cardomancy

My Good Night card arrived in the mail and I was surprised and pleased to see that it was a flesh-colored King of Diamonds as I've taken a liking to the imbued Face Cards. Surprised because I prefer not to know which card I am getting as it then serves as a sort of mini cartomancy reading for the day. King of Diamonds, Nine of Hearts and a Joker are my three card spread as they all came together in a post from England. Whatever that portends to will have to be determined later as I'm off for work shortly.

I came across this excellent booklet from The U. S. Playing Card Co. on Instagram and then tracked down its source to eBay where I took advantage of the generous photos on the listing and saved them in e-book form because it's the right thing to do for posterity's sake. The booklets contains a very short sequence of rhymes that make for one bizarre folktale that wouldn't cut it in today's cancel culture. Also displayed in the small booklet are some card packs produced by the company which is very helpful towards dating the cards for novices who don't have access to the company's historical records.

I lucked upon this antique pack of Dougherty's Indicator No. 50 Playing Cards at an estate sale that I had originally gone to for the sole intent of purchasing Tarot cards that I was going to resell. After procuring the lesser pack that I wanted I spied a dozens of packs of vintage and antique playing card decks, coming home with a dozen of the best ones. Since they are shrink wrapped I assumed that these were reproductions but after asking card historian and expert  Jason McKinstry on Instagram he believes that they are the real deal from 1900 as the tax stamp suggests but with the caveat that some savvy collector put the protective wrap on the box knowing full well what he had. I have mixed emotions on the matter since I'm not inclined to open a sealed pack and even if the shrinkwrap isn't original the stamp seems to be as it was when issued. The cards apparently look something like these .  

While it is nearly impossible to find the silent film classic Soleil et Ombre in its entirety there are fragmented versions floating around on the internet including a mostly un-subtitled version on YouTube . Which is where I grabbed this screenshot from. I'm not a particular fan of silent movies but happened to come across the 1916 serial Les Vampires a week or so back and am taken by the lead actress in that film, Musidora, who also directed and starred in Soleil et Ombre . Without giving out any plot spoilers the movie begins with Juana, the peasant love interest of the movie's bullfighter star, getting her fortune read. The Gypsy fortune-teller only flips over the fourth card, the Nine of Spades, after Juana has walked away with her lover. Once revealed, the Gypsy taps the Nine of Spades as if to emphasize its importance in Juana's future. A quick cartomancy reading tells us that the Ace of Spades is a card of incredible power and strength. Uncontrolled, it can destr

Look into the window of your soul and if smutty playing cards are in its purview, slam it shut until the sash rattles loose its frivolous bones. Don't let those baby blues fool you because this is an affront to art itself though novelty it may be. That said, we have to consider the package in its entirety. I first wrote of such cards a week or so back culminating with a complete aesthetic rebuke of them the other day . Not an half hour later I went to an estate sale and found a similar pack to the one discussed in the aforementioned link. Funny how that works, eh? The back of that deck features a drawing of two naked women: One clutching her pearls, so to speak, and the other posing coquettishly through the feminist peephole of inequity. My biggest gripe with the lithograph, besides being backed with photos of nude women besmirching the laureled archaic symbols of the pack, was that the depicted female was fondling herself. Remove that element and we have the potential for low art.

Even though this antique Congress playing card that I recently purchased is simply entitled Good Night , it is often listed on eBay as Good Night Child . I added the comma in the title because it's something that I would say to my own clone and have with the proper pause in between because I'm not a complete heathen.  As for the  Child portion in those listings it makes me assume that there are Good Night cards which don't feature a child. No matter. There are several variations of this card back and this is the cheapest one that I could procure and so I went with it. It has complete sentimental value to me because the one thing they never tell you in life is how much you will miss your child being an actual child! I mean, you think that the mid-life crisis is going to be your bald spot or a need to drive a convertible but the real trauma is watching your child become one of the savagely grown. Now it's real and they are in danger of the wolf at large and not only th