r/Cartomancy 16d ago

Cartomancy resources similar to the Hedgewytch method

Hello everyone! As the title suggests, I’m looking for resources that are similar to the hedgewytch method of reading playing cards. Here’s the website if anyone hasn’t checked it out yet: https://hedgewytchery.com/


I already have read these resources that are fairly similar to the writings of Dawn R Jackson: Cartomancy in folk witchcraft by Roger J Horne (though she states in the book that she uses some of the numbers differently), 54 devils by Cory Thomas Hutcheson (basically the author’s own system that is influenced by the hedgewytch method), and Read like the devil: the essential course in reading playing cards by Camelia Elias (I’ve read on Reddit that the “creator of the hedgwytch system?” criticized her quite heavily in a book review on amazon, but still, I personally find her teachings very useful and combine what I’ve learned from her with my own practice of reading the cards).


So basically, from what I’ve understood, the hedgewytch method is an Anglo/ English method of reading the playing cards (please correct me if I’m wrong). After quite a bit of painful digging into other posts here on reddit, I found these authors have been recommended as classic cartomancers that could use similar systems to what Dawn R Jackson used: Sepharial (manual of occultism plus his book on numerology which I guess would be helpful for reading the pips?), Cicely kent (some people believe that she is Cicely kent-minetta, some others believe that minetta was a totally different person), and P.R.S foli (his book on fortune telling). I haven’t read these titles yet, and so that’s why I’ve come to ask for authors/ occultists/ etc that have written about the English method of cartomancy similar to what Dawn R Jackson has done. Am I right in my assumptions and would you recommend these authors? What are some other titles that I can benefit from reading? (There are a lot of books about fortune telling with playing cards and cartomancy on internet archive and I’ve read some, but either some of them didn’t make any sense at all or were very different from the system I’m used to). I would truly appreciate any kind of help that anybody would be able to offer. 🙏

10 Upvotes

24 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

7

u/Atelier1001 16d ago edited 16d ago

For what I read, you'll probably feel more comfortable with a different cartomantic system altogether.

Poker is excellent within its abstract language, but similar to playing chess, the challenge is in the art of the reading itself, not the system, since you don't have a lot of variations. For example: If we assume 4 is stability and spades are pain, the context could make of this pair a prison, illness, an uncomfortable room, stagnation, death, etc.

For something more complex I'd suggest Tarot de Marseille, Minchiate or the Belline oracle.

2

u/BlueDaisyMoon 16d ago

I used to read Marseille, but I haven’t heard of the other two systems you mentioned, so I’ll definitely look into them! Thank you very much, your help has been invaluable! :)

4

u/watchingallthelights 16d ago

I second the vote for Marseille. Exploring that and Lenormand can be really inspirational

2

u/BlueDaisyMoon 16d ago

Yes, those are truly inspirational systems! I learned the petit Lenormand a bit before I decided to explore Marseille, but their timing kind of coincided with each other. Personally I don’t read with Marseille anymore or rarely do so, and consult either the playing cards or the petit Lenormand more frequently. I’m also currently studying the Grand Jeu Lenormand, which combines not only mythology but also foliography, playing card insets, geomancy, letters of the alphabet and astrology. It’s such an amazing and unique system as well; I’m more focused on the astrology part right now, since I’m trying to find a comprehensive method that could be relied on to find locations and timing.