Gypsies and tarot

I was told once that the gypsies read the 8 cups as a timing of one calendar month.
Actually, I sometimes read any card with the moon in it as such and it has proved to be pretty accurate.
Eddie

Greer has writen recently on her blog about the gypsies and the use of tarot, quoting an article from 1955.

Here is the link to the text Greer wrote: http://marygreer.wordpress.com/2008/06/02/yes-no-advice-oracle/

/Torbjörn

I suspect that gypsy fortune telling is alot like gypsy music....depends on what country you go to , many different styles, even different languages ( because of modern attempts to erase gypsy culture).
I seriously doubt there is one tradition, more likely a variety of traditions....
It is like asking: I want to know about the original rose.

as aside: Lenormand

I do not know anything about the Lenormand oracle cards or the method, but I did have a look at a few of the decks designed in this style and they are intriguing. Some are out of print.
I noticed that the 5 P (5 diamonds) in one deck pictured a bird sitting in its nest, as another bird (its mate) arrived with more nesting material. Made me think deeper about the meaning of the 5 P in RWS.

I would really recommend Raymond Bucklands book: Gypsy foryunetelling and tarot reading (1998). It describes some of the traditional gypsy methods in connection with the tarot.

Buckland writes that most gypsies could not afford the expensive tarot cards. They therefore made up their own hand drawn version of the Tarot, with their own Great Arcana cards, with the Seeker as the fool...

This book contained many of the answers I looked for.

Interestingly enough... The gypsies travelled from India at the same time as the tarot started to be in use in Europe, and at the same time as CARDs were used to play with.


I am thinking... Could it be that there is a common origin?

And that europeans did with the Tarot as with many other things that came from Africa or Asia, they claimed that they or "the egyptians" invented it... Eurocentric racism, you know?

So, what do you know about Buckland? And is he alive still?

/Torbjörn

Ooops! I already knew the answer to that one: http://www.raybuckland.com/

)

But what about him? What is your opinion?

/T

My mother knew a gypsy reader, who taught her alot on cartomancy, and my mother read with playing cards. she can read with tarot too, but I think she prefered the playing cards.

My grandparents knew some gypsies who also read cards, and they could also do palm reading, and crystal ball reading, tea leaf readings, etc. my grandmother visited them often--they were friendly with each other and often read for each one another.

however, I think like with anyone else, it was something separate from them being a gypsy. I could be wrong---but my family also knew gypsies who didn't do palm reading, cartomany or crystal ball readings.

My own family is of Irish descent and these different ways of divination was practiced among many in my ancestry---but we also knew and had Irish ancestors who did not practice divination. Just different strokes for different folks.

But what about Buckland? He seems to be of gypsy background and is big in some parts of the wicca movement. He has published his own decks.

But what do you think about him?