Playing Cards

Phoenix Rising

Lee said:
I just came across a very interesting-looking book. It's called "Personal Prophecy," by Deborah Leigh. I ordered it from Amazon, and then I found the publisher's website, where you can actually read the entire book online:

http://www.iuniverse.com/bookstore/book_detail.asp?isbn=0595291953

If you scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on "Browse Before You Buy," you can page through the entire book, if you have some free time!

It's a very well-worked-out system of reading playing cards. The author claims to have inherited the system from her grandmother. The card meanings seem to be derived from the types of meanings one can find in older sources, but they've been given a modern psychological depth. They don't seem to have anything to do with number+suit methods. And unlike several online sites that deal with playing card divination, the meanings have nothing whatsoever to do with RWS-derived meanings.

What really sets the book apart is that the author really goes out of her way to not only teach the meanings, but to teach how to learn the meanings and the layout system. The book is set up as a course with several levels, and she goes through each card step by step and tries to lead you to feel the card's meanings rather than simply knowing some keywords on an intellectual level.

The book also has a large dollop of self-help, self-empowering, self-motivating material in it, which is really unusual when combined with what are basically fortune-telling-type meanings. I also like the author's extremely friendly and encouraging tone.

When I get the book, I think I may actually go through the entire course as presented in the book. I have high hopes that this particular system will stick with me, unlike other systems which are always somehow unsatisfying.

Anyone who takes a look at the book online, please let me know what you think!

-- Lee

P.S. The author has a website of her own where she is known as the Psychic Love Doctor! :p

http://www.psychiclovedoctor.com/


Hey Lee
Took a look at that website, and a squiz through the book..will experiment with those meanings, in a separate pack, along side the Hedgewytch method I'm also looking at, so when I do my daily readings, I'll do the hedgewytch with one pack, and the "Personal prophecy" meanings with another deck(good thing about playing decks they're cheaper) I just want to find the easiest method to learn and read. I find using the number+pip method can be a bit repititive in meanings, and I don't necessarily agree, that black cards are all bad. See how it goes.
 

firecatpickles

I have bookmarked the summary pages for use in cartomancy.

K:spade:K
 

Lee

The interesting thing about the Personal Prophesy meanings is that there are a few cards which function differently than the others. Most of the cards describe a situation, as usual. But those other cards instead are simply indicators for a subject matter. For example, there's one card (I forget which) which just tells you that the 3-card group it appears in relates to financial matters.

-- Lee
 

Phoenix Rising

Lee said:
The interesting thing about the Personal Prophesy meanings is that there are a few cards which function differently than the others. Most of the cards describe a situation, as usual. But those other cards instead are simply indicators for a subject matter. For example, there's one card (I forget which) which just tells you that the 3-card group it appears in relates to financial matters.

-- Lee

Hi Lee, yes that card would be 10 diamonds. I've done a couple of readings with those meanings and for myself and it seems alot easier to read, and they are very direct and straight up. I actually like the 2 spreads that was in that preview of the book. Need to look more into the court cards, whether a card is to the left or right of the court card indicates, if it is your thoughts or actions or the other persons thoughts or actions.
The 6 and 8 diamonds have an identical meaning "existing relationship" but I found in a spread that both those cards appeared, which was appropriate, as I knew that when the 6:diamond: was next to a court card, the person knew or was in a relationship with them. And then the 8:diamond: appeared with the "money card" so I knew that they knew about a financial deal taking place. Am I making sense??

So thanks for the link!!
 

Lee

You've piqued my interest about the book again, I'll have to go dig it up. And the Cortez book is on its way too... I just love reading about different methods, although I'm beginning to despair that I'll ever find one I like enough to stick with! :)

-- Lee
 

Phoenix Rising

Lee said:
You've piqued my interest about the book again, I'll have to go dig it up. And the Cortez book is on its way too... I just love reading about different methods, although I'm beginning to despair that I'll ever find one I like enough to stick with! :)

-- Lee
Hi Lee
Yes I'm like you, always searching!! One of my best friends is a cartomancer, she just stuck to the one method, and she's brilliant..grandma taught her. She is able to get all sorts of readings with her simple card meanings.
 

Lee

I had another look at the book. I really like the card interpretations, they're often quite interesting and subtle compared to other methods.

I'm disappointed, though, in the court card interpretations. They basically identify people by age, gender, and coloring. This seems a rather pedestrian and uninteresting way to do it, and not very helpful (IMO) in a reading.

Since the layout method uses three-card groups, I wonder if one could read court cards which appear as simply "a person" and just let the other cards in the three-card group give clues as to what kind of person it is.

-- Lee
 

Lee

I just stumbled across a website with some interesting meanings for playing cards:

http://www.alcyone.com/arcana/oracle.html

The author has a slightly tongue-in-cheek writing style. He or she has a very logical system, the Ace represents the suit subject, and the 2 through 10 starts with the most positive aspects at the 2 and progresses to the most negative aspects in the 10, with the 5 acting as a fulcrum between positive and negative. The result is a set of meanings which is exactly balanced 50/50 between positive and negative.

I found it interesting that the King of Hearts is given the meaning "self-destruction" based on the traditional association of the King of Hearts as the "suicide king" based on the sword he holds behind his head.

-- Lee
 

Asher

New to reading playing cards...

although one of my early Tarot teachers reads playing cards as well. I am finally getting interested in this area myself.

Two book I have found helpful are _Fortune Telling with Playing Cards_ by Jonathan Dee (Sterling/Zambesi) and _It's in the Cards_ by Marthy Jones (Weiser). I also just got the book/deck set by Anna Cortez (being discussed in another thread).

I look forward to begin trying my hand at reading playing cards soon!

Asher
 

Lee

Hi Asher,

I'm curious, can you tell us in general terms what Jonathan Dee's approach is?

I have the Marthy Jones book, it seems like a good book but I found the huge amount of information given for each card to be a bit overwhelming.

-- Lee