frelkins said:
ok M, I'll bite. please offer a sample spread in this system -- this seems to imply that certain cards are always bad! do you use reversals with this system?
Well, I wasn't intending to go fishing, but if they're biting I'll see if I can take one home.
The implication that some cards are always bad was of course universal in the cartomantic tradition, and the tarot tradition, up until fairly recently. Not to mention astrology - Saturn is called the great malefic, Mars the lesser malefic, and so on.. In Geomancy, seven of the figures are 'bad'. With standard playing cards, and tarot pips/courts, the general idea was the black cards are negative, the red cards positive, clubs and diamonds less extreme than spades and hearts. It is as good a convention as any other. If all the cards were positive, the answer to the question "Am I going to be rich and famous?" would always be 'yes'.
It seems rather straight forward, but I'll give an example since frelkins requested one, and her avatar is cool.
Here is how my Great Aunt Opal (yes, that was her real name) used to tell fortunes with playing cards (I'll use tarot pips for the example).
Opal would have the querent shuffle the deck, then she would perfectly, and I mean
perfectly fan the cards out on the table. (She was also a hell of a card magician and a card shark in general.) Only then would she ask the querent what they wanted to know. She'd then ask for a few details, for example if a man asked about a romantic interest she would ask how old the girl was, how far away she lived, etc.. Then Opal would say,
"Pick a card."
The querent would pick a card from the 'fan'. So let's say the man asked,
"Will I have a relationship with Betty Lou?"
He draws the Wheet (8) of Swords. Opal would simply say,
"Doesn't look too good, Raymond.."
If that's all Raymond wanted to know, that's all Opal would say. But if the querent pursued the issue, Opal would oblige them. So Raymond might say,
"Why the heck not??"
Opal would say,
"Pick another card."
He pulls the Sice (6) of Cups. Opal would say,
"Well somebody is already having a pretty good time, is it you Raymond? You been prowling down at Ms. Haddy's again?" (The local bordello.)
"Heck no Opal!!"
"Well, I guess it's her then. She's got a beau!"
"Is it that fella from Conroe?
"Don't know Raymond."
"Well... How long is it gonna last?"
"Pick another card."
He pulls the Sept (7) of Swords. (Now this is a 'bad' card, so it will suggest what ever timing is 'bad' for the querent, the number suggesting to what degree. For Raymond here a 'long time' is bad.) Opal says,
"Quite a while longer I'm afraid. How 'bout a cup a coffee?"
Actually I don't know exactly how Aunt Opal would have interpreted those specific cards. But the rest of the story is pretty accurate.
So basically Aunt Opal used a one card draw, with additional cards used to clarify peripherals of the main question.
The only time I was ever offered a reading by my Aunt, I asked,
"What am I going to be when I grow up?"
She told me,
"That ain't the sort of thing you want a deck of cards to decide. Go figure it out yourself."
M
