Gong Hee Fot Choy!

LavenderLibra

I found this little book in a used bookstore this week. I had never heard of it, & it looked cute! I was lucky enough to find it had the folded up layout chart, too. I'd love to be able to get all the wrinkles out, and be able to transfer the info to a cloth replica, wouldn't that be cool! There are several editions of it; this is the one I have:
Gong Hee Fot Choy - Tells Your Fortune (1982 Celestial Arts)

I did a search here, and found a few threads; one was a reading thread, so I didn't think that was appropriate for just yacking about it. :D

From what I understand, you use ordinary playing cards, but there are specific ones that you REMOVE from the deck & don't use. I also see there used to be a deck made to go with this from U.S. Games; appears to be out of print, & I've not been able to find any used ones for sale. So, I thought it would be cool to find some beautiful Chinese art playing cards, maybe with dragons & all the beautiful old art frills to go with it, but have not found any that the backs had dragons.

Does anyone still use this? Or, does anyone know where I could find some gorgeous cards to go with this?? I think I spent HOURS last night following links and websites, looking at decks...many pretty ones, but nothing quite right (yet).
 

cardlady22

I'm not seeing any (that appeal to me) with dragons, but there are a few florals or road/bridge that are reminiscent of Chinese art or pictures on ebay. I'm browsing the bridge sets.
Chinese Flowers
Scenery and Covered Bridges
Chinese Zodiac (by Bicycle; has cool Courts!)
Chinese Junk


I wonder what the minimum would be if we found a back illustration we liked and had some decks custom printed. And I found a pic of the mat/board. I wonder if some cards from the Tea Leaf Fortune Cards set would work here.

ETA: I found the afore-mentioned pic. The 2nd one has re-named and re-ordered the squares.
 

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misfitknits

wow, i have never heard of this! but i followed your link to amazon and read all the reviews on it and seems that almost everyone who uses it loves it and says it is eerily accurate!! unfortunately, some of the reviews say that amazon doesn't sell it with the game board, and that it's useless without the game board, so i guess you can't really buy it there. you'd have to get lucky and find it somewhere second hand as the complete set!! *like you did, lavenderlibra!!*

now my interest is piqued and i'll probably be looking for a set for the next 20 years!!! THANKS!!! lol

OH- and i don't have any advice for card decks you could use with it. but you could just make your own cards using appropriate clip art!

would i be correct in saying that you are looking for a regular deck of playing cards with an asian theme?
 

Astraea

There's a new edition of Gong Hee Fot Choy, released last year, consisting of the book and gameboard (which is really a large paper spreadsheet with positions printed on it). This is a delightful system of divination, using ordinary playing cards. The book is written by Margarete Ward, it's in stock and costs a little over $10.

I don't think it's permissible to post links to Amazon from here, but if you go to Amazon, select Books as a search mode and type "gong hee fot choy" into the Amazon search bar, the new edition will be the first choice to appear on the results page. Beneath that, you'll see links to many older editions.
 

LavenderLibra

I don't know about the links to Amazon...as I know there is a deck & book section here, with direct links, with /aeclectic/ added to the end of each link, which I assume helps Solandia with a bit of funding for the site. I added that to my link above...or any of the other newer editions, you can do the same.

If I wasn't supposed to put a link, I apologize. But I just wanted to show which edition I had. In reading the Amazon info, it looks like some editions have more pages than the others? I don't know if it is bigger print, or what.

Cardlady, I found some GORGEOUS DECKS, but alas, it sure helped me avoid doing the housework I had meant to accomplish, LOL! I saved some of my findings, & will go back & look at them later.

The gameboard/poster: There are 4 horizontal rows, each with 8 cards. Each spot for a card to be laid out, has a name/houses:

Top row, left to right: Compass, Wishes, Success, Moon, Surprises, Popularity, Abode, Journey.
2nd Row: papers, Vocation, Marriage, Happiness, Enjoyment, Messages, Relatives, Health.
3rd Row: Money, Seasons, Friends, Gifts, Letters, Trouble, Disappointment, Death.
4th Row: Undertaking, Achievements, Inheritance, Callers, Gratitude, Inquirer, Luck, Sun.

I KNOW I saw an online copy of the poster when I searched a few days ago; there was an older version that was plain, did not have artwork representing the name of the house...but sure can't find it now! :(
 

LavenderLibra

Here's an older thread at Aeclectic where people were doing readings with this system, looks fun! Gong Hee Fot Choy Tea Party

Cardlady, of course, any ol' playing deck would work...but with the red book, and the red lines on the "board", and the big green fire-breathing dragon on the cover of the book...I just thought some Chinese Red cards would be gorgeous. ;) I can picture them in my mind's eye...but to find them, nope, not yet!

misfitknits, I'm sure one of the new books would have the poster/game board in it. If you find a great deal used online, make sure to write & ask if it is still with the book. I can't believe mine was in it, and is in pristine condition. It was just stuck in the book, not attached or anything. I found it all for $5. :)

Chinese New Year is February 3rd, that would be a fun way to celebrate! :party: It's the Year of the Rabbit!
 

Astraea

LavenderLibra said:
I don't know about the links to Amazon...as I know there is a deck & book section here, with direct links, with /aeclectic/ added to the end of each link, which I assume helps Solandia with a bit of funding for the site.
I didn't know about that, I only meant that I wasn't sure if it was okay to post a link to Amazon and preferred to err on the side of caution by not doing so. Hope you find a copy of Gong Hee Fot Choy.
 

IheartTarot

You can get a free reading here which will give you a very good idea how it works.

Be warned that there are some pretty negative predictions. My first reading left a very bad taste in my mouth, and I find the canned readings far too narrow.
 

Morwenna

My mother had one years ago (well, in the later years that she was still on her own) and I tried it out, at her place, and I remember it working fine! Oddly enough, the booklet (which doesn't look like the one linked here) gave some card meanings that were more like the meanings Mom remembered from her mother's card readings than anything I've found in books! So she gave it to me and heaven knows where it ended up--in a box in storage somewhere, probably. I'd never have thrown it out!

The booklet cover was red with black lettering, and if there was a picture (I forget) it was black line drawing. And I think I remember a layout sheet, unless it just gave directions on how to lay it out. I'll have to hunt for it; now you've got my curiosity up. :)
 

amethyst57

just check a few cards out on the site...very cool method for playing cards...
good addition to the interp books i have already...
might just get that book myself soon...