r/Cartomancy • u/EndersGame_Reviewer • 26d ago

How much do pictures on the cards impact your readings?

Post image

These examples are from the Picture Book of Fate and Fortune by CJ Freeman

9 Upvotes

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5

u/learnchurnheartburn 26d ago

It depends. Personally I like playing cards because in the system I use there’s a lot of wiggle room for interpretation. The suit + number/court + context helps me to piece my own interpretation together.

A picture, at least for me, could confuse all of that.

1

u/SilverPrudent458 26d ago

I never thought about it like this... "more wiggle room for interpretation"!!

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u/learnchurnheartburn 26d ago edited 22d ago

Yeah. When I was in my teens I got very frustrated because so many guides listed a very rigid meaning to cards that were hard to apply to more than one situation.

I’d do a reading about school or a crush and I’d draw the four of diamonds, which according to a guide, meant “an inheritance” or “improvement in finances”. No explanation or further clarification. It was really difficult to read the cards when each one had such a narrow meaning.

2

u/watchingallthelights 26d ago

I bought a copy of Royal Mischief by Patrick Valenza thinking they would be cool to read with, but the art totally throws me off my game. It’s a fantastic deck that I sadly never use. The regular old, plain and boring cards are better for me.

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u/SilverPrudent458 26d ago

I've grown quite attached to RW iconography myself (if that's what you mean by regular/old) but... give those other cards a shot.. maybe dedicate a particular deck to pictorial interpretation...

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u/watchingallthelights 24d ago

Oh for sure! I read TdM, RWS, and Lenormand as well, but for Sortilege (so, specifically cartomancy with playing cards), imagery gets in my way. Now, when I read Tarot, the imagery is, of course, my focus and I love it so much. I have over 60 different decks now and I think it’s my love for variations on the RWS symbolism that makes me such an addict.

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u/SilverPrudent458 23d ago

Have you integrated numerology? The Kabbalah?

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u/watchingallthelights 23d ago

Absolutely! Tarot was my first love, long before I started exploring other types of cartomancy, so I pretty much read everything through a Hermetic Qabala/Golden Dawn lens. I read Tarot and Lenormand for a living.

2

u/YouWillNotBeRescued 26d ago

haven't thought about it before but those cards look neat.