One (new to me) way of approaching numerology with the Tarot de Marseille

In his latest blog post, "Returning to the Tarot de Marseille", Jack Chanek mentioned an approach he's tried for assigning a general theme to each of the numbers in the pip cards. A kind of “implicit numerology” based on the trumps. He didn't mention an original source for this method, if such a source could actually be identified, but noted that Caitlín Matthews and Alejandro Jodorowsky both discussed it.

If you set aside the Fool and the World cards, you're left with two sets of ten cards: 1 to 10, and 11 to 20. You can pair these cards up, 1 with 11, 2 with 12..., and the resulting pairs can provide a thematic framework with which to consider the pip cards – 1 + 11 are reflected in the Aces, 2 + 12 are reflected in the Twos, and so on.

1 Magician + 11 Strength

2 Popess + 12 Hanged Man

3 Empress + 13 Death

4 Emperor + 14 Temperance

5 Pope + 15 Devil  (lol)

6 Lovers + 16 House of God

7 Chariot + 17 Star  (“Hitch your wagon to a star”)

8 Justice + 18 Moon

9 Hermit + 19 Sun

10 Wheel of Fortune + 20 Judgement

As you can see, these pairings seem to make some logical sense. I have my own ideas about their relationships and how those could be applied to the numbers, but I won’t state them here. I'd like to leave you clear to make your own connections. Jack did list a few ways these could be perceived – see his post if you're curious.

Have fun.

Significators!

I did my first reading for someone else today since [checks notes...] November of last year! It flowed. Nice to know we (Spirit Team and me) haven’t lost our touch. 😁

It felt great to have a reason to read again, but I’m going to continue to keep a low profile. I prefer to scroll through sites* that offer free readings and be drawn to particular requests. 

Today’s experience did remind me, though, of something I’d like to share -

It reconfirmed the value of a change I’ve made to my reading process over the past year or so. I now select a card as a significator for the focus of the reading, be that a person or an area of enquiry. The card serves as a magickal proxy, much like a poppet, and helps to draw in the energy of situation. 

For years I balked at the idea of taking a card “out of play” to serve as a significator. Plus I didn’t really see the point. Now I appreciate the ‘sympathetic magick’ aspect and I’m finding it does make a difference. Besides, for cards meant to represent a person, I usually take one from another deck, most often my playing cards, so there’s no loss from the reading deck anyway.

If you don’t do this already, try it and see if it does anything for you.

*Not Facebook anymore. I haven’t deleted my account (yet); I’ve simply stopped participating in social media generally. (That’s another thing I can recommend.)

Pattern Recognition

This is how I read. I've struggled to get this idea across. Cynthia Giles - Tarot | An Exploration Project - on the other hand, has done a much better job.

12.31.23  On the cusp of a new year . . .

Anyway . . . that started me thinking about pattern recognition, which I believe is the most important element in the art of Tarot divination (emphasis mine). And though you can look up a card meaning, there’s no Little White Book for pattern recognition.

Yes, a spread or layout is a pattern—but it’s a pattern chosen by the reader. And it’s meaningless without the Tarot cards themselves. A Celtic Cross laid out with pieces of blank pasteboard doesn’t convey any information.

Once a deck of Tarot cards is shuffled, then laid down in whatever arrangement, a meaningful pattern emerges. But it can just lay there, unnoticed, unless the reader is looking for it, and able to recognize it.

There might be one big pattern in a reading, or there may be many patterns. If many, they might be separate, or connected, or overlapping. So there’s a lot involved in identifying not only the patterns but their relationships and levels of energy.

 

Free Palestine 🇵🇸

Clarifiers. Don't.

There seems to be a lot of discussion lately about the use of clarifiers in readings. Here's my two-penn'orth.

Let's start with a definition. Collins says "To clarify something means to make it easier to understand, usually by explaining it in more detail."

So when you pull a clarifier card for a card you don't quite understand, the idea is that this card will make the first card clearer by providing more detail. 

Fair enough. If you have some sense of what the first card might be trying to say, having it put another way by the clarifier could help firm up your interpretation, or at least make you aware you were barking up the wrong tree and need to rethink that interpretation.

But too often I see people say things like "The card didn't make sense in this position/context so I pulled XYZ as a clarifier" (or worse, clarifierS). 

They're starting from a position of no understanding of the first card. The clarifier, in theory, will give them more details about that card, but how will more details about something that doesn't make sense be helpful? Now you have twice as much nonsense to deal with.

My advice - that's what you're here for, right? 😉 - is Do the Work. 

Throw everything you know - book meanings, past insights, elements of the image, the other cards in the spread, spatial relationships within the spread, good old intuition - at the 'problem' card. Think outside the box. What could this card possibly indicate in this context? Spend some time on it. Don't just throw up your hands at the first hurdle and say "It makes no sense!"

And when you do finally form an idea of why this particular card appeared in your reading, if you still feel the need for a bit of reassurance, then ask for a clarifier in the form of a direct question - "Is this card saying {insert best guess insight here}?". 

A clarifier needs something to clarify.

Random Reading - #90

Somewhere in my recent internet travels, I came across a mention of this book –

La Cartomancie - L'art de découvrir l'avenir par les cartes et les tarots
par Mme Zezina

"Cartomancy -  The art of discovering the future through cards and tarot
by Madame Zezina"

Originally published by Bornemann, Paris, in the 30s or 40s, this one is a 1970 edition printed in 1984. 

The book appeared to contain some interesting spreads, and while I'm not generally one for using spreads with playing cards, it was cheap enough 😏 so I thought I'd get it just to check them out and maybe give some a go. 

And so, here is L'Etoile, The Star. With the seeker's significator in the centre (I've used both my male and female significators for this reading) the positions are 1 | top: thoughts/hopes; 2 | left: immediate future; 3 | right: later future; 4 | bottom: surprise, the unexpected. 

⁛ Your thoughts revolve around dealings with a professional person – a doctor, solicitor, someone in an official capacity.

Your immediate future looks to be improving materially and/or physically, and we can relate this improvement to whatever official business is on your mind. And we see this increase from 9♦ to 10♦ going forward - definite profit or benefit for you; things really looking up. 

There will be some unexpected event involving your home or family. Seeing as this reading is quite positive, I have no reason to feel this will be a "bad" surprise. And again, it will be related in some way to the above.

The author's instructions tell us to also look for cards of the same value, of which there are none this time, and to read for the combinations formed by positions 2 and 3 with the significator (not only are there combination meanings for cards to the left or right of a particular suit or card, but also for ones before, after or between certain pairs of cards!).

9♦ to the left of a ♥ = broken engagement
10♦ to the right of a ♥ = honeymoon

Kind of an odd combo, and bear in mind that these are based on the author's core meanings, not mine, but I suggest that something which has been negatively anticipated will be cancelled, resulting in a period of contentment and happiness. ⁛

And there you go. It was fun to work within the constraints of a more structured reading for a change. It did rather stifle any intuition regarding what exactly it's all about, but whatever it is 😁 it's going to turn out well. 

And in case you're wondering, “les tarots” referred to in the book's title is specifically the Grand Etteilla (I). If you click on the book picture and zoom in, you can see some of the trump cards from that deck. This is also of interest to me because the same Etteilla meanings apply to my Book of Thoth Etteilla (III) and, just as with the playing cards, the author gives many examples of combination meanings based on whether a card lays before or after a particular other card. Probably way too complicated for me to actually try to work with in any practical way, i.e. without having to constantly refer to the book, but I'm curious to see what they're like. Maybe one or two will be worth committing to memory. 🙂

There are tarot spreads as well, but they are way too big for me. The smallest uses 24 cards, and the largest 67! And I'm willing to bet, though I haven't translated it yet, that the remaining 11 cards don't just sit there doing nothing.

Tom Benjamin (YouTube) - The Best Beginners Deck & Other Tips For New Readers

One of my favourite traditional Quaker phrases (or QuakerSpeak, as it's teasingly referred to) is "That Friend speaks my mind". It conveys a much deeper sense of connection with what someone has just said than simply agreeing with it.

On that basis - This friend speaks my mind!

You and your cards are a team

I did a reading today for someone, using my 3-card Yes/No, Why, and What Next spread*.

As I shuffled, I asked their question out loud. I'm not one to verbalise questions in any ritualistic sense; I just talk to my cards. 😏 The moment the last word left my lips, the 9 of Cups flipped over in my hands.

That would be a yes, then?

But I decided not to use that as the first card, and instead pulled the top three cards for the spread. The last card I pulled was the Fool.

As I started to get into the reading, it just felt off. The cards didn't fit comfortably into their assigned positions. I looked again at that Fool card and realised what it was telling me. "You've gone too far; you're about to go over the edge."

Tarot Mondo Lirondo

I shouldn't have pulled that card. I should have stopped after the first three. I checked in with my deck – split the deck and checked the card on the bottom – to see if I was understanding it correctly. The Hierophant. Yes, now do as you're told. 😉  The 9 of Cups was the Yes/No, and the next two cards made much more sense in positions 2 and 3.

Reading completed, I checked in with my cards one more time… The Hierophant. (Seventy-eight cards, and...)

Performing a reading is something you and your cards do together. You're not out there on your own. Your cards** work with you. And they'll help if you ask. If you have a question, or you just want confirmation that you're on the right track (or not), pull a card***. Teamwork! 🤜🤛


* Self-explanatory 🙂
** More precisely, what works through these pieces of cardboard, works with you. 
*** This is not the same thing as pulling endless "clarifiers". That just indicates a lack of ability to interpret a card in context, and a distrust or blocking of one's intuition.

Random Reading - #43

Another one of those days when I came to do the RR with no plan in mind, and just looked around my collection until a deck caught my eye. 😏

That deck turned out to be Madame Legna’s Fortune Telling Cards. In this deck, Change is essentially Clubs, Love is obviously Hearts, and Money is Diamonds (Fate = Spades) .

Nice to see a “short time period” card in a reading that is, in theory, for the week ahead.

» I sense some disruption in the home this week, caused by the actions of a man whose intentions are good, but who acts in an unexpected or impulsive manner. Don’t get rattled, things will settle down nicely. «


Why am I putting a negative spin on what, based on the keywords, looks a pleasant enough bunch of cards? Because of the decreasing Change sequence, 7-4-3, with another "person" Change card ending the line. Lots of change instigated by someone else is likely to be unsettling. So I based my interpretation on that assumption, plus a bit of personal numerology.


Madame Legna’s Fortune Telling Cards, published by “Madame Legna”, London, 1997
These decks occasionally appear for sale on eBay.

Vincent Pitisci - "How to use the three card Tarot spread"

Despite a 3-card spread being my "go to" for quick tarot readings (or perhaps because of it), it's always bugged me that
a) the general consensus seems to be that any 3-card reading IS "Past, Present, Future", and
b) it gets used that way regardless of the question being asked.

Because of this, I've always regarded "Past, Present, Future" (PPF) as unimaginative and pointless, and I never use it.

Enter Vincent Pitisci and his latest video, "How to use the three card Tarot spread".

Now I rate VP, so if he has something to say about it, I'm going to listen.

While he suggests a few different sets of meanings for the three positions, he tackles PPF in depth. And his take on each position is a revelation - an approach far more practical than I'd ever considered.

"A lot of people look at the past, present and future and they're thinking, 'Well this is just the past and I don't care about that; this is the present, I don't care about that; I want to know what's going to happen here'."

Guilty as charged. ✋

Instead -

"... When we look at the Past, we're not just looking at what happened in the past [emphasis mine]. We can put a card in the Past position to give us ideas on what we've gained as far as experience or something else in the past that will help us with this situation. What has happened in the past that will help us as we move forward with what we're trying to accomplish? We're looking back at the past in relation to this question in some way that it will help us."

Same with Present and Future, but I'll leave you to explore the video yourself for those.

You're still going to wind me up if you use PPF for every question. 😉 But I can see now how it could be useful for some questions.

A Valentine's Day KISS

Keep it simple, sybil.

image by Marlene Zvolkelj

Learning how to read Tarot can often feel daunting.

Seventy-eight cards with so many possible meanings to learn. Double that if you intend to add reversals to the mix. Astrology, kabbalah, hermeticism, numerology... Then there's all the spreads. Which one to use? How to remember the positions? How can I possibly memorise all of this?!?

Stop.

It can be kept very simple.

Take one of those countless lists of meanings you find in books and online and compare them card by card (over time, there's no need to be regimented about it) to the images you see. Your task is to distil them down to one or two overall concepts per card. Write these down somewhere. Don't worry if you don't think they're "perfect" - that list will change over time anyway.

No need to learn complicated spreads, either. Just ask a clear question (write it down so you don't forget how you worded it - it can make a big difference) and pull three cards. Apply your "distilled" meanings to those cards and put them together, like a sentence or a comic strip, to form an answer to that question. Maybe one card speaks louder than the others, or two cards seem to be related in some way...

Relax into the reading and let the images and ideas form.

Over time the assimilation will be almost effortless. You can do it.

A No Card Reading

These are the cards you get when your CAR has a blown gasket allowing the WATER AND OIL TO MIX causing the engine to overheat DISTORTING THE HEAD.

Gotta give it to the Hanged Man for that visual. 👏

I'd asked what had gone wrong with our car and this is what I got. And I'm afraid they were right.

Ah well, the exercise will do us good.

But anyway - Why have I entitled this post "A No Card Reading"?

Because I didn't use any cards.

?

From time to time I've toyed with the idea of doing tarot readings without cards. Just asking the person to think of three numbers between 1 and 22. With me now?

An option for when you a) happen to get caught without your cards or b) are somewhere where whipping out a tarot deck might frighten the natives. Also, I like that it puts the onus entirely on the querent. They can't argue that, actually, they meant to pick a different card, can we do it again? 😉 More to the point, it reinforces for them that their reading came from "Within". Not from me, not from chance, but from their connection to the All.

I don't often read for myself. I'm usually content to just let things play out. But as I lay in bed that night I thought "This is the sort of thing other readers would ask their cards about." So, as an experiment, I quickly picked three numbers, boom boom boom.

Now, I know my cards, but the information isn't so hard-wired that I can instantaneously put a card to a number, so there was a brief pause before the penny dropped on the Chariot. I laughed at the literalness. (God I love cards.)

Of course, we had our suspicions as to what had happened to the car, so I claim no great flash of intuitive insight in deducing what Temperance and Hanged Man were telling me. But at least we were braced for the worst when the garage rang up and confirmed it the next day.

Dear cards, How long will we be walking everywhere?...


Pam's Vintage Tarot, by reall/Irene, available through Game Crafter

YouTube: Vincent Pitisci - Genius of the Tarot: Breaking Open the Mystery

I had never seen or heard of Vincent Pitisci until Beverly of Tarot Connections shared this video today. Curious, I decided to watch it. Boy, am I glad I did.

I like this guy! 

I like his approach to Tarot. I like how he puts his ideas across. I love his sense of humour!

We're not in complete agreement on every aspect of divination, but he comes across as being very open to the diversity within the profession.

It's a fairly long video - 1 hr 13 min - and it starts off a bit slow, but once he hits his stride it's well worth your time.

Tom Benjamin (YouTube) - For beginners, 3 cards are better than 1

Tom Benjamin produces excellent YouTube videos on a range of cartomantic subjects.

Here he talks about something I've always believed myself - it's better/ easier for beginners to practice with three cards than just one. And he offers a very effective method for validating a reading. How do I know it's effective? I tried it. And the results were so good I'll be using this technique in future.

    

In lieu of a Colour Focus this week - Balthazar! 😉

I'm "away from my desk" this week, and I didn't want to try to squeeze in a Colour Focus reading before I went, so instead, here's another gem from the incomparable Balthazar of Balthazar's Conjure.

I say "another" because he got a lot of airtime on my old blog. And I imagine you'll continue to see quite a bit of him here, too.

I scheduled this post to go live while I'm away, so fingers-crossed a) it's actually happened and b) the formatting is right, 'coz I don't have access to a computer to fix it if it isn't. 😝

Expanding on the "German Method" playing card meanings

Back on my old blog, I posted my grandmother’s method of reading playing cards. This is a continental style, German specifically, and uses only 32 cards. I realise that as a result it’s not for everyone – most people seeming to favour playing with a full deck 😉 – but it might appeal to some. As it was my most popular post, I brought it along to this blog – A German Method of Fortune Telling with 32 Playing Cards.

Oma’s meanings were very terse. Often only a word or two per card. At the time, I promised to come back and post some expanded meanings that I’d developed over time, and now, better late than never, here they are.

Some of these are just logical extensions of the basic meaning; others are a bit more subtle and only became apparent during readings.

I don’t use reversals with playing cards. But I usually pull a minimum of 5 cards, and I take into account the overall tone of the spread. If a spread is generally positive, with one negative card, then that card’s meaning can be ameliorated or lightened by the other cards. If the spread is generally negative, then a positive card’s impact may be lessened, or it may take on a negative or shadow aspect.

The table below lists each card with Oma’s “short” meaning followed by my additions. I will add to this list as more nuances present themselves.

Clubs
Ace	news, gift
	Something you're given, impersonal news vs. the personal messages of the Jack of Clubs, something new, knowledge, talent/ability, conversation, advertising, external forces, support
	With negative cards: bad news, not being given something/having something withheld, something you have no control over
King	Doctor or Official
	Judge, judgement, decision, important, someone hardworking, successful, intelligent
	As a person, he represents a problem male
Queen	false woman, evil alignment (way of thinking)
	Malicious actions or intent, a bad or unhelpful mindset, wrong thinking, bad habits
	As a person, she represents a problem female
	With positive cards: a gossip, a busy-body
Jack	luck, message
	A message specifically for you vs. the impersonal news of the Ace of Clubs, a friend, a student
	Traditionally, a pleasant surprise
	As a person, s/he represents a good friend
10	travel, big (official) house, hospital
	Legal matters, work place, prison, travel out of necessity, somewhere you have to go to, something you have to put effort into, far away/distance
9	good change
	Improvement, opportunity
8	Worry over a small way (over nothing, or for a short time)
	Imagined worries, temporary/short-term, confusion, a misunderstanding
7	tears, separation, obstacle
	Frustration, delay
	With positive cards: forgiveness
	This card represents the querent’s feelings about a situation; the distress/delay is generally temporary (see the 7 of Spades)
Hearts
Ace	house
	Family, domestic life, privacy, security, safety, comfort, a privately-owned business
	With 10 of Clubs can indicate being away from home
King	He
	Male significator, querent’s most important/significant male (in relation to the question)
Queen	You
	Female significator, querent’s most important/significant female (in relation to the question)
Jack	love
	Focus, desire, attraction, emotion
	With negative cards: obsession, dependency, indifference
	As a person, s/he represents a child or someone dear to one’s heart
	I’ve had this card appear as truce, relief, forgiveness and “Don't give in to emotion”. Your mileage may vary.
10	invitation
	Offer, communication, possibilities
9	Great joy or Good event
	This is my “yes” card
8	happy reunion
	Connection, meeting, partnership, wedding, celebration/party, two, visit/visitor, memories
	Traditionally, this card can represent new clothes and I have had that come up in a reading
7	prospect of love
	Hope, expectation, attraction, fun, flirtation
	With negative cards: unrealistic expectations, wishful thinking
Spades
Ace	fright, sickness
	Unexpected, a shock, sudden, a sick situation, serious illness vs. 8 of Spades “minor illness”, failure
	With positive cards: protection, defiance
King	elderly gentleman
	Establishment, tradition, wisdom, teacher, precise
	With negative cards: controlling, restrictive
	As a person, he represents an older male
Queen	dark (evil) woman, widow or single
	A rival or rivals, alone, lonely, one
	With negative cards: jealous, desperate
	As a person, she represents an older female
Jack	false friend
	Dishonesty, a bad situation, something false or misleading - appearances vs. 9 of Spades “words”
	As a person, s/he represents a bad friend.
10	profession
	Work, occupation, expertise, sense of self-worth, beliefs, higher education
9	slander, falsehood in the near future
	Not true, wrong, miscommunication/misinformation - words vs. Jack of Spades “appearances”
	This is my “No” card
	With positive cards: correction
8	danger, illness, anger
	Stress, resentment, mystery. Minor illness vs. Ace of Spades “serious illness”
	Traditionally, this card can indict night/night-time
7	grief, loss, strife, inconvenience
	Conflict, aggression
	This card represents external circumstances affecting the querent; the grief/loss is generally permanent or long-term (see 7 of Clubs)
Diamonds
Ace	letter
	All paperwork, ring (traditional), something sent, something square/rectangular
King	younger man
	Charming, energetic, fun-loving; excitement, restlessness, indecision
	With negative cards: selfish, faithless, unreliable, neurotic
	As a person, he represents a younger male
Queen	girl or woman
	Excitable, immature; aspirations, aspirational
	With negative cards: high maintenance, over-emotional
	As a person, she represents a younger female, or your best friend (not necessarily female)
Jack	happiness
	Success, getting what you want, contentment
	Some sources say this is the “best” card. Perhaps so – 9 of Hearts is situational happiness; this is an internal state of happiness
10	money, profit
	Finances, benefit, to profit from
9	business advantage
	Business gain, material advancement/well-being, promotion, a good plan, learning/education
8	business news
	A change in circumstances (possibly negative/uncertain), opportunity, choice, a new job, progress, transaction: "money coming and going"
	When the 8 of Diamonds is between two other cards I have sometimes found it to mean the first card brings or leads to the second card. Examples – 9S, 8D, 7D: misinformation leads to arguments; AC, 8D, 9H – gift brings joy
	Traditionally, this card can represent eyes or eyeglasses
7	Money or Child
	Actual money (as opposed to 10 of Diamonds “finances”), responsibility, something small, reducing/becoming less
	With negative cards: worries, arguments, not enough money
	It can represent an actual child or children, perhaps not as “dear” as the Jack of Clubs, or someone/something that needs looking after

And there you have it. As with all good cartomancy, these meanings are simply those that I’ve encountered while working with the cards. The meanings you find are the right meanings for you.

If you do have any questions or observations, though, please leave a comment. I love to “talk shop”.

A German Method of Fortune Telling with 32 Playing Cards

This post was originally published on my previous blog, Cartomancy Corner. I'm not importing everything from that blog, but this is my magnum opus 😉 - and my most visited post. *** Expanded meanings here! ***

My grandmother Helene, from Niedersachsen/Lower Saxony in Germany, told fortunes with coffee grounds, Swedenborg cards and Skat cards, i.e. a 32-card deck of playing cards, also known as a Piquet deck: sevens up to Kings plus Aces. When she learned that I was interested in such things, she sent me a deck with her meanings written on the cards and a brief note of how she read them.

Lene, as she was called, though I would never have dreamt of calling her anything but Oma, only read the cards upright. Sadly, I don’t speak more than a smattering of German, so with the help of Google Translate and reference to a couple of online Skatkarten sites I’ve translated her notes as well as I am able. They were written on the cards in ballpoint pen and some are quite difficult to make out. If you are familiar with German and/or Skatkarten, and spot any misinterpretations, please let me know.

Update: November 2013

I have since corresponded with my aunt Edith, Lene’s youngest daughter and, luckily, she was taught how to read the cards. Edith was able to provide a bit more detail, which I have worked into the information given below.

Clubs:
Ace	Neuigkeit, Geschenk	news, gift
King	Arzt oder Beamter	Doctor or Official
Queen	falsche Dame, böse Gesinnung	false woman, evil alignment (way of thinking)
Jack	Glück, Botschaft	luck, message
10	Reise, großes Haus, Krankenhaus	travel, big (official) house,    hospital
9	güte Veränderung	good change
8	Sorgen über (einen kleinen) Weg	Worry over a small way (over nothing, or for a short time)
7	Tränen, Trennung, Hindernis	tears, separation, obstacle
Hearts:
Ace	Haus	house
King	Er	He
Queen	Sie	You
Jack	Liebe	love
10	Einladung	invitation
9	große Freude oder gütes Ereignis	Great joy or Good event
8	frohes Wiedersehen	happy reunion
7	Liebe in Aussicht	prospect of love
Spades:
Ace	Schrak, Krankheit	Fright, sickness
King	Älterer Herr	older gentleman
Queen	Dunkle Dame böse, Witwe oder allein	dark evil woman, widow or single
Jack	falscher Freund	false friend
10	Beruf	profession
9	Verleumdung, Falschheit in nächster Zeit	slander, falsehood in the near future
8	Gefahr, Krankheit, Ärger	danger, illness, anger
7	Kummer, Verlust, Streit, Unannehmlichkeit	grief, loss, strife, inconvenience
Diamonds:
Ace	Brief	letter
King	jünger Mann	younger man
Queen	Mädchen oder Frau	girl or woman
Jack	Glück	Happiness
10	Geld, Gewinn	money, profit
9	Vorteil geschäftlich	business advantage
8	Neuigkeit geschäftlich	news of business
7	Geld oder Kind	Money or Child

I should point out here that other German sources tend to assign negative meanings to the Clubs, but you’ll see from the above list that, for Lene, the “worst” cards are the Spades.

Lene’s reading instructions were, as I mentioned, quite brief – essentially shuffle, cut, lay out, read. The fact that she didn’t think it necessary to provide any details on “how” to read them suggests that she felt her method was so commonplace as to not require explanation. I have found meanings similar to hers on Kartenlegenmit Skatkarten (KmS), so I’m guessing their method of breaking down the layout and combining the cards is likewise similar. I’ll go into more detail below. To begin:

Herzdame in die mitte legen.
Karten mischen. Mit der linken Hand 3 Haufen zum Herzen legen.
Die mittleren Haufen auf die letzten legen dann beide Haufen auf die ersten legen.
Die ersten 3 Karten von jedem Haufen haben eine Bedeutung.
Dann die Karten von oben so um die Herzdame legen:
Dann kombinieren was einem die Karten sagen...

The same steps as described by Edith:

Herz Dame in die Mitte legen.Karten mischen. Mit der linken Hand 3 Haufen zum Herzen legen, den mittleren Haufen nehmen, die 1.drei Karten  nachsehen sie haben eine Bedeutung, dann die Karten auf den letzten Haufen legen, und wieder die 1.drei Karten ansehen, dann alle auf den 1.Haufen legen und wieder die 1.drei Karten ansehen.Die Karten von oben so um die Herz-Dame legen.Dann sehen was einem die Karten sagen...

•  Place the Queen of Hearts (Herzdame) in the middle. {Note that Lene only mentions the Queen as a significator. Presumably all her “clients” were female, but if you are reading for a man use the King of Hearts, or select a card that represents your area of concern, for example the 10 of Spades for work.}

•  Shuffle the cards. With the left hand, lay 3 piles “to the heart”, i.e. towards you (confirmed by Edith). {What does “to the heart” mean here? Perhaps, like KmS – “2 Stapel zu sich hin abheben”, you are meant to cut towards yourself, towards your heart.}

•  Put the middle pile on the last pile, then put the two on the first pile.

•  The first 3 cards of each pile have a meaning. {I’m uncertain if she meant 3 cards from each pile or just the 3 exposed cards. KmS uses just the 3 exposed cards. Either way, check them before you recombine the piles} Here Edith made it quite clear – you look at the bottom three cards of EACH pile, combining them to give you a meaning, before placing that pile on the next one.

•  Then place the cards from the top around the Queen of Hearts:

•  Then combine what the cards say.

KmS uses a simple 9x4 layout, but despite Lene’s fancy Star arrangement, I think the breakdown would be much the same: first read the central cross - cards 1, 3, Significator, 4 and 2, combining the cards in sentence fashion. Then read the row – 11, 3, S, 4, 12, then the column – 9, 1, S, 2, 10, and finally the diagonals. Card 17 gives an overview of what’s occurring on the home front.

Update: April 2015

I’ve been studying other “large star” spreads recently and have found that the various “arms” were given different meanings, eg. past/future, obstacle/aid, etc.  I have yet to decide how I want to approach reading Oma’s star.

Now that I know we should be reading the bottom three cards of each cut, it occurs to me that, unless the middle pile (which will now be on the top) contained more than 16 cards, at least one if not all of the cards from the bottom of that pile will appear somewhere in the spread and may be worth paying particular attention to.

Lene then continues:

Vom übrigen Haufen, 5 Karten ziehen.

Die dann auf die Karten legen was man näher wissen möchte.
Zum Beispiel - Herzdame, fürs Haus, Liebe, Reise, und so weiter.

And Edith:

Vom übrigen Haufen 5 Karten ziehen,und so auf die Karten legenz.B auf Dich (Herzdame) and so on, um zu wissen, was in der nächsten Zeit passiert.

•  From the remaining pile, draw 5 cards.

•  Then lay the cards on what you want to know in more detail, or as Edith put it, to know what is happening in the near future. For example – (on the) Queen of Hearts, for the home, love, travel, and so on.

We then proceed to a second spread.

Lene:

Zuletzt alle Karten mischen.
9 Karten ziehen und so auslegen:
Wieder kombinieren was sie sagen.

Edith:

Alle Karten wieder mischen, Herzdame bleibt auf dem Tisch liegen. Karten ziehen und so auslegendann wieder sehen was die Karten sagen.

•  Last shuffle all the cards. Edith adds: the Queen of Hearts stays on the table.

•  Draw 9 cards and lay out as follows:

•  Again combine what they say.

And that is all I have been told. Oma passed away in 1998, at the age of 95.

Edith has been very patient with my questions and requests for clarification, so I’ll leave her in peace for a while, but at some point I’d like to ask her how she combines the cards and reads the Star layout.

Update: June 2014

Sadly, Tante Edith has no more information in this regard, or perhaps doesn’t have sufficient confidence in her English to attempt an explanation. Bearing in mind my paltry German skills, this is a feeling with which I can very much sympathise. 

I would love to hear from anyone who recognises any aspects of this method or can elaborate on what I have presented.