Tag Archives: Fortune-telling

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

Vera Sibilla Cards That Indicate Loss

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I’m going to write a few articles on the similarities and differences between cards in the Sibilla deck based on certain topics or concepts. Because I’m a positive person, let’s start with the concept of loss.

This list is not meant to be exclusive (for instance, most bad cards next to the Money card can show loss of money). Context is key, and each spread must be studied as its own thing. Furthermore, loss is not the only meaning of the cards I talk about here.

Five of Hearts Reversed (Happiness)

The 5♥R generally indicates failing to meet aims and failing to live up to promises and commitments. These ideas can easily be what leads to loss, whether material or in the field of relationship (though it also has a strong connection with cheating in the latter field).

Six of Hearts Reversed (Money)

This one doesn’t require much in terms of explanation. The Money card, when reversed, can indicate money troubles.

Eight of Hearts Reversed (Hope)

When upright, the 8♥ is connected with investments (things where there is a hope placed on future returns). When it is reversed, it often shows bad investments causing losses. It also indicates relationships that go up in smoke.

Ten of Hearts Reversed (Perseverance)

Traditionally, the 10♥R is really bad for commerce, as it shows loss of contracts and even of merchandise. More broadly, though, this card bodes ill for anything where you wish for smooth sailing.

Six of Clubs Reversed (Surprise)

When upright, the 6♣ represents a positive discrepancy between effort and returns: you get more than you hoped for based on your efforts. The 6♣R is the opposite: you put much effort into something but get little in return. It also shows excess confidence and ambition causing losses.

Five of Diamonds Upright or Reversed (Melancholy)

In general, this card represents unsatisfactory situations, but next to the card of something we hope to get it shows either we don’t get it or we are unsatisfied with it. When reversed it speaks more clearly of loss and debts.

Eight of Diamonds Reversed (Handmaid)

The 8♦R often speaks of the need of spending money or money going out in general. By itself not a tragic card, but its meaning can be exaggerated by the presence of other difficult cards. It also indicates lack of skill in balancing a checkbook.

Ten of Diamonds (Thief)

Obviously, a thief takes something from us, so we lose that something. The 10♦ represents all situations where we lose someone or something, and if other cards of dubious moral import add their meaning, foul play may be suspected.

Ace of Spades (Sorrow)

The A♠ is a strong card, which can modify most readings for the worse. It represents feelings of bereavement and loss, not necessarily material in nature. If it is material, it is likely to be a big loss, as it will shake the querent to the core, like a letter containing tidings of death (which is what the card represents). When reversed its meaning is lessened.

Three of Spades (Widower)

This is the ‘loss’ card. It represents the notion of ‘without’ and it brings loss to the fore as a concept. The loss doesn’t need to be material, so the 3♠ can show loss of friends or social support. As the title implies, it can show widowhood. When reversed the loss is more traumatic.

Five of Spades (Death)

The 5♠ is similar to the Widower in its depiction of loss, but the loss is sharper and is more likely to radically change (usually for the worse) the querent’s life.

Seven of Spades (Tragedy)

The 7♠ represents disruption, the surfacing of unaccounted or unexpected factors bringing the loss of what we hoped to achieve. As with most really bad cards, the Seven of Spades can add its meaning to other cards to bring most projects to their knees.

Eight of Spades (Desperation and Jealously)

The 8♠ is specifically connected with a crisis in material affairs (though of course it can bring problems to relationships as well). It is not uncommon to find it when the question is about investments or debts, showing a critical situation where the querent must tread carefully to avoid making mistakes they’ll deeply regret.

MQS

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

The Spiritual Aim of Divination

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I had a short but interesting conversation with a visitor of this site. He quite liked many of my articles but was somewhat perplexed by my iconoclastic attitude toward the spiritual side of divination. I think this is a good time to clarify my views further, since the reason I am so scathing is not that I hate spiritual work, but that I take it seriously.

First off, let us distinguish inspired divination from technical divination. Inspired divination is the downloading of information, as it were, from a spirit, a deity, an inner contact or some such. This depends wholly on either the inborn talent or the level of initiation of the diviner.

Technical divination works for the same reason that stones fall: because that’s how things are. One learns it the same way one learns math: they must be predisposed to it and must put in the work. Of course, one can mix the two types of divination, but they are essentially different.

Either type can be used to obtain concrete information. Either type can be used to fool yourself or others (but especially yourself). The difference is that inspired divination, especially as a consequence of initiation, has the perk that the diviner must have somewhat balanced themselves out of many of the delusions typical of the spiritual community at large. Technical divination may be just as hard for other reasons, but the counters used in the prediction are available to everyone.

From here come the hordes of tarot readers and astrologers that (believe they) are using divination for spiritual aims, or inner work, when in fact they are sinking more and more into Delululand, as most of the time they aren’t really speaking to gods or angels or ancestors but rather to their own ego (have you ever heard any tarot reader or astrologer that uses this approach say something that goes against their convictions? How come their gods or ancestors always have their same values, their same political bias, their same preferences?)

The preconception here is that divination, in order to be spiritual, must be about spiritual topics. This is as a result of two widespread phenomena: 1) most people in our society see spirituality as something separate from concrete life, something that takes place in a bubble of white light 2) most people who become interested in divination are initially interested in concrete answers, but finding that getting these is hard and not immediately rewarding, they reframe divination as ‘not really to know the future but to improve yourself’. This is at the heart of the deadly divination/fortune-telling distinction that plagues our art.

In reality, divination is an inherently spiritual practice: 1) by the mere fact of working it deflates the modern ego 2) by its ability to pinpoint how the future is likely to pan out it puts a stop to the marketable but untrue ‘you are the master of your own destiny’ nonsense 3) by showing how the intricacies of real life can be mirrored in a microcosmic mirror it teaches the diviner to rise above himself and his preconceptions and adopt a more universal standpoint 4) by proving that some things are fated it teaches the practitioner to have compassion for themselves and others and to reevaluate their priorities.

Once again, a geographic analogy could help. A traditional diviner who seeks to understand life is like one using a map of a territory to find his way around. By studying it closely the traveler can eventually form a good understanding of the land he is in. A (pseudo)spiritual approach to divination though is like that same traveler painting the map with a uniform white paint because, at the end of the day, everything is one divine unity. That may very well be, but now the traveler is lost without the map and can only sink deeper in his preconceptions in trying to picture the route.

MQS

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

On Prayer Before Divination

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Some days ago I was talking to a fellow occult student and we were comparing notes on how we go about the process of divination. When I told her that I tend to say a little prayer before divination she was surprised, so I thought it would make for a nice topic.

First off, I do not think that praying before divination is mandatory, nor do I think that it’s the prayer that makes divination work. It doesn’t matter if it’s synchronicity, as Jung said, or if it’s the spirits that live inside the cards, as my first teacher told me, or if it’s the Soul of the World, as the Platonists believe, or if symbols are living beings, as I believe: the point is that the cards always rearrange themselves in a meaningful pattern, the planets always find themselves in the right aspects, the right geomantic figures always emerge, the right I Ching Hexagram always forms.

As such, in a way, divination is a natural activity, so much so that it’s probably one of the earliest activities humans have undertaken. The reading of symbols came much sooner than the reading of characters, because symbols occur naturally to the mind whenever we realize that X means Y. The moment the first men drew any kind or conclusion from any kind of observation, divination was born.

And yet, I believe that divination is also essentially extraordinary. In a way, divining is as normal as cleaning your cat’s litter box, but in another sense it is also very different. In divining we read a part of the whole (the divination system) to derive conclusions on the whole (life itself). Indeed most divination systems are universal languages that mirror the complexity of the Macrocosm.

As such, divination cannot be decoupled from a global understanding of life, and this global plane is where philosophy, spirituality and occultism unfurl their wings.

In my own view, occultism is divided into three branches: devotion, divination and magic. But these three aspects are not discretely separated. For instance, theurgy brings together magic and devotion. Divination and magic are often coupled together, such as in electing the right time to make a talisman or in asking if a magical action is warranted or advisable or effective.

Praying before divination brings together devotion and divination. It is a way of recognizing the extraordinary import of the action I’m about to take, despite this action being, in another sense, perfectly ordinary.

It helps me more than it helps the divination system itself. Nor does it have to be prayer. I know of some people who wash their hands before divining. In Imperial China official diviners had to cleanse themselves before attempting divination, and this is true all over the world.

No one divines willy-nilly. No one *should* divine willy-nilly. This has nothing to do with respect (unless you are receiving information from a particular spirit), it has nothing to do with asking deep questions (divination should always be practical) and it has nothing to do with not having a sense of humor (you can have a sense of humor, in spite of how bland and vapid many of us are). It does have to do with knowing what place divination has in the scheme of things and reaching that place. I do it through prayer, others may do it by just taking a second to clear their mind, but everyone does it one way or another.

MQS

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

Three Enemies of Good Divination (and One Ally)

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Remember those listicles that were much in demand about ten years ago, before people grew tired of the rage-bait? Yea, they still do them, but they have somewhat fallen out of favor, especially since they are so basic even AI can do them better than the poorly paid saps who wrote them back then. Anyway, here’s a short one, hopefully more interesting than the average listicle, on what generally hinders good divination, plus a bonus entry for what helps.

Mechanic Behavior

Divination eschews mechanic repetition. Asking the same question one or two times is fine because there is still enough emotion behind it to put the system into motion. In fact, it is fine to ask the same question many times as long as the querent is truly invested in it, but the more the querent asks the same question with the same emotional drive as the first time, the more you know the querent is cuckoo and is best avoided. In general, it is best to wait a little between divinations.

This point is one that skeptics seem unable to wrap their heads around, because it seems to run against the principle that experiments can be repeated ad libitum, but it is really quite simple: divination is not an experiment, and the more you mechanically ask the same question, the more the real question changes to whatever it was at the beginning to “does divination really work?” and this question cannot be answered by divination itself.

All in all, a balanced relationship to divination as a means of intelligence gathering, together with the understanding that we are attempting something more exceptional than cleaning the cat’s litterbox, is in order.

Shallow Understanding of the System You Work With

If you asked your doctor how he knows his diagnosis is right and he told you it was just his intuition, you’d feel justified in seeking a second opinion. Yet among ‘spiritual seekers’ anything that reeks of effort and study is frowned upon and people go to extraordinary lengths in order to avoid the simple fact that both knowledge and experience are needed to perform satisfactorily in any sector of life. So they come up with anything from intuitive advice (which essentially means “don’t ask me how I know”) to the great angel HRU to fairies to ‘kickass schools of non-duality.’

The reality is that divination is a method for the acquisition of knowledge. If we don’t make the effort of studying the method we don’t get much knowledge. I believe the current distrust of study comes in part from the distrust of intellectual knowledge (see the bonus entry in this list) and in part from the fact that many people who become interested in divination do it to create a little bubble of mystery and mysticism away from the golden cage that is modernity.

Either way, it is a misguided attitude. Divination requires study. Lots of it. In fact, the study will never end. The good news is that we can start practicing much sooner. As for intuition, it does have a place in divination, and I’ll talk about it in the future, but unbridled intuition is just a badly behaved kid.

Bias and Preconceptions

I’ve already talked at length about this, and I will probably still talk about it in the future. It bears repeating: the more we think we know, the less we’re open to discovery.

Aside from ideological forms of bias, which are always bad regardless of the ideology, there are also other forms. One of the most deadly forms of bias is, for instance, the belief that the querent knows what they are talking about. A querent doesn’t need to be malicious in order to confuse us: they can just be confused themselves, or they can have built a whole scenario inside their heads before sitting in front of us.

On the other hand, talking over our querent and treating them like a special needs child won’t do either. There needs to be a balance between our ability to see the truth of the matter in a dispassionate way (thanks to the divination system we are employing) and open-heartedness toward the querent. As a matter of fact, an open heart can go a long way.

Querents can also be biased against us, but we can do nothing about it. People sometimes ask me what happens when someone asks false questions maliciously. What happens is that if I’m lucky, I’ll understand it from the cards, while if I’m not lucky I’ll make a fool of myself. Either way, the person won’t change their mind about divination or about me, so why bother getting worked up about it? Stuff happens.

Your Brain, Your Best Friend

Ever since Madame Blavatsky disgracefully started peddling poorly understood principles of oriental philosophy, the Western esoteric world has become convinced that the “mind is the enemy”. People generally think so (isn’t it ironic? The mind thinking that the mind is the enemy) because they are incapable of using it but want to sound deep in their incompetence.

In reality, if there is such a thing as overthinking, there is also such a thing as underthinking. The idea that everything must come immediately and instinctively to us in a space of pure knowing and that everything resembling logic is the work of the devil is patently wrong.

Aside from the fact that this is philosophically delusional, most people who think only the mind lies never stop to consider how many times their instincts or their heart actually let them down on a day-to-day basis. The reality is that our mind, our body and our heart are ways for us to acquaint ourselves with the world, and all three can lead us astray depending on the context, just as much as they can guide us to profound insight.

Therefore, if it is not correct to let the other two dry up, it is also not correct to become mindless pseudomystics, sacrificing our understanding on the altar of an ill-digested and rather offensive orientalism (“Counterfeit Asian philosophy 101 says the mind is poo poo, therefore it’s true. See how smart I am? I misquote exotic people!”)

The funny thing is that most Eastern forms of divination are not at all intuitive, and in fact verge on the overly technical (see Da Liu Ren, Qi Men Dun Jia, Wen Wang Gua, Vedic Astrology, Purple Emperor Astrology, etc.) They are also incredibly accurate exactly because of how majestically brainy they are, though they may not have the glamour of the latest useless set of empowering witchy cards. Traditional Western divination systems, of course, can be just as accurate, but people usually have the expectation that they need to unplug their brains on the way in. Let’s not do this. Our mind can sometimes lead us astray. It can also help a great deal.

MQS

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

Tarot Encyclopedia – The Page of Cups

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The Page of Cups in the Builders of the Adytum (BOTA) tarot deck

Paul Foster Case (and Ann Davies)

In divination this Key suggests the warmth, radiance and the generous productivity of summer. Thus the Page of Cups indicates a radiant, generous, youthful personality of either sex. The time period is from the first decanate of Cancer, June 21, through the last decanate of Virgo, September 22 – the entire summer season.
Well Dignified: the character is sweet, poetical, gentle and kind; fond of home and all that it stands for; imaginative, dreamy, yet with a good deal of latent courage; friendly to the Querent and will further Querent’s hopes and wishes.
lll Dignified: may still show or profess friendship, or even wish to be of help, but the character is unstable, too indolent to be of real service and probably prone to promise far more than he can perform.
(From the Oracle of Tarot course)

A. E. Waite

A fair, pleasing, somewhat effeminate page, of studious and intent aspect, contemplates a fish rising from a cup to look at him. It is the pictures of the mind taking form. Divinatory Meanings: Fair young man, one impelled to render service and with whom the Querent will be connected; a studious youth; news, message; application, reflection, meditation; also these things directed to business. Reversed: Taste, inclination, attachment, seduction, deception, artifice.
(From The Pictorial Key to the Tarot)

Aleister Crowley

The Princess of Cups represents the earthy part of Water; in particular, the faculty of crystallization. She represents the power of Water to give substance to idea, to support life, and to form the basis of chemical combination. She is represented as a dancing figure, robed in a flowing garment on whose edges crystals are seen to form.

For her crest she wears a swan with open wings. The symbolism of this swan reminds one of the swan in oriental philosophy which is the word AUM or AUMGN, which is the symbol of the entire process of creation. [See, for a full analysis and explanation of this Word, Magick, pp. 45.]

She bears a covered cup from which issues a tortoise. This is again the tortoise which in Hindu philosophy supports the elephant on whose back is the Universe. She is dancing upon a foaming sea in which disports himself a dolphin, the royal fish, which symbolizes the power of Creation.

The character of the Princess is infinitely gracious. All sweetness, all voluptuousness, gentleness, kindness and tenderness are in her character. She lives in the world of Romance, in the perpetual dream of rapture. On a superficial examination she might be thought selfish and indolent, but this is a quite false impression; silently and effortlessly she goes about her work.

In the Yi King, the earthy part of Water is represented by the 41st Hexagram, Sun. This means diminution, the dissolution of all solidity. People described by this card are very dependent on others, but at the same time helpful to them. Rarely, at the best, are they of individual importance. As helpmeets, they are unsurpassed.
(From the Book of Thoth)

A cutesy AI generated illustration for the Page of Cups

Golden Dawn’s Book T

A BEAUTIFUL Amazon-like figure, softer in nature than the Princess of Wands. Her attire is similar. She stands on a sea with foaming spray. Away to her right a Dolphin. She wears as a crest a swan with opening wings. She bears in one hand a lotus, and in the other an open cup from which a turtle issues. Her mantle is lined with swans-down, and is of thin floating material.
Sweetness, poetry, gentleness and kindness. Imaginative, dreamy, at times indolent, yet courageous if roused.
When ill dignified she is selfish and luxurious.
She rules a quadrant of the heavens around Kether.
Earth of Water

Etteilla

Blond boy
Upright. This card, as far as the medicine of the spirit is concerned, means, in its natural position: Blond Boy, Scholar. – Study, Application, Work, Reflection, Observation, Consideration, Meditation, Contemplation, Occupation. – Craft, Profession, Employment.
Reversed. Tendency, Inclination, Inclination, Attraction, Taste, Sympathy, Passion, Affection, Attachment, Friendship. – Heart, Want, Desire, Attraction, Promise, Seduction, Invitation, Attraction. – Flattery, Moine, Ruffianry, Flattery, Praise, Praise. – In decline, threatening ruin, tending to the end.

MQS

astrology, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling

When Will the Horror End? (Horary Astrology Reading)

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I occasionally help my husband when he needs to work from home and I’m free. Yesterday was one such occasion. He’s a stenographer and was sent several audio bits from a famous company so that he would make a protocol out of them. I don’t think I need to stress how tedious this is. I do it mostly to improve my German, aside from being helpful to my husband. At around 18:04, he was told that the meeting was running late and that there was the possibility of us receiving audios well into the night. Horrified, I asked “when will it be over?”

The Heavens answered with this chart.

When will it be over?

I am represented by Mercury, Lord of the Ascendant. Mercury is retrograde, stuck in the evil Eight House of “fear and anguish of Minde”, as William Lilly wrote, and speeding into Combustion of the Sun. In a word, my poor Mercury is a mess. At this point I am unsure if only I am signified by Mercury and my husband by Jupiter, Lord of the Seventh House, or if we are both signified by Mercury. The fact that a Bi-Corporeal sign is rising (Virgo) seems to indicate we are both Mercury. Our stress is well captured by Mercury’s affliction.

However, one thing that gives me hope is the VERY late ascendant (29.05 Virgo), which seems to indicate it won’t take that much. Let’s look at the Moon. She is in her exaltation in Taurus, separating from a sextile of the two Malefics and about to bump into Jupiter, the Great Benefic. Help may be at hand! Initially, as I said, I half-thought that Jupiter was my husband. However, reflecting on my question “when will it end?” I realized that Jupiter rules the Fourth House, which can indicate the end of the matter. In this case, it is quite appropriate that the end of the matter be signified by a benefic.

If that’s the case, then the Moon approaching Conjunction with Jupiter must indicate that things are about to end. When though? The Moon perfects the aspect in around two degrees, so we are left with “two somethings”, i.e., two seconds, two minutes, two hours (days wasn’t an option). The Moon is in a fixed sign, but also very quick in motion and strongly dignified, so my sense was that it would be over in less than two hours. Looking at the ascendant, which had less than one degree of Virgo left on it, I had the feeling that it could possibly be around an hour.

The question was asked at around 18:04, and at 19:02 we were told it was over.

MQS

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

Love Fool (Horary Astrology and Playing Cards Reading)

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This is the first time I use my new interest, Horary Astrology, in conjunction with playing cards. Let’s see what they have to say. The question was asked by a friend of mine who just broke up with her girlfriend. He wants to know if there is a future. This reading was made a couple of days ago.

Relationship reading, is there a future?
Answered with horary astrology

The querent is Mars, lord of the Ascendant, while the quesited, i.e., the girlfriend, is Venus lord of the Seventh. The Moon indicates the flow of the action.

In a night chart, Mars is dignified by triplicity in Pisces, and is angular, while Venus is exalted, also in Pisces, and also angular. The first thing that strikes me is that Venus is moving away from Mars. Furthermore, the Moon is separating from a difficult square with Jupiter in the Seventh. I asked my friend if he had broken up with her or she had broken up with him, since from the chart it seems it was her initiative. He didn’t like to admit it, but said she had left him.

Note that Mars is in triplicity, so a decent Mars, but also conjunct Saturn. Saturn is peregrine. Also note that Venus, the girlfriend, is exalted, and exaltation is sometimes an indication of haughtiness. Clearly she thought she could do better than Saturn-like Mars as she moved away from him. My friend then told me she told him she didn’t like the fact she is to attached to her.

Well, CAN she do better? Venus is about to change sign, from Pisces to Aries, whereupon she will not only lose all her dignity, but she will also enter her detriment. Let us look at the Moon now. The Moon separates from the square with Jupiter and moves toward a sextile with Mercury Retrograde. Sextiles are positive aspects. If we put together the indications, we have: 1) Venus moving away but regretting her decision 2) A future positive contact 3) the contact is about things that go back (retrograde)

This seemed to me a sign of reconciliation. Just to be on the safe side, I had the querent pull three cards from the playing card deck. These were:

5♠ – Q♣ – 3♥

The cards are quite clear. The Five of Spades is a card of imprisonment, but it also indicates regret (which is what you are supposed to feel in prison). Then we have her significator, followed by the Three of Hearts. I would have preferred to see a Six of Hearts to show reconciliation, but the Three of Hearts will do. In this case, the added shade of meaning seems to be that the cards don’t even consider the breakup effective, because the Three of Hearts show things that flow positively without interruption.

I will update this post when I know the outcome.

MQS

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

Playing Card Multiples

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I believe that in the development of divination techniques, the creation of meanings for multiples of cards of the same number must have probably come pretty early. When I was taught to read playing cards, the person who gave me the meanings passed also the signification of card multiples to me, with the caveat that she’d never found them to be very reliable, contrary to the rest of the method. I must confess that I almost never use them, except when the meaning can be derived from the meanings of the cards, which is why I never talked about them before. However, since someone asked me, I’ll retrieved them from my notes so that you can experiment with them.

Note that it does not matter which cards we are talking about as long as they have the appropriate number of pips. However, the presence of Spades in the combination is supposed to worsen the meaning, especially if the Spade card comes last.

Aces
2 = Surprise
3 = Positive Chance
4 = when together, death or great danger, when apart, glory or success

Twos
2 = Exchange
3 = Agreement
4 = Slowness, Boredom

Threes
2 = Tricks
3 = Increase or Progress
4 = Quick Communications

Fours
2 = Worry, Insomnia
3 = Situations speeding up, Unblocking
4 = Travel

Fives
2 = Small losses, Small torments
3 = Resolution
4 = Law

Sixes
2 = Nervousness
3 = Anger
4 = Violence

Sevens
2 = Development
3 = Sickness
4 = Dissatisfaction

Eights
2 = New acquaintances or learning something new
3 = Wedding bells
4 = Infamy

Nines
2 = Help from friends
3 = Triumph
4 = Glory

Tens
2 = Change of place
3 = Change of life
4 = Birth or rebirth

Jacks
2 = Fighting
3 = Litigation
4 = Danger

Queens
2 = Talks
3 = Gossip
4 = Slander

Kings
2 = Help
3 = Commerce
4 = Great Honor

MQS

astrology, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling

Is She Alright? Horary Astrology Reading

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Horary astrology is a centuries old form of divination. The word ‘horary’ means ‘of the hour’, because unlike natal astrology, which predicts from someone’s natal chart, Horary looks at a chart for the time and place a meaningful question is asked.

The fascinating thing about Horary is the way it works: it doesn’t require you to shuffle a deck or cast dice. There’s nothing for you to manipulate. Once someone asks a (relatively) serious question to someone else who can cast a chart, the answer is there. In a way, it presupposes a view of the universe as an unraveling system of self-answering questions or self-solving problems.

As I strive to create a coherent philosophy of divination, Horary is definitely one of my most important sources of inspiration. I will probably start offering cheap email horary readings in the near future in exchange for feedback, in order to gain experience. In the meantime, here’s an example from yesterday.

Is she alright? Horary question answered with the App Aquarius2Go

Background: A woman my husband is involved with for some projects had disappeared for a couple weeks after the death of her father. She didn’t answer any message my husband or the other people involved sent her, so naturally they were all worried that she might have fallen into depression and done something silly. So the question he asked me, knowing I’ve started dabbling in Horary, was “Is she alright?”

My husband is signified by the Moon, lady of the Ascendant. The woman is not really his friend (Eleventh house) but rather his colleague, so she is signified by the Seventh house and its ruler, Saturn. This is appropriate, as Saturn rules solitude.

Since the question is about this person’s wellbeing, we are looking at potential afflictions that Saturn may be suffering from. It’s peregrine, that is, it is in no dignity. Peregrination is a minor affliction. It also describes her very well: “peregrine” means “wanderer”, and she has disappeared. Saturn is also in a cadent house, the ninth, which however is not especially malefic. On the other hand, Saturn is Sextiled by Jupiter. This is a positive aspect, and Jupiter is a protective planet. My idea was that she wasn’t especially fine, but she wasn’t in any great danger either.

My husband (and probably the other people involved) is the Moon. The Moon is in her fall and inside the Via Combusta, i.e., the stretch of Zodiac that goes from 15 Libra to 15 Scorpio, which is bad for the Moon, as it is said to indicate turmoil. This is a good description of their apprehension. Mercury is slow in motion and squaring the Ascendant: communication is a problem.

The Moon is in exact Trine (to the minute) with Saturn. Trines are aspects of amity, so obviously they want to know that Saturn (aka the woman) is fine, and are worried (Fall, Via Combusta) about her.

Since Saturn doesn’t seem to be in any grave peril, it stands to reason that the woman will be back in contact (we would need strong testimonies to show the contrary). The fact that the Trine aspect is exact doesn’t allow us to say whether it is still applying or separating, but considering all the chart, it seems to be an indication that she will soon resurface. This is also shown by the fact that the Moon is near the end of the Via Combusta, so I judged that she would write my husband soon. Another possible indication is that the First House Cusp is nearing the end of Cancer, so the situation is in its late phase and is about to change. But I’m on the fence about this testimony.

Result: yesterday (day of the question) after weeks of not hearing from her, my husband got a message from her three or four hours after this chart was cast. The woman was of course not in top shape, but she was relatively fine.

MQS

Card Combinations, Card Reading, Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Occultism and Esoterism, Playing Cards, Reading Example, Uncategorized

Exploring Curses with Playing Cards

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Most systems of divination can also be used to explore esoteric topics. For instance, I have answered the question “have I been hexed?” way more than I would like. The answer is no 95% of the times. Only two times in my life have I sent someone straight to see a priest because something supernatural was objectively at play. Most of the times, people use dark magic as a scapegoat to rationalize natural periods of bad luck.

Of the the two times I did detect a curse I can only find records of one (my notes tend to be rather messy). The girl in question asked me if she’d received the evil eye (malocchio). This was the spread:

10♠ – 5♠ – 5♥ – J♠ – Q♠

I added two cards to the queen, and I got the Q♦ and the 2♥. The reading is quite obvious: a woman cursed her (the Queen of Spades with the Jack) on behalf of a relative (the Queen of Diamonds and Two of Hearts) though probably not a blood relative. The Ten and Five of Spades, when read together with the other spades, indicate the use of negative occult powers, probably at night.

The Five of Hearts in the center of the spread probably showed the sector of the querent’s life that was impacted by the curse: the ‘abundance’ sector. The young woman had lost a ton of weight in a short timeframe, she looked wasted, had started losing her hair and her beauty, had started developing money problems (in that she couldn’t retain any money she made). Her significator is absent, meaning she was completely passive to the hex.

It seems her mother-in-law had gone to see a country witch to try to harm her. This is far more troublesome than the evil eye, which sometimes can even be cast inadvertently without a ritual. The hex was broken by a priest, or rather, thanks to a priest who put her in contact with a monk specializing in this kind of stuff.

I’m bringing up the topic because I was recently asked the same question by a friend of mine who is going through a rough patch (lost her job, broke up with her boyfriend, argued with her sister, etc), which she believed was due to some ‘bad vibes’ or the malocchio. The spread was:

3♠ – 6♣ – Q♣ – 7♠ – 5♦

This time we have the querent in the middle of the spread. This, coupled with the fact that there are no combinations of curse, is encouraging: the querent has not been displaced from the center stage of her life.

The cards are negative, but they don’t reference supernatural phenomena: the Three of Spades could indicate curses or evil eye in combinations, but here there is no such combo, so it just indicates problems, things that don’t go smoothly. The querent is surrounded by the Six of Clubs and the Seven of Spades, the latter showing unfortunate events, the former reiterating the idea of difficulties. The Seven of Spades connects to the Five of Diamonds to indicate a period of misfortune, that is, of natural bad luck, which will pass (there will be change, it won’t stay that way forever).

MQS