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

Vera Sibilla Cards That Indicate Ambiguity

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There is a number of cards in the Vera Sibilla that can indicate ambiguity and unreliability. As usual, context is key, but the following ones are the most common.

Four of Hearts Reversed – Love

As I discussed in my recent video about the Fours, traditionally the Four of Hearts is the card of homosexuality. And it can still mean that in particular situations, but more broadly, aside from the other main meaning of ‘lack of love’, it can also indicate an unhealthy approach to love (hence the XIX century association with homosexuality). An unhealthy approach to love can also involve secret perversions or cheating, so the Love card reversed can be an indicator of unreliability in love.

Five of Hearts Reversed – Happiness

Being a card that represents more than one person, being in the suit of Hearts and being reversed, the Happiness card can indicate betrayal. However, traditionally, this more commonly refers to relatives (since the upright card can stand for relatives in a neutral sense). It can show disharmony among relatives, and relatives you must guard against, especially with people cards next to it.

Seven of Hearts Reversed – The Scholar

Upright, the Scholar is a symbol of the positive use of the intellect in a creative or constructive way. Reversed, the card can symbolize nonsensical or useless abstraction from reality, impotence (in all senses) but also the negative use of the intellect. Hence, the card can indicate ulterior motives and a sneaky disposition of character.

Eight of Hearts Upright/Reversed – Hope

The Hope card has many spiritual and moral virtues, among them that of choosing the high road and doing what’s good. When the card is next to cards of ambiguity, or when reversed, it can stand for someone who is extremely fickle and even promiscuous in love.

Nine of Hearts Reversed – Faithfulness

Upright, the dog symbolizes fidelity, friendship, sincerity in the affections. Reversed it can, quite literally, indicate unfaithfulness. It is also the proverbial dog biting the hand that feeds it, showing ungratefulness, anarchy, rebellion.

Ten of Hearts Reversed – Perseverance

Upright, the Ten of Hearts can indicate a stable, reliable character. Like the dog card, it reversed this symbolism when reversed, showing situations that are not stable, but also people who are unreliable.

Two of Clubs Reversed – The Peacock

When upright, the card emanates the positive energy of the peacock symbolism, showing beauty, marvel, art, beauty, completion, immortality. Reversed, it takes on its more sinister characteristics: vanity, being full of oneself, being blinded by one’s ego, which can all of course make us unreliable.

Ten of Clubs – Levity

The butterfly symbol speaks for itself. It shows someone who is fickle, not thorough, changeable, too easygoing or carefree. Still, the unreliability indicated by this card, unless supported by cards of dubious moral character, can also be of the innocent kind, due to superficiality rather than to some grand secret plan.

Four of Diamonds – Falsehood

The cat card is obviously the opposite of the dog: it indicates everything that isn’t as it seems, and so is the card of lies and cover-ups. But don’t go crying foul too easily: this is also the card of everything that is wrong, and so it also covers such things as mistakes and oversights. Still, it is never good when coming up next to a significator.

Six of Diamonds Reversed – Thought

Somewhat similarly to the Scholar, the Thought card is connected with what goes on between one’s ears. When it is reversed, the card indicates negative thoughts, which must be understood broadly to signify negative thinking or the thought of doing something negative. As such, if a significator comes up with the Thought card reversed after it, look at the other cards to see if they are feeling down, are deluded or a plotting something.

Seven of Diamonds Upright/Reversed – The Child

The Child card is neutral and has many positive undertones, but it is also card of immaturity. If it comes up upright with cards that highlight this side of its symbolism, or even worse if it comes up reversed, then you may be dealing with people who are not mature enough to be trusted, in whatever sense that might be meaningful in the context.

Eight of Diamonds Reversed – The Handmaid

Upright, the Handmaid is a card of morality and education. But when it is reversed, it becomes a card of the shallow trashy character that you should not take seriously. It can stand for someone who will betray your confidence.

Ten of Diamonds – The Thief

Obviously, the Thief is the card of betrayal par excellence. It always shows something that sneaks into a situation to ruin it from the inside. A person card with the Thief card next to it should make you think twice about trusting them.

Six of Spades Reversed – Sighs

The Sighs card is complex in its meanings, especially when reversed. Its broadest meaning is that of “no sighs”, so it can be good. But this can also signify that someone is not losing any sleep over the evil they are concocting, and so it can be a symptom of an unscrupulous character. This submeaning of the card usually emerges when other cards of similar signification are next to it.

Nine of Spades Reversed – The Prison

As with the Sighs card, the Prison reversed can be positive, as it shows freedom, being unchained or unburdened, repentance, and similar concepts. But with cards of dubious moral character it can indicate that someone is unhinged, lacking restraint and giving into unscrupulous ambitions.

Ten of Spades Upright/Reversed – The Soldier

The Soldier is the card of the night, and of everything that happens at night, including shady dealings. Because of this, especially when reversed, it can sound the alarm on the fact that something is going on behind your back. A person card next to the Soldier reversed is rarely someone you can trust.

People Cards

The general rule is that a person card reversed is either suffering or is against the querent. Especially the Heart court cards must be treated with caution, as they can become traitors and cheaters. It goes without saying that the two Enemy cards already have this potential indication baked into their upright meaning.

A Warning

You may have noticed that a lot of cards in the Sibilla can indicate unreliability. Follow these indications strictly and you’ll go around accusing everyone and their mother of being a cheater and a fraud. Interpretation is never a matter of a single card: it is important to see if cards of similar import accumulate, how the court cards relate to them and if there aren’t more likely explanations.

MQS

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

Was That On Purpose? (Example Reading)

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This one’s a quickie. A friend of mine who tends to take things way more seriously than she should asked if the boyfriend had really misplaced the small gift they had bought for her mother or if he had hidden it out of spite (he doesn’t like her mother). Knowing the dude I was quite sure she was overreacting. Still we asked the Sibilla:

Vera Sibilla reading: was that on purpose?

The Thought card is indicative of someone’s inner reality (their thoughts, plans, character, proclivities, etc). Since we asked about the boyfriend’s intention, the thought is his. The Belvedere card is usually associated with the arrival of something. However, it is also the card of sight. Next to the Ten of Clubs, which is a card of carefreeness, this seems to point to an oversight.

It turned out the gift had been left in the car, where it had lodged itself between the the two front seats. As silly as the reason for the reading is, it’s nice to have the cards confirm our suspicion.

MQS

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

Three Decks For One Inheritance (Example Reading)

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

Sibilla

A three card reading with the Vera Sibilla

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

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

Playing cards

A three card reading with regular playing cards

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

Skat cards

A three card reading with the Skat / Piquet deck

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

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

MQS

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

Cards That Change Topic

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In the latest reading I presented, an interesting phenomenon occurred. At some point during the reading, two cards came up that seemed very negative, but which actually had nothing to do with the reading in itself. Instead, they simply acted as some form of punctuation. This happens especially with simple methods like the one I used, called ‘alla zdoura’ (literally, ‘method of the housewife’, or ‘like the housewives do it’ in dialect), where we start with a very limited number of cards, usually one, two or three, and then we keep adding them without following a specific layout.

In this type of reading, if the cards need to signal that we are changing topics and moving on to a new one, they may use cards or combinations that show an ending (sometimes even just the Death card). Of course, I had a huge deal of luck in this reading, because it came up clear. It isn’t always like that. Often, these combinations look really bad, but if we look around we see that they feel out of place.

In playing cards, the same can happen when the Four of Spades and Five of Spades, or the Ace of Spades, or the Five of Diamonds come up. Usually, in these situations, it pays to zoom out of the reading and catch the general flow of it: it will become apparent, generally, whether these cards are part of the reading or if they act as punctuation. 

I am also experiencing a similar phenomenon while experimenting with the Bolognese tarot. For instance, in the first few lines of a thirteen- card spread, it may happen that the Angel and Death cards come up together, and then the cards seem to discuss other topics. In this case, the cards seem to be answering the question positively and quickly, only to introduce new discussions. At other times, the Queen of Coins comes up to say “and that’s the truth about it, period.” or the Justice card, to say “and that ok the way it is.” Of course, I need to experiment a little more, especially to see if apparently negative combinations can act in the same way.

MQS

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

Great News, I’m Pregnant!

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No, not me–science hasn’t come that far. I picked three cards for the day around a week ago.

A daily reading reveals news about a pregnancy

In a daily reading, these cards could indicate just about anything, although the tone is positive and it is connected with good news for sure. But two days later a friend in our group announced she was pregnant. The Hope card is strongly connected with maternity and nourishment, and is often present when asking about pregnancies, and the Child card speaks for itself. Also note that daily readings can come true even in the following days.

MQS

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

Vera Sibilla Cards That Indicate Spirituality and Occultism

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Pretty much every card in the Vera Sibilla has some connection with spirituality and occultism, especially when that’s the topic of the question. However, some cards are more pronounced in the kind of indications they give. The unfortunate thing about this sort of topics is that people tend to use them as a substitute for real life. So, for instance, once someone wrote that the Queen of Clubs can indicate a psychic vampire, and then everyone started reading that card primarily as that for a while (becuase, of course, you are such a wonderful person that everyone wants to leech off of your energy). In reality, unless the question is about spiritual or occult topics, such interpretations are best kept rare, and even then, the surrounding cards need to be kept in mind.

Ace of Hearts – The Conversation (Conversazione)

This is not an especially esoteric or spiritual card, but I’ll talk about it to show how easy it can be to expand a card’s regular meaning to cover those topics. The Conversation card is about words and people meeting or living together. In a spiritual or esoteric reading it can therefore indicate prayers (communion with the divine), exorcisms or spells (the spiritual or esoteric use of words). It can also indicate a group of people operating a ritual or praying together.

Four of Hearts – Love (Amore)

Again, not an especially esoteric card, but it is one of the possible cards indicating the soul (winged, heart-related). It can also indicate that one has the otherworldly tendency to attract certain types of happenings into their life. This has nothing to do with the law of attraction, but merely a statement of the fact that certain people simply tend to end up in specific situations.

Seven of Hearts – The Scholar (Letterato)

The Scholar is connected with the constructive use of the mind. It can therefore indicate plans, including esoteric plans, mostly tending to be good ones. It can also show the divine plan, providence etc.

Eight of Hearts – Hope (Speranza)

The Hope card is the main significator of faith, though not necessarily religious faith. It is heavily indicative of our psychic connection with the divine. It is also involved in those situations where the person has prophetic dreams, psychic powers and all those abilities witches on WitchTok pretend to have but really don’t. Reversed, it can indicate atheism (lack of hope in the divine) or, with very evil cards, it can indicate negative faith systems, such as satanism (we’re talking O9A, not the coastal post-crowleyan, occult-flavored performance art that passes itself off as satansim).

Nine of Hearts – Faithfulness (Fedeltà)

The Faithfulness card is one of great protection and support, whether from worldly friends or from otherworldly ones. As such, it can indicate angels (the Messenger is another possible card for angels, but in a more neutral sense). More commonly, it can indicate devotion to a belief system.

King of Hearts – The Gentleman (Gran Signore)

Obviously, God is the esoteric and spiritual gentleman par excellence, and this is usually what this card can represent. It indicates great protection from the divine (the female counterpart would be the Maiden for the Virgin Mary, or the Girlfriend for a female saint or goddess).

Two of Clubs – The Peacock (Pavone)

The Peacock is one of the cards we look for in sequences about magic and spirituality. When upright, it represents the god-power which unfolds at its own pace, like the peacock’s tail, creating opportunity for marvel and salvation. Esoterically, it shows magic in a neutral to positive sense. It represents oaths and religious vows. Reversed, it is the card of the devil (the one who was doomed by his pride), demons and dark magic.

Three of Clubs Reversed – The Journey (Viaggio)

When reversed, the Journey has a specific connection with white magic in its ability to interrupt any negative trend, harmonizing us with our path in life.

Five of Clubs – Fortune (Fortuna)

In itself the Five of Clubs is the card of destiny, of one’s path through life, whether good or bad. It can represent protection, though not necessarily divine, from magical forces. It can be present when a magical attack is aimed at modifying a person’s natural destiny.

Four of Diamonds – Falsehood (Falsità)

The Falsehood card is the card of negativity in all contexts. Esoterically, it shows negativity in the person’s aura and/or the evil eye, but it usually doesn’t represent heavy black magic.

Six of Diamonds – Thought (Pensiero)

Our thought is where past, present and future coincide and gather in the form of memories, plans and inclinations. It can give us hint as to the person’s inner life, their religious beliefs, their inner and esoteric talent, etc. Reversed, in addition to indicating negative thoughts, it can have a connection with subonsciousness and the powers that are buried within it, or with thought-forms and spirits.

Three of Spades – The Widower (Vedovo)

The Widower is one of the primary culprits we look for when discussing rituals, whether religious or magical. This is especially true when the card is reversed. It is also the card of graveyards and graveyard magic, and it can indicate sects (mostly in a negative sense).

Five of Spades – Death (Morte)

The Death card is always very incisive. It can talk about the person’s aura being out of wack, and it is one of the possible cards representing the summoning of dark forces, especially when reversed.

Eight of Spades – Desperation and Jealousy (Disperato per Gelosia)

The Eight of Spades is strongly connected with magical attacks, whether upright or reversed. It is indicative of demonic presences or dealing with dark forces in a negative sence. Being the card of envy, it can indicate the ill will of the dark magician. Spiritually, it can herald a crisis of faith or beliefs, either leading to loss of faith or to conversion.

Nine of Spades – The Prison (Prigione)

On a positive note, it can indicate the taking of religious vows (which bind us). More commonly it indicates feelings of guilt or feeling limited. Magically it represents the creation of magical bonds.

Ten of Spades – The Soldier (Militare)

Another strongly esoteric card, the Soldier is the card of the night, and therefore of the occult (which means that which is hidden). Because it is the card of attacks, esoterically it can show the tackling of the problem, or more commonly the psychic attack.

King of Spades – The Priest (Sacerdote)

Just like the two Enemies, the Priest can represent a magician. However, it usually signifies the magus in a more neutral and high sense, unless the card is reversed. Spiritually it can indicate spiritual institutions and religions, but also divine justice.

MQS