Favorite Playing Card Divination Books

dvorah ophir said:

i would like to update and say that i have received the ana cortez book and find it to be the best i ever read on playing card divination.it has in it everything that i ever read on the subject and need for this study. it does lack a little history and tradisional aproach and spreads but for the individual who likes to read the cards its the best hand on aproach.the cards with it are amazing. i find that now all my oracle decks are obsulite and want to use only the cards.

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Glad you like the book. I really love the section on geomancy.

In case any one is interested, Ana Cortez has been putting videos on YouTube showing how to use the cards based on her book.

I have a found an old paper booklet on 'Fortune telling with playing cards' printed by the U.S Playing Card Co. 1921-1923 it looks fantastic. I am wondering if anyone would like me to type up the booklet?

Here is Australia the copyright laws are 70 years, so the booklet should be allowed to be reproduced.


anyone interested?

Little Hare said:

I have a found an old paper booklet on 'Fortune telling with playing cards' printed by the U.S Playing Card Co. 1921-1923 it looks fantastic. I am wondering if anyone would like me to type up the booklet?

Here is Australia the copyright laws are 70 years, so the booklet should be allowed to be reproduced.


anyone interested?

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Hey Little Hare, I'd be very interested in this, and I'm sure other people too! If you can share this booklet with us, that would be great

Thanks for offering!

<b>Disclaimer:</b> The following written information is from a booklet titled <b> 'Fortune telling with PLAYING CARDs'</b> Printed by the U.S Playing card co. Cincinnati, O, USA Copyright 1921-1923.

<i> How to tell fortunes with playing cards </i>

(Starting Pg 5-6)

To peep into the future is almost a universal human desire, and the person who can gratify this desire by "reading the cards" is popular indeed. The best fortune teller is the person with the liveist imagination and the greatest ability to string together a connected and plausible story from the cards. The meanings of the cards should not be read to literally. Modify them to fit with any facts you happen to know about the person whose fortune you are telling.

Often when the cards do not present a suitable reading, you can pretend to read from them a few generalities which will draw from the person interested some indication of his or her feelings. With this basis for a satisfactory reading, you can go ahead with a fortune which will be largely a confirmation of the persons own ideas, hopes and fears.

The foundation of successful fortune telling is to tell people what they want to hear. This is easy when you know the people concerned. When reading the cards for strangers, watch closely their reactions to your general statements, in order to get some idea of the trend of their thoughts and feelings. Pay no attention to rings.

<center> <b> Significance of the Cards</b></center>

There are many methods of telling fortunes, some of which use a full pack of 52 cards while others only use 32 cards, discarding the deuces, three-spots, fours, fives and sixes. Each card has a meaning, different according to the system used, and also usually affected by whether the card is placed on the table right side up or reversed. Since modern playing cards are reversible, it is necessary to mark a pack before using it for fortune telling, by marking one end of the card in an inconspicuous manner to denote the bottom of the card. Some of the spot cards will not need this mark ,if you call them right side up when the majority of the spots are standing correctly on their feet, as they are placed in the corner indexes on each card. For instances, the centre spot in the five of hearts, clubs and spades will be the index of the cards position. If the point of the heart, or the tail of the spade or club points upward, the card is reversed.

The significance of each card is affected again by the cards which surround it as all are laid on the table in form or another of fortune telling "tableau". The face cards are people and one of them always represents the person whose fortune is being told or who is being inquired about.

One card affects another according to its nearness. For instance a good luck card laid down close to the self card means good fortune to come in the near future. Some methods say that each card separating the two indicates a day, week, month or year of waiting. Other Cards influence the people represented by the face cards according to whether the face cards are faced towards or away from them.

If the tableau or layout of the cards shows a great majority of one suit, that suit indicates the prevailing influence in the life of the person interested. Hearts indicate interest in the affairs of the heart and in domestic life; diamonds forecast interest in money matters; clubs indicate prosperity, love of pleasure and success in business undertakings; spades generally are considered unlucky an indicative of losses, disappointment in love and similar unhappiness.

You can tell fortunes most effectively if you know the meanings of the cards instead of having them written on each of the card as so many amateurs do. It would be advisable therefore for you to familiarise yourself with various methods of fortune telling which follow, and select one set of card meanings as the one which pleases you the most. Memorise this set of meanings and you then can use it with any method of forecasting or with all of the methods described herein. Should you not care to do this, you can inscribe one or more packs of cards with the meanings described in different methods and with a little practice in combining card meanings into a connected story, give a great deal of pleasure to yourself and your friends.

Never look on fortune telling as more than a means of obtaining a little pleasure. It would be foolish indeed to guide one's life by a pack of playing cards.

(the rest of page six to follow in my next post)

I've pretty much settled into the Robert Lee Camp books, Cards of Your Destiny and Love Cards.

At first I was trying to just use parts of the books and tweak the system to fit more easily into a the wheel for the 4 elements/humours, but them I just gave up and decided to tweak my work with the elements/humours to the card system.

At least swords are fire, not air, so don't conflict with the altar tool correspondences so common in my favorite ritual books.

Little Hare, what are the suit/element correspondences for the book?

Orenda said:

A friend and fellow member of the Ottawa Tarot Club shared a very old book about playing card divination, and we photographed it to share

It was sold at the Hamley's Conjuring Department in England, likely during the early 1930s or even before, and is a blast to read through! The author does not claim an understanding due to research, but instead shares her personal method for cartomancy with playing cards.

The PDF of this book can be viewed &/or saved from this link

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I just stumbled upon this thread! I love reading with playing cards. I have a 32 card deck and also read with the full deck.

I wanted to thank you Orenda for sharing this old book with us. Skimming over it I was quite surprised to find quite a few meanings that I have learnt from different sources. I'm going to enjoy reading this totally through!

My recommendations for anyone looking for a good book or two are:

-Leo Martello's book 'It's in the Cards'. It's OOP and can cost alot. I scanned my crumbling copy a few years ago, and shared it with just a few people... as things go, I discovered that someone had put it up on Scribd! so check it out.
-Also, Regina Russell's book, "The Card Reader's handbook" (http://www.rrtearoom.com/book.html) is a wonderful book for learning the cards.

And I'm also with Hunter; I have the Cards of Destiny book by Robert Lee Camp, and it's absolutely fascinating! I did a yearly spread for myself and my hubby, and it's been very accurate. It's an involved learning process, but one I'm going to delve deeper into.

I study quite a few oracles and tarot, but I always come back to the playing cards........I think they're fascinating.

Ever so happy to share, and grateful that our fellow OTC member offered the opportunity. Thank you for sharing your suggestions too!

I use both Nerys Dee's "Fortunetelling with Playing Cards" and Jonathan Dee's "Fortunetelling with Playing Cards"

Fortune-Telling by Cards by Professor PRS Foli

I have uploaded this book here:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/bepqxo

[I am not an actual IT fairy so please don't complain if you have technical problems and remember not to click on any ads just click on the big orange Download. The file is 735 KB. ]

Thank you for sharing this ebook! I definitely scrolled down to the orange button, and it worked perfectly