represent a strong bond and commitment that goes beyond those feelings and is pursued systematically. It is the card of the diehard supporter, of the best friend, of the lifelong love commitment.

The Heart Court Cards

Court cards tend to be neutral. However, the Heart court cards, when upright, indicate a person who is in love or who has a positive attitude toward the question or the querent.

Four of Clubs (4♣️) – The Friend

Similar to the Nine of Hearts, the Friend can indicate friendship (when it doesn’t show a literal -female- friend). The difference is that the concept of friendship of the Four of Clubs is not as strong and it is often connected with practical matters. When reversed, the Friend card can indicate a helpful attitude that takes the form of tips, recommendations, etc.

Six of Clubs (6♣️) – The Surprise

The Surprise card is connected broadly with things that come to us easily. As such, it indicates people who are similar, have similar interests and find it easy to grow together and pursue similar activities. Relationships tend to flourish with this card.

Seven of Clubs (7♣️) – The Realization

In general, this card speaks of ambitions in a positive sense, so it can show people having common goals and projects.

Eight of Clubs(8♣️)  – The Reunion

The reconciliation card of the deck, the Eight of Clubs is indicative of a willingness to compromise and to find common ground. Furthermore, it shows someone who is social and moves toward others with positive intents in mind.

Nine of Clubs (9♣️) – Merriment

In keeping with the energy of the suit, the Nine of Clubs indicate positive bonds, though not necessarily deep. It is a card of fun and of playing, drinking and having a good time together.

Ace of Diamonds (A♦️) – The Room

The Room has, among its meanings, that of intimacy. As such it represents someone who seeks closeness and contact. However it is not a card of love, as it is in the suit of Diamonds, not that of Hearts.

Seven of Diamonds (7♦️) – The Child

As the card of children, the Seven of Diamonds shows someone to be open, good-hearted and inoffensive, unless with cards that bring out the worst qualities of children (immaturity, etc.). It represents also someone who wants to start new things and is unprejudiced and innocent.

Eight of Diamonds (8♦️) – The Handmaid

This is the card of someone who is serviceable, dependable and hardworking. It is also a card of politeness and the desire of peace. It can show someone of a noble character who is helpful, friendly and improving himself to be better with others.

Two of Spades (2♠️) – The Old Lady

As pretty much the only card of this suit that is not outright negative, the Old Lady can indicate feelings of affection toward others, though these feelings tend to be tenuous and not very dynamic. It can also indicate someone who uses the wisdom and experience they gained in life to be of service to others in a detached, serene way

MQS

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

When Mothers Smother (Reading example)

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When we read for people and they only give us a broad question, I think it’s important to remain open to the twists of fate the cards are showing us, as well as to have an open dialogue with the querent  Sometimes querents lie, but more often they are either confused or fail to focus on the ‘real’ question. In the following case, the querent’s question wasn’t wrong, but it hid more than it showed. The querent is a woman of around 25. She asked me about her career without specifying anything.

A career reading using the Vera Sibilla

The querent is anagraphically covered by the Queen of Clubs, the young maiden, so we can initially assign this card to her. She is reversed, showing trouble.

The first line of the pyramid indicates the influence of a (probably older) woman. She is surrounded by the House and Love, but on the same line we find the Seven of Spades reversed. This is one of the worst cards in the deck, so whenever we see it we must tread carefully.

I asked the querent if an older female relative, possibly her mother, is involved in the issue, and at this point the querent tells me she works with her parents in the family business.

The Seven of Spades reversed represents tyranny and oppression, so I ask her if her mother is somewhat authoritarian, and she confirms. Note though that the mother is surrounded by two positive cards, hence the ‘somewhat’ in the statement. Furtermore, look at the angles of the spread: Good feelings, oppression, but not too much (Butterfly). I am aware that smothering mothers are how some serial killers get started, but this mother, while not positive, could be worse. She smothers the querent out of (real) love. She is oppressive, but not a sociopath.

Be it as it may, the querent clearly suffers from this situation (she is reversed) and therefore hopes to move away (Hope + Journey), as the Hope card can indicate the hopes of the querent or of the person preceding it, which in this case is again the querent. Probably the querent wants to find her sense of self and freedom. This would be understandable even under normal circumstances, let alone in this case. I asked her if she wanted to leave and again she confirmed.

But, woe and alas, look how the spread ends! Money is tight (Money + Sickness) so whatever job she is looking for is going to probably make her start at the very bottom. Thus we end with the Ten of Clubs, the Butterfly. This card indicates all those things that are fleeting and not rooted in the querent’s destiny. Thus her hopes are just fleeting, at least in the foreseeable future, due to the rotten (Sickness) money situation.

MQS

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

The Downgrading of Intuition

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Many people of the ‘spiritual but not religious’ milieu tend to believe they invented intuition, or that intuition came into existence when glossy oracle cards with gaudy images and inspirational quotes started being published–the kind that was especially en vogue before Doreen Virtue went from a fundamentalist with a deck of cards in her hands to a fundamentalist without a deck of cards in her hands.

But, believe it or not, intuition is a concept with a legitimate philosophical history. It is present, either implicitly or explicitly, in the epistemology (theory of how knowledge happens) of many great traditional Western and non Western philosophers.

If had to provide a generalization of what the tradition meant by intuition, I would say that it’s the immediate apprehension of universal principles and truths. It had nothing to do with the stream-of-consciousness-like association of ideas that many moderns mistake for psychic ability.

Old philosophers held that true intuition could only happen when someone had developed all their human faculties (including, and especially, reason) to their utmost degree, so that such faculties, having been tamed and trained, fell into place and were ready to receive truths otherwise reserved to the gods. In other words, intuition was the reward of the flourishing human.

Nowadays, “I’m intuitive” is usually synonymous with “I’m incapable of simple deduction but I am also deep up my ass and don’t take well to criticism.” Back in the day, intuition was regarded as the efflorescence of the rightly cultivated mind. Put simply, in the past intuition was considered suprarational. Now it is implicitly considered irrational.

So much so that intuition is today relegated to psychic exercise, whereas in days of yore prophecy through psychic means was regarded as a wholly separate matter: the famous prophetess of the Oracle of Delphi, for instance, entered a state of ‘enthusiasm’, that is, of literal divine possession, whereas intuition was, essentially, a gift of God to the philosopher who had educated himself to the point where his excelling human faculties grazed on the superior sphere of divine knowledge, allowing some of it to filter down to him.

This fact is especially clear when we consider the old conception of the cosmos as an onion-like set of emanated spheres, with humans in the middle, capable of either falling deeper or rising above. But the modern intuitive moves in a world that has no clear up or down and where over a century of psychologizing everything has planted in people’s minds the impression that everything is in their head and that, therefore, if it’s in their head it’s true. We could summarize this by saying that intuition in the older sense required people to get out of their ass and become bigger than they were, whereas by today’s standards it requires them to entangle themselves even further in their delusions.

MQS

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

On Readings Without Question

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The following is an attempt at reorganizing some old notes I have taken on the subject of divinations without a specific question, adding to them some new insights,

Divination Without Questions Is Possible (With Exceptions)

There is a relatively well-known tarot reader who says that a reading without a question is basically two people talking over a bunch of colored cardboards.

This is not true. It was customary, among old-time fortune-tellers, to have the querent sit in front of them and never have them speak anything that wasn’t their name at the beginning of the consultation. I know for a fact that this is a tradition in the Italian countryside, and I believe it is the case all over the world as soon as one leaves the hipster pseudointellectual tarot community bubble and seeks the real deal.

Let’s leave aside the fact that, technically speaking, there is always a question. Even if the querent sits with their arms crossed in front of you waiting to be astounded, the implicit question is “What’s going on in my life, now and in the near future?”

Times change, and sensibilities change with the times. Many querents nowadays wish to take a more active part in the reading. Furthermore, readings without a question are obviously more difficult, and the modern diviner who doesn’t have time to waste is certainly happy to get more cooperation. I know I do. But this doesn’t mean that a reading without a question isn’t possible.

There are exceptions to this, of course. Some oracles do require a question. Horary Astrology, for instance, usually needs one, and the more specific and focused it is, the better. True, some old authorities give rules for judging “Universal Questions“, but these universal questions were asked back when many people didn’t know their birth time and often had to travel for days to see the astrologer for probably the one and only time in their life, so instead they asked the astrologer to tell them about their future in general in more than one sector of life.

Confronted with the impossibility of looking at the person’s birth chart, the astrologer erected a horary chart for the time the consultation took place, a moment that was probably significant, since the querent had gone to great trouble to visit him. Today, the astrologer is one Zoom call away, so this hardly justifies vague Horary questions.

The peculiarity that makes Horary more sensitive than other oracles is that there is no manipulation of physical counters involved: you don’t reshuffle the planets whenever the querent’s whim settles on a new fancy. Therefore, the question put to the heavens must be meaningful and at least relatively important to the person asking it. In a way, this limitation of Horary is due to Astrology’s nobility, seeking as it does answers from the heavens themselves.

Cartomancy is not noble. It spreaded like wildfire among the lower classes exactly because you didn’t need to have studied trigonometry in order to deal out a spread. Cartomancy is therefore as sturdy as the beasts of burden that the lower classes used in the fields. Like all beasts of burden, of course, cartomancy too has its limits: you can ask random questions (“Tell me about my life. Now tell me about my sweatheart. Now tell me about my job. Now about my neighbor”) but if you abuse it, it collapses to the ground exhausted.

But the fact remains that cartomancy (and tarot reading is a form of cartomancy) is a trusty, resistant beast.

Vague Questions Don’t Necessarily Yield Vague Answers

Another common myth is that if one asks a general question the reader is entitled to give them a general answer. Even worse, some readers say that, in the absence of a question, they can read “the general energies surrounding your life.” The problem is that there is no such thing as a (meaningful) general answer. “Tell me about myself.” Well, you seem to be a featherless biped with one heart, two lungs, etc.

The thing is that when the cards have been shuffled and dealt, they always tell a specific story. Sometimes this story is not what the querent secretly wishes us to talk about, but that’s not our fault–we are merely reading what’s there. Furthermore, we as readers may sometimes not be able to decipher the story in the cards, but it’s there. We may, as a result of our confusion, try to string together the cards in a looser way than usual (“There seems to be a woman next to you whom you love dearly and is going through a rough patch in life. It could be health-related, but I may be wrong. Can you help me with this?”). The cards, however, are always specific, never vague.

As a matter of fact, our life is never vague. It is always made up of details. These details may be mundane, but they are specific. In our life there is never “the general energy of the moment”. You don’t go the supermarket and find the general energy of the moment on sale. There is no such thing.

There is the coffee I’m brewing, the floor I’m sweeping, the feeling of dread I’ve been struggling with for some months, the mom I just talked to on the phone, etc. And the mom I talked to is my mom, not a general mom floating in the world of Platonic ideas. No energy. No universals. Universals are always embodied in our limited existence. I don’t talk to “momness in itself”. I talk to my mom. Therefore, the fact that our querent asks us a general question cannot embolden us to give a general answer, though it CAN justify us in being more cautious and loose in the interpretation.

Again, if we don’t have a specific question, it may be harder to interpret the cards, especially because certain cards together may appear to be open to more than one interpretation if we don’t have enough context.

And here we come to an important point. Some diviners think they need to be able to awe the querent with incredible details without missing a beat and think they should never ask them for clarification. I say that the querent exists in order to be tortured until every last bit of useful information that I need in order to interpret his damn spread has been wrung out of his writhing body, because at the end of the day it’s him who wants to know about his future, not I.

This authoritarianism is all the more justified in case of a general question. I am not going to talk for ten minutes straight without catching my breath only to be told “no that’s not me.” I’d much rather proceed cautiously and ask the querent for clarification step by step (and, if nothing makes sense, start anew).

BUT, the point remains that when we lay out the cards, the cards are going to talk about specific situations in the querent’s past, present or future. They are not going to give us “the general energy”.

MQS

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

Vera Sibilla Cards That Indicate Groups

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There is a number of cards in the Vera Sibilla that can indicate groups or at least hint at them. Each card stresses a different aspect of the experience of groups, and must be read within the context of the whole spread. As usual, this list is not meant to be exhaustive. Context is key.

Ace of Hearts (Conversation)

The Conversation card represents the act of talking, and therefore (except the querent is a lunatic) it implies someone else. It can broadly refer to the ability to express one’s thoughts or even one’s qualities with others, and is a deeply interpersonal card. It also refers to a usually tight-knit group of people, often people living together or family members,

Two of Hearts (House)

The House card does not directly refer to people, but it does refer to a close environment where people either live (a literal house) or are found (any kind of building). For instance, next to negative cards, or if reversed, it can show that the querent isn’t happy in their house, usually due to interpersonal conflict with family members or other people who spend time in that place.

Five of Hearts (Happiness)

The Happiness card can refer to relatives and blood relations or, in general, one’s “clan”. It can be another significator for the querent’s family, but it refers to relatives in a usually broader sense. However, it can also indicate groups of people held together by common interests, a clan of sorts, such as a political party. This is quite rare though. When reversed, it shows trouble with relatives.

Ten of Hearts (Perseverance)

Traditionally this card can refer to the querent’s town or motherland. Occasionally it can show how they are seen or if they are talked about in their town. This is somewhat rare.

Ace of Clubs (Marriage)

The Ace of Clubs represents all official acts binding two or more people together. It is the card of pacts, agreements, marriage, contract, partnerships. It can represent a business where people cooperate in the creation of something (a product).

Four of Clubs (Friend)

The Friend card can refer to a literal (female) friend or relative, but it can also represent a circle of friends, and the idea of a supportive environment where the querent is taken care of in a spirit of friendship or cooperation.

Eight of Clubs (Reunion)

Traditionally this is the card of reconciliation, of meetings, etc. However, it represents also a coming together, and this coming together doesn’t need to involve only two people. It can also more generally represent the querent’s interpersonal skills. When reversed, these skills are not present or are put to the test by difficult people. This is also the “more than one” card of the Sibilla (e.g., more than one job, more than one child, etc.)

Nine of Clubs (Cheerfulness)

This card can indicate one’s wider circle of acquaintances, but in general also friends or groups of people, often not tied by very deep bonds of affections. When reversed, or when near negative cards, it can refer to bullying by other people or serious problems in a particular environment due to being hated. Traditionally it also represented people from the countryside, but this is an older reading.

Ace of Diamonds (Room)

Like the House card, the Room doesn’t refer to people directly, but it can represent them indirectly by pointing to the environment they spend time in, usually an office, a shop or similar.

Nine of Diamonds (The Fools)

This card is the opposite of the Cheerfulness card, and is the only (upright) card that directly points to interpersonal problems, problematic groups, enmity and instability in a group setting and similar situations. It can represent hooligans, gangs, rioters or, more simply, a disunited family.

Three of Spades Reversed (Widower)

In general, the Widower reversed is the card of trauma, of serious loss and of bad behavior. However, it can also point to ritual settings that involve more than one person. The ritual setting needn’t be negative (it can be a christening, for instance). However, with negative cards it can signify dangerous groups, especially sects.

MQS