One of the greatest pleasures I have in life is to go and visit my friends, Witta and K. Frank Jensen. Frank goes by the name of ‘legendary card collector’ and Witta is acknowledged as a ‘very talented artist’. I don’t want to be presumptuous and say that these names are understatements, as I don’t want to be so arrogant as to suggest that I know better. But the thing is that, personally, and regardless of the names we go by, I find these people immensely fascinating and unfathomably kind. As to what these people know, oh well, if only I was allowed to move in and learn.

We see each other often though, and the visits are almost always prompted by the arts and the cards. Every visit turns into a visit to the museum, as Frank, being legendary, lives up to his reputation. Although his collection is unique in the world for being almost complete to perfection in the category ‘20th century tarot’, what most people don’t know is that Frank owns very old and very important documents, cards, and books that are impossible to find anywhere else. He has things that fall into the category of ‘the last one’.

Today the theme was Etteilla and some Papus. We are both attracted to Etteilla because, as Frank says, ‘it’s impossible to think of tarot if Etteilla hadn’t been around and doing what he did,’ namely, conflating the Marseille tarot, fortunetelling cards, and new theories about the Egyptians. The game was, as has been before, initiation. How to be initiated into the mysteries. Now, this was not a novel thing in Etteilla’s time, so one would hardly want to pin that ‘originality’ on him. There is a ‘tradition’ for the desire to have the gates of heaven open. But the way in which Etteilla combined the tradition of reading cards with Catholicism and Orientalism was quite something.

I will not develop an 18th century history section here now, as my head is full of images and souls. Not to mention the bang when, following in Etteilla’s footsteps, Frank uncovered a box of incense made entirely according to Aleister Crowley’s instructions for rituals, with view to living magically – let’s just say that, for the sake of keeping it simple. All this incense was well preserved for ages in pharmaceutical glass bottles, that I now own.

But having come home I wanted to know something. So here’s a lame question, as I’m certain that many must have posed it before. A question that I posed to my own dear original Z. Lismon Etteilla from 1850.

What was Etteilla thinking when he created his grand jeu des tarots?

As the cards below show, he was thinking of sending out a message in the hope that it will be useful. I think I like Etteilla even more tonight for that. How very simple, considering the amount of theories around as to what his motives were.

Many thanks to Frank, Witta, Bent, Frigg, and the man himself, Etteilla.

The ones reading this, enjoy below the pics of very rare material by Etteilla and Papus:

I’m editing 3 creative academic books right now, due to appear shortly with EyeCorner Press. One is on a revaluation of Buddhism: Cruel Theory: Sublime Practice, one on the Beat generation writers, Pilgrims to Elsewhere, and one on poetry, Linguistick, written by a familiar of Taroflexions, Enrique Enriquez. They are all good. In line with our policy of publication these books are peer-reviewed, so I get to exchange ideas about them with other readers. The topic today was the way in which eloquence manifests in the world. While talking about eloquence, I kept looking particularly at two decks of cards on my table. One is called Les Tarots des Pauvres (original 1984, edition) and the other is Grand Jeu de Société de Mlle Le Normand (a 1951 reprint of a 1854 edition).

Just out of curiosity, I thought of asking these two different decks to offer an insight into what eloquence, is and answer more specifically the following question:

How does the best kind of eloquence manifest in the world?

I chose for this Etteilla’s inverted pyramid (in a reduced form). The top row tells me something general about the topic, here, about what eloquence is, the middle row discloses its usefulness, and the single card at the bottom indicates the essence.

The Tarot of the Poor suggested the following:

The eloquent word is a word of authority. It is a serious word. It is consecrated and has a cutting edge. (The Pope, 10 Coins, 5 Swords). Its use value, however, is to underscore its potential blind spots. And laugh at them. Unmask them. Show how phony all claims to the one ‘true’ word is (Justice, The Magician). The best eloquence is captured in the temperate word. The temperate word does not show off its regalia. The best eloquence is not about showing off anything, but about demonstrating how flow is achieved (Temperance) following a natural kind of humbleness.

. . .

The astro-mytho-hermetical deck suggested this:

Eloquence can be magical. A word of vision seduces (7♦). Eloquence can be versatile but also obstinate (letter L). Pandora opens the box. Through eloquence one acts quickly. Eloquence is not dreaming. The constellation, the Vulture, or the Lyre now, announces new hopes for the desperate men and other mendicants. But one must be ready for the monsters in the box.

Like Ganymede one must take a good look around. Who are all the people one addresses (8♦). How are the enthusiastic ideas proposed? Is there enough will power? (letter A) The constellation, Musca, calls for intuition. Yet, one must study either alone, or by allowing a teacher to act. Patterns of thought based on intuition alone are no good without a structure. Eloquence is based on deliberation and on heeding good advice.

Eloquence is the word of solitude (10♠) It can bring on disasters. The well-wrought thought has a deadly power. It can worry, and it can transform. Ambivalence and illusion must be sorted out (letter X). The eloquent are closely watched. One must beware of theft. Methods can be stolen and eloquence imitated, yet without the original vitality, eloquence turns into a circus. The jealous and the envious are out to pass as geniuses. This saddens Helen and makes her anxious. The constellation, the Vulpecula, the Fox, warns of deceptions, but also foretells that difficulties can be surmounted.

The use value of eloquence is also here to be found in the idea of temperance. First, there is a strong drive towards ‘saying it.’ But how is the word said? Impulsively? The constellation, The Chameleon, suggests lack of lucidity. Phaeton full of pride is heading for the clouds. The sun on his chariot is an artificial one. Phaeton wants to possess the word and make it his own (5♦, letter B). Women argue and there’s policing to be done.

Then, to a halt. The alchemical science of preparing and pondering, and of mixing words is called for. Our alchemist makes good use of all his ingredients and bottles, and it looks like his words serve a community well (8♣). The constellation Ursa Major gives the Alchemist mastery over his emotions. The mix of solid and volatile matter is done to perfection if under the command of determination, tenacity, and efficiency (letter D).

In essence, eloquence belongs to the fairest (Q♦). The Gods and Goddesses attend the wedding of Peleus and Thetis. Eris throws on the table the golden apple of discord, upon which is written: “To the fairest.” The constellation Draco, The Dragon, announces upheavals. Eloquence disturbs. One must protect oneself from personal vendettas and poisonous talks. Jealousy and dependence must be avoided (letter O). The Queen of Diamonds must rise above petty discourse if eloquence flowing from her mouth is to sparkle and shine.

. . .

Two different decks, same message. The welded word is powerful and mighty. It can shine if it flows. It can serve if devoid of arrogant authority. Eloquence is a locus for artful articulation.

§

Note on the decks:

Tarot des Pauvres, Jan Bauwens 1984, Carta Mundi, Belgium

Grand Jeu de Société et Pratique Secrètes de Mlle Le Normand, Grimaud, 1951

Although I have been writing about the so-called difference between reading cards of various provenance – Tarot is not the Lenormand cards, playing-cards are not oracle cards, as the claim goes – and although I am in agreement with the factual evidence – the tarot cards have different images on them than the Lenormand cards, and the same applies to playing-cards and oracles – what I am not in agreement with is the common view among contemporary card readers that the modes of reading these cards should differ drastically. Having dabbled in card-reading for a while, and having seen a few serious card readers in action, I have come to the following conclusion: All forms of divination go back to one source, namely the reading of signs in all their forms of manifestation as omens, symbols, magical and power objects, or the written word.

Diving into the history of divination also discloses that the reading of signs follows one simple method based on pattern recognition. What we call intuition is the spark that enables us to see how the visual material we are dealing with – and let us make it very clear that all divination is based on the way in which the visual material mediates between what we know and what we don’t know – is embodied in the sign. What does this mean? This means that as soon as we have a picture representation of something, we recognize it as ‘doing’ something. Based on what we see that the sign is doing, we tell a story.

Now, some insist that there is a difference between working with Tarot, heavy on symbolism, or so the claim goes, and working with the Lenormand cards, no symbolism, or so the claim goes. These latter cards are based on a semantic relation that operates with keywords, the claim goes, as if the tarot cards don’t, I say. What people postulate is generally true, if we talk about a literal or symbolic approach to the cards, but not true of the cards themselves. Both of these types of cards are based on representational images. They both have visual representational content and are therefore always already symbolic. If we decide that the keyword for the Ring card in the Lenormand set means marriage or a contract or going in a circle, we do so based on recognizing the ring as a cultural artifact invested with those particular symbolic meanings.

Based on this commonsensical evidence it is thus nonsense to me to hear that we can use this very evidence as ‘argument’ for why we can see that the Lenormand cards are ‘clearly’ less symbolic than the other cards. The tarot speaks in images while the Lenormand cards don’t? Ha. Let us have a short moment of laughter here, while reminding people that not all slogan-like proclamations about the differences between the tarot and the Lenormand cards are either clever or have any real basis. Sure, catchy phrases can be catchy, but are they all useful? In the world of reading cards we should do ourselves the favor of reminding ourselves that all images have a mediatory and symbolic function to begin with. If there is a difference then we find it at the level of representation, with cards going from figurative to stylized content, from kitsch to elegance, from historical to contemporary, and so on.

Before I go on to illustrate how ludicrous some claims are pertaining to the supposition that readers read cards differently, and how supposedly excruciatingly difficult it is to ‘transit’ from Tarot to the Lenormand cards – a good thing not everyone is into reading with playing-cards yet, as I can imagine the ensuing circus of transiting – I want to stress the fact that if one bothers to read a bit on tarot as a popular culture manifestation, as a cultural text per se, one would discover that what for the French is de rigueur is for most of the Anglo-speaking world invented tradition. The card-world is now on the brink of exploding with neo-traditionalists, who, at least as far as I can observe, and without making obscene generalizations, have just not seen many cards yet. And this in spite of Stuart Kaplan’s efforts to publish all things tarot, and standardizing the Waite-Smith tarot. Every day a new opinion is expressed, these days mainly about how bad tarot is and how good the Lenormand cards are, and it is expected of us to embrace it wholly and uncritically. Well, good luck to the enthusiasts.

I am fortunate enough to own a rather queer deck – queer not in the sense we speak of it now – which downright conflates tarot and the Lenormand. The cards have a strange history. They were designed by a well-known artist, Alain le Foll, in 1964 for the women’s magazine Elle. Le Foll has in fact designed many tarots for women’s magazines. The idea was to cut out the images and then glue them on heavy carton according to a set of specifications. A variation of this deck has also been made in 1971 by ‘Poster Prints’, Pennsylvania, under the title ‘French Fortune Telling Cards, created in association with Miss Brooke Alderson and the People of France’. My friend, the collector K. Frank Jensen has several of these. My own Elle Tarot was bought from a Frenchman at a strange place. Here are a few pics from Frank’s collection.

Elle Tarot cards in K. Frank Jensen’s collection.

Elle Tarot cards in K. Frank Jensen’s collection.

Elle Tarot cards in K. Frank Jensen’s collection.

US Elle Tarot cards in K. Frank Jensen’s collection.

US Elle Tarot cards in K. Frank Jensen’s collection.

About the popular dissemination of the tarot in a widely circulated medium we can make the following inference: the Tarot as Lenormand as playing-cards as oracle cards is for the French a very broad concept. Tarot is primarily for fortunetelling, the French have always believed, rather than psychology, astrology, or other esoteric stuff. As a counter to that, standard tarot readings within the Anglo-American community owe much to the influence of the Golden Dawn Hermetic order. But the Golden Dawn is not the whole world. So passing judgment on what we all do with the tarot based on what the occultists of the last turn of the century did is to stretch it just a bit. Accusing all Tarotists of being ‘symbolic’ when they could be ‘literal’ and direct is a rather poor attempt at advancing one’s own agenda in the world. Here, I wish I could say that the voice of people such as Joeanne Mitchell could be heard louder from across the Atlantic. She is one of the African-Americans who can read with all cards like few I know, but alas, due to various circus circumstances she has elected to lay low.

Basically there’s at least one truth we can all agree on, namely, that the function of all cards is to create stories. The cards also have different histories, which means that if we read differently it’s because we address the context differently. How the cards tell a story can indeed also be the domain of a reader. One’s preference to see one’s mother in the Tarot or Lenormand cards of the Empress, the Snake, the Bear, or the Stork, is pretty much the result of what kind of symbolism we impose on the cards. There is nothing literal about that. How strong a reader is, what kind of connections the reader can make across oral tradition, symbolic and cultural conventions, and what kind of space the reader can create for the one she is reading for, so that not all washes down the alley of the reader’s own ego is where the real power resides. A good reading does not consist in merely expressing opinions and pretending to know everything between heaven and earth. A good reading consists of sharing what the cards have to say. Nothing more, nothing less.

So, just for fun, I asked my own Elle Tarot, which has both tarot cards and Lenormand cards co-exist side-by-side without any qualms, the following question?

What is a strong and useful reading?

I used for this the standard square of 9, a preferred layout in all classical divination settings, also to emphasize once more that, at least for me, there is no difference between the cards. The difference is only in our approaches to cards and our moral standard codes.

Elle Tarot cards, 1964, in Camelia Elias collection.

Once more the cards have a good answer. One I can anticipate, as I have formed my own codes of honouring the cards through experience as to what makes a good reading, and one which surprises.

The first horizontal line tells me that a good reading is definitely not one that has the money in sight, but the one that allows for chance to play its hand (Fish, Coffin, Wheel of Fortune). The middle row tells that a useful reading moves towards an alliance made in good faith and that warms (Ship, Ring, Sun). The bottom row tells me that a strong reading is one that follows a natural and open communicative course (Lion, Bird, Flowers). The diagonal lines tell me that a strong and useful reading is one that offers a generous cup, free of hidden agendas (Fish, Ring, Flowers, modified by Sun). They also tell me that a strong and useful reading spontaneously creates a bond with that part of us that is not merely talkative but rather raw and dreamy in its expression (Wheel of Fortune, Ring, Lion, modified by Ship).

In other words, a strong and useful reading is the reading that has the heart in the right place.

Let us now note a few similarities between the tarot cards and the Lenormand cards. For once, what we’ve got here is mostly Lenormand cards, albeit having a different numbering than what we have on a standard deck.

A look at the Coffin, however, discloses that this card is closely related to the card of the Hermit in the Visconti-Sforza tarot. The same hour-glass marks the passing of time here as the one the Hermit bears.

The Ring is beautifully related to the Ace of Cups in the Visconti tarot. A little heart at the core of it all reminds us of where to put our mouths. 6 out of 9 cards deal with round shapes. The Wheel of Fortune times six. Things go round and round. The Rider brings news. If we are experiencing bad card-reading practices now we can also trust that the good times will roll again.

The pyramid with a glowing sun above reminds us of the esoteric wisdom that says that card-reading is not for everyone. It’s not a question of people finding the cards, but the cards finding the people. The Bird enforces this, and reminds us of what we associate divination with, namely, the language of the birds disclosing grand secrets. But who can hear this language? Who can understand it? Rachel Pollack writes beautifully about this, and so does Enrique Enriquez.

The Fish going for the big coin, a major stylization of all material resources found on all tarot cards, tells us that putting our money in the time machine gets us not to calculations but to the experience of all things unexpected. Who’s to say what’s under the surface of the sea, or what changes are on their way, and who turns the wheel of change?

We could continue, but let us rest here, with emphasizing our point even more strongly: Reading cards is not about who is to be master, or who is the loudest in town, but rather about who can allow the cards, WHICHEVER CARDS, to have their say in it. Reading cards is also about just looking at the cards, rather than stating uninspired opinions about how cards can still mean something if we dispense with looking at them, supposedly because, lo and behold, we have their literal meaning that never comes out of symbolic considerations – such dangerous nonsense. Reading cards is about saying yes to what we see, not to what we imagine we see, and least of all to what we imagine we see in our own image.

Good luck to all beginners out there, who are trying to wade their way through what the sheep and the goats have to say.

§

For more readings on the difference between tarot and the Lenormand cards see my posts Lenormand vs. Tarot, Tarotizing Fortunetelling, No Difference and Lenormand Semantics.

One of the pleasures of dealing with cards is that you get to enjoy their beauty. Cards have a history, and if we read them as signs, we can address those histories. How to balance between reading a context-based artifact and something universal, such as the recognition of patterns, the tension between colors, and the play of geometrical lines in a design is part of the pleasure of owning cards.

These days I’m being asked about my collection of cards. Knowing collectors of caliber I always say that I don’t have a collection. I have a few beautiful cards, some museum pieces, some interesting from a cultural point of view, and some quite sublime because of the craftsmanship that went into making them. So, I don’t consider myself a collector.

And yet. If I look at some of my Lenormand cards made by the Dondorf company in around 1880s, I want to swoon every time I look at what I call my Blue Dondorf. This is a set that I haven’t seen anywhere with anybody. Not even K. Frank Jensen has it, and as we all know, Frank has almost everything. So, I suppose I am a collector of sorts.

Here’s a small show-case of some of my exquisite Dondorfs, a sample of each of the 5 presented answering the following question:

What is beauty?

My pièce de résistance, the very unique and unknown Blue Dondorf (1880) says:

Beauty is flow in the hunt.

. . . . . .

The purple Dondorf (1880) says:

Beauty is wind in the sails, free fish and cultured fish.

. . . . . .

The Dondorf Frankfurt with a K says (1887):

Beauty is death.

. . . . . .

The Fortuneteller’s Dondorf Frankfurt (1887, string-bound booklet) says:

Beauty is a ride away from heavy chains.

. . . . . .

The French Dondorf (1910) says:

Beauty is symmetry of play and contemplation.

. . . . . .

All 5 in a choir say:

Beauty is the unknown on the table, the slow movement of faith towards the familiar.

. . . . . .

§

Note on the decks:

All Dondorf Lenormand cards created between 1880 and 1910.

My theory is that the Blue Dondorf is a test print. As you can notice, the classical initials on the back are missing, so not all the litographic plates used by Dondorf have been used here. The front, however, features the standard early Dondorf Francfort (with a c). The quality of the images is the best in this example. The litographic work of ‘rasterizing’ the image is absolutely top notch here. And the blue is sublime. Why have they not produced this deck? I’d love to hear from anyone who might know anything about this mysterious deck.

Some have been enjoying my latest spell work, published on my other blog, Fragments, where I muse about life, people, animals, and places. I find particular pleasure in creating magical objects that are useful. I like to allow myself to be seized by the cards. Put my words in the service of my mind, but let my soul sing the image. So here is In the Name of Love, a spell made for a specific ritual. Enjoy!

. . . . . .

Whenever I’m in Norway, several times a year, and then the whole summer every year, I try to think of a metaphysical question and its relation to a concrete manifestation. When I hit the cabin the first thing I do is lay a grand tableau, or a great spread, with playing cards. All 52 of them. I like the playing cards as they do not immediately conjure visual representations such as we may find them in cards that signify on a symbolic level a concept. We see the card of the Emperor in Tarot, we think: power. We see the Lily in Lenormand we think: purity, family, or sex. We can also go with the extended meanings of these symbols and see the power via the Emperor as a sign of tyranny, or fatherhood, and the trio in Lenormand as your funeral: you have sex, you get married, you get responsibility, you’re a dead man, goodbye freedom.

When reading with playing cards, we may get such associations as the above, where we can say that the 4 of clubs signifies on a literal level a desk or a table (clubs equal things growing in the open air, such as trees, out of which we make furniture, etc.), or we may say that the 4 of clubs signifies on a symbolic level security at work (with branches you build, and they take care of your corners).

When I read with the playing cards I follow the cunning folk approach, based on making logical inferences, rather than the French or Italian method based on counting. The French also prefer using the piquet deck, or a reduced deck of 32 cards, and to which they add meanings for the reversed cards. Although I’ve written on how to read with a reduced deck, I prefer the full pack, as I like the 1-10 numbers and the fact that I don’t have to mess up my perspective by introducing the unnecessary reversals. For a quick intro to the cunning folk, see my post here.

As I have developed this method according to my own experience and logical capacity, please make the proper reference if you want to share it.

THE QUESTION

Now to my question. I wanted to pose one question that would, however, inherently give me two answers. It is not always easy to pose such questions, but some contexts lend themselves easily to this. So I asked:

What does my heart desire?

This question can be answered by 3 cards, but in the context of the grand tableau what you get is actually also an indication of the fact that what the heart desires may not necessarily be what you need or is good for you. Sometimes I like to think of the great distinction between what we want and what we need. Ideally the two should be aligned or a match, but more often than not, there’s great discrepancy between need and desire. What cards help us with is to narrow the divide between them, by making us aware of where our wishes go wrong, and what we should focus on instead.

Here is a quick note as to the mechanics of reading the tableau. This is pretty much the same as I use for reading the Lenormand grand tableau, albeit with a few variations. As we have 52 cards, I spread them over 5 rows of 9 cards and 1 with 7. For a reading of the houses in a grand tableau with playing cards, see my post on here.

THE SIGNIFICATORS

For this I chose as the significator for the heart’s desire the classical 9 of hearts. So the reading will proceed from that, and go around that. Left of the significator is the past. Right of the significator is the future. The vertical line in which the significator card finds itself is the line of the present. We read from top to bottom.

The person significator card must be read with the significator card as the middle card of the trio in which it appears.

THE STEPS

For the general steps consider following the stages below. Here it is very important to stress that unlike in reading with the Lenormand cards, when I can go with pairings, reading in line, or linking, in reading with playing cards all the linking is done after reading the cards in trios. So, for instance, for the reading of the first row of nine, we will have 3 sentences based on the reading of the 3 sets of 3 cards, and so on. We can either link them to what else we observe in the narrative, or let them stand on their own. To begin with, that is, as we are always looking for that master sentence that derives from the way in which we see how the cards validate what we can say in one sentence.

Why the insistence on reading cards in trios? Simply because in the method I use, I read by looking at color and number progression. So it’s crucial that I see whether the string ends with a black or with a read color. Again, for more on this, I refer you to my intro post on fortunetelling with playing cards.

1) Read the vertical (present) and the horizontal (future) lines in the which the significator card lands. Here, the 9♥.

2) Read the first 3 cards for the general impression of the tableau. These cards set the theme and the tone of the reading and tell us about what is being brought to the table. Where do we come from with our question?

3) Read the corner cards in an X with going through the card in the middle to form a trio. The card above the second, bottom card (left or tight) can be seen as modifying the trio, or having an influence. These trios tell you something about what the question is up against, and how the overall answer can be framed by the X.

4) Look at the card in the middle. A lot hinges on it for the above and the below relations. Make the cross. Read the card in the middle as flanked by the middle card of the top row and middle card of the bottom, last row. Apply the same to the horizontal relation.

5) Read the knighting positions, that is, look at the card of interest in the tableau and which has an indirect line. Just as the horse in chess can discover hidden things around the corner, so here we can get some information about what is not explicit in some relations. The significator card always begins the trio.

6) Read the ‘final’ row. The card in the middle is the bridge.

7) Read the cards in mirroring positions with the middle card in a line as the middle of the trio. Apply the same to the diagonal lines of the tableau. For instance the card in position one goes diagonally to the card in position 40. The card in position 9 goes to the card in position 48. Create a trio around card 49. Look at the intersecting point, position 41, and create a trio around that too, with card in position 41 as the middle of 32 and 49. This can be seen as the clench. This links the symmetrical tableau with the last row and tells us about the tension between the causal relation in the tableau, and that which you cannot escape, or that which begs to differ. The clench in a cross, cards in positions 32, 41, 49 and 40, 41, 42, also tells us about what the querent could have asked but didn’t. Here’s a diagram:

8) Read past and future lines, but make sure that you don’t stop there. This reading can begin already at step 1. Think of bending the lines backwards or upwards. Take each line from where it ends at the edge of the tableau and look at the card that falls next to it. This way we end up reading not only linearly but also in a circle and a spiral. I’ll point to this in my sample reading below.

9) Always use your commonsense. If you have a ‘feeling’ about the cards, don’t let it hang there undeveloped. Look for evidence in the cards that supports your feeling. This is an honest way of validating not so much the truth of the emerging story, but more so the event of telling the story. What touches us is not the truth, but the event that creates the truth. My own mantra is: evidence, evidence, evidence. Think of yourselves as card lawyers.

THE READING

Question: What does my heart desire?

The Significators: 9♥ for the heart’s desire, Q♦ as the person card.

We follow the steps as described above:

1) The heart desires a stable work exchange with the King of Diamonds (4♣ 2♣ K♦). The Queen of Hearts disrupts the cash flow (Q♥ 4♠ 9♦).  In the present the heart struggles with a learning community whose path the heart wants to improve (7♥ 8♣ 9♥) (9♥ 6♣ Q♦). The Queen being an intellectual (the suit of diamonds stands for the nervous system and fire), it is no surprise that she may be in the business of teaching, here as indicated clearly again by the presence of youth in her line (line finishes with the J♣). Well, this holds, as my line of business is teaching in the university.

2) An emotional tension is maintained between troubles with work or planning and troubles with the heart that goes into it (7♣ 4♥ 7♥). A curious thing to note is the appearance of all the 7 cards in the first hand. All 4 sevens feature in the first row. This is a very strong indication that whatever the heart desires, it is associated with trouble. I don’t say trouble as such, as the cards above the significator card are the ones hovering, as it were, without necessarily being deployed in a concrete manifestation. We would have to see how the above is concretized in the below by looking at the cards forming the last row. In this example here, it is pretty much clear that the heart’s desire is not doing so well. A King of Spades looking after the best interests of a Jack of Clubs (K♠ J♣ 10♥) bridges badly through wrong company unto work changes initiated by the King of Clubs and which have an ill outcome on the health of the querent. A look at the cards above the 5♠ indicate that a major loss of energy is at stake, with the consequence of destabilization and exhaustion (10♦ 4♠ 3♠). A doctor may try to fix the trouble (K♥). Generally, there is negativity at the core of the last row as indicated by the 8♠.

3) Negotiating troublesome plans leads to worrying (7♣ 2♣ 10♠). Trouble with the purse is also negotiated with the Q♠. The Q♠ being close to the house of the querent, the A♥, indicates that she may the same person as the querent herself, here signified by the Q♦. Note here how the 9♥ intersects with the O♠ in the 9♠. As the Queens stand for truth, we may have here the situation of the Queen of Spades suggesting that we look for the truth of the situation or the potentially deceiving. The house card, the A♥ flanked by the two Queens, indicates that the house is ruled by female energy. Here we can say that, on the one hand this energy is melancholic and sad (Q♠ modified by A♠ above her), and on the other hand, this energy that is intellectual and pragmatic, oriented towards the education of the young (Q♦ shows the path (6♣) to study to the J♣). Since I don’t have any children, I take this to refer to my professorship that includes teaching obligations apart from research. The King of Spades is also in the house. This is an old mentor, and a source of inspiration. The cards above the K♠ emphasize a stable relation of friendship that is also beneficial on the conceptual and material level. The K♠ has made a gift to the intellectual community, which the Q♦ is in charge of managing from the wings.

4) Tears don’t solve the negative thoughts (7♠ 2♣ 8♠). The K♦ wants to help restoring the work relations (4♣ 2♣ K♦).

5) In the past the heart went for doing something pleasurable for herself and friends (9♥à 10♣ 3♥ 5♥). But double trouble informed this endeavor (9♥à 7♥ 4♥ 7♣).

The path to working with a corporate community involved some decisions which may be more than a dead end (9♥à 6♣ 8♦ A♠. From A♠ follow the line to the end, to the 8♥, which tells us that the A♠ here is not the deadly blow we otherwise associate this card with). The ways of the Queen of Diamonds are familiar to the heart (9♥à 6♣ Q♦ A♥). Lots of work for the heart lies ahead in pouring one’s grievance into writing (9♥à 10♣ 7♥ A♦). I can relate to this one, as I have to kick my butt into gear and start writing grant applications for a project I’m involved with. But it pays off (9♥à 10♣ 6♦ 5♦). Stable negotiations lead to a small increase in money (9♥à 4♣ 2♣ 3♦). The working ways of the Queen of diamonds keep her busy (6♣ Q♦ 5♣).

6) See a reading of the last row at step 1, as it lent itself logically to a reading in that order in this context.

7) Taking pleasure in negative thoughts leads to changes of what one is working with or through (10♥ 8♠ 9♣). These changes pertain to going from working on oneself to working with a community of skeptics (5♣ 8♣ J♠). Involving the financial or intellectual help of any benefic third party is useless. The community resists (3♦ 8♣ 8♠). So here, what the question could have been is about what the querent wants from a community, especially since the cards indicate a community of ungrateful people. I can relate to this situation, as I am involved in teaching on many levels. As any teacher, I sometimes get tired of students who don’t get it, or students who feel entitled to a good education without also expressing the same sense of entitlement where their own contribution is concerned. Unfortunately, desiring to teach for a select group of dedicated and motivated people does not make the ends meet economically.

8) Generally the heart desires good changes in terms of finances (9♦), especially against the background of some very difficult (9♠) exchanges with friends in the house (2♦ modified by 3♥ and 8♦.) The heart desires to share the good times (read the X lines around the significator) (3♥ 6♥) for the benefit of good times with friends and associates (6♦ 8♦).

Now to the final point. Is what the heart desires good for it, or does the heart need something else? Perhaps here we can say that insofar as the corner cards end with black cards indicating sadness (Q♠), worries (10♠), lonely power (K♠), and illness (5♠), it is perhaps a good idea to shift the focus from sharing things with friends for whatever benefit to something else. Teaching from the heart is also not an option if it is not appreciated. Ultimately what we all want is to be on the same page with others. If we can’t have that, then new strategies of being in the world must be devised or negotiated.

I should ask the cards what they might have to say about that.

Good luck with the grand tableau and the playing cards in it.

§

Note on the deck: Grimaud, Original hand-stenciled cards from 1853.

Prompted by a question from cartomancer Fortune Buchholz as to whether I have a house system for reading the grand tableau with playing cards, here is a method I have devised that can be used both as a house system and as an alternative way of reading the tableau to the one I have indicated in my previous post on this, The Heart’s Desire.

Here is a diagram containing all 52 cards distributed in 5 rows of 9 and 1 row of 7 at the bottom. This is my own method. Please make the proper reference if you want to share it. For a traditional approach check the Gypsy Witch fortunetelling cards which has devised a popular system. I’m not so keen on it myself as I find it odd in the symmetry department, but as many prefer ‘tradition’, they are welcome to try it out.

The cards that fall in the inner square of 9 fall in the House of Destiny. The cards that fall in the outer square of 5X5 fall in the House of Influence. The 4 outer squares designate past and future relations. The upper left square of 9 contains the cards that fall in the House of Befalling Events. The bottom left square of 9 contains the card that fall in the House of Control. The same applies to the right hand column of squares. The cards that are shared horizontally between the top and bottom squares are called the Clench cards. The cards shared vertically indicate Direction. Read these latter cards also in mirror with the card in the middle of the destiny square as the middle card of your trio.

As you can see in the diagram, the cards in the positions 21 and 25 are Over-determined cards as they are shared more times than the others. You can read these as two sides to the same coin, in tension, but also in inseparable harmony.

The reading of the squares must proceed according to the classical way. Read the cards in trios, first the horizontal rows, then the vertical, and then in a cross with the card in the middle as the middle card of your trio. Six squares will elicit 48 sentences. This can be quite a lot to go through. What you can do if you don’t have the time to ponder too much over all these relations, is glance at the intersecting points either between the diagonal lines in the X or the cards that are shared between the squares. For the outer square of 5X5 read the corners and then the X. The square of destiny in the middle should be read in full, as it indicates relations that you cannot escape.

THE QUESTION

Now to the question. I’ve chosen for this tutorial a question that comes up a lot in readings, namely:

What should my attitude be towards X?

I get this question a lot from people who have experienced a fall out with lovers, husbands, wives, children, bosses, or friends. People get hurt, and often they would like to know what to ‘think’, as in, what attitude to adopt towards the party that has inflicted pain on them. There are several possibilities: to ditch, to forgive, to embrace, to love, to hate, to forget, to confront, to report, to humiliate, to anger, and so on. Given this premise of negative event when most people lament the lack of compassion, respect, or recognition from others, I have chosen here as the significator the Queen of Spades. Among her traditional attributes is sadness, and she stands for truth and fairness. She is often the other or divorced woman. Her official tasks are judging, policing, disciplining. She can fence. Her physical attributes are middle height, and dark complexion.

So the Queen of Spades wants to know how she should be towards the King of Spades. Being of the same suit the King shares some of the same attributes as the Queen. He can also be the insensitive man, or the man who causes grief simply because he can. So here goes the reading, but not before I make a final point.

My style is to read the cards straight and head on. I don’t invent anything beyond the system I apply. But there is such a thing as being seized by some cards to enter a magical realm. Where relevant I will make a point about this in the reading here, particularly as it pertains to how to engage in a magical application of the cards. But be forewarned that not all cards lends themselves to a magical application. One should not impose a magical reading on a tableau simply because the magic may tell the better story. Sometimes the 7♠ just means tears and has nothing to do with the casting of spells. 

THE READING

The House of Destiny says:

A decision is made to split with the K of Diamonds (A♠ 2♠ K♦). Ill health is restored through friends and a small increase in finances (5♠ 3♥ 3♦). The King of Clubs has a new working opportunity for the Jack of Diamonds (K♣ A♣ J♦). A blow contributed to the ill health of the King of Clubs (A♠ 5♠ K♣). A disaccord is forgotten in favor of new opportunities (2♠ 3♥ A♣). The King of Diamonds is in excellent and growing financial cooperation with the Jack of Diamonds (K♦ 3♦ J♦). A decision to increase the kindness towards the Jack of Diamonds is made (A♠ 3♥ J♦). The Kings of Diamonds and Clubs support this decision (K♦ 3♥ K♣).

Based on this we can infer that on the level of what the Queen of Spades must do in terms of what she cannot practically say no to, as this is her Destiny house, is accept that some deals are made across friends regarding the well being of a youth. At first the King of Diamonds turns his back to a disagreement, but eventually he decides to compromise and cooperate with the King of Clubs. The Queen thus must acknowledge his act and make sure that they all agree on maintaining an amicable relation.

Here, a note on agency. When I say: ‘a decision is made…’ I use a passive construction that may leave one wondering: who exactly is making this decision? Often the agent of an action is the querent herself, or, if a court card initiates the string, then we can say that he or she is the subject of the action. Agency is also determined by the context of the question, therefore it is crucial to remember the question all the time at all steps in the reading. Otherwise we end up with a walk in the woods. The Court cards are traditionally seen either as helpers or as antagonists. The Jacks are either children or messengers. The Kings are men of power, and the Queens are guardians of truth.

The House of Influence says:

A gathering of friends cannot agree on what agenda to follow (8♥ A♣ 8♣). New ways for good exchanges are being devised (6♣ A♣ 2♦), here in the form of an invitation from a family member (K♥ over 2♦).

The House of the Past Befalling Events says:

What was a good trip with the family ends with the loss of imagining that the familial crowd can do anything but destabilize all relations (6♥ 10♦ 3♠, as modified by 8♥ and 4♠). The King of Spades wants money or the material and stable concretization of ideas (6♦ 10♦ K♠, as modified by 4♦).

The House of the Past Control says:

The King of Spades has his eyes on the Queen of Hearts, who is married to the King of Hearts (K♠ Q♥ K♥). He acts as a third party interfering (3♣) in the King of Hearts’ relation. He is in a mental relation with the Queen of Spades (K♠ 4♦ Q♠), who however favors the King of Hearts (Q♠ 9♥ K♥). The King of Spades moves towards losing the Queen of Spades to the King of Hearts (K♠ 4♠ 3♠ to Q♠ 9♥ K♥).

Now this looks like a complicated relationship. We have two pairs, each King with his consort. One could assume that they are married couples. But given the question here, we must say that the King of Spades must be seen as not the partner of the Queen of Spades, but rather as the one she is trying to get her head around in terms of what kind of attitude she must assume towards him. So, interestingly enough, we could then argue that the King of Spades is here in fact married to the Queen of Hearts and the King of Hearts is married to the Queen of Spades. Nice mess.

The Clench cards of the past are here extremely revealing too, with the King of Spades causing the misère (K♠ 4♠ 3♠). The 3♠ is also the over-determined card, telling us a lot of what is at stake. What we are dealing with here, and what stares us in the face is loss. Loss imitated by the King of Spades, spilling over into illness (5♠). Good thing it’s all in the past.

The House of the Future Befalling events says:

Sex for fun leads to heart troubles with the consequence of leaving (5♥ 7♥ 6♠). Working for one’s own pleasure, although emotionally painful, leads to happy fulfillment (5♣ 7♥ 10♥).

The House of the Future Control says:

Great pleasure is put in the service of changing work related to writing (10♥ A♦ 9♣). But the lost ways, while recovered through the letter, lead to trouble with the mental energy (6♠ A♦ 7♦). If a magical application of the cards would seize me, I would say that the lost ways lead to a new vision, as the 7♦ is related to all things divination.

The Clench cards of the future tell me that the great pleasure will translate into keeping bad company (10♥ 10♣ 6♠) either in the form of negative thoughts (8♠ above the 6♠) or skepticism (J♠ below the 6♠). Magically, I’d say that a restless spirit is about the house (J♠ is outside of the square containing the A♥ signifying the house of the querent. Above him he has the host of others in the coven (6♠ 8♠)).

The over-determined card is here the 10♥. Mirroring this card to the other over-determined card of 3♠ we can say that Loss and Love are part of the same coin here. What these cards suggest so far is that the Queen of Spades must take to her heart that King of Spades is both lost and won to her. At the same time, loss, 3♠, going over to love and happiness, 10♥, through the 3♥, also gives us the indication on a pragmatic level that the love triangle is maintained. This is part of the destiny pull. It is the ‘so it goes’ situation. The King of Spades may create havoc, but he will be forever caught in this relation.

For the directions that the Queen of Spades must take in her attitude towards the King of Spades, the vertical columns of the shared cards tell me this. First I read them in line from top to bottom and then as mirroring sets.

Left column: Friends or positive thoughts will help transforming the loss into a renegotiation of relations with the King of Hearts (8♥ 3♠ 3♣ K♥).

Right column: The ways of the fulfilled heart are oriented towards helping the young and loving ones who are yet struggling with their vision (6♣ 10♥ J♥ 7♦).

In mirrors, the past events relate to the future events in the following manner:

Entertaining thoughts of splitting must be reconsidered as an alternative that’s not so good (8♥ 2♠ 6♣). Loss of love can still mean love (3♠ 3♥ 10♥). Increasing the opportunity to teach the young ones something of value is a good idea (3♣ A♣ J♥). With the help of the King of Hearts you turn the double trouble into working magically through new visions (K♥ 7♣ 7♦).

The bottom line

As a reader of cards, I take to my heart the beautiful suggestion here that that cards offer me: Read more cards. In a magical application all the troublesome sevens have a very specific function. The 7♥ is related to spirituality, or a system of belief, the 7♠ is for the mysteries or occult knowledge, the 7♣ is for practical magic, and the 7♦ is for the strongest vision. I think it is quite befitting of the Queen of Spades, who is also the grand Witch in a magical setting, that she abides by her strong vision and her practical magical skills. And it’s good to know that both the King of Hearts and the Jack of Hearts can help her to carry her magical tools, her chalices, and the spells of whatever her heart desires.

Good luck in the house of cards.

§

Note on the deck: Grimaud, original hand-stenciled cards from 1853.

Camelia Elias, A Helium Poet, 2013

Last week I was on the west coast in Denmark, showing my friend Witta Kiesling Jensen the sites. The whether forecast had been bad. Although the plan was to go swimming, with terrible rain in sight I had a plan B. Witta and I were going to make a deck of Lenormand cards that was going to be acrobatic, hermetic, erotic, literally intuitive, uniquely miraculous, punningly occult, and erratically traditional. We didn’t get very far with our creative powers, as we got to soak in salt water quite a bit. The weather was a smash the whole of 4 days we were there, so there was no need for us to sit and sulk and pour our frustrations over the cards. But we did get started. We realized that the key words for our deck could be turned into an anagrammatic title. Looking at the first letter in each of the above words describing the deck, we noted that what we were having on our hands here was A HELIUM POET. Quite appropriate, we thought, given the inflated ideas that go into the creation of any cards. We then proceeded we cut out the paper according to our chosen size. We put 36 blank cards aside, and we started trying our hands on the few remaining slips. Witta did 6 cards on these and I did about 7. Soon enough, however, we saw that the slips of papers that we were using as drafts were beginning to look like the deck itself, so we decided to leave it at that. Then we went for some more sightseeing, and the draft for the deck remained at 13 cards by the time we got back home.

Witta is a professional illustrator, and together with her husband, the famed tarot cards collector, K. Frank Jensen, she did many interesting tarot cards. As far as I am concerned, I paint some, and although I’ve had the good fortune to sell a few of my paintings for quite some money, I’m very reluctant to call myself anything close to anything in the painting, drawing, and illustrating department. But my lack of expertise didn’t stop me from promising Witta to finish the job.

So, here I am, on another vacation in Norway, one week later, and having a cold. What to do when having a cold? And the new moon is up too? One must always make an offering, and reading cards or books requires a certain amount of concentration. Not so with drawing. Ideas fly over my head all the time, so it’s easy for me to just catch some and translate them into images. Consequently, I took my ink and paper, sat down, and in about one hour I finished what Witta and I had started. I also ended up ‘improving’ some of Witta’s cards. I went over her lines, and while exclaiming: ‘how astonishing to have an easy hand like she does,’ I also found myself muttering that I would never use a pencil before the ink. I did all my drawings in one hand, as it were, pen to paper, no hesitation, no pencil, no eraser, no nothing. The lines got as they got.

One of my most brilliant ideas here, if I must say so myself, in terms of ‘correcting’ what we did, was to place an X over Witta’s accidental extra club on the card of the mouse, card 23. I think her mistake was quite fortunate, however, as it gave me the idea to think conceptually that the best way of getting the meaning of this card is to have an element on it taken away. Place it under erasure in such a way so that we can still see it’s there. For that’s the function of what the card of the Mouse signifies: To eat away, but leave a trace. Of course, what we could have done is redo the card, but by then I had decided that we, and then I alone, were going to do the cards in one sitting and without any kind of revisions. Also in terms of the concept, and as I said earlier, before we set out we had cut out all the pieces in proper size, so the drawings were done on each individual card independently of seeing how the broken frames might interact across the cards. As I wanted to break the frame of each card to begin with, I wanted to allow for the serendipity of seeing how elements from one card might enter into the card next to it. Some fortuitous examples came out of this quite exquisitely. No matter how much I shuffle and what cards fall on the table, some glorious narrative gets out, just through the frames.

So, allow me to present to you all, a brand new Lenormand deck called A HELIUM POET. One copy only.

Camelia Elias (with Witta Kiesling Jensen): A Helium Poet Lenormand cards

To keep with the tradition of Taroflexions, that of actually reading the cards rather than merely talk history, card creation, selling or some other such venerable activity, I will offer here some quick reading samples addressing four of the main areas of concern: love, money, work, and health, all performed with the Helium Poet deck. Let’s see how it goes.

A grand tableau for Love

Camelia Elias (with Witta Kiesling Jensen): A Helium Poet Lenormand cards

How can I find inspiration in love?

You can’t. It looks like you have to dive into yourself and allow your getting old to initiate you in some other kind of mysteries than the ones associated with the love of a man – remark here how the Woman moves towards Tower, Lily, and Coffin with Man below her. Go to the mountains and make a pact with nature. (Mountain to Ring modified by Key). Sing a song of the soul (Fish to Star modified by Sun). Enjoy your own company and the generosity of the Crone (Flowers, Rider, Snake, Fox). Remark here that the reason why I didn’t impose any cautioning against getting the ‘wrong’ type of inspiration coming from the Snake and the Fox together is because the last card, the Fox, has Letter above it. We don’t know what the Letter contains until it is read. With the Book next to it, we have here the indication that some things pertaining to individual enterprise must remain a secret. The Snake also knights to the Book. So merely jumping at imposing a negative reading here would not be based on solid reasoning but rather on ventriloquizing what some book or self-proclaimed traditionalist says about the meaning of these cards. But then I’ve never been an advocate for repeating set phrases for combos, because that’s what the so-called tradition dictates. So this tableau, while not the most uplifting in terms of advice for love, especially if love is thought of in terms of the love of others, does give us a clear message as to what is at stake. If love is to be inspiring, then it must come from the Book. The Woman moves diagonally in her future line towards the Book. It is the Book that gives eternal pleasure. One must marry the Book not the Man (Book + Ring).

A 9-card spread for money.

Camelia Elias (with Witta Kiesling Jensen): A Helium Poet Lenormand cards

Question:

What does it take to get a house in the mountains?

I like this one. What stares us is the face is the secret, rich uncle from New York (Book, Ring, Bear). So you must place your faith in him. You can also hope that your wish will be heard by the stars (Star to Moon modified by Bear). Or perhaps the Ursa Major constellation, the Great-She-Bear, rather than the rich man, will take care of it. The solution is in being clever, and going by the Book (Snake to Clover modified by Book). Have faith that even though you can’t see it, it’s still in the universe (Key, Ring, Cross next to Moon). Or else it’s just around the corner, among your networks and associates who can appreciate what you’re doing, an appreciation that will translate into money (Surprise card: The Garden). Traditionally the Clover + Cross means an extraordinary chance, or an unexpected blessing. So, all good here. It’s in the stars.

A 3-card spread for the job.

Camelia Elias (with Witta Kiesling Jensen): A Helium Poet Lenormand cards

Question:

Will I get the promotion?

First slowly and the all of a sudden (Book, Lily, Scythe). Whatever mystery involving the fairness in the hiring committee and assessment will be revealed in your favor. The clench card here that allows us to impose a positive reading in the face of the cutting edge card of the Scythe is the Lily. What will be cut is the secrecy around the job situation, but since the Lily announces an honest approach, the Scythe simply indicates that the decision will be in the hands of one man who will enter in character, a trenchant character par excellence (The playing card inset, the King of Spades, helps us here too with our precision).

A two-card spread also for a yes/no question on health.

Camelia Elias (with Witta Kiesling Jensen): A Helium Poet Lenormand cards

Question:

Will my health improve?

Yes. Eventually (Snake, Star). The problem with the intestine will be fixed perhaps through a detox program helping the digestive system.

The cards have spoken. The Helium Poet is good.

A grand thank to Witta. She is a most magical woman. I dedicate the card of the Flowers to her. And I shall make an offering tonight in the honor of the new moon.

Meanwhile, here comes a string of images, the first one with Witta’s 6 cards. Then one with all the pictures, and then one run through a filter, so that the lines can be seen clearly.

Witta Kiesling Jensen’s 6 cards made for A Helium Poet Lenormand deck

Camelia Elias (with Witta Kiesling Jensen): A Helium Poet Lenormand cards

Camelia Elias (with Witta Kiesling Jensen): A Helium Poet Lenormand cards (filtered)

Camelia Elias (with Witta Kiesling Jensen): A Helium Poet Lenormand cards – a detail

As a first attempt ever at making anything like this, I think that the deck is quite something. It reflects a very cutting character. Perhaps the same that went into creating it. First impression. No revision. No regret.

I hope you enjoy these images.

Good luck in the house of cards.

§

Note on the deck:

Camelia Elias (with Witta Kiesling Jensen, 6 cards): A Helium Poet, Lenormand cards, 2013. Ink on Canson Montval paper. Project finished on top of the mountain in Norway in ca. 45 minutes. A most magical place for a magical act. All 36 cards have a raw power, as there are no drafts. This is the thing itself.

Thanks also to Bent Sørensen, my partner, who has fiddled with taking pictures of this new deck here, all for your viewing pleasure. Of course, as the case often is, the live product is much better. Quite exquisite, indeed.

In honor of my new deck, A Helium Poet, my partner, Bent Sørensen, an inveterate card-player and divination connoisseur, decided to create a grand tableau spread, as he knows I have a faiblesse for them. He called it The Clover Lenormand. The idea is to use all the cards in a continuous line that goes in and out of three oval shapes, with 3 cards in the middle forming the point of gravitas. I call it the vortex. It’s a center you can’t escape.

So, let’s test the Clover Lenormand Grand Tableau (Bent’s design and my method).

I posed a question related to my work. As any academic, these days we are expected more and more to fund our own research, which basically means that we have to go out somewhere and beg for money. Or else look for donations. Some rich banks don’t mind giving alms. So it goes in the world that thinks of the educational system as a factory, where the academics work for the students who are now valued clients, and whom we must please at all costs. As they say in the capitalist world: the client is always right. And the capitalist world is right. There is no room for critical studies any more, but there’s plenty of room for applying for grants, and winning money for the university. Va va voom.

Now to the point of interest: I want to know to what extent my involvement with a research project, based on a donation, is beneficial for both parties.

THE METHOD

But first, here’s the basic mechanics of reading the Clover Grand Tableau. In a reading, remember to be flexible. The steps below can be incorporated into one another, or more expanded on than I have done here. The idea is to achieve flow and a tight argument. See the diagram:

1) First you lay the cards clockwise beginning with the left hand side loop. This first loop represents the past. You do the same with the top loop, representing the present, and then the right hand side loop, representing the future. The vortex can give you a pretty good impression of what’s going on (cards in positions 1, 13, 25).

2) Each loop is to be read in line.

3) For the consolidation of what is at stake in each loop, you can also look at the cards in the mirror. For instance card in position 8 mirrors the card in position 6. For a stronger impression, or an overall statement, you can take the mirroring pairs in the central position as an example. For instance the card in position 1 mirroring the card in position 7 is stronger overall.

4) Read the X in each loop, and take the cards beginning and ending the loop (the flat cards) as the cards that modify the pairs. First you read the left to right diagonal line, and then the one right to left. For instance, the card in position 8 pairs with the card in position 2. The pair is modified by the card in position 1. For the next diagonal: card in position 12 pairs with 6 and is modified by 7.

5) In the 2 horizontal loops, we can talk about things above, and things below, with the top and bottom rows corresponding respectively. The top loop has a relation of left and right, indicating antagonistic forces in the present. This indicates what you are up against.

6) The cards whose corners touch, that is, the cards in positions 12 and 14, 24 and 26, and 36 and 2, indicate cross-temporal connections. What influences the future can also be found as a future in the past.

THE READING

Camelia Elias, A Helium Poet Lenormand, 2013

Let’s have the question again:

To what extent is my involvement with a research project, based on a donation, beneficial for both parties?

We go through the reading steps as described above, although where relevant, I’ll be incorporating the mirroring stage already in the description of each loop, as this may tighten the argument. So, we follow the steps as above, but, again, remember to be flexible, and read in a dancing flow.

The past loop:

Camelia Elias, A Helium Poet, 2013

A group (Garden) gathers at the house (House) to announce (Stork+Rider) a work agenda (Sun+Anchor) based on a gift (Flowers). A man (Man) is oriented towards a school (Child+Tower) and makes a decision (Scythe) in good faith (Dog).

The present loop:

Camelia Elias, A Helium Poet, 2013

The project drags (Ship), as the solution is with the boss with money (Key+Bear). Although you can’t trust him (Snake) a small break is on the horizon (Clover). The Woman receives a letter (Letter), but the news is fuzzy (Clouds) – Note here that I didn’t say that the Woman sends a letter, which I could have just as well. What gives away the agency here is the mirroring card: Letter mirrors Ship, so, news from afar. Ergo: the Woman receives a letter. Things are being communicated (Birds) but it falls on deaf ears (Coffin). Or else we could say that the project hits bottom (Coffin), due to the dishonesty of the Bear (Coffin mirrors Snake next to Bear). The research project (Book) goes slowly ahead, however, due to its being rather special (Lily).

The future loop:

Camelia Elias, A Helium Poet, 2013

Losses due to miscommunication (Mouse+Moon+Ways) enervatingly (Whip) starve the resources (Fish, also mirroring Mouse enforces that what the fuss is all about is money). The heart is in the right place, as it feels fated to do this (Heart mirroring Cross). But it encounters a major obstacle (Mountain). A good thing, however, that the universe (Star) is above the enemy (Mountain) and augurs a recuperation of individual energy (Tree+Fox). The deal closes (Ring).

From this narrative we can infer that the project started well – good agenda, and good intentions (Sun, Flowers, Child, Tower, Dog), but then, due to skepticism and people pretending to be interested when they are not (Snake+Clouds=hypocrisy and calumny), some creative alternatives (Moon+Ways) get lost in the process. The fish landing on top of the mountain is not a good idea (see the mirroring here). So, the public space, dreaming of riches coming from afar and forgetting that it has its own resources, leads to grief (read the vortex: Garden+Ship+Cross). The antagonistic forces here are given in the fact that the Woman is up against an indifferent party that is also ignorant of what is at stake in the project.

If we look at the cards as they enter in relation between the above, the things in our heads, and the below, the things we control, we can say the following:

The Man decides to make part of his house available to the public (Man to House modified by Garden) – this is the donation, very nicely and very clearly represented by the cards here; quite a gift to see them fall like this). A swift decision was made to donate part of a life’s work as a gift (Scythe to Anchor modified by Flowers).

The solution to how to handle the situation is dragging, as it’s not clear (Clouds+Key modified by Ship) how to go about it. An honest woman receives bad news (Lily+Woman modified by Letter).

Emotional distress amounts (Mouse+Mountain modified by Heart). A fortunate outcome incurs by fated chance (Fish+Ring modified by Cross).

The cards that touch at the corners tell us this, across temporality.

The solution was cut off (Scythe+Key, past to present). The good honest project is contaminated (Lily+Mouse, present to future). But it’s still in the bag (Ring+House, future to past). The contract will be upheld.

THE ANSWER

To answer the question, we can say this:

I can bring my heart and soul to the table, which benefits both the institution and me. What the institution can give me is consolidate my position in the house, and give me free hands to go spiritual in my research – provided, of course, that I will be heard with a little more enthusiasm than the cards in the present indicate.

Stand tall and you win them all. A crusade is all it takes.

NON TRADITIONAL GRAND TABLEAUS

As we can see, a lot can be derived from reading with the cards in this particular layout. I like the spiralling narrative and the way in which the cards communicate with each other on 3 planes. A lot more could be said, but I think that this gives you an idea as to what we can do with 36 cards, and what other tableaus are out there, waiting to be discovered to our great fortune.

Good luck with the Clover Grand Tableau.

But don’t leave yet, as here come 2 new alternatives to reading the Clover Lenormand, thanks to Bent – who has just appended this image below for a way of reading the tableau in an even more spiralling way, in which the past, present, and future relations become even more dynamic – and faithful contributor to Taroflexions, Markus Pfeil, following Bent’s suggestion. I’ll append Markus’s comment immediately after his diagram below.

Enjoy, and keep them coming.

Bent’s second spiral.

Markus Pfeil’s diagram

Here’s Markus’ comment for his diagram above:

I like the swirliness a lot. This transforms the clover (c Lover) into a trefoil-knot. I really like this knot. It is of course daughter to a string, and brother to an encircled leminskate. Both can be constructed from a simple overhand knot one closed upwards, the other closed downwards. In the clover form the centre of the knot collapses, and we can read three leaves. In the trefoil-knot form we read a Long string in three section, in the Lemniskate the top leaf encircles the others and there is now a reading in a reading. So we take Le-String-Normand and swirl it this way and that.

§

NOTE ON THE DECK:

Camelia Elias (with Witta Kiessling Jensen, who made 6 cards out of 36):

A Helium Poet, Lenormand cards, 2013.

Ink on Canson Montval paper.

Non-commercial.

Here is a quick post about the use of significators in a spread. The following can apply to divination with all the standard cards (playing-cards, tarot, Lenormand, Sybillas), though I’ll take my point of departure in playing-cards here, as they have inspired throughout history how we look at the other cards.

I’ll also take a standard question, one of love, as this type of question remains an unchanged classic. For instance, what used to be a very frequent question about inheritance some 200 years ago, is now more a question about winning the lottery. You will find that there is vey little practical value in what some old cartomantic manuals prescribe – not too mention the heavily loaded bourgeois symbolism of the Lenormand cards – for the way in which we relate to money and property issues today. So, therefore, let us look at the perennial love question instead, as otherwise we would need to do some serious cultural adjustments.

DOES HE LOVE ME? (I bet all readers get this one a lot.)

What interests me is how we make clear who is who in a spread, what they do to whom, how, and why.

Let’s look for now at the popular square of 9. Here I have two options: to pick the significator card and dump it in the middle of the square, or pick it before hand, but let it stay in the deck. If it pops up in the spread, we can read all the relations around it according to where it lands. If it doesn’t pop, then we must decide with ourselves that all the other court cards that may fall on the table will relate indirectly to the significator. Court cards are generally seen as either family, helpers, or enemies. All according to their suit and the way in which they interact with the cards surrounding them. So, the other court cards landing in our spread will not be seen as aspects of our significator representing the querent, as one often does in Tarot readings, but rather as others who are with you, against, you, or neutral messengers.

Which card in the center?

Now to a first dilemma that beginners often confront. Let us have the question again?

Does he love me?

Insofar as HE is the subject we must place the card representing HIM at the center of the spread. Not the other way around. I’ve seen readers placing there the card of the woman wanting to know in the center, but surely she is the object of the man’s interest, not the subject, so it’s a fallacy to think that the cards must answer a question about HER when all she wants to know is HIS thoughts. We must always think of what we’re saying.

For my spread WITH A SIGNIFICATOR above, I picked the card of the King of Spades. Since this is a tutorial, I let the cards determine. The female significator, which we must also decide on in advance, did not show up. In this context here she is the Queen of Spades (though we don’t need to create consorts; another Queen can also do, as we pick the significator according to physical characteristics). From this we may infer that the answer to the question, ‘does he love me?, will address more the ways in which the King of Spades loves or loves not the Queen of Spades, rather than the direct contact between the two.

As it happens this spread turned out quite beautifully, with the first card, the 9 of Hearts, suggesting two things: the heart’s desire – the primary meaning of the 9♥ is to express the heart’s desire – or a change of heart – the nines stand for change; with the heart, a change of heart. Sticking to our simple rule: red good, black bad, we can say the following;

The K♠ wishes strongly to love the Q♠, with whom he communicates with and exchanges love messages in public via the electronic media (9♥ 8♦ J♥), but he decides not to (9♥ J♦ A♠). Now this is quite interesting, for it seems completely contradictory to the intent. Either you love or you don’t. A look at the first row and then the first column discloses, however, painfully clearly that while the King loves the virtual love messaging, in person he delivers crap (9♥ J♦ A♠). I actually know someone who does this, so I’m beginning to wonder what the cards are telling me. Be that as it may. Let us keep this strictly as a tutorial.

There is also another interesting aspect to the 9 of Hearts moving into the Ace of Spades. If we assume that this is about the heart’s desire, then we must conclude the following: In spite of the King of Spade’s desire TO DECIDE NOT TO love the Queen, he can’t help himself. The 9♥ moving into the A♠ simply means that your wish will not not be granted. Logically speaking, based on this alone, we must infer that the answer to the question is YES. The King loves the Queen even though there seems to be a strong indication that he decided not to.

And why on earth not, one might ask, or the Queen might ask? Remember that the Queen herself didn’t show up in the spread. In fact we have 4 males on the table, out of which 2 are either children or messengers. As there are no 3♥ in the spread, which would indicate that the Jacks are children, we must go with the messengers. The first Jack is clear as he enters our sentence unambiguously. The heart wishes (9♥) to communicate (8♦) a message of love (J♥). The second Jack initiates the string in which two Kings face each other. Here we could say that the King of Spades MIGHT wish to cut a deal with the King of Clubs. The J♦ here indicates a message of negotiation, which, however, is desired to be passed on indirectly (The Jack faces away for the King of Spades). So we can infer that the K♠ is thinking (8♣ below him) of how to get through to the other King or how to get passed him (J♦ K♠ K♣ ).

Looking at the 2 nines in the significant diagonal relation, we could say that the love of the King of Spades for the Queen of Spades is conditioned by an exchange of place (9♥ K♠ 9♦ modified by K♣). From this we can infer that the reason why the K♠ desires not to love the Q♠ is because she may already be in a relationship with the K♣. Ergo, there is love, but this love is conditioned by a change. For a bit of variation here, we could say the following: Given that the 9♦ is associated with finery, perhaps the Q♠ represents a trophy that two Kings are in indirect exchange about. Though it looks like the K♣ is winning this one (he is in the future column), simply because the other one decided to give up (A♠) and love from the distance. The surprise card, the 6♦ tells us precisely that. Tough luck.

No significators

Now, let us look at the same question and use the exact same pair, but this time I will let the cards fall on the table without getting the significator out of the pack.

I also want to mention that before I proceeded I had decided in advance that although I was going to shuffle for each instance, I was going to see how the two spreads may speak the same message. So my expectation was that the 2 spreads are related closely or that the second can be seen as a commentary on the first, while at the same time telling us something about the dynamics of reading with no significator on the table.

Now, we saw how in the first instance the love of the King of Spades for the Queen of Spades was conditioned. The King had decided not to wish to love the Queen for whatever reason – here probably because she is with another. In the second spread, neither of the significators showed up. So they remain in the background of what story emerges here. What didn’t show up either is a single heart card. This is always very telling. In a question of love usually hearts pop up for better or worse. Now we want to know. Why such insistence on ‘no heart’ involved?

We get an idea already by looking at the first card, the 8♠. This is a card of extreme negativity. With great pressure nearby (10♣), and an insistence to find a new opportunity (A♣), a story emerges already very nicely. So we can say the following: The King of Spades succumbs to his negative thoughts (8♠) and obsession with the Queen of Spades (5♠) with whom he is in a mental relation (2♦). He moves away from it (10♣) because another Queen is in sight, occupying center stage, and who offers an invitation to partner with her and her enterprising child (2♦ Q♣ J♦) (Clubs indicate work relations; 2♦ almost always an invitation or a call, and the Q♣ indicates a pragmatic woman; Jacks can stand for both boys and girls.)

Here it seems also that a ‘fix it all’ Jack of Diamonds facilitated the encounter (J♦ with A♣ above and 2♣ below ). We can even say see that this was his/her idea (again, A♣ above and 2♣ below the J♦), and that the young person has done this before. The 2♣ represents repetition and a doubling. A plausible situation, as I know that many single mothers experience that their children want nothing more than to see their mother find a man to marry. So, with the new Q♣ on the table the K♠ moves from being depressed to changing his situation (mainly financially, however) and accepting a new deal. The surprise card here, the Jack of Spades tells us, however, that there is lot of suspicion involved in this whole set up. The Jack of Spades may, on the other hand, be the son of the King of Spades. So, the the K♠ relinquished his agency to the young ones, and went off with the new woman.

Now, however, how does this answer our question? Does the King of Spades love the Queen of Spades? The cards insist on not telling. We would have to have some hearts in this spread for that question to be answered unambiguously. What we got here is an indication that the K♠ MIGHT love the Q♠, but she is not in the picture. Also, the ‘bad’ cards we got here refer more to the mental state of the K♠ (8♠ for negative thoughts and bad communication, and 5♠ for the afflicted body), rather than his emotions. With pressure culminating (10♣) and the inexperienced ones cutting deals (J♦), we could say that the K♠ is left rather emotionless.

One might be tempted to say that with these cards on the table the K♠ definitely does not love the Q♠, because as established before, he decided. But also before we established that his wish was not granted. So, if there are no hearts in this equation here, it is because the cards show us beautifully the consequences of going against the heart’s desire. You go against the heart’s desire, there’ll no heart left for you to feel. Again, tough luck. On the other hand, if pragmatism is desired, then good luck. Not all of us need to feel the sublime anguish of the heart in love. Being normal and getting down to business is also a kind of happiness.

As we can see then, it pays off to think very clearly about how we delineate the significators, and how important it is not to go with the temptation to say things like, ‘but that court card can also be me, as I’m also like that.’ Nor indeed to say that a situation, just because it looks familiar, is about something else entirely different and not connected to the context of the question. There is no need for embellishing beyond what the cards tell us and show us.

Good luck with reading cards, before reading relations, wishful thinking, or some other, external to the cards, negotiations of desires.

§

Note on the deck:

Dondorf, Klub Karte or also known as Judenkarte, 1870.

My parents, Ana and Georg.

As I often think of what my father would have been like at my age – he died at 39 and I’m very close to 45 – I find myself strange places and feeling his force. Well, he worked for the armed forces, so perhaps therefore. But above all he was a mathematician. And to the surprise of a few in the family, he was also a magician. He saved my life when I was three and suffered from unexpectedly high fever coming from nowhere. When the doctors were giving up, he performed a nice folk magic ritual and vanquished the fever on the spot. I still remember his pose over a glass of water in which he had extinguished three matches. He made me drink that water, and abracadabra, all returned to normal. One of the other few memories I have is our discussion about what to become. He wanted me to become a teacher at the university. His wish came to pass, for, although he died when I was 8, I never forgot what he wanted me to do.

But these days I think of all sorts of teaching that I do outside of the university, and which also brings me most joy. Perhaps the reason why I find this more joyous is because I don’t have to do it for a living. Taroflexions here is an example of such teaching, where I try to say something useful about reading cards – even though, god only knows, I probably exhibit here the same presumptuousness and arrogance as I do in my day job. As they say, a woman’s got to do what a woman’s got to do. Positions of real power are rarely available to us.

With this in mind, I would have liked to ask my father about power and women in positions of power but without any real access to it. You can ask me. I know all about it.

Lundkvassberget, Norway

So yesterday, as I was climbing a little mountain in Norway to see a stone from the ice-age landing in the middle of nowhere, I was thinking of my father. Once I reached the top I saw a circle of stones near the big stone. The historians don’t quite know what to make of it. Some say it’s a burial ground from the stone age, some say it’s a sacrificial place, in which case it can go back some 5000 years. Be that as it may. As I was inhabiting the circle, with the big monolith behind me, I picked up a round pebble from the ground.

This was a most precious gift, as it gave me the idea to search for some other 23 and make a rune set. I had just bought an antique little box from a local shop, and somehow the idea of making it the house of 24 new rune stones, which, however, have lived close to a very old stone, seemed appropriate. I rather enjoyed making this set, and I was keen to see it at work here in the wilderness.

I posed a question about competence. I wanted to know wherein my best competence lies, and what I can use it for. I guess this springs out of the perennial self-check with reality, especially when I, like most, fancy doing something else for a living that’s very little related to what I am also fortunate enough to possess, namely a job that gives me plenty money and plenty to think about. I won’t focus on the hassle aspect as we find that in everything else too.

I cast all the runes on the table – this is what I like to do best, namely use all the stones, and here’s what the stones say.

The strong cluster in the middle formed by Fehu, Kenaz, and Thurisaz, tells me this:

I have financial strength and control over my property (Fehu). So my competence lies within the ability to manage my estate (if I can call it that, as it’s not that grand). What I do for a living is teach (Kenaz) – surprise, surprise. I use the torch to illuminate the path of others. But this torch is also made of a burning fire, for indeed, who wants to hear the truth? Truth is never popular, and as I have a habit or spelling it out (Thurisaz), more often than not what is illuminating is also very discomforting. Thurisaz, the rune of giants and trolls is not one you want to find landing in your lap. Thor’s hammer is sacred to Loki, the trickster, who both covets it and fears its force. So, from this cluster I can conclude that my best competence is to speak loudly a truth that comes out of personal conviction. The horse rune here, Ehwaz, touching the cluster, and especially Fehu, the rune of wealth, enforces the idea that that although my convictions are personal they are also consecrated. You hear a message, or you have a message, you don’t just leave it there, but rather bring it forth in an institutionalized setting.

Ehwaz here is also the link to the next cluster that almost forms a circle. These stones are not as close to each other, but they definitely have something to say that’s very coherent. Algiz, the Elk rune of protection aspires to create a link to the spiritual in its manifest form. This rune is opposite Ansuz, the shaman’s rune, or the rune of the spiritual leader. Sacred to Odin, the god of wind and spirit, Ansuz is the rune of language. The symbol must be translated into coherent speech, so it can properly mediate between the uncontrolled forces of Hagalaz, the rune of hail and destruction, and Jera, the rune of harvest, accomplishment and generosity.

Together they tell me that the disturbing teachings I’m doing prepare the ones who bother to listen, not so much for how to avoid destruction and accept the cycle of tides, but more for how to honor the destructive powers in nature insofar as they always lead to light. An almost hidden rune, but still facing up in alignment with Hagalaz and Jera is Sowilo at the end of the tunnel, the sun rune, suggesting the idea that there is life force, hope and attainment outside of all that necessitates the call for protection and the investment of energy in conflicting forces.

On the far axis to Wunjo, the rune of joy, we find Uruz, the rune of the wild ox, standing for all the wild, raw, and creative power. Uruz is also in alignment with Thurizaz, which enforces the untamed and frightful nature of Uruz as a stuborn, undomesticated force. Leaving from Wunjo, the only far off rune in this cast, and acting here more as a satellite for everything else, we can see how Uruz is also aligned with Kenaz, Fehu and Ehwaz. So there’s a direct line from pure joy to pure wildness that resists being contained within the culture world.

The bottom line would be to say that while my best competence lies within giving off passionately from what I have, and however violently (Kenaz, Fehu, Thurisaz), what backs me up in my endeavor is the wisdom of knowing (Ansuz to Kenaz) when to back off (Ansuz to Hagalaz), and when to act from a defended space with view to restoring peace and balance (Algiz to Jera). See here how the central runes form a boat.

I have no idea what my father would make of all this, but I’m pretty sure that he doesn’t regret my not teaching mathematics in favor of talking about stones, and wind, and ice-age old divination.

§

Note on the rune stones: Self-made from stones surrounding the ice-age stone at Lundkvassberget in Norway in an antique Norwegian box from 1880. I make magical things like this for friends and others on special request.

Magic and ethics, that’s the question, or is it? Although I don’t want to make a big fuss about it, I want to make a quick point that might inspire others to think about what they are saying when they utter the words ‘magic and ethics.’ While I have been fortunate enough to have undergone some training in the magical arts with people who know what they are doing, I have to admit that I have always been suspicious of the warning to always stay on your turf when performing magic rather than intervening with other people’s wyrd, for generally speaking, it is not very nice to impose your will on another person’s will.

Without debating this issue, I just want to pose this question: to what extent can we talk about ethics, my will against other people’s will, criminal magical acts of sorcery, healing, and so on, once the hedge is crossed? As far as I can see, once the bridge to the other world is crossed then you’ve left your own turf behind already. Also, insofar as in the ‘other’ world there are no distinctions that are similar to the ones we make here in our little mundane lives – as to the effect of what is good and what is bad for us and so on – it is rather pointless to maintain the same system of values and hierarchies in the magical world as we do here. That to me seems to defy the whole purpose with crossing thresholds. A magical world is a magical world, not a world of magic where good and evil are just better than the good and evil in this world.

As to our thoughts, how good or how bad, what intent we have and what we want to use it for, I’d have to say this: the only obligation we have is not to speak and think good of others, speak and think good of the earth and animals, on whose behalf we are also tempted to speak, but rather, we have an obligation to speak for ourselves. And what does that mean? That means that we must know how to respect ourselves. It is my belief that if we can respect ourselves, we can probably also respect others. We can only expect of ourselves to do the ‘right’ thing if we know what it means to respect ourselves. Anything else is to me questionable, namely, for instance, the presumption that we can speak for our children, the disabled, the earth, and so on. Maybe so, but how can we be sure? I’ll leave this open, as I have another agenda on my mind.

However, given this frame, I’m interested in magical acts that bypass the idea that we must have an ethical code devised in our own image or in that of some invented tradition. A magical act is a magical act. Now, without talking about magic as such – I know, I’m beginning to sound tedious now, but hang in there, I’m getting to the point – I want to talk about tools that might make a statement on the applicability of magical acts. I’ll take the tarot cards as an example.

Basically, I want to demonstrate how tarot can speak any language we want it to speak by showing how nicely tarot can become part of a magical discourse performing on two levels: first as a divination tool – answering a question – and then as a tool for intervention, enforcing whatever ‘eating of the enemy’ act must have been performed via other instruments than the cards, such as the eating of a talisman or an amulet – a common practice in the shamanic world.

THE QUESTION

Here’s my question posed to what I call the council of 13:

How practical are magical acts and how do they serve the practitioner?

I read first the inner cross, then the outer cross, then the diagonal lines and then the themes around the inner cross cards (For an in-depth intro to the mechanics of reading this spread, see my post here).

THE MAGICAL READING

As we can see from the beginning the practicability of magic is found in the desire to change your emotional content. As most magical acts are the result of emotion, ranging from rage to bliss, the 9 Cups here reflects that need very accurately and nicely. So we read around this card of change the following:

If you put energy (The Sun) in your magical intent, you’ll succeed (The Charioteer). But as we can see here, by looking at the Charioteer we also get the distinct impression that while winning the stake, you must also take leave of it. In some magical discourses it is in fact an imperative that if you have just ‘exercised’ your intent, you must leave it to work. You are not to check your bun in the oven ever third minute to see if it grows. You must believe that it does.

The magic is now manifested in the world (Knight of Batons). News about the change travels fast (Knight of Batons), with a man in power clearly benefitting (King of Coins). (Perhaps he is our Magician here, as most of these people are known to be able to handle a coin pretty nicely.) Other messengers participate in delivering the news about what has changed. The Pages of Batons and Cups flank the margins of the cauldron and are both oriented toward the center of attention where things are stirred. The page of Batons adds more logs to the fire while the page of Cups pours some champagne on the head of the winner. But the big cup of abundance (Ace of Cups) does not serve all equally well, as someone gets hanged (The Hanged Man). Some must give up their agency. Perhaps the Hanged Man is the man the magic is inflicted upon, and not as a nice thing.

People at large (Judgement) also hear about the change, and scattering ideas (3 coins) increase the glory (Sun still glowing above the 3 coins). But as with any magical act that needs to be constrained to ethical issues, ‘as above so below’ has a metallic ring to it. The destabilizing stab (4 spades) is done but the conflict (2 spades) remains. The King of Coins presides over a separation, and unless he likes that, he must have a bitter taste in his mouth.

If we look at emerging themes here, we might say the following:

There is a burning desire to hit home base (Ace of Cups, Page of Batons, 3 Coins around the Sun). The big bang succeeds, with the winner celebrated and the loser punished (Judgement, Page of Cups, The Hanged Man around The Charioteer).

The initial flowing zest dries up but there’s some theatrical resurrection (Ace of Cups, 4 Swords, Judgement around the Knight of Batons). The incubated magical act requires constraint and a renunciation (3 Coins, Two Swords, The Hanged Man around the King of Coins).

In other words, magical acts work and they serve the practitioner well, insofar as the practitioner is ready to sacrifice something too: travel to the underworld (as suggested by the Hanged Man here) or bring an offering of libation or money. Perhaps donning a costume of power also helps, and a dance in the public limelight might give the spirits something to laugh about.

THE MUNDANE READING

Now, if I wasn’t reading this spread for a specific magical purpose, but rather to know something about the magic of the banal in the everyday life that goes through 3 known stages – you get born, you live, you die – I’d probably say the following:

Two get together to form a family. The economics of it is in the high seat (Ace of Cups, The Sun, 3 coins). The family is already large with children coming from all corners (the 2 Pages, The Knight of Batons). Everybody celebrates (Judegment). There was great love in the past (Ace of Cups, The Sun), but right now it is strained (9 cups) due to too many destabilizing factors (The swords). While the crowd that includes the extended family (Judgement) still cheers for the maintenance of the status quo (The Charioteer), the man in the house grows impotent (The Hanged Man). As they say, worse things can happen.

From a mundane perspective, the absence of women may be worrying. From a magical perspective, I could advance the theory that the supposed magician here, namely the King of Coins, is in fact a cross-dresser. In the magical world, gender is the last thing that preoccupies the magician.

So what can I conclude? Well, perhaps the fact that I like magic, and that I prefer to see that it stays magical. We do not need to impose any rules on it, least of all contaminate it with our talk about what is right and what is wrong.

Have a magical life.

§

Note about the deck:

Tarot de Marseille by Jean Noblet (1650), as reconstructed by Jean-Claude Flornoy.

The sky is still clear and the moon is about to rise. Up here in the North the moon is always special. Even two days after it’s been full. The events around the full moon in Norway smell good to me. And this has to do with my heightened awareness of how the material world is enriched by the spiritual world in such a way that it doesn’t allow me to think anything, but rather just practice being in the world – whatever world. Today someone wanted to know how I reconcile being a Marxist with being a shamanic diviner. As if we can claim any of these labels to ourselves. I will reproduce my answer here, and then give a concrete example.

To keep it simple, perhaps I could say this: there is no reconciliation in the sense we normally think of the word, where we think of making an effort to let two different worlds meet. What enables me to walk between the worlds – let us call these worlds the worlds of logos and mythos – is the fact that I keep the narratives that inform each world apart. I make a strict distinction between them. I do not reconcile the metaphysical with the physical. I practice being in each world as I please. I don’t THINK about being in either world. I just am. I follow the rules of what works for me in each world. If anything in my PRACTICE of living approaches the idea of a reconciliation, then it is to be found in bringing things and ideas from one world into the other. This obviously presupposes that I don’t THINK that what I bring from the woo-woo world into the rational world is woo. Nor vice versa.

As a Marxist I can still accept the idea that what life is all about is how to maintain being connected to all things, which is the very core of shamanism. It is of no good to me to be disconnected from my material possessions – it is still a truth that money makes the world go round, not love – any more than it is good for me to be disconnected from my sense of being in the world as a spiritual being – here, with a wink to all the atheists I know, and who are very spiritual. I don’t know if this answers the question that pertains to asking why I don’t offer a critique of the transcendental as I do of ideology.

But the truth of the matter is that if you stand your ground, whichever ground, you do so because you are familiar with the house rules. So, in effect, it is never the thinking that informs my living but living. Sometimes this living involves an appreciation of having a luxury cabin on top of a mountain in Norway, only so that I can get to talk to the spirits of the land. So, indeed, I never speak metaphorically when I speak about the spirit world, but in fact quite literally and without any (Marxist) remorse.

Two days ago my partner and I were roaming the mountain plateau in the Trysil area in Norway. The plateaus are the thing for me. We were going for the top. Not long into our walk, he pointed to a hawk. As it happens, I’m convinced that one of his power spirits is embodied in a hawk. This conviction is simply the result of observation. There is hardly any walk in the woods that we do together – anywhere – when the hawk doesn’t appear. And I know it doesn’t come for me, as I’m never the one who spots it first. So the hawk is his thing. We marvelled at its hovering and then we moved on. At about half the way, I caught myself smiling at the green moss, only, I also realized that it wasn’t my face I was seeing, but rather that of my dead mother. It occurred to me instantly that the full moon in August is not only associated with harvest. It is also associated with death. In traditional folklore we often encounter the idea of honoring the dead by the third full moon in summer.

As we reached the top I suggested to my partner that we place 4 stones on the highest point in honor of our dead parents. This felt good. On our descent a spectacular dance awaited us. 4 hawks were dancing in the air in a fantastic formation, where there was only one spotted earlier. One of them got very low, flying in our direction. But 4 hawks! I told my partner: ‘well, your favorite number is 4, so there you have it.’

But as it happens when one finds oneself walking between worlds almost unawares, a different awareness can set in. He said, ‘well, we did place 4 stones for our parents on the top, so don’t you think that that was enough to call on all of them here so that they can acknowledge our act?’ Indeed, it’s a good thing I live with a Marxist who is also very spiritual and not in the slightest interested in the so-called rational world.

So, in addition to what I said earlier, I think that all we need in our practice of living is to be aware of our environment; pay attention to it. That, and the fact that if we expect to see the spirits of dead people around us in the material world, then we can be sure to see them. It’s as simple as that.

Walking between worlds is not a question of what we believe, but rather a question of what we practice. If we practice awareness of our expectations, and of how each world behaves, be it physical or metaphysical, according to our expectations – then we get a lot more out of it than if we merely speculated on the conditions for the existence of each of these worlds. We live what we practice, not what we preach.

Just to get a visual in place, on the question of walking between the worlds as it was prompted by the question of reconciling between the two, I grabbed one of the numerous decks of cards I always travel with, an old fortuneteller’s Dondorf Lenormand, and asked the question.

To what extent can we think of the world of logos and the world of mythos in terms of their encounter?

The Stars, The Tree, and The Bear suggest the following: The link between the metaphysical (The Stars) and the physical (The Bear) is found in the World Tree. The shamanic tree that has allowed for many a travel between the worlds in the past. There is a long tradition for such a practice. Let us honor it.

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Note on the cards: Dondorf Lenormand, 1890

Often in my consultancy with cards I find myself in a state of exasperation. ‘Decision-making is enabled by looking at the bottom-line. You can’t run from the bottom-line,’ I tell people, and they retort, ‘But that’s the problem. I don’t know what the bottom-line is.’ Fair enough. Personally, and giving my experiences and inclinations, I don’t think I have a problem with the bottom-lines in my life. I like to calculate variables, place things in equations, and look at chance factors. If I run into a blind-spot, I try to fix that with reading cards. But I can see that, indeed, not everyone entertains the mathematics of the everyday life. So, how can you make a decision if you don’t know what the bottom-line is?

I decided to ask the cards themselves, in a kind of a round-about way, what they think about what factors must be considered when we think of determining bottom-lines.

I used for this a favorite spread that I call the Council of 13. (For the mechanics of reading this spread see my post here. For the method of reading with playing-cards, see my other post here.)

Simply put, and without elaborating on what can become quite an extensive reading, it looks like the cards suggest the following:

In the assessment of any bottom-line, what we must consider is working with change. The center card is the 9♣, a card of change that involves work – and we take this to mean both, work in general and, in this context here, given the nature of the question, also work with the issue at hand.

I wasn’t thinking about any specific popular topic, such as an issue about relationship, work, health, or money, but it looks like the cards indicate as an example the example of relationships.

The King of Hearts presents himself in the first reading of the first trio, and we are meant to understand that he wants to have a say in it. This is not surprising given that when we want to assess the bottom-line of a relationship, culturally speaking, we can expect the patriarch to have a word about it. If change is to come, then it must benefit the material body (K♥ 9♣ 5♦).

Things can improve aesthetically, or plans for changes must be made gracefully (3♥ 9♣ A♣).

Some may resist the idea of essentializing (J♠), but the matriarch (Q♥) makes it easy for everyone to embark on a learning ride (6♣ 5♦ 6♦), so that everyone can see (6♦) what’s at stake (J♠ 9♣ Q♥).

Figuring out what the bottom-line is may be a daunting task (9♠), but in the face of change, everything can be worked out with the help of some youthful enthusiasm (9♠ 9♣ J♣).

Bottom-lines always have a teaching quality, and one can benefit from the message (6♣ 9♣ J♦).

What the bottom-line communicates serves seeing the point of the larger picture (8♦ 9♣ 6♦).

The Queen of Diamonds looking on to what factors enter into any essentializing process indicates women’s ability to supervise the outcome. Whereas the King relies on fresh blood and help from the outside to negotiate potential contradictions (8♦ J♠ J♦), the Queen, flanking the far right line, makes sure that no one dodges the difficult question.

So, then, to essentialize: the factors that go into figuring out what the bottom line is in any situation are the following:

Look at the father, but listen to the mother. The pros and cons can be determined if you are prepared for things to not only take a turn for the best but also for the worst. The bottom-line of any situation is that things change constantly. And just as things change, so can decisions. In other words, don’t be afraid to make decisions based on what you don’t want to hear. Once things change, one can always find a way to beautify one’s life.

Good luck with your bottom-lines.

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Note on the deck:

Published by Van Genechten Turnhout, Belgium for Nederlanden van 1845. Design by Aviva Davids Bahar, 1965.

The Queen’s root is divided into five hearts. The sign of the body. Five spots are anointed and the sixth gets an extra push by the indexical finger dipped in mandrake. Opening the heart needs help. The imagination turns black on the eighth count leaving room for all on call to state their names. Chronophagoi. All-y on all-y al-kal-o-id is the mantra of the time eaters. A purple breath is behind the Queen’s back. Her earrings absorb the sense-u-al unknown. All rise for the lawless covenant. The naked and the cloaked play a game of poison.

Today someone wanted to know how to make others want what she has to give. Strange request, I thought, but then upon thinking some more I thought that desiring for others to want what we have to give is not so strange.

The cards were blunt though.

To the question:

How can I make others want what I have to give?

The answer is: you can’t, unless you trick them.

Materially speaking you can’t give the King of Diamonds anything, as he has everything already. So if you have something to sell him, you’d have to don your magical cloak.

But since the question came from a woman, let us stick to the classical tradition of fortunetelling and assume that the two Kings in the picture are not about her, but about how they affect her as they are in a relationship with each other. I can see how the King of Diamonds may be receptive to the King of Spades. The latter king, having his own suit at his back – the magical seven of spades indicating all things hidden, trouble, and tears – may come across to the King of diamonds as a more mysterious King, but therefore also as more untrustworthy King, than the Kings of merry-go-round of love and strife that we associate with the other two suits not present here, namely the hearts and the clubs.

Simply put, what the cards are saying is that the woman is up against two men, one of money and one of war. When the King of Spades is not a magician he is someone who is either alone, working for the government, an enemy of the querent, or all of the above. So we can safely presume even without having the woman say a word about it that what she has to give is something she would like men to want. Tall order, as, by implication, I can further presume that the reason why she asks that question is because she doesn’t find that there is congruence between what she wants to give and what men want. In other words, they are not on the same page. Tough luck.

Meanwhile, however, it also looks like the two men are too busy being each other’s rivals and there is an indication that what the woman is called to consider is who she wants to side with. The money-man is good to know, though he may be a conservative bore. The war-man may be interesting to know, as you’ll never now where you have him. War-men are known for intricate and calculated strategies, so there you have it. You’ll never be bored with one such. Love is not an option and nor is negotiating. So, we’re back to the first assumption if you want to keep a neutral stance. You can make others want what you have to give if you trick them, or if you pretend. A classic.

I have to say that this scenario made me feel sorry for our lot. Most of us, both men and women, have to sell things all the time to people that don’t want it, or pretend to want it. How many of us can claim to be in a job or a relationship that is entirely satisfying? How many times can we swear that the ones we have to deal with are also the ones we are on the same page with?

So it goes. Maybe I should put this Russian deck away. The Russians are such fatalists. The pragmatists, however, know better. The meaning of life is all about selling: our looks, credentials, fantasies, you name it. It would be nice for a change if what we had to sell was actually also what others want in all truthfulness. Perhaps some are lucky, but not today.

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Note on the deck:

Jugendstil Reprint “1001 Night” Playing Cards, Russia 1972

Today is my friend’s birthday. A woman well-known to some in the cartomantic community. Witta Kiessling Jensen, artist and wife of the famed collector K. Frank Jensen, is a woman of power. Not many can celebrate their 72nd birthday on a new moon. Something new must be made for her.

I got up and decided to go textile. I have a way with fabrics, braiding, and making magical cords. I took out a piece of silk that I bought in New York a few years ago, and I decided to make Witta a stole that she can wear at crossroads.

I braided a long red cord for vitality and power and I encrusted it with a golden pearl. Witta likes pearls.

Then I read Witta’s cards. Not just for a birthday message, but literally also her cards. I have a deck of Lenormand cards that Witta, Frank, and a number of other artists around the world made in the early 1990s as a collaborative mail art project. Of the 22 decks made, only 16 were up for sale.

Witta’s cards were the following:

Tree, Crossroad, Cat.

Happy birthday, my dear and most magical friend. You walk between worlds with the majestic endurance of the tree and a beautiful familiar. Your own black cat, Pips, decided to have a word on this day of the new moon, and wish you well. The big, rather frightening grin, tells me that you know your path.

See you in the woods today, where we can both harvest the beautiful solanaceae, and at the house of spirits for a schnapps.

Love and kisses – c.

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Note on the deck:

Mail Artist’s Lenormand deck, Roskilde, Denmark, 1995.

One of the good things about being into cards is that when you want to redecorate, all you need to do is go through your drawers and pick something up. You can even divine for it if you’re in doubt as to what new theme the house should now have. Some are into that. So today I went for erotica on my walls. This is a genre that I thoroughly enjoy, when it’s well done – I don’t do vulgar. I have an interesting deck and a portfolio of 8 large-size cards made in 1955 in Paris by Philibert. The deck that goes with it is called “Le Florentin.” It was designed by Paul Emile Bécat (1885-1960) who, after a life of painting landscapes, turned to erotica to all our pleasure. Of course, behind the so-called Florentin designs for the deck, the deck features by suggestion the life and times of René Le Florentin, a courtier character, hanging around the house of the Medicis and teaching many life lessons.

Camelia Elias in good company.

To today’s message, in response to a question about a new project, the cards had this to say:

After the Poisoners are done (A♠), invite the Adventuresses (A♦) for a passionate mental ride (Q♦) that will give you just the idea as to what your body can do and what you can use it for.

I think I’m going to hang the intellectual La Belle Ferroniere on my South-wing wall.

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Note on the deck:

Le Florentin, Paul-Emile Bécat for Philibert, Paris 1955 (both the deck and the portfolio).

The names of the cards I indicate above are the ones given by Bécat.

In the latest issue of The Playing-Card Thierry Depaulis makes the following remark in a footnote on the first page of his essay: “The Tarot de Marseille: Facts and Fallacies” pertaining to the meaning of ‘Tarotist’.

While he rightly points out one of the cultural differences between the different approaches to tarot, he neglects to say that the reason why the Tarotists and the Tarologues may not be interested in the history of the cards is because they are busy with reading the cards. The Tarotist does not necessarily need history in order to read the cards. What she needs is a method for reading the cards.

Basically you cannot hold it against people the fact that they prefer one thing over the other, divination over history. Tarotists are not historians. They are card readers, and most of them acknowledge themselves as such. Passing judgment on how they supposedly intuit things about the history of the cards or ‘know’ things about the cards that no one else does without actually getting their ‘sources’ right is to stretch the prejudice against a practice that is not your own practice. I actually happen to know Tarotists who, while insisting on reading cards than on digging out facts about the provenance of the cards, also know history. What I myself appreciate in such readers is the fact that while they are obviously capable of keeping with the facts, they have more to say than a historian simply because they know something about the history of divination, which is not something that a ‘straight’ historian wants to bother with.

Just for fun, and since the Tarotists are not held in high respect by the historians, I’ve asked the Tarot de Marseille to tell me what name would do. 

I’m using here a newly reconstructed deck by someone who fits Depaulis’s definition of both a Tarotist and a Tarologue. Wilfried Houdoin both holds the tarot to have a secret code, and he also believes he has found a key. Whatever the man thinks, I find that we can use his deck and some of the ideas behind it. Just because someone may be wrong historically does not mean that they cannot offer something for the rest of us to think about. As far as I’m concerned, if an idea is interesting, I’m interested. This goes for my appreciation of Depaulis’s own historical insights too.

The three cards, The Hanged Man, The Emperor, The Wheel of Fortune, suggest that no matter what you’ll call yourself some authority will always think it wrong. Therefore you can call yourself a fortuneteller.

I’ll take this. As yet I have to see a historian accusing a fortuneteller of ignorance. What a relief.

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Note on the deck: Tarot de Marseille, Edition Millenium, as reconstructed by Wilfried Houdoin, 2011

In my practice of reading cards I’m often confronted with the following question: ‘what am I seeking?’ This is one of the hardest questions anyone can ask.

If one is interested in controlling the levels of the expansion of consciousness that such a question may lead to, then one has to learn things the hard way. Plunge into the unknown, but not foolishly through drinking wine or ‘getting high’ on herbs and substance – whatever the latter means – but enthusiastically through being prudent and circumspect.

One of my favorite lines is from an Indian proverb: “When the pupil is ready, the master will appear.” The best in any seeking is the waiting part; the joining of hands and the waiting through song and dance; Then the masked ones come. Can we embrace them without prejudice and speculation? ‘Why are you wearing a horned mask?’, we could just ask. The shape of the masks can tell us what to do. And if we can listen too, we may discover that some bird speaks our language.

Take the block of Himalayan salt and place it under your candle. Make sure you have a burnt table. Mine has acquired a round shape from a burner in which I was smoking Brazilian ceder that was laid in malted barley at Amager Bryghus. This round shape now attracts whatever else interesting I happen to have nearby on the table.

Tonight, and next to my magical cards, some frankincense pebbles that I have brought with me from Ethiopia many years ago have landed into the circle. The first smoke went up linearly and then I lost its trail. Something about infinity, small rain, and the smell of stones hit me. Sometimes it’s not very hard to see what we are seeking. It’s often right on our tables. A dance of hearts and spades, a medieval tournament, and a mysterious soul that we conjure.

About the salt, yes, I almost forgot. You can try licking it. You’ll get an instant answer to whatever question you have. Walk the path and don’t forget to pill your pockets with some stones.

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Note on the deck: Otto Tragy Jugendstil Spielkarte, Ver. Stralsunder Altenburg, 1910