Fifty-Four Devils

A book on the art and folklore of playing card divination and fortune-telling. Topics covered include reading individual cards, a variety of spreads, the use of storytelling in connection to the cards, and several pieces of folklore pertaining to card divination. More

“Ye are twenty-five cards.
Become twenty-five devils
Enter into the body, into the blood, into the soul.”
So begins a nineteenth century Italian charm making use of a small deck of playing cards. This brief-but-richly drawn book explores the practice of divination by playing cards—known as cartomancy. It reveals the “secrets in plain sight” which hide within the pips, kings, queens, and jokers of a standard deck. Explore one method of divination in-depth as you meet the “fifty-four devils”—the symbolic spirits of each card—and learn about invoking ancestral blessings for card readings, the folklore of playing cards, and how to relate fairy tales to a spread along the way.

First 15% Sample: epub mobi (Kindle) lrf more Online Reader