What is Cartomancy?
Cartomancy is the act of divining using cards. Divining means to find out by inspiration, intuition or magic; to foresee. Divination is most often practiced as a means of foretelling the future, however, many people who practice divination using cards or other tools find it a helpful tool for exploring the present and the past as well.
What are the origins of cartomancy?
The history is cartomancy is shrouded in mystery. We do know that playing cards have been around at least 600 years and it is believed that paper cards originate in China since they developed the first known paper currency which resembled playing cards. It is believed that the tradition of playing cards traveled from Western Asia to Egypt, then to North Africa. From there, they finally surfaced in Europe. One theory of the history states that the Arabs and Moors introduced the cards to the Spaniards in 1379. In Spain, people called the cards naibi, which means "to foretell." Whether they originated as tools for playing games or for divination purposes cannot be sure, however, cards were definitely being used for predictive purposes by the sixteenth century. By the eighteenth century, cartomancers - as fortune tellers were frequently called - were all the rage. The Emperor Napoleon is said to have consulted the cards on a regular basis.
Playing cards and tarot cards
Most people are not aware that the 52-card playing deck that can be found in almost every home is almost identical to the tarot deck, although research has not yet proven which came first. The traditional tarot deck contains a total of 78 cards. Twenty-two cards form the Major Arcana and 56 cards form the Minor Arcana, from which the regular playing deck is derived. Instead of three face cards, the tarot deck has four face cards, called court cards. They are Page, Knight, Queen and King. The Minor Arcana consists of four suits: Wands (Clubs); Cups (Hearts); Swords (Spades); and Pentacles (Diamonds).
My approach to cartomancy
Unlike tarot, cartomancy using playing cards is typically used as a purely predictive tool. The meanings given to the cards are generally simpler and of the fortune-telling variety. Alternatively, the tarot is often used as a tool for self-discovery and meditation and the card symbolism and meanings are explored in great depth. Since I came to use playing cards for divination after reading tarot cards for several years, my card interpretations are probably more detailed than many. They are based on my observations from studying tarot and numerology.
I created this website to share my ideas and offer a more robust variety of information on playing card cartomancy than I have been able to find on the Internet. I hope you enjoy it!
Kristen