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

Now this is probably going to sound like a contradiction and that's all right by me but this early Congress Berenice nude is absolute art whereas I've called other so-called pin-up girl playing cards raw smut . First, there is no sexual connotation involved with the Berenice card. How could there be when a lion is swimming up from the abyss to meet her in magnanimity?! Even the secondary nude behind her sweeping arm is bathed in modesty.  If one had to define the difference they'd start with intent . This card isn't meant to titillate. It's more of a voyeuristic view in the sense that one would not normally see a woman in her naked form unless he was intimate with her, though not explicitly in a sexual way. This card is artistic because it represents beauty in its natural element. Then there's the peep-hole sort of voyeurism as shown in the deck above. Though, this is somewhat a bad example because the card backs are actually artistic even if the woman at fron

As ruminated upon in a previous post here are three more Jokers who are depicted wielding other cards within their own. The first one is openly presenting the Ace of Spades while concealing three others with a mere Diamond peeking out over one corner of the trumvirate. On the second Joker, from a Scandinavian deck, The King of Diamonds is figured prominently as the Joker leans upon it. His poppet Joker is also holding an Ace of Hearts. What it all means would depend on the manufacturer and artist, I suppose. The last specimen from Longfield Games features an Ace of Spades as the Joker stands upon a depiction of the world as a globe which seems almost 3/4 there but not quite whole. All interpretations of this and the preceding ones would be mere speculation and without knowing the artist and his source inspiration it would mainly be a stab into the void. Which is basically what this entire blog consists of.

Since I've been immersed in the silent film classic Les Vampires and am quite infatuated with Irma Vep , the leading villain, it only stands to reason that I'd want her on a deck of cards. There was seemingly no such deck created so one must settle for a scene in the last chapter of the 6+ hour saga where a house maid, recently widowed by the devious actions of The Vampires (a crime syndicate not actual bloodsuckers), gives starts to give herself a card reading to determine her fate.  The maid Augustine has two false start attempts but the actual reading never comes off. Being that she is superstitious and subsequently gets and invitation from The Vampires , albeit not under that guise, via a hand-delivered note for a special discreet reading (not suspicious at all!) that will reveal all the mysteries and her future. What it does is almost get her killed but we shall offer no spoilers here.

I'm not religious or a male feminist or even a prude in some aspects of the word but I find pin-up girls and other such risque playing cards quite vulgar from an aesthetic standpoint. I understand that the world didn't always have instant access to porn on demand and that dudes and bros need a thrill on occasion but these cards are gauche. I hate them. The swimsuit and scantily clad ones worse than the fully nude because if you're going to be a pervert then go all the way. This "The Purple Fan" card at least has some artistic merit to it despite the burlesque taint of the protruding breast and nipple. The gold arm bracelet gives off a Clara Ward vibe and the rest is classic flapper regalia so you know what you're getting with it. Even so, the colors are spectacular, the depiction well done and it is at least not raunchy. But it's still a spectacle nonetheless and since the entire point of playing cards is to play , and to openly do so in a public setting,

As mentioned in a previous post, I planned to do an abbreviated cartomancy reading for this vintage Hallmark Joker and here we are. The source information for the reading comes from Wenzell Brown and his book How to Tell Fortunes With Cards as used on my cartomancy blog that has become dormant. Not out of insouciance but rather a timidity towards pandering for new reading victims. Since this is a person-less reading and I've come up with the idea the burden of its results fall upon me and the possible symbolism relating to said card. Each card's designation will link to a summary of what the card "means" as described by Mr. Brown. Was I Fated to find and interpret this card? But of course I was or else I wouldn't be doing it. Has anybody done it before me? A question for the ages. Let's do this. First Card: King of Hearts As the central focus card and personally chosen and controlled by the Joker it serves as the focus of the reading.  "The King of Hea

A few times a week I type "Antique Playing Card" into eBay and see what comes up. In this week's random spill of card spoils appeared a late 19th century playing card seemingly commemorating the bookseller and publisher named Eneas Mackay, who was from Stirling, England back when England was a country and not an epitaph. Peculiar to the card are the boar's head, the meerkat (I made that up on the spot even though I may possibly be correct) and the Crown. The filigree betwixt they three is the random dander of symbolism. I don't know crests but I do have a certain degree of the layman's grasp upon pips and the succession of Clubs on the three available cards from this pack by multiple sellers runs as such: 5♣️, 10♣️ and Q♣️. Doubling itself once and then skipping one Face Card to arrive at the Queen. In normal parlance this is a wild leap of faith even so far as mysticism is concerned. In the Bob vernacular, a Gin Rummyesque aesthetic and an offhand Gematrian m

There is a hierarchy of hate within my brain cells and at the apex is my disdain for drugs. This includes marijuana. I hate everything about it and when I first saw this pack I thought that's what the pack was and I was furious with it. I was still going to buy it but I was contemptuous of it. Finally, it occurred to me that it was actually hemp and the text suggesting just that emblazoned upon the card corfirmed that supposition. That said, it's an ugly deck and I'll probably sell it and later rue the fact that I did so. Regardless, the Ace of Spades is a deplorable card with the stank weed on it. It's a stain on the magnanimity of the most decorative card in the deck outside of the Joker and the Face Cards. Just like you don't want your Joker to be cradling a crack pipe, you also don't want your Ace of Spades to be relegated to a counterculture symbol become norm despite the actual beneficial utility of hemp. Whereas the Queen of Clubs doesn't provide any

I have some confessions to make in my next few posts directed at two decks of modern Bicycle Playing Cards. First off, I really like these cards though the scans, both with the scanner lid closed and open, don't do justice to their transparent nature. Basically, just imagine that all of the white bordering around the colored parts of the card are see through. It's a damned good look. While you might think that they'd be inconvenient for poker or any strategic card game, they are transparent but not thin and none of the suit bleeds through. At least not in the dimness of my basement. Maybe in heavy sunlight they would but it doesn't seem so. Now for the confession. I hate the Bicycle mascot. I just can't stand to look at his frivolous ass! It's like when you see a guy with a mustache and just naturally want to catapult him into outer space. I'm talking a solo 'stache with no other hair attached. Not that I like goatees either but I can understand them a b