Just a reminder:
When working with old decks like Lenormand, Kipperkarten, Sibilla, etc. there is no need to add cards in order to "update" them. Don't innovate, don't modernize, don't tamper. You can put the meanings in a modern context - the Rider can be your car rather than a horse - but leave the image alone. Everything is already built into the system. What goes on now went on then, albeit sometimes less openly. People are people.
They even said "fuck."
There's a thought provoking post on Hugh's blog that prompted me to elaborate a bit. https://thefortunetellerssociety.com/2023/08/21/how-do-i-read-lenormand/
What I'm seeing online is people who want to learn the cards making the same mistakes over and over. The big problem is a lack of discernment. You need to learn from people who can actually read cards. Just a few reliable sources. Less is more! I'm not trying to discredit the "competition" here. I do not sell courses, workshops, or any of that. I don't make videos. I just read cards, and I'm telling you what the problem is: bad signal.
You won't learn Lenormand from sub-par books. The ones Hugh mentions are more than adequate, especially Andy's. Get that one and work through it. Then work through it again. Stay with it until you've absorbed it.
You won't learn from youtube. With the exception of Hexe Claire, everything there is crap. Hexe Claire's videos are good, but they're an introduction. They'll get you started, that's all. If you want to progress, again, get Andy's book.
You won't learn on forums. Those are full of bad readings, it's all guesswork. Bad information is seldom corrected, since forums are focused on getting and keeping lots of board traffic, not trying to make sure people learn properly. (BTW, being a forum mod does not confer knowledge of the cards!)
Facebook groups are, if anything, worse.
And you won't learn by focusing on spreads, or learning to design your own spreads, or any of that. Good old fashioned lines, boxes, and tableaus work the best, and will answer any question. You don't need dedicated spreads for various subjects like love, money, etc. Stop wasting your time on spreads and practice reading the cards.
Just because a person has a youtube channel, moderates a forum, or even writes a book does not mean they know what they're talking about. As I commented on Hugh's blog, "I’d advise anyone who wants to learn to toss any books they have other
than the ones mentioned. The vast majority of what’s out there is
garbage. Approach the cards with logic.
Then, study and practice. Don’t try to learn silly spreads. Don’t seek
instruction or advice on forums, facebook groups, etc. That’s the blind
leading the blind. Just do readings every day, record them, and review
them later to see if they were accurate. Keep doing that for at least
five years and you’ll get there."
And yes, it does take at least five years to get fluent. You're learning a language. Don't underestimate the complexity of the method simply because there are only 36 cards!
That glorious photo above is RAIN. It's been overcast all day, temperatures only got up in the mid 90's, and my air conditioner handled it effortlessly. It was a great day, as predicted here: https://fatekeepson.blogspot.com/2023/07/the-bohemian-fortune-telling-cards.html
Of course triple digits are forecast again for tomorrow, but I have a second air conditioner coming. If it takes two window units per room, I'll do that. Fuck Greg Abbott, and fuck ERCOT.
The heat dome is DYING. YAAAAAAAS. Another summer almost out of the way and we lived to tell the tale.
Greetings from the Dome of Doom. Maybe you've heard about the heat dome? Triple digit temps with no end in sight. Not just "Wow, I'm really sticky and uncomfortable" hot, but "This shit will literally kill you" hot. It's an issue in much of the US, and I read that Italy is currently experiencing a heat dome too. Global warming is real, kids. Now is a good time to stick close to the AC and knock wood our raggedy power grid holds.
So pardon my not-great rumpled sheet photos. This is where the air conditioner blows best!
Go here and here for better images and a bit of historical background. These decks are gorgeous, my photos don't begin to do them justice.
The Bohemian Fortune Telling Cards is a deck I've been anticipating for years. Karen and Alex have been working on it in between other projects, so it took awhile. It was announced in 2017 or thereabouts, and at that time it had already been in the works for four years. Along with that, they've cleaned up and recolored a 19th century deck originally published in what is now Lviv, Ukraine but was called Lemberg then, during the Habsburg Era. Borders in that part of the world seem to be in constant flux, even now. They named it for the Mercury image on the Message card: Mercury's Fortune Telling Cards.
These decks follow the same system as the Zigeuner Wahrsagekarten, Biedermeier Aufschlagkarten, the Konrad Jegel cards, and many others, too numerous to name here. I like that they've changed the G word - it's both an ethnic slur for Roma people and inaccurate - to "Bohemian." The companion book covers both decks. It's substantial, well-researched, and gives you everything you need to read these cards, plus a fascinating history section with lots of images from old decks.
And as with all of Karen and Alex's decks, the cards are sumptuous, with lovely cold stamping, quality stock and printing, wooden boxes, and bags that appear to be some type of sturdy duck fabric, humble yet elegant in their simplicity.
But enough fangirling, lets lay some cards.
"Will the heat ease up this month?"
Thinking about going on a journey or visiting the cemetery isn't the same as going. And Widower is an older man, he doesn't get around like he used to. So there will be lots of staying in the rest of this month, with no unnecessary outings. The Dome of Doom stays put.
These cards are easy, just put them in context. You can adapt them to literally anything.
OK, July is hopeless. What about August?
Bohemian Fortune Telling Cards and Mercury's Fortune Telling Cards by Karen Mahony and Alex Ukolov, BabaBarock Ltd. https://baba-store.com/ All rights reserved, used by permission.
Purchase at these links:
https://baba-store.com/products/the-bohemian-fortune-telling-cards-with-wooden-box
https://baba-store.com/products/mercurys-fortune-telling-cards
Companion book:
https://baba-store.com/products/the-bohemian-fortune-telling-cards-companion-book
There's something about the word "gatekeeping" that makes people kneejerk. People talk like it's Always A Bad Thing, they accuse people of doing it when they don't get something they want. Be a doormat lest someone accuse you of "gatekeeping!"
This is why we have idiot readers all over youtube. It's why we have so many cringy bad books and decks. People have been throwing the gates wide open for decades now, letting every Tom, Dick, and Harry in. "Anybody can do this!" And your listing gets buried under a flood of dilettantes practicing unlicensed psychology with a cheesy deck. You see magazine articles saying "Tarot doesn't predict the future." Etc.
Would you throw your front door open and let in every random person on the street?
In myth, everything worthwhile has some kind of threshold guardian. If you want in, you have to face the guardian first.
"With the personifications of his destiny to guide and aid him, the hero
goes forward in his adventure until he comes to the "threshold guardian"
at the entrance to the zone of magnified power. Such custodians bound
the world in four directions—also up and down—standing for the limits of
the hero's present sphere, or life horizon. Beyond them is darkness,
the unknown, and danger; just as beyond the parental watch is a danger
to the infant and beyond the protection of his society danger to the
members of the tribe. The usual person is more than content, he is even
proud, to remain within the indicated bounds, and popular belief gives
him every reason to fear so much as the first step into the unexplored"
- Joseph Campbell
The guardians are depicted as fearsome, like Cerberus above with his three toothy heads and his viper tail, or the Nio temple guardians of Japan:
And like all mythic things, they can be interpreted on various levels: Psychological, spiritual, or mundane. They serve an important purpose.
The most dangerous labor of Hercules was the 12th and final one: he had to kidnap Cerberus and present him to Eurystheus. It's telling that Hercules did not slay Cerberus as he had the other monsters he'd battled. He simply subdued him, brought him to Eurystheus, and then returned him safely to Hades, where Cerberus resumed guarding the gateway to the Underworld!
There was a time when morons were terrified of things like Tarot. Now, only the talibaptist types are scared off. It's been entirely too welcoming for years now. "Anybody can do this!" "Death means transformation!" Etc. And we're seeing the results of that, Tarot's been going to hell in a handbasket. Pirate decks, AI, plagiarism, useless books and websites, etc. That's what happens when you throw the doors wide open and invite everybody.
A friend once told me that "the key to a successful esoteric subject forum is making sure that the idiots are too scared to join it." I agree, but I'd like to add that many are not so easily intimidated, and those have to be screened out.
We need a lot more gatekeeping if we're ever going to turn this around.
For many years now, I've been explaining that the bundle of sticks in the image above, and in a lot of other old Lenormand decks, is not a broom. It's a birchrod bundle and it's used for punishment, not cleaning. But at some point, someone misidentified it as a broom and the idea has infected many a book, deck, and website ever since. There are broom meanings added on to what's essentially a card of strife. I've also seen "sex" for this one, but a specific kink does not encompass sex. That's like saying the Park is a "sex card" because some people are into sex in public places. Or people read it as "repetition", which throws the deck out of balance. The Ring already covers things that happen over and over. With Whips/Birchrods, something might happen twice (there's two implements) but no more than that.
I'm not saying that the cards have to be frozen in some particular moment in time. The interpretation of the cards has certainly been expanded to accommodate changing times. With the advent of the automobile, the Rider took on vehicles in a more general sense. The Letter can be email, DMs, etc. And sometimes you have to wing it - the books just don't cover every possible thing that could come up in the cards. But be sensible about it.
From the 1840's until the 1980's, people had only the Philippe Lenormand sheet (unless by some miracle they still had Das Spiel der Hoffnung instructions lying around, something I find quite doubtful in most cases.)
I think having nothing but the PL sheet for 140 years must have been a bit like the string that keeps a balloon from floating off who-knows-where. When Mary Marco, Erna Droesbeke and Colette Silvestre started publishing their works, Whips was still a strife card. It's only in recent times that people have tried to make it a fun roll in the hay.
You can adapt the cards to literally anything, but it has to be logical. Look at the Clouds:
They're storm clouds. Think of a hurricane: damage to homes, ships lost at sea, flooding, lightning strikes. It's bad. But a common interpretation I've been seeing in recent years is "confusion." Clouds don't confuse anyone. A person could lose their way in heavy fog, but the card is not called "Fog." When you see ominous storm clouds, you know exactly what to do: roll up the car windows, take shelter, etc. There is no confusion. Andy always said the same. But look at the previews for recent books on amazon and you'll see the Clouds misinterpreted as "confusion" over and over.
I blame the internet for a lot of this. Someone could say that the Sun is "basketball" because it's round, and six months later it would be in a book. A lot of people just mindlessly parrot things. Never mind that the Moon and Ring are also round. They've forgotten that the Rider is sporty and active, and athletics are usually Rider combinations.
Don't just incorporate things that you see in books or on the internet without examining them. Is the Fox really just "cleverness" and "work" if your chickens are going missing? That's one of the red flag cards. Its telling you that something is wrong. (And I do like foxes, I just wouldn't want them around if I kept chickens.) Logic and critical thinking are key.
Look to the future with humouristic warnings and jokes, dedicated to all the beautiful ones.
The cards can never be deceived! Choose, fair ones, for pleasure, of these for you to contemplate. They form a meaningful bouquet.
The Blicke in die Zukunft ("Look Into The Future") is one of those humorous 19th century decks. You may have seen a few. I have a couple of British ones: one card is captioned "Sudden losses will cause you some anxiety" with a scene of people getting their clothes stolen while skinny dipping. Another shows a strong wind blowing the wigs off a couple, and it's captioned "You will experience sudden losses." So I set about translating the text on this deck expecting something similar.
Translating a deck that's over 200 years old (plus it's in Fraktur german) can yield ambiguous results. The translation can seem nonsensical, and online translators are far from perfect. So when in doubt, it's best to check with an actual human who speaks the language. I was very much in doubt, because some of what I was getting sounded kind of...ribald. 😜
As it turns out, that's because it IS ribald. A couple of examples:
Take this gentleman without shyness,
he'll love you without feints,
he'll never grab your chests,
he's wearing the key on his backside
You can see the cards here: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1896-0501-465
Play around with them here, just click on the old lady to draw a card: https://www.lilith-kartenlegen.de/zukunftsblick/index.htm
Or if you'd like to order, they're available here. https://www.etsy.com/listing/1444461407/fortune-telling-cards-32-cards-germany
Often, in online discussions of card reading. it's suggested that people "reframe" (IOW change) their question to " wha...
