The Seven of Spades = Five + Two (Instagram)

A post shared by Judy K (@weirdeye) on Nov 1, 2017 at 2:26am PDT

"The Seven... shows a group of five 'arrows' on one side... and two on another... an image of being stuck between the Mortal Injury of Five and the conflict of Two - it is an image of being delayed or stuck, unable to move without harm..." - pg. 25, Hands of Fate, Robin Artisson.

I read that passage and suddenly thought of Pamela's Seven of Swords. I'm not suggesting the playing card meaning relates to the RWS meaning - but it is a curious visual coincidence.

Response to "Determining death with Playing Cards Cartomancy"

Angelo Dicostanzo is a playing card reading virtuoso. If you want to discover how reading playing cards works, watch any of his videos.

In his most recent video, he discusses a situation in which he was asked to determine how someone would die. Normally this is something he would not address (nor I!), but in this instance there were very special circumstances, and the resulting spread was too good an opportunity for learning not to share, on YouTube and in his group on Facebook - The Magic of Playing Cards.

And I want to share my "interpretive process" for this one, as well - as an example of how someone who comes from a different card reading background, with different meanings, and who doesn't even have a meaning for one of the cards, can pull it together. If I can, anyone can, is basically what I'm hoping to get across. 🙂

But I don't want to spoil the impact of Angelo's excellent video, so please watch it first before you read my scribblings...


.
.
.
.
.
.
Watched it? Brilliant, eh?

So, here's how it went for me. 😏 The first thing that jumped out at me was the 9 of Hearts. This is my "Great joy or Good event" card, but traditionally it's thought of as the Wish card - you will get what you've been wishing for. As death doesn't quite fit into the great joy/good event category, I decided this card was showing that the person will die they way they want to.

At this point my rational mind piped up and said "Most people want to die in their sleep". That seemed reasonable, so I looked to the other cards for confirmation... "Mmm, they're not saying that."  Let's pick them apart.

The Jack of Spades is my "False friend". Someone with negative intentions. Not aggressively malicious like the Queen of Clubs, but someone who's "not right", as my friend would say. And traditionally, the Jacks can represent thoughts, so here we have negative, misleading, perhaps sinister thoughts.

Then there's the 5 of Clubs. If you follow my blog you know that I read a with stripped deck of 32 cards, the lowest being the 7s, so I don't actually have a meaning for the 5 of Clubs. But I follow lots of readers who do use all 52 cards, and I've picked up a few things. When confronted with a card I don't "use", I consider its number, in this case 5, which for me is a number of Disruption, and the suit, Clubs being the suit of Actions. So this is disruptive action.

It began to dawn on me that this was heading in the "not natural causes" direction. I was hoping what I was looking at was assisted suicide.

But.... Why the dark presence of the Jack of Spades, when, ideally, assisted suicide is an act of love and respect? And the 5 of Clubs? True, even at best, such a death would be disruptive, but it seemed there was more to it...

The Jack is looking directly at the 5 of Clubs and on to the 9 of Hearts. And acknowledging tradition again, 5s can signify a hand. This was someone with negative thoughts, or thoughts perceived by others to be negative or misguided, taking direct, disruptive action - death by their own hand - to achieve their desired outcome.

God be with them.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In conclusion, I hope that demonstrating how I negotiated my wobbly way through this trying reading will encourage you to approach your readings with flexibility and creativity. Like I said - if I can do it, anyone can.

What a team

Tarot Balbi, using Eudes Picard's* meanings: A collaboration will give birth to a woman who earns her money in an unusual way.

Backstory:

1) Taliesin McKnight recently posted a video about Sigil Magick and encouraged viewers to give it a try. I thought "Why not?", so I scratched around for something to manifest and decided on "It is my will to make money reading cards." New decks don’t pay for themselves. 

2) During a guided meditation one of my spirit guides, Daisy, reappeared after a long absence.

3) I'm taking part in the #WithinWithoutAdvice Tarot challenge on Instagram and decided to pull three cards asking Daisy if she had anything she wanted to tell me.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

*Using only this deck for a few weeks has been very useful, as it’s drawn to my attention that Balbi (or whoever actually wrote the LWB) redefined a fair number of the cards while staying somewhat true to Picard’s images, which has led to some weird visual mismatches.

So having translated almost all the Spanish, I find I now have to translate all the French. But when I'm done I intend to share my findings here. So if you're at all interested in the Tarot Balbi, watch this space.

Side note: Yes, I do have a candle labelled "Spirit Team" - what of it? LOL! I burn it for a short time every morning to "check in". And the crystal is the one I've charged to aid me in connecting with them.

Open Reading 7

In keeping with my commitment to use only the Tarot Balbi for the next two weeks, here is a new Open Reading for you. 

An annoyance or disappointment is affecting a personal relationship. It requires careful consideration of how to go about making favourable changes. Work together to find a way forward.

The cards add to 14: Temperance - Strive for balance and a shared outlook. Look beyond your normal way of doing things, and have hope for the future.

If you're familiar with RWS meanings, I should point out that the Balbi's are sometimes a bit different. So if you're looking at this interpretation and thinking "What??", bear with me, LOL!

A Fortnight with Balbi

I have decided I need to focus on one deck, and one deck only, for a time, and I'm telling you for accountability. ☺

I've settled on two weeks. I know that doesn't sound like much but I will find that a challenge. And the deck will be my beautiful Tarot Balbi. I've reduced (not eliminated, that would be impossible) temptation by clearing my desk of all the other decks I normally keep "to hand".

Here's my inaugural reading -

The meanings applied to this deck, based on those of Eudes Picard in his book "Manuel Synthétique et Pratique du Tarot" (1909), are quite different from the RWS standard. I believe the Gran Tarot Esotérico and the Universal Wirth are in the same vein.

The Priestess
La Sacerdotisa – Este arcano, que corresponde a la letra hebrea Beth, es el dos sin el cual nada existiría. Es una carta dominada por la luna, simbolo de la imaginación y del análisis, lleva consigo los germenes de la ciencia y el error, de lo positivo y negativo. Es, en una palabra: La Ciencia.
This card, which corresponds to the Hebrew letter Beth, is the two without which nothing would exist. It is a card dominated by the moon, symbol of imagination and analysis, carries the seeds of science and error, positive and negative. It is, in a word: Science.

5 of Wands
Ambición, irritabilidad. Trabajo penoso. Mal examen.
Ambition, irritability. Drudgery. Bad (evil) test.

Ace of Swords
Simboliza la Justicia. Fuerza, poder, éxito. Fertilida
Symbolizes justice. Strength, power, success. Fertility.

So...
This experiment will be difficult and at times tedious but potentially successful and worthwhile.

Wish me luck!

But what does this card mean?

The cards don't mean anything.
Because it depends on the question.

John Ballantrae did a live stream video session the other day on reading Tarot. What John has to say about reading Tarot is always worth listening to.

"Tarot is 'in the moment'. And it's for that particular moment, for that particular question, for that particular questioner at that time." John then goes on to ably demonstrate this idea.

Who says?

An excerpt from my New Year's reading, "Marseille Tarot, Towards the Art of Reading", by Camelia Elias.

Now, some may be tempted to ask: "If it's oral transmission that you'll be referring to, how do we know that you're not making things up?" Indeed a legitimate question. To which I have this to say: There is no way of testing the veracity of whatever information gets passed down to us from the so-called "generation of readers", other than to point to what makes sense and what doesn't; what works and what doesn't; what's logical and what's not.

Kippermania!

19 Sept 2020: A recent comment has brought this post to my attention and I realise that it needs updating!

Since the publication of at least two, that I'm aware of, new Kipper decks I've noticed a spike in the number of people visiting my blog having searched for "kipper meanings" etc.

Information in English is fairly limited at the moment, although I expect that's about to change big time! For my readers' convenience ☺ I've consolidated all the sources I've made use of (that are still in existence) -

xxxxxxxxxxx's list of meanings at xxxxxxxxxxx - here.
xxxxxxxxxxx also hosts a Kipperkarten group on Facebook - here.
(yes, we've had a falling out, and I'm not promoting anything of her's on my blog)
A simple listing plus some timing information from Fennario - here.
Malkiel Rouven Dietrich kindly made some Kipper videos in English which I've compiled into a YouTube playlist - here.

Malkiel removed all his content a few years ago and has only two, more recent, Kipper videos up now - Master Method with Kippercards and Kipper Cards Key Words

Added 19/9/20: Toni Puhle, aka the Card Geek, has a YouTube channel, a Kipper Facebook group, and has published a book, "The Card Geek's Guide to Kipper Cards".

To be honest, that's all you need to get you started.

Speaking through skeletons

This summer I bought a deck of Lotería cards. Not your standard ones, but Lotería de la Muerte.

I found them in a Mexican import shop in Stonham Aspal, Suffolk, of all places.

Me being me, I wanted to use them for divination. So I had to come up with meanings for each of the images. Me being me, that had kind of stalled.

Then I read Beth Maiden's article on how to make time for Tarot, in which she mentions using a photograph of your daily card as the wallpaper on your phone. That appealed to me enormously. With that motivation, I regularly select a card and over the course of the day I consider the possible meanings.

Why am I telling you this today? Because this morning, the day after Hurricane Patricia hit southwest Mexico, I was naturally drawn to think of the people living there. While shuffling. I asked Gaia to take the heavy rain expected and absorb it or move it in ways that would not add flooding and mudslides to their misery.

I think she was listening. 

A German Method of Fortune Telling with 32 Playing Cards

As this is my most popular post, I'll leave a note here to let you know that this blog has now moved to Judy Reads Cards. I hope you'll join me there.
13-Apr-18: I have finally uploaded my "expanded" meanings.

My grandmother Helene, from Niedersachsen/Lower Saxony in Germany, told fortunes with coffee grounds, Swedenborg cards and Skat cards, i.e. a 32-card deck of playing cards, also known as a Piquet deck: sevens up to Kings plus Aces. When she learned that I was interested in such things, she sent me a deck with her meanings written on the cards and a brief note of how she read them.

Lene, as she was called, though I would never have dreamt of calling her anything but Oma, only read the cards upright. Sadly, I don’t speak more than a smattering of German, so with the help of Google Translate and reference to a couple of online Skatkarten sites I’ve translated her notes as well as I am able. They were written on the cards in ballpoint pen and some are quite difficult to make out. If you are familiar with German and/or Skatkarten, and spot any misinterpretations, please let me know.

Update: November 2013

I have since corresponded with my aunt Edith, Lene’s youngest daughter and, luckily, she was taught how to read the cards. Edith was able to provide a bit more detail, which I have worked into the information given below.

Clubs:
Ace	Neuigkeit, Geschenk	news, gift
King	Arzt oder Beamter	Doctor or Official
Queen	falsche Dame, böse Gesinnung	false woman, evil alignment (way of thinking)
Jack	Glück, Botschaft	luck, message
10	Reise, großes Haus, Krankenhaus	travel, big (official) house,    hospital
9	güte Veränderung	good change
8	Sorgen über (einen kleinen) Weg	Worry over a small way (for a short time)
7	Tränen, Trennung, Hindernis	tears, separation, obstacle
Hearts:
Ace	Haus	house
King	Er	He
Queen	Sie	You
Jack	Liebe	love
10	Einladung	invitation
9	große Freude oder gütes Ereignis	Great joy or Good event
8	frohes Wiedersehen	happy reunion
7	Liebe in Aussicht	prospect of love
Spades:
Ace	Schrak, Krankheit	Fright, sickness
King	Älterer Herr	older gentleman
Queen	Dunkle Dame böse, Witwe oder allein	dark evil woman, widow or single
Jack	falscher Freund	false friend
10	Beruf	profession
9	Verleumdung, Falschheit in nächster Zeit	slander, falsehood in the near future
8	Gefahr, Krankheit, Ärger	danger, illness, anger
7	Kummer, Verlust, Streit,         Unannehmlichkeit	grief, loss, strife, inconvenience
Diamonds:
Ace	Brief	letter
King	jünger Mann	younger man
Queen	Mädchen oder Frau	girl or woman
Jack	Glück	Happiness
10	Geld, Gewinn	money, profit
9	Vorteil geschäftlich	business advantage
8	Neuigkeit geschäftlich	news of business
7	Geld oder Kind	Money or Child

I should point out here that other German sources tend to assign negative meanings to the Clubs, but you’ll see from the above list that, for Lene, the “worst” cards are the Spades.

Lene’s reading instructions were, as I mentioned, quite brief – essentially shuffle, cut, lay out, read. The fact that she didn’t think it necessary to provide any details on “how” to read them suggests that she felt her method was so commonplace as to not require explanation. I have found meanings similar to hers on Kartenlegen mit Skatkarten (KmS), so I’m guessing their method of breaking down the layout and combining the cards is likewise similar. I’ll go into more detail below. To begin:

Herzdame in die mitte legen.

Karten mischen. Mit der linken Hand 3 Haufen zum Herzen legen.

Die mittleren Haufen auf die letzten legen dann beide Haufen auf die ersten legen.

Die ersten 3 Karten von jedem Haufen haben eine Bedeutung.

Dann die Karten von oben so um die Herzdame legen:

Dann kombinieren was einem die Karten sagen...

The same steps as described by Edith:

Herz Dame in die Mitte legen.

Karten mischen. Mit der linken Hand 3 Haufen zum Herzen legen, den mittleren Haufen nehmen, die 1.drei Karten  nachsehen sie haben eine Bedeutung, dann die Karten auf den letzten Haufen legen, und wieder die 1.drei Karten ansehen, dann alle auf den 1.Haufen legen und wieder die 1.drei Karten ansehen.

Die Karten von oben so um die Herz-Dame legen.

Dann sehen was einem die Karten sagen...

·     Place the Queen of Hearts (Herzdame) in the middle. {Note that Lene only mentions the Queen as a significator. Presumably all her “clients” were female, but if you are reading for a man use the King of Hearts, or select a card that represents your area of concern, for example the 10 of Spades for work.}

·     Shuffle the cards. With the left hand, lay 3 piles “to the heart”, i.e. towards you (confirmed by Edith). {What does “to the heart” mean here? Perhaps, like KmS – “2 Stapel zu sich hin abheben”, you are meant to cut towards yourself, towards your heart.}

·     Put the middle pile on the last pile, then put the two on the first pile.

·     The first 3 cards of each pile have a meaning. {I’m uncertain if she meant 3 cards from each pile or just the 3 exposed cards. KmS uses just the 3 exposed cards. Either way, check them before you recombine the piles} Here Edith made it quite clear – you look at the bottom three cards of EACH pile, combining them to give you a meaning, before placing that pile on the next one.

·     Then place the cards from the top around the Queen of Hearts:

·        Then combine what the cards say.

KmS uses a simple 9x4 layout, but despite Lene’s fancy Star arrangement, I think the breakdown would be much the same: first read the central cross - cards 1, 3, Significator, 4 and 2, combining the cards in sentence fashion. Then read the row – 11, 3, S, 4, 12, then the column – 9, 1, S, 2, 10, and finally the diagonals. Card 17 gives an overview of what’s occurring on the home front.

Update: April 2015

I’ve been studying other “large star” spreads recently and have found that the various “arms” were given different meanings, eg. past/future, obstacle/aid, etc.  I have yet to decide how I want to approach reading Oma’s star.

Now that I know we should be reading the bottom three cards of each cut, it occurs to me that, unless the middle pile (which will now be on the top) contained more than 16 cards, at least one if not all of the cards from the bottom of that pile will appear somewhere in the spread and may be worth paying particular attention to.

Lene then continues:

Vom übrigen Haufen, 5 Karten ziehen.

Die dann auf die Karten legen was man näher wissen möchte.

Zum Beispiel - Herzdame, fürs Haus, Liebe, Reise, und so weiter.

And Edith:

Vom übrigen Haufen 5 Karten ziehen,

und so auf die Karten legen

z.B auf Dich (Herz -Dame )and so on, um zu wissen, was in der nächsten Zeit passiert.

·        From the remaining pile, draw 5 cards.

·        Then lay the cards on what you want to know in more detail, or as
Edith put it, to know what is happening in the near future.
for example – (on the) Queen of Hearts, for the home, love, travel, and so on.

We then proceed to a second spread.

Lene:

Zuletzt alle Karten mischen.

9 Karten ziehen und so auslegen:

Wieder kombinieren was sie sagen.

Edith:

Alle Karten wieder mischen, Herz -Dame bleibt auf dem Tisch liegen.

Karten ziehen und so auslegen

dann wieder sehen was die Karten sagen.

·       Last shuffle all the cards. Edith adds: the Queen of Hearts stays on the table.

·         Draw 9 cards and lay out as follows:

·         Again combine what they say.

And that is all I have been told. Oma passed away in 1998, at the age of 95.

Edith has been very patient with my questions and requests for clarification, so I’ll leave her in peace for a while, but at some point I’d like to ask her how she combines the cards and reads the Star layout.

Update: June 2014

Sadly, Tante Edith has no more information in this regard, or perhaps doesn’t have sufficient confidence in her English to attempt an explanation. Bearing in mind my paltry German skills, this is a feeling with which I can very much sympathise. 

I would love to hear from anyone who recognises any aspects of this method, or can elaborate on what I have presented.

Kipper Videos!!

6 Dec 15: I've noticed that with the recent upsurge in interest in Kipper cards this post has been receiving a lot of new hits, so for your convenience I'm adding the link to the Kipper videos playlist I created for my Kippermania! post.

I am sooooooooooo excited!

There's precious little information on the internet (at least, that I've found so far) regarding Kipperkarten/Kipper Cards. There's xxxxxxxxxx (sorry, the owner and I have had a falling out), Fennario's list and a great little group on Facebook. Mama Whodun's site seems to have pulled up the drawbridge recently, I hope temporarily.
Edit 25 May 13 - It seems Mama Whodun is just taking the summer off - "gone fishin'" - but will be back in the autumn. Yay!
6 Dec 15 - Sorry. She did come back for a while but then she closed up shop. :(

If you've got a solid background in fortune telling with cards, you'll find enough guidance to get you going with Kippers. But if, like me, you're relatively new to cartomancy and no one around you reads, you may feel the need to actually see the cards in action.

So, imagine how thrilled I was when I discovered Malkiel Rouven Dietrich's videos on Kipper cards. I started with the ones in German, which I could just get the gist of, but then he posted some in English! There are vids on the card meanings, including positional relationships as well as important "pointers" in the images, and he demonstrates a wonderful Gypsy spread he learned from his grandmother.

Vielen Dank, Malkiel!

More Kipperkarten Meanings

Like it says up there - another good list of Kipperkarten meanings, this time from Fennario. With a few combining examples and some timings, too. Nice!

Lateral Thinking

Note: All my Kipper sources are listed in this post.

I've been doing a lot of looking things up on the internet lately. As I've found useful information I've bookmarked it, saved it as a PDF, perhaps printed it out. Bits of info all over the place.

It occurred to me that this blog would be a good place to "store" this kind of thing. Give it a sensible label and I should be able to find it again reasonably easily - plus - my visitors will have instant access to the interesting stuff I've found while ferreting around the 'net.

So -

I've discovered an excellent list of  Kipperkarten meanings at xxxxxxxxxx (sorry, the owner and I have had a falling out). Not just the obvious ones - like #24 Diebstahl/Theft = theft, loss - but more nuanced ideas as well: to remove something or leave something, to be missing someone or something, being irresponsible, deficiency or shortcoming.

This list came in very handy with a 3x3 reading I was doing. The bottom row was Short Illness - Court Person - Theft, and the right-hand column was A Journey - Prison - Theft.

At face value it was a bit baffling. But if a "court (legal) person" can be any kind of advisor, such as a doctor, "prison" can be anywhere one is confined, like a hospital and "theft" can mean removal...











... I see someone who has an illness taking a trip to the hospital to have a surgeon remove something.

In a similar vein, Mama Whodun at Kipper Karten Garden suggests "Backtracking". Card pairs or combinations can have a number of meanings depending on the context of the reading. For practice, reverse the process - think of an every day situation and then pick out two cards that would describe that situation. Good training, and it seems to me it would be great fun, too!