Fortune Telling Using Playing Cards

by Jonathan Dee

Will luck be a lady tonight? Or must we play the hand we're dealt? There is no need to use tarot cards to learn what the future a regular deck of playing cards will do the trick - as long as you know how to read them.
 
Fortune Telling Using Playing Cards teaches readers how to translate the four suits of the tarot into the more familiar hearts, diamonds, spades, and clubs found in the common playing card deck. Readers will learn the meaning of the cards, their individual symbolism, keywords, astrological associations, and the significance of their numbers. There are even suggestions on how to do a quick reading when you're short on time - so you will always know what's in the cards.

Genres: Divination, Nonfiction, Tarot

216 pages, Paperback

First published October 6, 2015

Reviews

[Min · Rating 3 out of 5]

Divination with Playing cards has interested me for many years. I started with Tarot, like so many have before me. I was interested to discover how the meanings differ.
I learned a rather esoteric meaning for the cards--a means to focus on developing more deeply spiritually, and personally by better understanding the inner motivations, and the inter-connectedness of others with out own outcomes, along with the importance of acting over reacting.

The playing cards, and many other older cartomancy methods such as Lenormand and Kipper decks, are more straight-forward about one's daily life regarding employment, love/relationships, and what might spoil happiness.
Interestingly, the first method shared in this book is based upon the Golden Dawn's Tarot interpretation of the Minor Arcana, including the astrological associations they developed using idiosyncratic interpretations of the 36 decans. Each card is featured with keywords, astrological meaning in the Golden Dawn, a meaning, and the Lenormand interpretation, when applicable. Following is the section regarding card combinations and their amplified meaning.
The latter half of the book examines the methods purported to be Romany in origin from layouts to meaning. Lenormand and spreads for it follows this. Lastly, there is a quick reference to meanings to give one a handy guide to start learning.
The meanings used for the deck give no reference to traditional playing card meanings.
It does lack a bibliography. I would liked to have learned more about the sources used to explore other areas.

[Saundra · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book its self is not bad, it gives a history of tarot which is great. I was looking for something that went over the meaning of the cards and how to do a reading with a full playing card deck. So far this is not what I have found when skipping around the book. I'm still reading so if I remember I will update my review when I finish reading.

[Weslyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading the history of cartomancy as well as the various meanings of the cards. I did get a teensy bit bored while reading the extensive sections on the Romany and Lenormand ways, but other than that I enjoyed this book and will be referencing it in the future. I didn’t like that there was no bibliography included for the information provided. I prefer to know where the author is getting information from unless it’s unique information to that author, which is definitely not the case here.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the various methods of fortune telling with ordinary playing cards.

[James Mackie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informative

Informative and concise. A quick read with a lot of useful information for those interested in divination with a deck of playing cards. If you're just getting started with divination or have a passing interest in card readings then this book is worth your time.

[Charles Oppenheimer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very very informative

This book took my cartomancy game up to the next level I always used cards for divination and this book brought more to that