Resources: Understanding Playing Card Cartomancy

Last Part: Resources & Wrapping Up

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We’ve worked through every suit in the deck!

I hope some of you are ready to deepen your relationship with playing cards as a divinatory tool.

A great deal of what’s available to teach playing card cartomancy is not great.

It’s overly ominous, and presumes that everything must be intense and spooky.

I’ve decided to include several recommendations of resources for those who want to learn more about playing card cartomancy.

Several of these books are available online free at library and archival projects like Project Gutenberg and HathiTrust.

Others can be purchased through Bookshop. I have included links to all of them. 

Do you have a favorite book on playing card cartomancy? Drop it in the comments!

The devil's picture-books. A history of playing cards—Mrs. John King Van Rensselaer

Prophetical, educational, and playing cards—Mrs. John King Van Rensselaer

These entries by Mrs. John King Van Rensselaer should be considered a box set.

There’s a lot of interesting historical facts and contextual necessities for those just beginning to learn about playing card cartomancy. 

She followed it up with a treatise on the metaphysical uses of playing cards. 

Available for free through the links above. 

The History of Playing Cards...in Conjure, Fortune Telling...—Edward Samuel Taylor

This monograph, in addition to bearing an unusually long title, has a detailed approach to the history of playing cards in a variety of situations.

I like it for its treatments of individual cards. It also includes notes about tarot.

Like other volumes of this period, it is quite a long book.

Read it for descriptions like “in Northamshire, The Queen of Clubs is called ‘Queen Bess’ perhaps because that queen, as history states, was of a swarthy complexion” 

The Mystical Card Reading Handbook—Deane Driscoll

I use Deane Driscoll’s The Mystical Card Reading Handbook several times a week. I don’t always agree with the meanings (of course not!) but it’s consistently a helpful tool!

Rootwork—Tayannah Lee McQuillar 

If you’re just starting out in hoodoo, by which I mean 1. your family didn’t practice it at home and 2. you have been practicing on your own for under three years, then you should own a copy of Rootwork.

It balances a sprawling index of knowledge with being accessible for beginners. 

I appreciate how she makes a short list of card meanings, and her guide to reading candle wax.