Ever used regular playing cards?

Nocturnal Lure

Has anyone here ever used regular playing cards for a reading...?

I am planning to make some notes and work out a system to use regular playing cards in a way that makes up for the "missing cards". Now I was wondering if other peple here have experience in that, I'd like to know what you've learned.
 

Abigail

abigail

There is a witches deck on the market, thats just playing cards, with little pictures drawn in the corner that does just what you were talking about, normal playing cards do as good a reading as tarot if its an intuitive or psychic reading. The witches deck gives a little more to work with than a card playing normal deck.
 

Sulis

Hi Nocturnal lure,

Using regular playing cards for divination is called cartomancy.

Over in the Oracle Decks forum, there is a study group dedicated to cartomancy.
I did a search for you and came up with loads of threads:
http://www.tarotforum.net/search.php?searchid=430208

Since this thread isn't actually about tarot, I'll move it over to Oracle Decks

Love Sulis xx
 

Lutenist

I actually tried my hands on regular playing cards a while ago. There are really only four cards missing on the minor arcana (the knights). The major arcana however is completely absent. I used the red joker as the fool and the black joker as the devil. I think that's very logical, if one takes into account the trickster aspect of the devil. I don't know how to replace the other cards, though. Don't you feel comfortable with reading "minor arcana" alone?

It is of course possible to read with playing cards and major arcana in conjunction. There's one spread in the LWB of the Visconti Tarot where you use the major arcana and minor arcana (or playing cards) separately.

You can find Visconti Tarot's LWB, or instructions booklet here:
http://www.loscarabeo.com/downloads.htm

I realise though, that this might not be what you are looking for. I faintly recall someone having explained the cards of the minor arcana as combinations of two major arcana cards. I might have misunderstood something. Does anyone know more about that? In that case, you could at least analyse your playing cards from a "major arcana viewpoint", each card representing two major arcana cards.
 

catlin

Yes, I use playing cards but made up my own system to work with them.
 

PhantomAH

I use playing cards also in addition to the tarot. I use the system that in Nerys Dee's Fortune Telling by Playing Cards. I am also into bibical numerics and use some of those numbers in the system that I have come up with.
 

rainwolf

Richard Webster wrote an excellent book called "Playing Card Divination For Beginners" that I would recommend. Cartomancy, as Sulis mentioned, has been around for quite a long time. If you check out llewellyn I bet you'll find a few resources. I should mention that I've seen a big difference in interpretation of playing cards vs. minor arcana so you might want to check this out so you can see what differences you are working with.
 

MCsea

Yes, I learnt this way, my father had European style cards, Im sure they have a name, anyway this is how I first learnt to read tarot, of course it was teaching me to rely on my intuition much more, but when I FINALLY saw picture cards I was torn between the feeling I was cheating using picture cards and a huge sense of relief ;)

Have lots of fun..

MARINA
 

Logiatrix

Yes, I read with playing cards quite often.
My grandma taught me how to "read" a long
time ago; I wrote "read" because it was more
like I just mimmicked what she said and did
with the cards. Besides, the meanings I learnt
then were rather arbitrary, so I gradually came
to develop my own. My system has had several
incarnations over the years. Technically, tarot
is the first card system I really learned, because
it's been a structured study involving consistent
card meanings based on archetypes.

So, I once again refined my system with playing
cards, being so strongly influenced by the tarot.
I read the numbered and face cards similar to the
minor arcana, and I also have a means of applying
the Major Arcana to the spread.

It was nice to unpack the old poker deck and
play around with it again. Now, it is one of a few
decks I read with regularly. It's not quite the way
my grandma showed me, but she doesn't seem to
mind at all.
:)
 

Logiatrix

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