I have been writing about reading grand tableaus, both short style and elaborate style, and offered as well, both traditional and some more innovative takes on it (See my Method page). I haven’t always been writing about cards, but lately I’ve found that it gives me a certain pleasure. As few out there also appreciate what I’m saying, I don’t think I can ask for more.

Now, however, and as I’m often asked, the best for me is when the cards tell you everything you need to know in one second. I’m always looking for that one second when I can go: ‘I knew it!’ I call going through the other steps of reading the tableau a brain-game, and I like to see how the one-second answer gets to be validated by the larger set. One can take really long time to look intently at 52 cards, or 36, or 78, depending on what one is playing with, and get a lot out of it, but there’s nothing like that one second glance that says it all.

The reason why I’m attracted to the cards offering such incredible and unambiguous answers in one second is because I link this with what we call ‘reality’. If you listen to the non-dualism philosophers, people like Krishnamurti, Osho, and a host of other interesting Zen and not so Zen folks, you’ll hear the same line over and over, and which pertains to what these people consider reality is, namely the ‘right now’ moment. Insofar as the past is gone, and the future is something you imagine – and mind you, I’ve seen people entertaining and living the opposite too, with their past imagined and their future gone – I think it’s safe enough to say that if we are to experience anything authentic, then it’s got to be the right now moment in the right now moment. Nothing else is as ‘true’ and ‘real’ as that. Alas, however, and as many experienced card-readers will tell you, for many the right now moment can be a lot about the lost past or the imaginary future.

Let’s take an example. One of the perennial questions that I get relates to people’s hope of getting the one their heart desires. Fair enough. But it can become a problem when the one dreamt of has been separated from the tormented subject for ages. As a card reader, one may always be tempted to tell both men and women to get a grip of themselves and move on if the separation has been long, anything from 7 to 50 years. On the other hand, I find it fascinating to think that some men and women out there must be getting something out of carrying the torch for some invisible other. Readers of cards can testify to the situation. A friend of mine, a well-known person in the cartomantic world, and whose books I’ve published, writes beautifully about how to be genuinely useful to a client who wants some answers about a lost relation that is now reaching the silver-anniversary. As Enrique Enriquez writes in his collection of interviews around the Tarot, one must be getting something out of thinking of the lost other for some 25 years. That something should interest us all. There is a lot of life-force and narrative-force in such stories.

Now, let me do a short reading of a grand tableau with playing-cards. All 52 of them, as I prefer the full deck, on the question of what one gets out of thinking of the lost other. This is a real-life reading, as all of my examples here are.

THE QUESTION

‘What do I get from thinking of the absent other?’

THE COUNT

I have to say that the spread below is one of the most beautiful that one can get. It has an incredible symmetry and it offers a sharp answer to the count of 9. The spread is not beautiful in terms of its message – sad affair – but more so in terms of its being extremely clean; Especially as it relates to this classical count that I’ve also referred to in one of my earlier posts, namely the counting of 9 cards from the significator. The earliest example of a written account of this type of fortunetelling with playing-cards, at least in the English language, is in the large body of work by Robert Chambers from 1869. According to this account, you must read the 9th card in trio with the next 9th card, and the next again, beginning with the 9th card you land on in the first count (See, Robert Chambers’ The Book of Days: A Miscellany of Popular Antiquities, 1869).

What I also do for variation and immediacy of the message is read the cards in the vicinity of the 9th, so I always have a trio to read as a combo: in other words, the 9th card as it’s flanked by the card at its left and the card at its right, the 9th card being the middle of the trio. The idea is that if the last card is the 9th card from the significator, then you can either keep counting, going to the top of the tableau so that you form a trio, or just consider the power of that one last card. In any event, first you read each 9th card from the significator (3 does it for me, but you can go through the whole tableau with it, and read that as a string), and then you read the trio around the 9th card for more info. Usually this info will not contradict the message of the first count, but be prepared for some brain-work at synthesizing if that happens.

THE SIGNIFICATORS

I thought it appropriate to pick the King and Queen of Spades as significators, insofar as I see them as estranged lovers. In this case here, the Queen wants to know what she gets out of the King – who obviously gives her nothing in the ‘right now’ moment.

So we start by counting the classical way, 9 cards from the significator. As she wants to know what HE gives her, I’ve started the count forward from his position in the spread. Some may argue that you must start from HER position first, as she is the significator. Each with her way. I prefer to think about what’s most logical, not about what’s most traditional, for, as we all know, what we call ‘tradition’ may well be just unfounded claims and random opinions.

THE READING

From this count it’s clear that what the Queen of Spades gets from the King of Spades is the following: Definitely nothing (A♠) that’s, however, slightly reconsidered as a maybe (2♦), but to no avail (3♠). So, ‘hang on to that thought of being invited to the party,’ I said, ‘and enjoy the nothing that comes.’ Nasty business, the business of reading cards.

Now, what one can also do that I haven’t seen others doing is count backwards. As you can see here, and enabled both by the deck I’m using today and the position of the Queen in the spread, you can count back from the Queen herself, as she gazes towards the past, so we can see what her perception of what she gets out of it may be. Counting the 9s again, here we have the following: 10♣ 10♠ 4♠. So the Queen of Spades doesn’t think much of the situation either. There is a wall, an obstacle (10♣), that she is unable to conquer no matter how much she invests in thinking about strategies to overcome it (10♠). She knows what the deal is. But even so she exhausts herself (4♠) with her culminating thoughts about nothing.

If we look at the two sets of trios with the 9th card in them, one from the King and one from the Queen, we get this message, first pertaining to the King’s situation: 2♠ A♠ 10♣. After the split (2♠), a decision is made (♠) to drown in responsibility (10♣). Some find work as a good substitute for a failed relationship. If we look at the Queen’s situation, we get this: A♠ 10♣ 7♠. This tells us that the 2 are entangled in the ‘end’ (they share the A♠ and the 10♣ in the count), but for her it’s more of a ‘cry over spilt milk’ situation (7♠).

If we are to put more of a spin on this situation we could count the 9 cards from the Queen but to the right rather than to the left. For some sense of the future, and as an expectation of what the outcome of all the thinking that goes into a dead relation is, however justified or not the thinking, we get this: 7♦ (the last card). Now we can either leave it there, and conclude: more trouble – it’s simply not economical in the long run to have thoughts of someone who gives nothing at all – or see it as an attempt to get novel thoughts about the negative thoughts (J♦ 7♦ 8♣ at the top). As this trio ends with a black card, we are here told that such an attempt would fail. If we read in line with counting three 9 cards from the Queen, we can see that there’ll be more of a relief for her, if she elects to focus on having exchanges with the one she loves or a friend, and then communicate largely some ideas, perhaps about a learned lesson (7♦ 2♥ 8♦).

As for the King himself, it looks like he has enough women in his life to worry about. He doesn’t sit all that pretty, and he lies a lot. Some abandoned woman may find such a message comforting, namely to know that she isn’t the only one deceived.

But the present, the present. How about the present? Indeed, it goes to show that it does pay off to consider sometimes just how useless disrespecting oneself is. Forgetting oneself in some lost relation. Anyone with respect for themselves would take that last card and turn it into a revelation. The 7s, as I pointed out in my intro posts to fortunetelling with playing-cards, can all be magical, and not just trouble. The good news is that while it may be pointless to think of the past, and equally pointless to project fantasies into the future, it is never pointless to think of the present. That’s where the magic is. The woman I read for today went home with the seven of diamonds as her key to insight and vision. She will be back for a magical item that I’ll make for her in the form of a key tied to a red cord run through a bone. We’ll see what that trick will do for her sense of the present. Ashe. 

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Note on the deck:

Ciel de France, Cartes a Jouer de Luxe, Miro Company, Paris, 1950

Jacques Branger Designs.

Something struck me today. Something was missing from the cartomantic community. A voice, or some voice anyway, that registers the sentiment, or as za French say, le sentiment, around what’s happening in the world of cards. I decided to try my hand at it, and in collaboration with the cards, see if I could answer a few questions that address some current issues and debates over the state-of-the-art in the world of divination with cards.

After this post, I will elevate this text to a Page of its own and call it One-Liners. You can find it already under my Method page. I’ll be updating this page as I plod along in the world of cards, and all according to what I’ll be able to capture about the general cartomantic zeitgeist, I’ll offer an opinion à la ‘IMHO’ style.

About the beginning lines here, a note of authenticity. In line with the taroflectic practice, all the questions have been written out before any cards were laid on the table. No cheating. I have witnesses in case anyone wants me to sign a statement. This practice of authenticity will continue.

. . . . . .

Q: ‘Visibility, visibility, visibility’ is for cartomancy what ‘location, location, location’ is for real estate. What can an INvisible cartomancer teach?

A: There is nothing new under the sun.

Deck: Paul-Emil Bécat, Le Florentin, Philibert, Paris, 1956

. . . . . .

Q: Five years ago no one wanted to touch the word ‘prediction’ in divination with cards. Now it’s all the rage. What happened?

A: The ambition for money ran into a wall.

Deck: Z. Lismon Etteilla, 1850

. . . . . .

Q: Some cartomancers want to insist that we don’t divine by suggestion. What stake do they have in maintaining this myth?

A: ‘Money money money, Must be funny, In the rich man’s world.’

Deck: Le Corti D’Amore, Modiano, Trieste, 1950

. . . . . .

Q: Cartomancers have been observing how public cartomantic groups on the internet have been imploding themselves. First the artifice and then, errr, the fanfare?

A: Actually, it’s the Fish.

Deck: Leipzig Lenormand, 1982

. . . . . .

Q: Stanislaw Jerzy Lec once said: ‘When smashing the statues, keep the pedestals. They may come in handy.’ What area in cartomancy will be elevated next, after the smashing of the Tarot in the name of Lenormand?

A: Haitian Voudou.

Deck: Cartes transformée. Gioco dei Giornali, Paris 1819, ed. Il Meneghello, Milano 1997

. . . . . .

Q: Most will argue and demonstrate that power is a construct and that it works best when it’s invisible. Cartomantic power is, errr, what is it again that people want?

A: Delusion. ‘Give us some more.’

Deck: Tarot de Marseille, Edition Millenium, as reconstructed by Wilfried Houdoin, 2011

. . . . . .

To be continued.

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Some like to use the Lenormand cards to talk about karma. Well, guess what? It exists. Everything exists in the cards. As I like to say, if you’re looking for monsters, you’re going to see monsters. If you’re looking for angels, you’re gonna see those too.

Here are two of my favorite examples from questions about work and relationship and how they are going.

Let’s take the relationship first.

Tree, Scythe, Cross

‘Who did the cutting,’ I asked?

‘I did,’ the answer came.

‘Well, good luck to you,’ I said. ‘You cut a healthy relationship, get ready for some grief. Using the wood from the tree to carve yourself a cross to say ‘amen’ to and ‘good riddance’, is not going to make you feel any better about the so-called closure’.

‘Well, what can I do about it now?’, the desperate voice said.

‘Nothing,’ I said. ‘You can think of your own stupidity and try to forgive yourself.’

. . . . . .

Let’s look at the work relation.

Whip, Lily, Cross

‘Who got cocky here?’, I asked.

‘I did,’ the answer came?’

‘Why?’, I wanted to know.

‘Well, because you know, I also wanted to have a say in it, and then this monolith thinks that he can stand in my way with his fancy diplomas and all that…’

‘Ah,’ I said. ‘The inferior man blames the superior man for being superior. Good luck to you too, you just went to your own funeral.’

. . . . . .

Vonnegut wrote an iconic phrase in his novel, Slaughter House 5. Whenever somebody died – and there were many deaths in that novel – he said: ‘So it goes’.

Getting a strong message like the above across may strike some as a sign of arrogance, or even worse, presumptuousness, but the truth of the matter is that there is little one can say in the face of what the cards themselves articulate. As far as I am concerned, the Tree+Cross always indicates an unconsolable situation (especially if the Moon is also nearby). There is a spiritual dimension there that calls for consideration. As for the Whip+Lily, well, that’s straightforward. There is always a tension there between the undisciplined and the disciplined. For the Whip to turn into a Lily next to the Cross is very bad news, as the Lily is very much a card of death. So it goes, indeed. The good news is here, however, that insofar as the broom can be said to bloom again, at least it becomes aesthetically more pleasing.

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Note on the deck: Dondorf Lenormand, Carreras, 1926

Exactly 3 months ago today I read the cards for someone. ‘Nope,’ I said. ‘It doesn’t look like it. Period.’ Today the person wrote the following, after a very concise report including all the details:

‘So, there you go, you were right! But you already knew it, didn’t you?’

Well, I can’t say I knew it, but the cards showed it. So, about those predictive readings that some are so afraid of: The fortuneteller never predicts. She reads the cards. Period.

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Note on the cards: These were not the cards read for the occasion I’m referring to above. Nor was this the spread either.

When I’m in Sweden I make it my business to preoccupy myself with some particular business. Getting practical in the woods is one of the best activities I can think of. The power of the nature around me is enough to make me realize that it is not in this life time that I will ever get bored.

So, just before midday, in the glaring sun sending its burning rays through the trees, I decide to use my new set of cards designed by Ellen Lorenzi-Prince, The Dark Goddess Tarot. I state my purpose and wait to see who present themselves. The Hag of Fire, Maman Brigitte, Hel between the worlds, and the Witch of Fire, Ceridwen, give me a message.

Ellen’s one-line description of every card serves me well here:

“Dance with your ancestors. Raise the dead. If both are the reality, there is no choice. Craft anew with the bones of the old.”

How very appropriate. I arm myself with my Kerala kard dagger and go down to the river. On the bank, I talk to the wind and state my purpose. I can feel the impatience of the blade. The wind makes it speedy. The water makes the blade  want to run smoothly through something. The sun turns it into a burning mirror. I realize that I’m standing in the middle of a puddle caused by a stream running into the river. Fortunately appropriate. I stick the knife into it. All the way through. This is a very good knife, and the earth likes what it does to it. I state my purpose again. I finish up with cleaning my tool with leaves and roots. I rinse it into the running river. Maman Brigitte presides over the ceremony. She sends me a reassuring glance. Who knows how many dead the river hides? They have a hill here called the Hill of Death. It’s made of stones that grew bigger and bigger because people kept raising the spirit of a young girl that was murdered in the 1700s. Somehow I know I’m granted permission to the Underworld.

I come back to the cabin to honor the advice: ‘Craft anew with the bones of the old.’ Since my knife was made in 1880 and has a handle made of stag bone, I decide to give it a shine. I use a concoction made as an ointment that contains belladonna, datura, henbane, and makdrake. All is well.

I look at all my stuff: the cards, the dagger, the ointment, the stones, and the roses. A good feeling descends over me. It occurs to me that today is Aleister Crowley’s birthday. I don’t hold any dead people in any dignitary position. I prefer to respect some of their ideas and take what is good.

I ask another set of cards to show me what Crowley is saying today. I constrained the message though. What with all the dead today, I went for using only the court cards and the aces.

Crowley says: Jack of Spades, Queen of Spades, Ace of Hearts. We are familiars. Indeed we are. I can still remember Crowley breathing down my neck in Turku at the famous occult library, the Steiner Library, where I was doing some research for my university a few years ago. I had to turn to the shelf full of his works that was facing my desk, and said: ‘Now listen, why don’t we become friends? You don’t need to sneak up on me. I have come here in peace.’ ‘Fair enough,’ said Crowley, and we have thence had a good time.

Some of his poems come to my mind. Quite appropriate. His “Arhan” ends with these words:

Burn thou to the core of matter, to the spirit’s utmost flame,

Consciousness and sense to shatter, ruin sight and form and name!

Shatter, lake-reflected spectre; lake, rise up in mist to sun;

Sun, dissolve in showers of nectar, and the Master’s work is done.

Nectar perfume gently stealing, masterful and sweet and strong,

Cleanse the world with light of healing in the ancient House of Wrong!

Free a million mortals on the wheel of being tossed!

Open wide the mystic portals, and be altogether lost!

I take another walk in the woods. The advantage of raising the dead in midday is that you have the whole day and what’s ahead of you to do with. Now that is extremely appropriate. I go the the church to listen to the 5 o’clock bells. They have an interesting gravedigger here. He likes to rake the path between the graves and then make circles. A grave with rose bushes invites me over to have a closer look. I pick up a few leaves and then snatch a three-bud stem. I intend to blend the petals into my incense tonight. The dusk dew is about to fall. I’m going in for some more magic.

§

Not on the decks:

The Dark Goddess, by Ellen Lorenzi Prince, ArnellArt, 2013

Dondorf, Francfort 1876

The sun is shining and I’m waiting for guests. My sister and her partner will join us in the Swedish woods for a week. While waiting for them to hit the place, and getting somewhat impatient, I decide to use an interesting little deck of cards made in the 40s, and get a sense of what theme may emerge. I have on my mind some projects that my sister and I are good at – apart from reading cards, which she is an adept at. In using Laetitia’s Oracle, it is not necessary to pose a question, as this oracle is so designed as to be very precise on what will happen. As often with oracles, you don’t need to interpret anything.

I decided to do Laetitia’s version of a 13-card spread out of the several that she indicates in her little pamphlet that comes with the cards.

THE METHOD

Shuffle the cards and spread them in a horse-shoe style. Look for the predominant color. As this oracle follows the French method, the meaning of the suits are different than in the method that I prefer. Here the cups are good, the clubs are fortunate, the diamonds indicate misfortune, and the spades death and malice. After determining the predominant color that gives us an indication of what preoccupies the querent, the idea is to pair the cards, beginning from the margins and inward. The first card must be pared with the last and so on. The card in the middle, the 13th is the surprise; the card that I like to think of as looking on and towards what unfolds.

Laetitia also instructs that the card on the left leads the oracle. These are the talking cards (parlante). The idea is to take their primary meaning (and we use reversals here) and pair it with the card next to it. But we only use this neighbouring card for its suit, not for its meaning. For instance, if the card next to the Queen of Hearts is a Spade, then we must read the oracular line for spades on the talking card. In my example below The Queen of Hearts will experience a change in her chagrins.

The other important thing look for is groups of 3 or 4 cards of the same numerical value. In my example below, the 3 Queens suggest a situation of criticism, malice, and bad talk. Along with 3 Jacks emphasizing discussions among parents, and sentimental rivalries, I can already begin to guess what my sister and I will be doing apart from being creative (lucky I’m not a parent myself, or else god only knows what competitive advice on good parenting I might come up with).

THE READING

With the outlook on the situation thus generally determined, let us look more closely at what the individual lines, one for each pair, indicates:

Personal sorrows of a friendly blond lady are receding (Q♥/10♠).

The deceptive situation improves (9♥R/V♦).

A lying and deceiving young man will fail in his intrigues (V♠R/K ♣).

Little delicate problems, of a melancholic nature, are to be resolved. There are misunderstandings. Or signs of fatigue, and nervous depression (7♠/K♠).

Small news, but bad are on the way. One can expect contrariness and anger. Some unwilling spending will also occur (7♦R/9♣).

An energetic brunette likes to protect and devote herself to her beloved and her surroundings (Q♣/J♥R).

The surprise: A perfidious woman presides over the events (Q♦R).

THE PRECEDENT

I can testify that all of this can happen, as a precedent has been established. My sister is a strong-headed woman, but also the most loving and fun to be with. This is a weird combination that often leaves me baffled. Even after more than 40 together I’m still trying to figure out how my sister can be all embracing and also in opposition all the time.

Meanwhile we have the woods. Perhaps I can climb up a tree and try to distance myself from whatever enervating situation, should it arise. Having a high vista on things may be a good idea.

Check with me in a week to find out if Letitia’s Oracle spoke the truth.

§

Oracle Laetitia, Rue Heron, Bordeaux, 1940.

It’s the season. Or maybe not, as I always end up doing some practical magic at the cabin in the Swedish woods. I’m good with cards, knots, and other thoughts. There are alliances. We watch each other. I craft anew with the old bones. Fallen apples have made it into a crumble pie. Tomorrow I’ll stick the Fly Agaric into the oven. Swedish Pors Schnapps was sprinkled here and there. Too sweet for my taste, though. But it works as perfume. For drinking I stick with the mean and bitter Bäske Droppar. The Helium Poet Lenormand cards say: the magical objects made today are most powerful in divination. Knotting news that the dog participates in delivering. Loyal messages. The broom knows what it’s for. Not everybody gets it. Yes, it’s the season. The veil between the worlds is thinnest about now. The knife was sharpened on a grind stone from the stone-age, the slipränna in Krogån. (K)not of this time.

§

Note on the deck: A Helium Poet Lenormand, by Camelia Elias (30 cards) and Witta Kiessling Jensen (6 cards), Agger, 2013 (Not commercial).

Passing the time over the fall break with my family in a cabin in the Swedish woods, I had the idea to create an oracle deck of cards, based on several timeless sources of wisdom – one being, of course, the Major Arcana of the Tarot. After casting about for suitably oracular material among the available ancient grimoires and spell books to create a dialogue with the Tarot, I settled on a proven text that always delivers a powerful punch-line, at least when looking at the moral of the tale: Aesop’s Fables!

The Oracle of the Fables, Camelia Elias, 2013

Here is what I then made the family circus do: We divided the 22 major arcana cards between us, and for each card we found a corresponding page in the book of Fables. We then rolled some dice to determine what specific line we would read in conjunction with the card.

An example: In the first round I pulled the card of the High Priestess, which of course has the value of 2. I then went to page two in the book of fables, finding “The Cock and the Pearl”, rolled the dice to determine the line number, got 7, and came away with the sentence: “I would rather have a single barleycorn than a peck of pearls.” We repeated this procedure with all cards, moving progressively through the page numbers in blocks of 22 pages, so that when my turn came to do the Fool, I added his value of 22 to the page number in the fables book, coming up with 45, from which I distilled the sentence, “The idol broke in two.” In the end we had the following 22 oracular statements emerging from the mouths of the Major Arcana figures:

• 0/22. “The Idol broke in two.” – The Fool
• 1. “Raise the pole” – The Magician
• 2. “I would rather have a single barleycorn than a peck of pearls.” – The High Priestess
• 3. “Undisturbed by its tail.” – The Empress
• 4. “The Lion took Androcles to his cave.” – The Emperor
• 5. “You will dare!” – The Hierophant
• 6. “I am a bird.” – The Lovers
• 7. “You can never forget the death of your son.” – The Chariot
• 8. “I shall suffer for it.” – Strength
• 9. “The trees were good-natured.” – The Hermit
• 10. “Come with me to my master!” – The Wheel of Fortune
• 11. “You will want some refreshments” – Justice
• 12. “The lion attacked them one by one.” – The Hanged Man
• 13. “The lion was so tickled at the idea of the mouse.” – Death
• 14. “Brains, your Majesty!” – Temperance
• 15. “Be content with your lot.” – The Devil
• 16. “We want a real King.” – The Tower
• 17. “Much outcry, little outcome.” – The Star
• 18. “That fine harness upon you.” – The Moon
• 19. “All shall dwell together.” – The Sun
• 20. “Put the Serpent down on the hearth.” – Judgement
• 21. “Don’t sprawl here!” – The World

The fact that I can’t draw has never stopped me from drawing. So I proceeded to imitate the drawings in the Marseille Tarot. I started last night, and finished the whole thing this morning. The way I draw is always by way of putting pen to paper directly. No pencil and no drafts. I’m not a patient person when it comes to these things, and I don’t believe in revising a drawing. I think I finished the deck in about 4 hours, between a meal, a walk in the woods, watching Forest Gump on TV, and a sun salutation on the porch after a good night’s sleep.

Creating oracles and making cards is an activity that I recommend warmly. If nothing else, then simply because you get to laugh your wits out, every time you take your own deck and look at what it says, both visually and literally. And mind you, you can also get wiser.

ORACLE MOJO

After I finished, and keeping with my ritual with every new deck I ever get, I asked my Oracles of the Fables to show me its mojo.

I got the Sun, the Moon and the Fool. Right. Visually the oracle tells me this: who needs words to communicate with? Howling at the moon can also do it. And if it doesn’t, who needs others to miscommunicate with? Take a walk and be free.

Verbally, the cards say the following:

“All shall dwell together. That fine harness upon you. The idol broke in two.”

And the reaction to this can only be one: ‘Oh, wow!’

NOW WALK

The nice thing about oracles is that they need no interpretation. You go with what you hear. Some would say, you go with your intuitive response. But I don’t like that. I like to say that as with any oracle, you go with what you hear. Period. The oracle lore going back thousands of years prove exactly that. The Greeks were not into ‘intuition’. They were into action. In fact, I would argue that the only reason why we bother to read any cards, divine, or look at the stars, is because we want cues for action, not for how we can end up praising ourselves for our intuitive faculties. Every time I come upon eulogies and odes to intuition I can see that the ones singing, sing a song to their own cognitive egos. I don’t find that very interesting.

So, the Oracle of the Fables speaks its truth. And I like what I’m hearing. This oracle walks its talk.

FABULATIONS

Here are some more images in juxtaposition. Enjoy!

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Note on the deck: The Oracle of the Fables, Camelia Elias, Knäred, 2013, (not commercial).

A student told me today: ‘You’re simply so awesome.’ He said that last week too. ‘Well good,’ I was thinking. I was talking about Marxism, my favorite movie, The Life of Brian, the stoning scene in that movie, and being stoned in general. I mean, why don’t we ever vote into public office the ones that don’t wear a black suit? Ideology is a manipulation of rhetoric, some say. I believe that. All we need to do is pay attention to what words are being repeated by our politicians to get a sense of just how poor a state our thoughts and souls are in. In Denmark right now the holy cow is ‘democracy.’ Right. I run to Borges for a second opinion: “Democracy is an abuse of statistics,” he said, and he was right.

I got flowers today and a beautiful birthday card. Tomorrow I turn 45. That’s awesome enough. I look at my little fun table and enumerate the luminous things on it: A Victorian-time crystal ball next to a black tourmaline stone and a leaf skull. An antique Chinese bronze, enamelled censor, all the rage. I swear the incense smells better when it comes out of it. Next to it I have a Brazilian nut. For protection, the Brazilians say. Behind the scrying device there’s a stone filled with natural mountain crystals that my sister dragged all the way down from that witchy place, the top of Brocken in Germany. She was hiking there by night. She stumbled over the stone, picked it up, and decided that my name was written on it. When she realized how beautiful the stone was after she gave it a vigorous wash in the river the day after, she considered keeping it for herself. But then she got cold feet. You never know with those energies, and once a decision is made in that context, you don’t take anything back. The crystal ball looks on to the other crystals. My sister is good at gazing into the beyond. She is what they call ‘a natural’. Then there’s the Japanese bell that my friend with the card gave me. The sound of that can raise not only hell but some 9 heavens too. The pink Thulite stone sits next to some Samhain pumpkins and among cards. Lots and lots of cards. I’m of the opinion that if I didn’t read cards, I’d die from boredom.

The birthday card I received today makes me think of the Lenormand cards. Taken together, the Mouse, the Heart, and the Moon suggest the following: spent passion leads to stoning. My friend is good with weeds, so who knows what she had in mind when she encoded the rune stone Thurisaz in the Moon. First I thought it was Wunjo, the rune of joy, but the more I look at the faint drawing behind the silver, the more I can see it’s the rune of monsters and giants. As they say, when going to the other world by any means, if you expect to see monsters, you’ll see monsters, and if you expect to see fairies, you’ll see fairies. Perhaps that’s what the Book on the birthday card is all about. The primary meaning of the Book in the Lenormand oracle is secret, not knowledge. Some kind of smoke comes out of the Book. Before the book my friend drew a spark. First I thought it was a Star, the card of inspiration, but now that I think of it, I can see it’s a spark. Try to hit two stones together and see what you get. There are definitely two red dots in the Star, so, I’d say something is going on here. And I’m not saying this because I’ve just had a huge meal that consisted of entrails – my favorite kind of food steamed to perfection in the French pressure cooker along exotic spices that can indeed induce altered states of consciousness.

Although I don’t celebrate anniversaries, tomorrow my sister and the family circus will be visiting. I think I’m going to leave everything on my magical table as is. After another day of teaching, getting everyone into divining will be a good idea. Unless, of course, another student will tell me how awesome everything is. How awesome Gertrude Stein on the reading list is, and by association, how awesome I am again. At 45, if I can allow myself to say that I can do more than feel the pain of others, then I can also look at the roses and say, everything is as it should be. Just awesome.

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Note on the items:

• Lenormand Oracle, Dondorf, Francfort (the purple), 1880.
• Playing-cards, hand-stenciled, Grimaud, 1853
• Chinese censer, 1890.
• Crystal Ball, Two Worlds, Manchester, 1890.

. . . . . .

The advantage of taking sacred objects out of their reliquaries and placing them before your cards, if reading cards is what you want to do on a quiet evening, is that it makes you consider the function of these objects beyond the ritual of ‘I swear that I’m having a sublime time right now’. Some smart folks long before us have figured out that the reason why we want to read cards, look at the simplicity of their message, is because they help us to know ourselves.  Every time I lay down three cards, I swear that I’m having a ‘know thyself’ moment.

But tonight, seeing through the eyes of my toad’s skull, I can see that there’s more to knowledge:

Feel yourself, and throne in your house.

That’s the message that the Five of Hearts, the Ace of Hearts and the Queen of Hearts give me. Indeed, feeling ‘being’ is what spirit work is all about. The toad is one of the most sensitive creatures on the planet. Its skin captures everything. And I swear that I can hear my house breathing.

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Note on the deck and items:

Otto Tragy Jugendstil Spielkarte, Ver. Stralsunder Altenburg, 1910.

Toad reliquary by Sarah Anne Lawless, 2013.

It is often the case that when people can’t formulate a concrete question, it is because they feel something is missing. What is missing is often the core coherence that we all need in order to make sense of how we can live on a daily basis. Feeling disconnected is more common than uncommon, which is also the reason why it’s a good idea to ask the cards sometimes about what is missing in your life, before you can ask how to fix a problem that you cannot even identify properly to begin with. Here is a recent spread that addresses that.

A woman wants to know what is missing so that she can get a sense of what she needs to do to re-establish the good flow. I did a classical 9-card spread, reading the cards in trios, first the rows, then the columns, and then the diagonals.

WHAT IS MISSING

At first sight, the cards indicate that what is missing is emotional stability (4♥), perhaps due to failure to recognize the need for a woman friend, or a close relation (A♠ Q♥).

What is missing is also a concrete link and exchange between practical work and practical vision (7♣ 7♦ 2♦).

What is missing is the ability to ditch (6♠) virtual ideas and communities (8♦) and do something good for the body instead, such as eating out with the girlfriend (8♦ 5♦ modified by Q♥).

What is missing is thinking more positively about work (7♣ A♠ 8♦).

What is missing is clarity on the familiar, but bumpy road (7♦ 4♥ 6♠).

What is missing is an invitation from a good friend to enjoy a meal with (2♦ Q♥ 5♦).

What is missing is an emotionally stable yet more exciting engaging with peers (2♦ 4♥ 8♦).

What is missing is turning boring work into a magical feast (7♣ 4♥ 5♦).

The Significator didn’t show up in this spread. Looking through the pack I found her gazing to the King of Diamonds. He seems to have a say in it.

The surprise card, the Jack of Clubs, is looking on to the drama of the missing link. While he is not the one that’s missing, he wants to remind the querent that she may turn her gaze unto him if she wants to. A practical young man in need of learning something may contribute to concretizing our woman’s plans for recovering an emotional core that doesn’t have to end in a cul-de-sac.

Thus, we can see how this type of information may bring about more clarity when we want to consider the way in which we can pose a good question. Asking to know what you don’t have can easily be the answer to what you need to have.

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Note on the deck:

Otto Tragy Jugendstil Spielkarte, Ver. Stralsunder Altenburg, 1910.

Let’s attempt formulating a definition for ‘magical solutions’. Their mainstream name is ‘superstitions’ – just think of the acts that people engage in when they wear an amulet against the evil eye. But what is the function of a magical act, beyond providing a counter-force to some force that one is not so happy about? Can a magical solution be more than merely about protection, empowering, and clearing?

Culturally I see all magical solutions as art insofar as they can all potentially destabilize rigid cultural structures. We can call superstitions ‘folklore art’. Superstitions, or magical solutions, are there to provide a loophole for the mind that is stuck in a rut. Magical solutions in this sense are the most logical and commonsensical solutions around. They show us a way out of precepts and dictations. They allow us to get out of our routines. A magical solution therefore is a solution that helps us to get out of our heads.

Take this domestic drama as an example. A woman speculates and worries endlessly about the possibility that her husband is having an affair. If she wants to put and end to her misery she has 3 possibilities: 1) to confront the man and take it from there, 2) to go to a counselor and hear what empowering device he might have to pass on to her, and 3) to try to empower herself through her own experience of using what is already there as a solution, in the form of public consciousness. For instance, generally in the Balkans, where I come from, there’s the belief that if a woman wants to make sure that her man will never leave her, she must stick a fish that’s alive into her vagina. She must go to bed with it and wait for it to die. In the morning, she can take it out and use it as the main ingredient in the coffee pot. She must serve the ‘dead-fish-coffee’ to her husband, and then just wait. The man is now caught in her web. The result of that act, and at least until the man proves her wrong? She stops being depressed, and she stops speculating. More specifically in Romania we have given up on the dead fish, but not on the idea of such acts serving women well. I heard of women who put three drops of their menstrual blood in the coffee served to their men for the same purpose to great effect. Some would say it’s good with variations.

One of my favorite performance artists is Marina Abramovic. She has made an interesting film, A Balkan Erotic Epic, that not only captures but also reenacts some of these beliefs. Her claim is that most of these magical solutions go back to the times before the main religions took over the function of chanting and dancing for the way in which we experience the cycle of life. All these practical and magical solutions are also erotic in their thrust, as it was once believed that eroticism was not something that was in one’s power. With eroticism being transcendent, being of the gods, it thus makes a lot of sense to use it to appease the gods or the forces of nature. If it rains too much, indeed it can’t hurt to go out in the fields and expose your private parts to the weather gods. There is a long tradition for such acts having a positive effect.

But what do I want to say with these examples, apart from proposing that a magical solution can be thought of as a modality that can get us out of our heads? In my experience with devising magical solutions for all sorts, people don’t suffer from rational problems. Hence, it’s pointless to send them to rational psychotherapists, logicians, clinical consultants, or even worse, business consultants. What most of these people are known for is passing on consecrated knowledge according to the mainstream culture. As the mainstream culture is mainly interested in maintaining its own interests, mostly material, what is consecrated is not the knowledge that disturbs, or makes the subject wake up, but the knowledge that confirms people in their fears. Oy vey.

The Marseille tarot hits Copenhagen via tarotakademiet.dk

Today I attended an annual fair in Copenhagen, Mystikkens Univers, dedicated to the mind, body, and spirit relation. The interest in tarot has doubled since last year, judging from the numerous booths offering tarot consultancy. The scrying game is also booming, and so is everything shamanic. It was absolutely wonderful to walk around rational people looking for an irrational solution to their irrational problems. For, who indeed, can claim to have ‘rational’ problems, ever? I could bring in the neuro-scientists at this point who would answer: no one. But I don’t want to waste my time with demonstrating what science has to say about validating ‘the other world’.

Stuff bought at the fair.

My point is that in buying a magical solution, what one really buys is the bypassing of dualistic distinctions that insist on ‘good and bad’, ‘high and low’, and ‘right and wrong’ dichotomies. When buying a magical solution, one buys balance. If balance is the art, and most sciences would also agree, then there’s no point in addressing what is questionable or ethical in a magical solution. A magical solution is there to be experienced not judged.

I have to admit that I have a hard time with all those cautioning people interested in the magical arts about desiring to interfere with the fate or so-called ‘free will’ of others. Where I come from, while regrets may be experienced as a consequence of using a magical solution that may turn out to be more than what has been bargained for, it is hardly the case that one feels guilty about what one has done. It may be that the woman who serves her man coffee with menstrual blood in it so that he may be with her forever will regret her act – for who wants to be together with someone who’s not really interested in one – but the truth of the matter is that that act can also be countered with yet another act. It is not for nothing that one talks about binding and unbinding, catch and release.

These days, and just out of curiosity, I read a lot of manuscripts dealing with magical solutions across cultures, and I have to say that I very rarely come across any old material that dictates that one must be ethical in one’s acts. At least not in the sense of what I hear ethics is defined as today. A quick glance at the Norwegian grimoire, Hexeformularer, assures me that no one devising the magic here was giving ethics any thought, for what is good and what is bad, indeed? One could also attempt the manuscript about sacrifice and see what the real deal is. The Danes in Småland don’t lag too far behind either, in their beliefs that magical solutions are to be experienced by the undivided between logic and illogic mind. Not to mention the Romanians’ take on all things magic. A good synthesis, Solomonic Magic, is written by professor of literature and history, Antoaneta Olteanu. This is a good introduction to the magical solutions that counter the benevolent bent in the Western world towards ‘horrifying’ things. More can be said and more books can be read. As far as I’m concerned I’m of the opinion that we must all follow our commonsense to the best of our own ability.

Suffice to say, then, that where magic is concerned, and as my tarot cards of today testify too where the question of how we define a magical solution is concerned, we need not think about it, but just do it. Walk your walk, and don’t be too concerned with how the skeptical others try to perceive what you’re doing standing on your head. A magical solution is not about choosing one or the other, but rather about allowing the arrow of chance to catch us unawares. Perhaps one can even declare it in public if need be, that all hope of escaping the grip of influences that are not useful to us may materialize as a most fantastic flight. And if flying is not enough, then take out that sword and cut through all that which is not useful to you like through cheese. Be free. The moon is dark tonight. It’s a good time for new beginnings and more powerful magic. May you all experience it.

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Note on the deck:

Marseille Tarot, Jean Dodal, 1701, as reconstructed by Jean-Claude Flornoy, 2001. A hand-stenciled set.

These days I find myself explaining to people interested in consulting the cards with me the difference between the various types of readings that one can opt for and why we read according to size, so to speak.

As I distinguish between what I call small focused readings (3-card), medium readings (5-7 cards), large readings (9-13 cards), and tableaus (36-52 cards), I thought of saying something here about what is at stake in choosing between the various options (when money is not the main factor determining what people can afford).

I will also demonstrate briefly with examples of recent readings that I’ve done for people of different age, race, class, and gender. I will use the Lenormand cards to illustrate here, and I will only focus on readings with up to 13 cards. But I must say that I read through these options with all the cards that I’m proficient in reading with: Tarot cards, playing cards, and oracle cards.

3-CARD READING

Let’s begin with a 3-card reading.

As it all depends on the nature of the question, the focus can also change according to the degree of specificity in the question. That is to say, one can easily zoom in on a problem, and yet be as abstract or concrete as one wishes to be. Let’s take the example of the abstract question, and without passing judgment on its practical usefulness.

‘Does he think of me?’ (Variant: when the querent wants to be more open-ended in her question, she may ask, ‘to what extent does he think of me,’ or ‘how does he think of me?’

The straightforward answer here is:

Yes, he thinks of you, repeatedly and deeply.

As we can see here from The Lady, The Whip, and The Fish, this 3-card reading can be to the point and maintain the focus. One can elect to offer elaborations, but they are not necessary. In the case above, the cards indicate that although the supposed lover thinks of his love interest, he is not free of hidden aggressions. A whip, after all, has corrective connotations. With a whip in hand we tend to discipline. Next to the Fish floating freely, the Whip may be getting out of control and developing into an obsession. The querent can decide to what extent such thinking of her is any good, or whether it has the potential to actually go somewhere. My point here is that, basically, a 3-card reading can go as deep as a tableau, but it will not elicit the same wealth of information as the larger sets do.

5-CARD READING

The 5-card is almost like a 3-card reading with 2 more cards in play where you see the dynamics of what you may want to do but you must not unfold against the background of what it’s a good idea to pursue even if you’d like to do the opposite or something else. It sounds convoluted, but it’s not. This is a good one for the tarot cards, if you want to use only the major arcana cards, though, of course, the full pack can also be in play any time. Some actually prefer the ‘dos and donts’ type of spreads with the playing cards, as playing cards indeed go straight to the point. Tarot cards and oracle cards give you more visual cues to work with, but they are certainly not more precise than the playing-cards, as some may think. Ultimately, however, what you go for is simply a matter of mood and preference.

Here’s an example: A man wants to know how he can communicate with his partner.

The straightforward answer here is: Stay optimistic, but don’t even think about saying a word.

If we look at the string of three cards on the horizontal line, and indicating the present situation, we can see that the relationship is at a standstill. A heavy incurable atmosphere permeates the relation. The bond is there, and it’s strong (Anchor+Ring) but right now, the dead rules (Coffin). In the position of ‘do’ we find the card of the Sun. So the man is advised to maintain a positive outlook on the situation. In the position of ‘don’t we find the woman herself. This tells us that what the man must not do under any circumstance is impose anything on the woman, least of all tell her things about herself – even positive things, such as compliments. With the Sun above, one might be tempted to set the record straight, and shower the woman with a lot of light, but the cards clearly say: bad idea.

As we can see then, from a 5-card reading of this type, a lot more information can be gleaned, and we also have a better sense of the depth of the situation. If we want more dynamics we must go with the square of 9 cards or call on the council of 13.

9-CARD READING

The 9-card reading gives you ampler information, as the field of play is larger. As we read here columns and rows and diagonal lines, we get a sense of more depth. This is great with the Lenormand and the playing-cards, but some, again, also prefer the tarot cards.

Let’s look at a quick example:

A woman wants to know if she is going to get the promotion in the corporation she works for.

Straight off, and just by looking at the central card, the Mountain, we can infer that it’s going to be very difficult. What first appears to be a familiar bagatelle, letter recognizing a small contribution at work (Letter+House+Fox), turns out to be more about letting the woman go (Letter+Scythe modified by Ship). If we follow the V-line consisting of Letter+Fox+Clover, we may say that the promotion is in the house in spite of forces against it. But it looks like the actual job will be performed elsewhere (Ship under Fox indicates that the job will be with another environment). So what does this promotion consist of, then, if not staying on the job? With the Scythe in the last position, it’s difficult to maintain an entirely positive reading here. We can also say that the doubt about a positive outcome is related to the fact that the relation at work has been strained, perhaps due to vain ambitions (Sun over Whip). As the querent offered a context for the reading – she has just graduated while on the job – it is easy for me to make the inference that what we are talking about here is the graduation paper, which, while useful to have, is not enough to sway the boss. So it goes. The good news is that once an educational elevation is consecrated it can always be used elsewhere. The Book, the surprise card here, and looking on to the whole drama, indicates that much. One just never knows what lies around the corner. And perhaps enemies are not always worth fighting with. One can just move on to sunnier pastures.

Thus as we can see, from a 9-card reading we can make all sorts of deductions that we can back up with evidence from the cards themselves. And the querent can go home thinking about a whole lot of things, including that fact that, as in the case above, it would be a waste of energy to start thinking about what more one could do, or what other requirements one could fulfill to get a job that may not even be the ultimate bliss; not with the competition around trying to put sticks into your wheels all the time.

Generally speaking, then, which option is best for a reading depends really on the nature of the question. The cards can confirm for you what you already know (3-card option), and then advise you even in spite of yourself, or some would say, against your better judgment (5-card option). But the cards can also tell you more about where you come from with your question and what motivates it – things that you may not even be aware of.  They can tell you why you want to know what you want to know before they indicate a trajectory for the future (9-card option). So, depending on what you want to achieve, on what the aim is with your question, you can adjust the reading so that the spread addresses your need.

The more cards on the table, the more information. The art is to put it all together in such a way so that you don’t end up with a walk in the woods with a guide who doesn’t know the woods. And one last note, as this is also one I get all the time, namely the assumption that the Lenormand cards are more to the point, while the Tarot is more ‘out there.’ Wrong. You can be as deep or swift with any of the cards you read with, for the only task you are called to perform is address the queren’t question. If the querent is ‘out here’ interested in metaphysical questions, then you can address that with all the cards on your table. None lend themselves to answering such questions better than the others. If the querent just wants to know how the others perceive him or her, then the cards will have an answer for that too. All the cards. If the querent wants a predictive reading, your task is to read the cards, not predict anything. And you can do that with any cards you happen to have in your hands.

The game is, and has always been, to pay attention and participate in the event while you’re paying attention. This is the grand privilege that card readers can afford themselves and which the so-called scientific community and hordes of professional counsellors have not yet figured out. But then guess what? Our time may come when we may see more respect from people at large for the good wisdom that we impart on a daily basis because of these, so-called, ‘trivial’ tools. A hundred years ago in anthropology it was considered taboo to participate in any of the events observed and practiced by peoples of dubious ethnicity and provenance. Now, however, everyone wants to go crazy and dancing. So, the world is changing all the time. Therefore the game is, and has always been, to pay attention and engage directly with that which you make an effort to pay attention to.

For more elaborate readings and examples, you may want to look at my posts tagged with the following: 3-card, square of 9, council of 13, grand tableau, and grand tableau with playing cards. More generally for posts that demonstrate a method, you may look at my Method page. Enjoy!

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Note on the deck: Dondorf Lenormand, Carreras, 1926

This one goes to my sister, Manna, the best walker between the worlds that I know.

. . . . . .

The table is set, the house is lit, and the pact stands. The ivy drips from the heart. Passing through the ring it makes a wreath. Underneath it is a fountain. The Angel Raphael wants compassion. So be it. Messages from afar come through, though all of it is familiar. The hidden star makes an appearance, just as you have finally managed to remove some wax off your ritual garments. Some cards can be used for that. The word is: ‘A whole lot’. A whole lot of history transmitted through prenuptial agreements unfolds right under your nose. The spark of the amethyst lights up the path up the ladder. The Belladonna of the Key is about to plunge into what she won’t tell. The spell is lunar.

Camelia Elias, ‘Thanksgiving’, archival ink on paper on a crystal stone from Brocken.

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Last week I performed a reading that went straight in with the client. She was not only happy with the reading, but also confirmed both the situation and the necessity to follow to the letter the advice that the cards have indicated.

I reproduce the reading here as I think that others might find it useful to see how I ended up assigning agency to the different ‘people’ populating the spread, where I went with both, assigning agency to the person cards external to the client’s own personality and also pertaining to her internal ‘aspect’.

QUESTION: What will happen with my love life in the future?

Here the only other information pertaining to the context of the question was the recent situation of the client having left the man she lived with and his desire for her to come back to him.

Given the context of the question – she left the man, he wants her back, but she made a decision against it – I had determined a time-frame for her cards of 3 months, for a layout that gave her insight into the current situation (3 cards) and how it develops, along steps regarding actions for what to do and what not to do indicated by a card on top (DO) and a card at bottom (DON’T).

THE READING

The cards fell as follow: 3 cards for the situation: The Star, The Devil, The Fool; card on top (what to do): The Emperor; card at bottom (what not to do): The Tower.

Here I said the following – I quote from my text sent to her:

Whatever inspiring force there was in your previous relationship has turned into an abusive and nasty force enslaving both of you. The chalices of generosity turned into sour imps who can’t even see what’s wrong. The consequence of this is that you rise again, free yourself, and simply walk out of it. The boyfriend may still be nagging at your pants, but sure enough, you won’t turn back. Given this trajectory and the time-frame we’ve imposed here, it doesn’t look like you’ll stumble over a new love in the next 3 months. You’ll keep walking, free of ties.

If we consider the card on top, The Emperor, we can see where the advice from the cards comes from. Because this walking out of a relationship does not have a clear direction, the cards indicate the following: go to your father’s, and seek refuge there. If the Emperor is not your father, than the cards say, go to a powerful man who will help you with your own self-control. This reading is actually also enforced by the card of the Pope that underlies your situation. If you add the numerical value of the three horizontal cards, The Star 17, The Devil 15, The Fool 0, we get 32. 3+2 is 5, so The Pope. Thus, if you stumble over anything in the next 3 months, then it will be your new-found freedom, conscious help from a powerful man, and spiritual comfort coming from a counselor. So, no new love in the near future.

What the cards indicate NOT TO DO under any circumstance is go back to the busted house. We’ve got here the card of the blown up Tower, which as you can see, is not a place you want to be in.

So, pretty clear advice. Stay clear of the oppressive relation, keep walking, and don’t be afraid to ask for help from influential people. A counselor-type may come your way and who will make you realize your spiritual potential – forgive yourself and the other maybe? – and help you with how to cope with what you may regret in your life right now.

Now, the only place where this reading was slightly challenging was in considering whether to see the Fool as the client’s abandoned man, given that we have a neat symmetrical relation represented in the Devil card. As the question was one of relationship, it would have been easy to just identify the tied down antlered entity to the left with the woman (The Star) and the one to the right with her man (The Fool). BUT – not so fast, I told myself. Considering carefully the question, I could not have taken the man in question to still be haunting the spread – which he might have, as we readers of cards often happen to notice. But as the Fool here appears in the ‘future’ position, he can only be thought of as representing the woman herself, not some idiot who made a mistake leaving behind a great and inspiring star of a woman (especially not when it was her decision to leave).

Same thing with the Emperor: While one might be tempted to say, ‘get a grip of yourself woman,’ it is not sure that the powerful man, the Emperor here, is merely a sign that the woman must take control over her life. Had I said that, my reading would have clashed with the situation at hand indicating that the Fool is walking. And since when is the Fool ever aware of the need to get a grip of herself? – Ha, good luck to the ones thinking that control is something that would ever even remotely interest the Fool. If, indeed, such a need for more control should arise, then the only way the Fool can get it is by asking for help. So there.

It goes to show that one must be very careful with considering not only the question but also its context, and then assign agency to the person cards accordingly (trumps and court cards alike).

What I’m trying to say here is that without processing the information the reader is given, or without analyzing the situation, the mere intuition about who is who might not be very helpful to the person. In fact, one can easily deliver the exact opposite message than one I’ve opted for here. Had I said: ‘My god, make sure you submit to the boyfriend (The Emperor) and don’t break up your house (The Tower); just get rid of the negative feelings you might have (The Devil), and carry on lightly (The Fool)’, I’m not so sure that I would have rendered this client any good service at all.

Good luck with your discernment.

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Note on the deck:

Marseille Tarot, Jean Dodal, 1701, as reconstructed by Jean-Claude Flornoy, 2001. A hand-stenciled set.

For my grandfather, who died at the tender age of 47, a mad man.

When my sister comes to visit me and I’m alone with my dog, we work. By this I mean that we do stuff that most people don’t. What we are particularly good at is detective work. We dig into issues and concerns, but we don’t stay put. We cross hedges, bust boundaries, and laugh at the incredulous. This latter laughter is part of the program that we call: ‘the fun the crazies have when they go against the rational.’

So tonight we decided to uncover an annoying family secret that, at least according to our sources – shady sources the rational folks would call them – goes back to 1880.

We started with a shamanic journey induced by two frame drums, a rattle, and a kissing dog. Each with her way. My sister is good with outer space capsules and a bathyscaphe, a free-diving self-propelled deep-sea submersible. I’m good with the Green Man and other such figures. Papa Legba showed the Vodou way, and before I knew it, after a tour in a Mongolian yurt filled with silk draperies that Papa invited me in, I found myself doing some carpentry, hammering nails into a coffin. When the drums went silent, my sister said: ‘The bathyscaphe didn’t work today, so it looks like we won’t get to the bottom of this.’ Hmm. I started wondering about the significance of my coffin and the extent to which I contributed to sabotaging the very purpose of this work. Coffins are known to hold on to secrets, not reveal them.

We decided to try my very special crystal ball made for Two Worlds in Manchester in 1890. My sister is particularly good at scrying. I drummed some more, and at a new pace she started pouring out information. 6 people: 3 men and 3 women. Illegal love. A magician with white hair and a long cape, and an old hag with big watery eyes fixing something in the sky. A dead man with a moustache. A round sigil made out of two disks sealing a box, and two shadoofs resembling very much the letter Y – well, all well-poles do.

Next we wanted to know how this secret affected us. We went for a simplified geomantic reading where we read just for one geome (we didn’t use the mothers, daughters, nephew, judge constellation). Caput Draconis showed up, and my sister recited from the lore: ‘You must use your right hand in good for good and evil for evil’. ‘Fair enough,’ I said. ‘Let’s cut the Dodal cards with the right hand then,’ I further said. We needed to know who the people that showed up were. The only one that could be identified in the scrying was the hag: she was my paternal grandmother, a dead woman now and whom we last saw 35 years ago.

We proceeded with pulling cards at random. Something was odd. Some of the male figures turned out as women in the cards, and some women turned out as men. Especially the dead mustached man as the Empress was interesting. He was carrying a sigil on the shield all right, yet the card signifying the sigil in the scrying session came up in the card that we pulled specifically for it as the Pope.  We were happy with that. Just by looking at the Pope’s disciples, and assessing their round hair-cuts assured us that this card here was definitely the right one.

János Tornyai, Shadoof, 1910

We also thought that the shadoofs and Caput Draconis were in cahoots. The Sun and the Hermit gave us a pretty good idea as to what happened after the Star, as the cheating man, busted his own Tower, leaving a whole World behind in a hat. The first protagonist in the scrying session was an elegant woman with a hat on, so we decided that there was some symmetry and rhyme between the hat and the mandorla. The hag had the Moon’s eyes, which was understandable in this context, and the Magician took off victoriously in his Chariot after the deed was done. All this made perfect sense to us. But I needed to know what was placed in the scales, as it obviously wasn’t for nothing that we got two well-poles showing up in the crystal. I put a new card down, and voilà, Justice. The scale in the scale? Such poetry! This told us that something was definitely weighed. Was it the secret? Or was the dead man weighed and found wanting?

At this point, we got the chills, and while our hairs were rising, the dog decided to be in a more cheerful and greeting mode: it shot for the door and started barking like a maniac – the Huskies don’t have a habit for barking. We were not expecting any guests at 11.30 pm, so who was there? ‘I’m not so sure it’s the dead one,’ my sister said. We pulled a card: The Fool. ‘Ah, I said, ‘it’s Papa Legba, he has a thing for sigils and coming through doors.’ ‘Fair enough,’ my sister said, and then insisted on having a look at his veve.

Lastly we wanted to know what the dead had to tell us about this secret. After all, you don’t get to show up in a reading like this, both as a woman, when you’re a man, and with all the regalia and initials on your dead chest. We pulled the card of the Papesse, or the High Priestess. ‘Look at that,’ my sister, said. ‘I told you we were not going to get to the bottom of this. The lips of this handsome mustached man are sealed. And what business did you have hammering those nails in that coffin? We are not going to know anything now.’ I pulled a last card: Strength. I said, ‘Listen, we just have to insist.’ Yes, she said, but these forces make my hair rise, and besides, when the ghost came in we forgot to say welcome. We’re ignorant.’ ‘That we are, I said, but is that also a reason to be afraid?’ ‘I guess not,’ she said, and then went thoughtful – or was it rational, they call it?

We decided to spill some libation for all, and then have ourselves a good midnight beer before going to bed, courtesy of Amager Bryghus and a very generous friend who knows that my favorite is the Wookiee.

I made an attempt at staying up longer. ‘But there was that thing about the Magician. His black umbrella.’ ‘Yes, yes,’ my sister said. ‘I’m not going to fall for it. We’ll be analyzing nothing no more tonight.’ She went to bed, and I took it upon myself to report faithfully here on what else one can do with one’s tarot cards besides reading them diligently according to nice little spreads. Bring in a gatekeeper, a crystal ball and geomancy, and you’re set for adventure. If some family secret will resist you, at least you can get to plan your next detective session. Did anybody say Sherlock Holmes with that dashing Robert Downey Jr. in it? I think I’m also going to send a letter to Hollywood before I finally decide to go to bed. I think I can write much better stories for the screen, and not to mention true ones.

Enjoy your families, and don’t forget the crazies. They’re the best.

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Note on the deck:

Marseille Tarot, Jean Dodal, 1701, as reconstructed by Jean-Claude Flornoy, 2001. A hand-stenciled set.

I promised Nora Huszka, the creator of the Gypsy Palace Tarot, to take her cards for a ride. I met Nóra this autumn at the Tarot Con UK, where I was invited to do a talk on agency in Tarot. Nóra was there too, introducing her new deck.

I liked Nóra from the start. For once, a sisterly bond was formed simply because we almost come from the same place. My home-town is in Arad, Romania, and she comes from Szeged, in Hungary, just a few miles down the road, a place where I used to go to the flea marked in the weekends.

Then I also liked Nora for her candid disclosure: ‘No,’ she said, ‘First I did the paintings, and then I associated them with the tarot cards.’ ‘Oh, how wonderfully refreshing’, I thought, given that not all in the esoteric world is equally funny, spontaneous, clever, or devoid of material interests.

I get to see a lot, and I get plenty of opportunity to cross myself when visiting this world, both in my professorial capacity and as a fortuneteller. Nowadays, if there’s something that puts me off downright is promises. I come across tarot readers service websites, psychics, and Hoodoo rootworkers, and they are all passionate about promising. They promise at least three things that I have a hard time with: 1) accuracy (Lord have mercy); 2) true love and a faithful wife (Lord have mercy); and 3) follow this recipe and you can get rid of your obnoxious neighbour (Lord have mercy).

I don’t want to dismiss the possibilities of the three listed above, but in my experience the only way in which we can validate the workings of magic is by testing the experience of it. Hence, there’s no such thing as magic that works by virtue of a promise. Rather, magic works by virtue of experiencing the ritual that sets it off.

Those who follow Taroflexions know that I’m an inveterate user of the Tarot de Marseille. That’s the tarot deck I use for people who come to me and pay for my services. Professionally I also read with the Lenormand cards and playing-cards, but that’s another story.

I do make new acquisitions now and then, and it’s not only antique cards that I’m interested in. So here’s a small reading with Nóra’s deck on the following question:

What is the difference between passion and culture?

With new decks that I buy for the sheer pleasure of it, when taking them out for a first ride I like to pose questions to them that spring from my immediate field of vision. Today I was witnessing quite a few new births, new passions announced on Facebook and other such places. The text accompanying photos of the mother, the child, and the proud father all had the same words without exception, and often written by the father, who was obviously not engaged in the first feeding and could thus take care of the family album for posterity: ‘My two loves and passion.’ While I was happy for the couples – or at least I think I was – I couldn’t help thinking the following: I get the thing about the love for the wife and the new kid, but the passion? Let’s just say that I got a nasty feeling related to the suspicion that most of this excitement is related to the desire for cultural endorsements. Do people actually know what they are saying, when they declare their passion for a newborn baby? Hmm. Let’s see what Nóra’s tarot cards say, especially since this deck was made more according to the principles of the oracle: first the images, and then the corresponding system.

For this type of question, and for the sake of precision, I like to use 2 sets of three cards. As the case is that I’m interested in passion on the one hand and culture on the other, the idea is, of course, to see how the two enter into relation against the background of a specific context. Anything else would amount to making obscene generalizations that are not useful for anything in particular. So, passion and culture in the context of what people really have in mind when they think: ‘loving wife’ and ‘proud of my 3-hours old kid’.

Basically, what’ I’m asking is the following: how do people experience passion against the constraints of culture? This is a big question, to be sure, as it ultimately addresses the unsettling issue with actually knowing what our purpose in life is. But I like to ask such nasty questions of a new deck, as they enable me to go places that are unfamiliar to me. Often it is in such unfamiliar environment that we find an answer to what we’re seeking here.

And now to what I call an absolute delight, which is the point when the cards first enforce your suspicion, namely here, that that there’s something wrong with the culture of love and pride, and then ultimately also tell you to keep doing what you’re doing, namely bash the clichés. Visually, Norá’s cards also hit the nail on its head.

For passion I got the following (in the upper row):

The High Priestess, Temperance, Justice

For culture (bottom row), I got:

10 of Wands, 5 of Pentacles, 8 of Cups

Looking at the first row, I understand that passion is something that we experience as an inner vision. The Priestess sitting in a meditative position suggests that true passion is not something that we share with others, even if we think we do. Temperance tells me that we make compromises on the exchange currency of passion, or the give and take culture.

If the passion inside us is to come out and become visible and useful for others, it must be filtered through what we make of the needs of others. And passion is not very good at listening. I like Nóra’s Temperance as a beggar here, as this card speaks its own volume. It suggests that there isn’t always a match between our inner visions and the way in which we get to serve them to others according to their own needs. Temperance holding up a plate for two flying fish here is quite interesting to consider in terms of assessing the balance we are able to create within ourselves when desiring to impose our own values, ideals, or passions on the ones we engage with.

The high art then is to exercise the power of discernment, and make our cuts accordingly. Justice calls on us to see what is truthful to us. Norá’s Rastafari Justice suggests many entanglements that need a good combing through. But Justice also makes pronouncements. Against the silent Priestess and the moderation of Temperance, passion has a hard time being deliberated.

As for culture, what can one say, apart from remarking that here it pales by comparison. 10 of Wands speaks of the greatest pressure one can find oneself under, so speaking here from one’s position of inner conviction is not even an option. The frog on this card is an interesting element, as the frog is one of the most sensitive animals. Catching flies as they pass over the head of a burnt-out tree is quite telling too. The frog is trying to ‘feel’ the world around it, even as the world succumbs to becoming de-sensitized.

The ways of culture are not always reassuring, as the 5 of Pentacles next suggests. Not only is the man in this card at the forefront, but he also makes a gesture of interdiction to his wife, as if saying: ‘up to this point, and then no more.’ Nasty business, the marital business. The 8 of Cups is not very cheerful either. A woman riding a unicorn suggests that one’s passions are only dreamt of, and not realized. Culture says one thing, and we dream another. So much for living authentically.

But then living authentically is also a narrative that we tell ourselves and part of a specific culture that desires itself perhaps more spiritual and more aligned with its dreams. Riding a unicorn, why not? But whatever culture we’re speaking of, it acts as a constricting matrix for our passions that end up being consumed at the heart of this paradox: ‘I’m passionate about my family, but not about the bonds it lays on me’.

Interestingly also, in this ‘culture’ row we find no major trumps. This makes me conclude that passion, represented here in the first row by an all-trump sequence – even though I had shuffled the whole deck very thoroughly – is serious business, and a thing related precisely to finding one’s purpose independently of others.

Sure, there are social obligations and the moral ideology of doing the right thing that confront us – as represented here by Justice in the final position – but the underscoring truth is the fact that passion remains a thing that we cannot speak of without compromising its value. In other words, one must weigh one’s words very carefully before one goes on to sing the praises of one’s relatives in the name of passion. Indeed, what does the phrase: ‘I’m passionate about my love for my wife and kids’ mean? Is this a statement about the family in question, about the one who utters the words, or about the world watching?

To answer my own question as to what the difference between passion and culture is, I’d say the following:

Whereas passion is a thing of the soul, culture is a thing of how our desires are regulated according to whatever a specific context deems appropriate. Now, this is no new thing. Most psychology theories will tell you that. The interesting, aspect, however, that a reading with cards can add to it is the idea that whereas passion is internal, it can also act as the very scale in which we can weigh our potatoes.

And by this I mean, asking ourselves the following question: to what extent do we say things because we are supposed to or because we want to? It occurs to me that, more often than not, you are supposed to say that you’re passionate about your love for your family, but suppose you were not supposed to say that. Suppose you are supposed to say you’re passionate about who you are and what you want, and how you know what you are and what you want. Or perhaps even better, suppose you are supposed to say how you know yourself vis-à-vis these strangers that occupy your house, and with whom you share your life and have to live with?

The magic of reading with a new deck of cards that is not made in accordance with this or that tradition is that it takes you on an adventure that allows you to go places that you haven’t seen before. I think Norá Huszka did a good job at capturing the culture of color and sensation in this one, thus contributing to our sense of wonder and astonishment at the encounter with the world, so that we can love it at first sight, and feel passionate about it.

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Note on the deck: Nóra Huszka and Matthias Furch, The Gypsy Palace, Suhl, Germany 2013.

Keeping with the tradition, I wish everyone coming my way here a Happy New Year.

Today’s text was inspired by three cards drawn from the Dark Goddess Tarot by Ellen Lorenzi Prince. Yet, apart from a general greeting to you all, derived from these cards, I also want to keep my own tradition of dedicating this type of text, the prose poem, to special people I know (for more about this you’re welcome to check out The Logician, Eight Senses Plus Two, or Frag/ments).

This one goes to a cavalier errant.

For Drew Jacob

Compromise is wisdom, they say. But I say, death always comes to the philosophy of ‘it’s good enough’. Fortune favors the fantastic. Riding a unicorn is an act of boldness and challenge. The unicorn knows only the best and the rider knows what the rider doesn’t know. It is only through cunning that you can put the sun in your crown. But why does it matter, you may ask, when even on the throne you can feel your robe burning from too much friction with the stone. On the last day of the year it’s always a good idea to have a sip of rum laced with gunpowder. Lean back and reflect on the use of what you can do. Let it come to you through your song for the pine trees. And if you are myopic, like myself, then take the fork of Isis, the one that she wears on her head, and look through its moon like through a looking glass. The first thing you’ll see is freedom, not the walls of your home with all that’s in it, the stuff that’s merely good enough, and which greets you cheerfully everyday with these words: ‘Hello zombie, how are you today? Are you responsible? Are you respectable too?’ Let the gunpowder work through your veins. Take your ragged red robe and turn it into a sunrise. Hit the road. Meet some heroes, and offer them your holy grail. And then say thank you to the fork, the fantastic, freedom, and the followers in your household who hold the tambourine high for you so that you can do your dance better than just good enough: A dance with the dead, the mystery of the night, and the sun between your legs. The unicorn has just impaled a post-it note with a new year’s resolution on it: don’t fake it.

Camelia Elias, 2013

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Note on the deck:

The Dark Goddess, by Ellen Lorenzi-Prince, 2013, ArnellArt.

You want a more wicked, cut to the chase, and keep it simple approach to the cards?

Check out my Card Cuts page on tumblr. 

Enjoy!

Over Christmas I have given my sister a present that she has been coveting for some time: an original Lenormand Carreras from 1926, the narrow-sized pack – these cards were printed by chromo-lithography by B. Dondorf in Germany, based on the “Dondorf Lenormand” fortune-telling cards made in the 1880s.

Given that my sister is one of the best Lenormand readers around – albeit not one that the world knows about, as she’s not in the business of making herself globally visible – I figured that she could have it. All that writing on the back of these cards and the advertising for cigarettes have never been in my taste. If writing must be on the cards than I prefer it to come from some woman, who, back in time made hand-notes straight unto their faces.

Among my Lenormand originals, a few great Dondorf productions and one I have never seen anywhere else in the world, made between the 1880s and 1910s, I have a purple Lenormand set that’s packed with writing on it. I don’t know the provenance of these cards. I bought them in Germany at some point from people who didn’t know anything about fortunetelling. But I often think of the significance of writing on cards and what that writing adds to how we think of the myth of fortunetelling.

One of the best definitions of myth that I have ever come across comes from Maya Deren’s beautiful book, Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti, where she charts the complex Haitian Voudou cosmology. There she says: “Myth is the facts of the mind made manifest in a fiction of matter” (Deren, 1953: 21). The claim is that it is out of the physical processes that one creates a metaphysical processional, and that while we may talk of spiritual legacy, this legacy never exists in another form than as a story.

For me, this has a lot of implications in terms of how I view all claims of authorship in fortunetelling, and I have to admit that I tend to dismiss immediately all those who, in their practices of reading cards, want to tell you that first as a way of validating their skills, namely that card reading is in their blood.

For me, reading cards is not about blood relations or some other form of supposed mystical transmission, but rather about creating ceremonies. It is through ceremony that we, as card readers, get to participate in the transformational power of the cards, and in seeing how the cards may offer imaginary solutions to people’s real problems. That’s where the magic is, in the ceremony of laying the cards on the table and looking at them, not in second-guessing the person who comes to seek advice and then predicting the future based on the strength of our fortunetelling blood.

Not far from where we were staying with my sister, on the West coast of Denmark almost in the middle of nowhere, there’s a very beautiful antique shop. It hosts a book in a glass display case that’s almost identical with the one featured on the card of the Book in the Dondorf Lenormand; hard leather bound with hinges and a photo of a young woman on it. When visiting there I have inserted myself photographically in the reflection of its mysteries and when I came home, it made me want to ask the following question, posed to my purple Dondorf that features writing on all the cards:

What does another’s writing on the cards add to the way in which we read a story in the cards if we use those cards? Are we immune to the set notations on these cards, or do we take the myth of that scribbling into account?

Of course, as with every set of cards, the answer is not in what they look like, how old, or how weird, but rather in the method, so, basically what I’m asking here does not change the fact that I regard all cards as a tool in making us smarter and not as mystical artefacts. Rather, on this occasion, what I wanted to know is something about that subtle level that lends itself to considering just what a metaphysical processional is.

The cards said:

The Mountain, The Moon, The Fish

This tells me the following: that by considering the hand of another’s on the cards, or the personal history of the cards, we can lift ourselves up to the moon, and dream about the flowing soul of the one who once told fortunes. It is in this kind of imagining that myths are created. And thank god for that, for it is only because of the imagination that we can embody a myth, and live it out in our lives, rather than merely talk about it. As a fortuneteller, I prefer to align my stories with the ones told before me by anonymous good men and women. Live their myth, perhaps also while kissing my sister for remaining silent.

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Note on the deck: the ‘purple’ Dondorf, Francfort, 1880.