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    Playing Card Divination for Beginners: Fortune Telling with Ordinary Cards
    Playing Card Divination for Beginners: Fortune Telling with Ordinary Cards
    Playing Card Divination for Beginners: Fortune Telling with Ordinary Cards
    Ebook144 pages1 hour

    Playing Card Divination for Beginners: Fortune Telling with Ordinary Cards

    By Richard Webster

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Now anyone can practice a six-hundred-year-old tradition of fortune-telling that survives to this day. Chances are you already own the cards. You will learn the meaning of each card, how to interpret groups of cards, special spreads to answer questions about love and romance, and much more.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLlewellyn Worldwide
    Release dateFeb 8, 2016
    ISBN9780738751740
    Playing Card Divination for Beginners: Fortune Telling with Ordinary Cards
    Author

    Richard Webster

    Richard Webster (New Zealand) is the bestselling author of more than one hundred books. Richard has appeared on several radio and television programs in the US and abroad, including guest spots on WMAQ-TV (Chicago), KTLA-TV (Los Angeles), and KSTW-TV (Seattle). He travels regularly, lecturing and conducting workshops on a variety of metaphysical subjects. His bestselling titles include Spirit Guides & Angel Guardians and Creative Visualization for Beginners. Learn more at Psychic.co.nz.

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    • 1/5
      The authenticity and accuracy of the author's information is dubious at best, but is completely overshadowed by their frequent racist language and their insistence of binary gender concepts. I cannot possibly recommend this book, simply based on those things alone.

    Book preview

    Playing Card Divination for Beginners - Richard Webster

    About the Author

    Richard Webster was born in New Zealand in 1946 and he resides there still. He travels widely every year, lecturing and conducting workshops on psychic subjects around the world. He has written many books, mainly on psychic subjects, and also writes monthly magazine columns. Richard is married with three children. His family is very supportive of his occupation, but his oldest son, after watching his father’s career, has decided to become an accountant.

    Llewellyn Publications

    Woodbury, Minnesota

    Copyright Information

    Playing Card Divination for Beginners: Fortune Telling with Ordinary Cards © 2002 by Richard Webster.

    All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any matter whatsoever, including Internet usage, without written permission from Llewellyn Publications, except in the form of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

    As the purchaser of this e-book, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. The text may not be otherwise reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, or recorded on any other storage device in any form or by any means.

    Any unauthorized usage of the text without express written permission of the publisher is a violation of the author’s copyright and is illegal and punishable by law.

    First e-book edition © 2016

    E-book ISBN: 9780738746715

    Book design and editing by Joanna Willis

    Cover design by Gavin Dayton Duffy

    Cover photograph © 2002 by Digital Stock

    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

    Webster, Richard, 1946–

    Playing card divination for beginners: fortune telling with

    ordinary cards / Richard Webster.

    p. cm.

    Includes bibliographical references.

    ISBN 0-7387-0223-4

    1. Fortune-telling by cards. I. Title.

    BF1878 .W43 2002

    133.3’242—dc21

    2002073077

    Llewellyn Publications is an imprint of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

    Llewellyn Publications does not participate in, endorse, or have any authority or responsibility concerning private business arrangements between our authors and the public.

    Any Internet references contained in this work are current at publication time, but the publisher cannot guarantee that a specific reference will continue or be maintained. Please refer to the publisher’s website for links to current author websites.

    Llewellyn Publications

    Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

    2143 Wooddale Drive

    Woodbury, MN 55125

    www.llewellyn.com

    Manufactured in the United States of America

    Contents

    Preface

    Introduction

    one Essential Requirements

    two The Meanings of the Cards

    three Learning the Cards

    four How to Interpret Groups of Cards

    five How to Read Your Own Cards

    six How to Read the Cards for Others

    seven Love and Romance

    eight Other Spreads

    Afterword

    Appendix

    Suggested Reading

    For my good friends

    Alan and Michele Watson

    Preface

    It was an old, gloomy, detached garage close to the beach. All day, every day, people came to have their cards read by a young man who seldom had anything to say, except when he was reading cards.

    I loved watching him give readings. His appearance and manner subtly changed once he had a deck of cards in his hands. He became more confident and outgoing. The pleasure he received from giving readings was apparent in every move he made. He spoke with expression and with a strong, sure voice, frequently nodding his head to emphasize the points he wished to make.

    One day I saw him in the street and asked him if he would teach me how to read cards. Away from the safety of his garage, he could not look me in the eye and mumbled an answer.

    I can’t teach you. The cards talk to me.

    Several years later, I was fortunate enough to observe Gypsy women reading cards. Their readings were quite different. They were more structured, and every card had a distinct meaning. They used a pack of thirty-two cards, as they did not use the two through six of any suit. Although they were reasonably friendly, they were not prepared to discuss their dukkerin (fortune telling) with me.

    These two experiences, twelve thousand miles and several years apart, started me on a quest to learn more about the gentle art of reading playing cards. This book is the result.

    Introduction

    People have always wanted to see a glimpse of the future. Primitive people lived in a state of constant anxiety, as so many things were out of their control. Earthquakes, droughts, floods, thunderstorms, and wild animals were just some of these forces.

    It is not surprising that primitive peoples sought ways to find out in advance what was going to happen. If they knew that, they could store food to sustain them during a drought, just as the pharaoh did at the time of the seven-year famine. They could move to higher ground before a flood occurred, or move away from an area that was to be destroyed by fire.

    Of course, even though life has changed enormously, we still live in uncertain times. The fast pace of the lives we all lead creates as much anxiety as anything our ancestors experienced. People want to know if their jobs are secure, if relationships will last, if they have enough money for retirement. At every stage of life, people have questions about the future.

    Nothing could be more fascinating and intriguing than the unknown, especially the mystery that surrounds the future. During the last few thousand years, many different systems have been used to predict the future. The movements of the planets, extremes of weather, lines on the palms of hands, bumps on the head, crystal gazing, dreams, and omens of all sorts are just some of the ways that have been used by people in attempt to part the veil of the future and see beyond now.

    The Bible mentions a variety of methods of divination, including dreams, signs, and prophecy. Joseph saw visions from his early childhood (Genesis 37:5–11). Saul visited the witch of Endor (I Samuel 28:7–25). The king of Babylon consulted the teraphim, which were images used for the giving and receiving of oracles (Ezekiel 21:21).

    A History of Playing Cards

    No one knows exactly how or when playing cards were invented. However, there are two legends that may, or may not, describe their origin. The first claims that playing cards were invented in the twelfth century in the harem of the Chinese imperial palace. The women living there led lives of incredible boredom waiting to be summoned to the emperor’s bed, and the legend says that in 1120 c.e. one of them invented playing cards to help pass the time.

    The second legend claims that playing cards were invented in India. Apparently, one of the maharajahs constantly pulled at his beard. This habit annoyed his wife so much that she invented a game to utilize his hands.

    These legends are charming, and may even hold a kernel of truth. However, it seems more likely that playing cards originated in Korea and were descended from a Korean divinatory arrow. At least two experts on the history of playing cards, Sir William Wilkinson and Dr. Stewart Culin, made a study of the Korean connection and were convinced that this is where playing cards began.¹

    Wilkinson and Culin were certain of this origin because the original Korean cards were similar in shape to the slips of bamboo that were used as arrows in divination rites. A scroll in the shape of a heart on the backs of the cards was thought to represent an arrow feather. Finally, it is thought that the numbers on the cards were related to the cock feathers on the arrows.²

    It is possible that playing cards reached the West through Persia, as the designs on their cards included young men and women, and kings and queens on thrones. However, no one knows for certain if modern-day playing cards came from Korea, China, India, or Persia. In fact, it is possible that they were invented by a European, perhaps after seeing an Asian deck of cards.³

    No matter where they came from, playing cards quickly spread throughout Europe in the second half of the fourteenth century. No one knows if they arrived in Italy or Spain first. The Moors occupied large parts of Spain at that time, but Italy was busy trading with the East, making it the more likely candidate.

    Certain segments of the European community opposed playing cards from the start. The first prohibition against playing cards was probably issued in Bern in 1367. However, this is not based on conclusive evidence; it is mentioned in a list of legal documents that dates back to the end of the fourteenth century.⁴

    A German monk named Johannes von Rheinfelden also mentioned playing cards in a Latin manuscript found in the British Museum. It says, The game of cards has come to us in this year, viz., the year of our Lord 1377.⁵ Rheinfelden described six different packs of cards, containing from fifty-two to sixty cards, each with four suits. Although he did not describe the suits, they were probably the traditional cups, swords, money, and clubs.

    A few years later, playing cards were being mentioned in places as widespread as Paris, Florence, and Barcelona, usually because of a prohibition against them. It did not take the Christian church long to pronounce playing cards the work of the devil.

    It is unlikely that playing cards were seen in Europe before about 1370, as Francesco Petrarch (1304–1374), Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375) and Geoffrey Chaucer (1343–1400) did not mention them in their writings. From all accounts, these men were enthusiastic about games and gambling, and it is inconceivable that they would not have mentioned playing cards if they had known of them. Petrarch wrote

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