Three Kings coming together indicate a new friend; a Knave and 2 Kings, meeting an old friend; 3 Knaves, business at law; 3 Queens, a quarrel with a woman; 3 Tens, a lucky deal. If the Ten of Hearts, Ten of Clubs and Ten of Diamonds come together, it means that a wealthy marriage will follow a journey across the sea. Three Nines indicate good news; 3 Eights, a removal; 3 Sevens, unsatisfactory news; 3 Aces, very good luck. An Ace of Clubs and of Diamonds together, a letter which will bring an offer of marriage. The Ace and Nine of Hearts indicate that a desire will be realized at home; the Ace and Nine of Spades foretell death and sorrow in your family; the King, Queen and Ten of any suit mean that you will hear of a marriage soon.
Reading the Cards
Let us now take a typical example of this method. Let the inquirer be represented by the Queen of Hearts. Shuffle and divide the pack into 3, giving the King, Knave and Seven of Hearts, indicating that the inquirer has a male friend of medium complexion and good intentions. Lay these 3 cards in order beginning with the left hand. The fortune-teller now proceeds to draw off 3 cards, making his selection as above explained. Having finished the pack, he repeats the process twice more. We will suppose that in these deals the following cards have been selected:
King, Knave, Seven of Hearts, Ace of Clubs, King of Spades, Queen of Clubs, Queen of Diamonds, Queen of Spades, King of Clubs, Knave of Diamonds, Ace of Hearts, Knave of Spades, King of Diamonds, Knave of Clubs, Queen of Hearts, Ace of Diamonds, Ten of Hearts, Eight of Clubs, Seven of Spades, Ace of Spades, Ten of Clubs, Ten of Spades and Ten of Diamonds.
Beginning from the Queen of Hearts, as the starting-point, we proceed to count 7 to the left. The seventh card being the Queen of Spades, the seventh from this is the King of Hearts, and again counting to the seventh we get the Ten of Hearts.
This is to be read as follows:
The inquirer has many good friends, but the Queen of Spades represents a woman who will interpose difficulties to her marriage, but without effect. The next card is the Knave of Diamonds followed by the Seven of Hearts and the Seven of Spades; which combination represents news coming soon, but which may not be advantageous to the inquirer. The Knave of Spades is followed by the King and Ten of Clubs, which denotes that a dark man is separated from the inquirer, but thinks of her and hopes to be with her soon.
The Creole Method
You will no doubt remember the fascinating story of how Josephine, the wife of Napoleon I. and Empress of France, had her fortune told when still a girl. She was a Creole—that is a native of the West Indies and of French descent. Tradition tells us that she went to an old colored witch, who laid out the cards according to the Creole system and from them prophesied, “You will be greater than a queen.” Josephine at first had faith in this prediction, but after waiting for a king to propose to her, she married a French soldier named Beauharnais, by whom she had two children. He died during the early part of the French Revolution. Napoleon, who at that time was a poor lieutenant, deeply in debt and without prospects, proposed to her. He did not seem likely to carry out the prophecy and raise her to be more than queen; so she refused him. At last she was won over by his persistency and married him. In the course of years she became Empress of France.