Diamonds
Ace of Diamonds, a letter; the card next to it will indicate its nature. King of Diamonds, hot tempered. Queen of Diamonds, a coquette. Knave of Diamonds, a selfish person. Ten of Diamonds, money. Nine of Diamonds, a roving person. Eight of Diamonds, marriage late in life. Seven of Diamonds, a gambler. Six of Diamonds, early marriage. Five of Diamonds, friendship. Four of Diamonds, unhappy marriage. Three of Diamonds, quarrels, lawsuits, and disagreements. Two of Diamonds, a serious love affair.
There are two effective ways of fortune-telling.
For the first, ask your subject to shuffle the cards very thoroughly and to wish all the time. Then cut them into three piles with the left hand. Should the wish card (the Nine of Hearts) be one of those cut, it is a lucky omen.
Notice two other cards and their possible bearing on the wish. Now, after lifting the cards and putting them together with the left hand, proceed to divide them into piles in this fashion.
The first pile is to yourself. The second, to the house. The third, to your wish. The fourth, what you do expect. The fifth, what you don’t expect. The sixth, sure to come true. The seventh foretells the happenings of to-night.
Arrange these piles, as you deal out the cards one by one, in a semicircle. Then proceed to read them off by their meanings.
Another and rather more complicated method is to ask the person whose fortune is being told which King he will be (if it is a woman, one would naturally ask which Queen).
After the wishing has been done as before, the fortune-teller lays out the cards in rows—seven in a row.
To read the fortune the teller must start from the King or Queen chosen, counting seven from him or her in every case.
The King or Queen of the same suit will always be the lover or sweetheart of the one whose fortune is being told, and the Knave being their thoughts, it is, of course, quite easy to discover their feelings.
It is rather a good plan to write the meanings of the cards on an old pack. By using this a few times a rapid flow of ideas will much more readily be induced. It might be mentioned that a too strict adherence to rule is by no means either necessary or desirable in fortune-telling. Tell what the combination of cards suggests to you—quite irrespective of the exact meaning of each—and you will be infinitely more amusing and obtain much greater fame as a wizard.
Fig. 1.—Cards dealt for fortune-telling: 1. to yourself; 2. to the house; 3. to your wish; 4. what you do expect; 5. what you don’t expect; 6. sure to come true; 7. to-night.
A few predictions are shown by the accompanying diagrams. [Fig. 1] depicts the manner of dealing out the cards in sets of seven, and in what respect each is to be read.
Fig. 2.—Cards foretelling a wish about a love affair—leading to an early marriage.
[Fig. 2] shows three cards which might conceivably come together in any one set. They would be read as foretelling the following:—You will get a wish (Nine of Hearts), which is about a love affair (Ace of Spades), and it will lead to an early marriage (Six of Diamonds).
[Fig. 3] conveys the following:—You will get a letter (Ace of Diamonds) about money (Ten of Diamonds). Your good fortune, however, will not permit you to marry until late in life (Eight of Diamonds). The five cards representing [Fig. 4] tell that the subject’s dearest friend (Knave of Hearts) will make the acquaintance of a flirt (Queen of Diamonds), and will shortly after suffer illness or slight loss of money (Four of Spades), but afterwards he will fall in love with a fair affectionate woman (Queen of Hearts) and enjoy extraordinary success (Two of Hearts).
Fig. 3.—Foretelling the receipt of a letter about money, but the good fortune will not permit the recipient to marry until late in life.
Fig. 4.—Reveals that the subject’s dearest friend will make the acquaintance of a flirt, and will shortly suffer illness or slight loss of money, but afterwards will fall in love with a fair affectionate woman and enjoy extraordinary success.