"Destiny Cards" outlines a system for reading playing cards which is really very different from what we're used to. In other words, it's not laying out cards in a pattern and using intuition and/or memorized meanings to develop an interpretation. Instead, it's a very complicated system based on one's birthday. Basically, every birthdate is assigned a card, and not only a card but a whole series of cards taking you through your whole life year by year. So, for example, if you are a Five of Swords, you look in the back of the book and it gives you a set of around 17 cards for each year of your life, so if you want to find out about this year, you look up Five of Swords, age 42 (or whatever) and you have your 17 cards. Then you look up the meanings of each of those 17 cards.
The meanings have nothing to do with standard Tarot or playing card meanings. They're derived from some complicated astrological process. The author does have a chapter where he discusses choosing the cards at random and laying them out in a pattern, and then interpreting them according to the book, but I think the main thrust of this system is the idea that you just look up your cards for the year.
As I say, this is a complex system. The author really gives you something to sink your teeth into. There's another book about the system, "Love Cards," and plus he has a
website with lots of material on it, plus he sells computer programs to go along with the system. One could really spend a lot of time getting into it. I started to get into it but then it all began to seem a little silly -- so much easier to just pick some cards at random than go through all this rigamarole!
I'd be interested in hearing about anyone else's experience with it.
-- Lee
P.S. If you like, you can read some stuff I wrote about reading with playing cards
here.