Fortune-Telling Cards

Reproduced from original Drawings by HYLTON COCK.

 

INSTRUCTIONS

The Pack. — The pack consists of thirty-three cards, thirty-two of which are illustrated with designs of various meanings. The thirty-third card is left blank, and represents the person whose fortune is being told.

How to Tell Fortunes.—There are a variety of ways in which fortunes can be told by means of cards The following is recommended as a simple and effective method :—

Place the cards face downwards on the table, and ask the person consulting them to stir the pack thoroughly three times with the left hand ; to gather them up, and give them a good shuffle again with the left hand. It may then be taken that his luck is thoroughly shuffled into the pack. The cards are next handed to the fortune-teller, who removes the top and bottom cards, and requests the consulter to withdraw a card at random from the remainder. The three cards thus set aside are placed face downwards on the table without being seen, and form "the wish," which is read after the fortune has been told.

The remaining thirty cards are dealt singly into three packs, each consisting of ten cards. The left pack represents " the past," the middle pack represents " the present," while the right pack represents " the future." The three packs must now be read separately. To do so, all the cards in the first pack are dealt face upwards in the form of a Horseshoe, commencing at the bottom left-hand corner. Care must be taken not to disarrange the order of the cards. The cards are first read as a whole, after which the two cards on the extremities of the shoe may be taken and paired, and their meaning read ; after which the remaining cards are dealt with in the same way.

When using an ordinary pack of cards for for tune-telling, considerable difficulty is experienced by the beginner in remembering the meaning of each card. In the " gipsy " pack this difficulty is entirely obviated, as each card has its meaning clearly printed on its face. There are, however, a few points it will be found useful to remember when reading the packs.

How to Read the Cards.—Any card

dealt in an inverted position has its meaning reversed. It will at once be clear that the reversed meaning of some of the cards will be difficult to gauge. To take only one instance—the card "Gossip," being: inverted, may signify "A true tale " or " silence." The influence of other cards immediately surrounding the card in question, or the influence of the card with which it is paired, may show clearly in which sense the card must be read. In absence of a clear indication, the decision must be left to the skill of the operator.

From what is stated above it will be seen that the meaning of a card is influenced by the cards with which it is associated, the card with which it is paired having the preponderating influence : after which come the cards on either side of it; and finally those more remote, but yet in the same pack.

It must be remembered that fortune tellers do not pretend that a pack of cards can of itself tell a person's fortune, the claim invariably being that the medium tells the fortune and uses the cards as his instruments. It must not, therefore, be a matter of surprise if the reading of the cards is left somewhat vague ; for it is upon the discrimination and the skill displayed by the fortune-teller that the success of the operation depends.

" The Wish."—Having read the Past Present, and Future, as above described, it only remains to deal with "the wish."

The consulter may be given his choice of having either " A surprise " or " A wish." If he chooses the former, the three cards are turned up, and the nature of the " surprise " in store for him is foretold. In this case, if all three cards are inverted, his "surprise" will consist in an event not taking place which he had every reason to believe would occur. If he chooses " A wish," the procedure is even simpler, for the cards are simply turned up, and according as they appear erect or inverted, so will his wish either be fulfilled or not.

H. P. GIBSON & SONS, Ltd.
LONDON, E.C.3.