The Playing Card Oracles by Cortez/Freeman

[Phoenix Rising]

Originally Posted by LittleBuddha

One of the things I like about playing cards is that you have a wonderful oracle that doesn't require images - makes it more magical and charming, I feel. To put pictures on is a little like what Waite did to the tarot and limits interpretation. I like the hedgewitchery method because the cards read as a sentence. There are individual meanings for a more detailed response, but I feel that generally, it might hinder the natural flow and cause a reader to trip up along the way. I liked the look of the 'Key to the Kingdom' but for these reasons, i didn't think it would be that useful for the kind of cartomancy I mention.
Of course, this is all opinion

LB

hi Little Buddha
I'm just looking at the hedgewythery method now...finding it hard to get my head around the BBR, RBR etc..not sure if I like it, but there's no denying that the method is accurate....I think I don't like it because I've had a few BBB, RBB, so definitely to the point..lol!

[tarobones]

Both deck and book are available at usgames, sold separately.
http://www.usgamesinc.com/product.ph...64&cat=0&page= is the link for the book. The link for the deck http://www.usgamesinc.com/product.php?productid=963
BB, Michael

[Lee]

Thanks tarobones for your information about the book, especially that the author says it can be used with a regular playing card deck. Because of this, I decided to order the book, but not the deck. I'm more interested these days in different methods of reading regular card decks, rather than in getting new decks. I've decided the art doesn't really turn me on anyway, I find that pale yellow to be kind of a downer.

I ordered the book from amazon.com, I notice they also have the set available there too.

-- Lee

[Phoenix Rising]

Originally Posted by Lee

Thanks tarobones for your information about the book, especially that the author says it can be used with a regular playing card deck. Because of this, I decided to order the book, but not the deck. I'm more interested these days in different methods of reading regular card decks, rather than in getting new decks. I've decided the art doesn't really turn me on anyway, I find that pale yellow to be kind of a downer.

I ordered the book from amazon.com, I notice they also have the set available there too.

-- Lee

Hi Lee niceto see you back...I know that you've always had a interest in the playing cards..have you had a look at the hedgewytch method? And also the system that Richmond Olney bought to the public back in the late 1800's..most advanced method that...goes into the astrology aspect, and can predict your entire life, mathematics.
here are some sites for that
ORACLE CARDS
7 THUNDERS

[tarobones]

This is a quote from the author's introduction: "If you acquired this book without its companion deck there is no need to worry. Find a deck of playing cards that you like and follow along. The regular deck is the root and source of this system of card reading and is no less an instrument for divination than the illustrated deck."
BB, Michael

[Lee]

Thanks again, tarobones!

Hi Phoenix Rising, yes, I'm familiar with the hedgewytchery method, in fact a few months ago I printed it all out. I think it's a great method, and I'm very impressed with the way it's presented. I just wish the third section was available!

Much as I like the suit-plus-number method, and in fact I use that method in my Marseille book, I feel myself more drawn lately, at least for playing cards, to having individualized meanings for each card, so that each card can have its own personality. I know the hedgewytchery site does give individual meanings for the cards, but I think they're still governed by the suit-plus-number method.

I kind of like the meanings in the book "Personal Prophecy," which I mentioned in this post. But I didn't care for the layout method, very cumbersome and hard to grasp, in my opinion. I may still try using the Prophecy meanings with some other layout method. But I'm still interested in investigating other books with individualized meanings, and thought I would take a look at the Cortez book.

I've also looked into the Olney stuff, mostly through Camp's books. I think for me, the main attraction of cards is laying out randomly-chosen cards in a spread, and although Camp's book has that, it's pretty much an offshoot that he created, I think, while the main focus is on the tables which have the predetermined spreads for every year, and that use of cards doesn't really thrill me. His individual meanings for the cards seem decent, though. I remember catboxer (an Aeclectic member from a few years ago) used Camp's meanings for reading non-scenic pips.

-- Lee

[Phoenix Rising]

Hi Lee

Thanks for the link, I will suss it out. I too feel that there are some cards that have a bit more to it than the number+suit meanings.

I looked at the Camp method too, and it's way too over my head..I too like the random throw and spreads of cartomancy.

Apparently the Ana Cortez meanings are simillar to the Olney method, as I belonged to a yahoo group "Deck of 52" which specialise in Olneys method, who recommended Ana Cortez book.

Look forward to your insights in the playing cards.

[Phoenix Rising]

hey Lee,
Took a squizz at the "browse before buy" I like the thought of the individual card meanings, some traditional meanings that are the same. And the equation 1+1+1 is very simple. The BBR method of Hedgewytch is a little confusing. But none theless still effective..I guess it depends on what method suits us.

[darwinia]

Still not available at amazon.ca. They tend to take forever, and when I looked a few weeks ago US Games still had it [the deck and book set] on their Coming Soon page. It'll trickle up here eventually, but as of now they don't even have the deck and book separately up in Canada.

[Lee]

I received the Cortez book from Amazon yesterday.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the book is quite substantial. It's a self-published book, I'd guess that USGames just bought out the author's stock and put a USGames sticker on it. The book is very nicely printed in red and black ink.

At first I had assumed that Freeman illustrated the cards based on his daughter's ideas, but no, it's the other way around. Freeman spent decades studying playing cards and drawing several versions of decks. Then his daughter came along and developed the material in the book through research and discussions with her father.

Phoenix Rising, I think you're right that the card meanings are similar to Olney/Camp. At first I didn't think so, but when I carefully compared them, there are enough similarities in enough cards that it's clear that Olney/Camp was at least one influence. There are lots of cards, though, that don't follow Olney/Camp.

The author writes well, and I think I'll enjoy this book. It also contains mythological stories, poetry, and essays by her father, C.J. Freeman. Cortez seems to have put a lot of thought and reseach into the book, and it's a pleasure to see someone take the subject so seriously. The writing has a very psychological/spiritual cast, and the writing style reminds me of the Mythic Tarot book, which I also liked a lot.

She concentrates on four-card layouts, but describes various methods of examining the four-card spread in depth. There are a few other layouts, and then she describes a rather complicated year-long, 16-card spread, and then a diagram called the Mystic Square (which looks a bit like a Vedic astrology chart) on which to tabulate the results of the spread.

The geomancy comes in with an examination of 16 geometric figures which are used to examine the four-card spread, using color, number, astrological planets, and elements.

As tarobones has noted, you don't need to use the Cortez deck, you can just use an ordinary playing-card deck. All of Freeman's card illustrations are given in the book, so if you want to, you can use the images as mnemonic tools to help remember the meanings, even if you're using an ordinary deck, or you can choose to just follow the text and not use the images.

The titles and names used in this project are a little confusing. The book is called "The Playing Card Oracles: A Source Book for Divination" by Ana Cortez. The deck itself is called, bewilderingly, "The Picture Book of Ana Cortez" by C.J. Freeman. In the book, Freeman refers to his daughter as Ana, but the copyright page lists the copyright holder of the book as Tracy Freeman. And to top it all off, the illustration for the Ace of Clubs bears the words "The Picture Book of Madame Zo."

Arrgh, a new element-suit correlation to learn:

Diamonds = Fire
Clubs = Air
Hearts = Water
Spades = Earth

-- Lee