Followup Regarding Yesterday’s Reading

Yesterday I posted a tarot reading predicting the outcome of the Apple presentation. This was the summary:

Will Apple announce a tablet today? Based on these cards I’d have to say yes. I think it will be a device that makes people happy by its very existence, but it also seems likely to be an evolutionary device in its own way. It will build on Apple’s strengths without taking big risks.

Apple did in fact announce the tablet computing device, dubbed the iPad. I would say that it’s evolutionary, reminding me of a large iPhone or iPod Touch: a touchscreen device with internet access and one main button. It’s a bit more powerful than these devices, and will have functionality that takes advantage of the increased processing power and larger screen; but generally speaking it’s like a big iPhone (minus the phone).

As far as I can tell from journalists who were present, the audience was pleased; and I can say that several people I know are excited about the new product. Apple will indeed build on their existing strengths, not only with their iPhone experience, but leveraging their iTunes Store experience. The new device will open up a new avenue for purchasing or reading eBooks.

While skeptics could say this was a safe “guess” on my part, I have to say that my “guess” was based on interpreting the cards which showed up in the context of my question. After all, I could have gotten cards that indicated a lack of progress or fast talk with no action. As my friend said:

The cards mean what they mean, so the fact that the cards agreed with what [some] analysts had to say doesn’t detract from the fact that the cards were right, and your interpretation was right!

That’s about all I have to say on this subject.

What to Expect from Apple’s Presentation Today?

Anyone who follows tech news in even a cursory fashion has probably heard that Apple is expected to launch a new tablet-based product today. (Think of a supersized iPhone.) Rumors have been flying for months. I stopped paying attention to the rumors because I think it’s gotten out of hand — an analyst even announced a delay of the release of this product that hasn’t been officially announced. Still, with the big show being put on by Apple today, I thought it would be good practice for some predictive tarot reading.

I used a four card layout which is sometimes referred to as the Tetragrammaton layout, as it is based on the Caballistic formula of YHVH. It is also the preliminary step of the Golden Dawn’s Opening of the Key. The deck is divided into four piles, and from right to left, the piles correspond to fire, water, air and earth (elemental forces). Each card is dignified according to how its element relates to the element of the pile. For example: fire or air on top of fire are quite strong; earth on top of fire is moderately strong; and water on top of fire is greatly weakened.

This spread can be analyzed to provide a lot of nuances if desired. I like it because it’s quicker than something like Opening of the Key, or a spread that utilizes many cards and possibly card counting, yet it can provide much detail. I admit that I’m a bit rusty as I haven’t used this spread for a few months. Without further ado, let’s see what I came up with.

“What can we expect to see from Apple’s presentation today?”

Oracle of Fortuna: Will I Buy a House on the List?

Another day, another oracle reading.

I recently tried my hand again at the aforementioned Oracle of Fortuna method. I’ve been looking for a home again, so as with many of my earliest posted readings, I asked a question related to that.

Specifically, I asked if I would buy a house from our “list.” My partner and I have a web portal set up by our realtor. This page features a list of homes that meet our search criteria.

Somewhat surprisingly, I won the game, which according to the system is an unequivocal yes. This is the first time I’ve won a game by this method.

I didn’t do a full detailed planetary analysis, but the most important planet at the time was Mercury. I attribute this planet to the tarot Magician, and generally speaking that means things are within my power. This was interesting because in a previous question about a habit I wanted to change, the most important planet was also Mercury. So in both cases it would seem that I have the ability to move forward and doing so is the most important aspect related to my goals.

However, Ophiel doesn’t consider the tarot relationships of the planets; he considers the things that fall under planetary jurisdiction, in astrological terms. I admit that I’m not very fluent in that yet. However, I think of messages, news, communication, the internet and things along this line. As I search for a home, it makes sense to keep my ears open; stay in touch with my realtor; listen to any independent sources; and take advantage of modern methods of searching via the web. By doing these things, I am in tune with the forces in play at the time I cast this reading via the Oracle of Fortuna.

Air was the first element, in terms of the order the four Aces turned up in the reading. I’m not sure yet how important this is, because although Ophiel mentions that the Aces should be kept in the order they appear, I didn’t notice where he considers them in analyzing the reading. In this method, Air is the elemental force of air and corresponds to the idea of movement. This would indicate that things are in motion, or that I need to keep moving myself. Both of these things seem self-evident, I admit, but sometimes reminders are good!

Oldest Cartomancy Meanings in English (via Mary Greer)

I was delighted this morning to see the newest entry at Mary Greer’s blog, Oldest Cartomancy Meanings in English:

Dr. Flamstead’s and Mr. Patridge’s New Fortune-Book containing, I. Their new-invented method of knowing one’s fortune by a pack of cards appears to be the oldest book with instructions on fortune-telling-with-cards in the English language.  The 2nd edition is estimated to be from 1730, so the first edition was probably from the 1720s—well before Etteilla wrote his book on “cartonomancie.”

I encourage anyone with a whit of interest in the history of cartomancy to read this article.

The card meanings are told with cute little rhymes — as always, a helpful way to memorize card meanings that have no structural basis — although I had to chuckle at the predominance of love, affection and weddings. Or the warning that the woman who takes up with the Knave of Spades shall be known as the hussy she already is!

Read the entry here.

Ophiel’s Oracle of Fortuna

I’ve been working with the Oracle of Fortuna, a divination system created by the seemingly little-known occultist who used the moniker “Ophiel.” This is a method of divination with a playing card deck by playing a game of solitaire (patience). Specifically, the well-known game of Klondike — long familiar to Microsoft Windows users — is the base for this oracle.

An old method of divination using solitaire is based on the idea of winning the game to answer a question: if a person meets the winning condition the answer is yes, otherwise no. Ophiel’s system is more sophisticated, by fine-tuning the rules to allow for three end conditions, one of which is “winning.” However, he intended the system to provide guidance for its user. Even without a winning condition the reader is empowered to find where things might be stuck and get an idea of how to improve his situation.

Besides a standard 52-card deck, the reader needs a set of seven planetary cards and four elemental cards. Ophiel gives directions for making and using these. The energies shown by these cards are the extras that help turn the game into an oracle that can offer both coarse and subtle advice. Elements and planets allow for pinpointing issues according to elemental influence in a planetary sphere.

I’ve done three basic readings as I’m new to the Oracle of Fortuna. I cheated and used a tarot deck, so that I could substitute appropriate major arcana instead of creating planetary cards. I chose my pocket-sized Thoth deck, especially because it’s small; and partly because the majors have planetary glyphs visible on the cards. I removed the major arcana and princess cards, leaving me with a playing card deck equivalent for the game. The drawback of the Thoth is that the art is “busy” and distracting when these small cards are laid out to play solitaire.  I used the seven majors with planetary associations as the planet cards, and played the game according to Ophiel’s rules. As I was mainly interested in getting a feel for the rules, I wasn’t trying to get a detailed analysis at this stage.

Happy New Year!

I want to wish a happy new year to my readers. It’s hard to believe that it’s now 2010! I wonder how long it will be before I start correctly writing the date for this year, rather than absentmindedly writing 2009?

I look forward to a new year of many good things, including continued exploration of cartomancy, blogging about cards and hopefully pushing card reading boundaries — even if they are only my own.

Thanks for reading my blog!

It’s Christmas Day

Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it!*

I was going to share the clever song and video for Alice with you today. Although it has nothing to do with the holidays, the Alice in Wonderland video includes cards. Sadly, the artist has pulled his existing work from YouTube today  in order to showcase his new song and video, “Upular.” The artist is Pogo, who samples sounds from movies (notably animated Disney films) and turns them into new music.

His new song is created from a Pixar film that I’m not familiar with, called Up. Enjoy! If Alice comes back, I’ll be sure to post it.

*I miss the days when wishing people a merry Christmas wasn’t a possible insult, because no matter someone’s denomination, they tended to graciously accept the sentiment behind it.

Why Consistency Matters

Winter weather has arrived where I live. It’s the time of year when the roads get coated with snow and ice, and people seemingly forget everything they know about driving.

So with a recent albeit mild snowfall, I thought I’d do a draw about what to expect on my drive into work this past Monday morning.

Mice + Mountain + Fox

My thought was anxiety or stress, and delays, on the way to work.

Surprisingly, it turned out to be the most timely drive I’d had in months. I believe a lot of people are on vacation due to Christmas this week.

The only unexpected delay was after the freeway, when the transit bus in front of me suddenly stopped to allow a paramedic to pass by. It was sudden and stressful, but is it what these cards warned of? I wouldn’t think so.

The drive home, on the other hand, was rather slow that day. Perhaps that’s what the cards chose to hone in on.

The above example, delays in getting to work, is one way to interpret this. Another style of interpretation is to treat the Mouse as “eating away” their adjacent cards, which in effect cancels out the Mountain and means no delays on the way to work. This property of the Mouse canceling neighboring cards is used in some of the German tradition.

The reason I posted about this is because it gives me a chance to reiterate the importance of consistency in reading cards. Depending on how one interprets the Mice card above, two entirely different interpretations are possible: either getting to work will be stressful and slow, or it will have no delays at all. Opposites! A reader who doesn’t have a consistent and standard way of reading the Mice card will have to choose which meaning to use in every reading, and I personally believe this can lead to confused readings.

Literal Readings

My friends who regularly read certain oracle cards often get literal readings. This is a reading where the symbol depicted on the oracle card turns out to mean that thing, rather than what the symbol stands for. I’ve noticed this is somewhat common with the Lenormand, and especially the Gipsy (Zigeuner Wahrsagekarten), oracle decks. Yet it can happen with the tarot as well.

The Illustrative Lenormand

Prince Lenormand has announced to his kingdom of gentle readers that he’ll be using his new Illustrative Lenormand deck to, er, illustrate his blog posts for the rest of December. I’m posting this tidbit because the deck looks quite charming, with its popping palette of bold colors and clean artwork. It has a feel of both classic and modern art to me, blending modern sensibilities with the roots of the time from which the Petit Lenormand came to be.

Deck collectors, don’t get your hopes up, because it sounds like this deck is a one-of-a-kind piece. Or two-of-a-kind, the artist apparently made a deck for herself and another for the Prince.

Still, it’s worth checking out. The blog itself is a well-written exploration of the Lenormand cards through the author’s daily draws, and he shares the ups and downs of his life in the process.