sobota, 28 lutego 2015

Going back to my roots

This time it's not about tarot, but it's still about doing divination with cards, so I decided to put it here. Thanks to jmk for the inspiration!
My Grandma used to read from regular playing cards, using only 24 of them (9, 10, J, Q, K, A). She learnt from her mother in Poland. When she was small, she imagined - or did she imagine? - that she had a Gypsy ancestry. Once I asked her to tell me the meanings and I wrote them down. Here's the translation.

The best days for reading the cards are Tuesdays and Fridays.

Ace - worry, illness (e.g. Ace♣ and 10♣ combined - a serious problem, even death hazard)
10 - longer journey
9 - short journey

Ace - your home
10 - a lot of vodka drinking!
9 - drinking a bit

Ace - a wedding, a great joy
10 - a big joy
9 - a small joy

Ace - a letter
10 - big money
9 - small money

Court cards

Kings - elder men
K - dark/brown hair, serious and solemn
K - black eyes, black hair
K - dark blond hair
K - light blond hair

Queens - women
Jacks - young men, bachelors
Q, J - dark/brown hair
Q, J - black hair
Q, J - dark blond hair
Q, J - light blond hair

How to do a "board" reading:
(I call it "the board reading", Grandma just says "the reading").
Shuffle the cards, cut into three. Look under each pile to see the bottom card, interpret.
Put the cards back together, lay them all in three rows, 8 cards each. Your starting point will be the significator card (one of the court cards you chose for the querent). Then travel with your finger through the "board" made from the cards counting to three (in fact Grandma would count "3-4-5", but it still makes three moves...) - you can go up, down, to the sides, change direction etc. The direction you choose depends on your intuition. When you stop at a card, it becomes your new starting point, then move three cards from it etc.

Pile reading:
Can be used as an initial reading before the more detailed "board" reading.
Shuffle the cards and cut them into 5 piles (they don't have to be even). Take each pile into your hand and start interpreting the sequence of cards.
The meaning of the piles are as follows:

1. For me.
2. For the house.
3. What I don't know.
4. What I don't expect.
5. What will happen to me.

Solitare:
use to answer a yes/no question. Put two cards on the table, these will be beginnings of two columns. Lay a card on each of the cards. Whenever the same number/court card appears on the top of another, remove these two and fill the space from the other column - if not, put more from the pile. Your  answer is yes, if you're able to remove all cards from the table.

8 komentarzy:

  1. Thank you for taking the time to share this information with us. Lovely to see the "old ways". It's interesting to the see the similarities and differences between our grandmothers' methods. There's always something to learn from 'how' someone else reads the cards. I'd have to substitute Schnaps for vodka, though. ;)

    OdpowiedzUsuń
  2. You're very welcome!
    And Schnaps is not bad either! :D

    OdpowiedzUsuń
  3. So, I've had a little go with your grandmother's method . :) Counting cards is always good, and I like the option of deciding intuitively which direction to take. The Piles work well with 24 cards - I'd probably have to have 7 piles with my 32. The difficulty for me is that I always find "people" cards tricky - having them make up 50% of the deck is quite challenging. Who are all these people? And has anyone ever gotten an Yes from the Solitaire? I'd be inclined to word my question so that No is the desired answer, LOL!

    OdpowiedzUsuń
  4. I have seen my grandma getting a YES from Solitare :D
    Also, I wanted to add that I found a piece of paper from 20 years ago, so when I was a little girl. It's my handwriting, so it's probably a reading from my grandma that I wrote down. There, as I was still a child, 10 of clubs meant "guests", but without drinking, of course ;)
    I have sometimes problems with court cards in tarot, I don't know how my grandma managed all those people! But she somehow did :)

    OdpowiedzUsuń
    Odpowiedzi
    1. Magdalena, sorry for the late reply. I only just remembered to check back. :/
      How wonderful to find that reading - what a treasure! I *love* that 10C was guests. :) That makes perfect sense and just shows how our meanings can be 'shifted' to fit the situation.

      Usuń
  5. Enjoyed reading this blog, "going back to my roots!" It's interesting to learn about the olde German arts of tarot, I'm 34 th year tarot "learning" as we're all students in life, and this is something I wishe I had my Nana long enough to learn this from... Thank you!

    OdpowiedzUsuń
  6. Thank you! I don' know what "style" my Grandma used (whether Polish, German or Gypsy), but it is indeed interesting :)

    OdpowiedzUsuń
  7. Thanks for sharing your method. I will try it. I use a personal method with 50 cards. Came from my family, of portuguese ancestry. Very exact.
    Best wishes.
    Phelippe Leite

    OdpowiedzUsuń