How do you read with playing cards ???

Reading With Playing Cards?

  • Never thought of it.

    Votes: 6 31.6%
  • Tried it, it didn't work.

    Votes: 1 5.3%
  • Have done it a few times.

    Votes: 7 36.8%
  • Playing cards ARE Tarot cards!

    Votes: 5 26.3%

  • Total voters
    19
  • Poll closed .

nowment

jlbvt said:
I see that some of our members can read with a regular deck of playing cards! I would love the convenience of being able to do this, not to mention the possibility of reading in public without any odd stares. What do you do about the lack of Majors??? I can't comprehend it. How do you do it?

I have used tarot and regular decks and decks based on regular cards etc over the years as for how do I do it with out the major arcana its as easy as doing it with the major arcana.

For me each card I use has a meaning example, the 9 of clubs is luck and the queen of diamonds represents seasons or time, each position of how the cards gets laid out also has a meaning, so say the luck card lands in the position for time, and I look and see the seasons cards and this is in the position for say luck... then I am sure this is a strong message about luck that would come with the 9 associated with it, such as 9 days or weeks, or on the 9th day of a given month within the next 12 months, looking at other cards and positions gives me deeper meaning, so while it is different it is easy.

The major arcana are not what is vital to a reading at least not for me, but the position of the cards, and what each one represents combined with intuition, and tuning into the energy of the reading and the person being read these are the keys to doing a reading, that may mean using a tarot, or major arcana it may mean using an oracle deck or it may mean that I am using regular playing cards. one method uses so many cards that it provides a very indepth reading, and that method only uses 32 cards of the deck never uses the lower numbers cards 2 - 6 of any suit.

so I suppose it is like asking someone how do you get a deeper meaning by only using say a celtic cross spead? Or how can you gain insight by only using say 3 cards or drawing one card for a question?

Getting the meaning without using a lot of cards or with out the major arcana is based on understanding what the card means and making a connection to youor own guides or angels, and knowing that a connection can be made to whom yu are doin the reading for.

Two ways to understand the cards would be to read the book by Deborah Leigh, another might be to use the system that Margaret Ward writes about.

Its interesting because well if you look at gypsy witch cards they show images that match the meanings as well as images that match regular cards, yet the cards and meanings are different if you read Margaret Ward's Gong Hee Fot Choy, and lol even different than if using the regular playing cards the way my grandfather did, as well as a deck of cards [yes regular cards] that came with a book that I got years ago can't remember the title, so I suppose the key element here for reading regular playing cards is to find a system or meanings that seem to works best for you or resonates with you.

While the gypsy witch are interesting and for nostalgia reasons I may want to know more look into them again, I tend to stick to the method I learned when I was a kid because that is what works best for me.

Best thing to do of course if your library has the books is to look through them and try them first before saying purchasing a book that might give you meanings that just won't work for you
 

nowment

mandi said:
, For an example The death card in a Tarot can be some frightening for a sitter they could think "OMG Death" But if the Ace of Spades appears in a playing deck, Death would not enter their mind, And so you say you have many new changes ahead for you etc and the surrounding cards will tell you what they are. So really if i am totally honest with myself Tarots or Playing cards? I would say Playing cards. Also if anyone is considering learning the Playing cards, please do try.
Mandi.


Mandi, I have to agree with so much of what you posted here I also learned using cards not tarot since I was a kid, and I agree with the Ace of spades because so many see "death" and go into a panic, but with the ace of spades they can more readily accept that it could mean and ending of a situation or relationship that it doesn't always mean someone is passing away by seeing it as a card instead of looking at the tarot card and seeing the death card.

I know of one person I would never use tarot cards around her specifically because she would over react to certain images such as hanged man or death cards and not be able to realize that there are deeper meanings and nuances that go with those tarot cards.

Also in general I prefer bridge size playing cards over poker sized cards so of course I would love it if I could find those tarot or oracle decks I love in the smaller sizes so long as it doesn't diminish the imagery yet I have seen people who have disliked cards or decks example Lo Scarbareo Gypsy Oracle Cards because they come in the size of playing cards rather than tarot sized.

I also find that instead of focusing on the images as I sometimes do with tarot, I look at the cards and focus on the energy around the person for the reading and how that energy is affected or reacating to the cards, sometimes I may be distracted by the card image, so that an image that may be less positive, or might for some have a less positive trigger, for me would not, so that the author of that deck well their meaning may not gel with my own feelings, I tend to go with my own instincts in that case by why risk the self doubt that can interfere with a reading right?

Its like anything what ever works best for the individual.
 

MareSaturni

jlbvt said:
What do you do about the lack of Majors??? I can't comprehend it. How do you do it?

Well, I don't miss the majors because for me tarot is tarot and playing cards are playing cards. They are different species to me, and work in different ways.

I started using the Hedgewitchery method for a couple of years, then in 2007 I bought Ana Cortez's Playing Card Oracles, and this is the method I have used ever since.

But I have studied other books, like Jane Lyle's The Fortune Teller's Deck (which I found a bit mind-boggling and difficult to use without the book), Robert Camp's Destiny/Love Cards (I like the birth card idea, but I do not really follow his meanings for the cards), Belina Atkinson's Tarot of the Soul (which is about playing cards despite the name) and others.

Now I am reading Deborah Leigh's Personal Prophesy book, and while I don't plan on adopting her meanings for the cards (they are not bad or anything, but I already have my own trusted system), I do like many of the ideas and advices she gives!

So, there are thousand of different ways to read playing cards as they are, not as a tarot-deck-without-majors. You just need to pick the one that speaks best to you! :)
 

Morwenna

Don't you love finding polls that closed years ago? ;)

My mother's mother used to read playing cards, but my mother never paid much attention, so she only remembered a few card meanings and no spreads at all. The few meanings she did remember, the only place I ever saw them in print was the Gong Hee Fot Choy book. I have the Nerys Dee book and did some successful readings using her system, and a friend of mine (my rune mentor) taught me a different method. So that's 2-and-a-fraction systems I have access to. I just haven't done it in quite a while.