Publisher's Synopsis
Fifty-two the pages count
in the devil's picture-book,
thirteen signs within four suits
of blood, knife, stone, and crook...
Exploring the common playing card deck as a book of magic authored by Old Scratch himself and drawing on cartomantic and folk-magical texts from hundreds of years in the past, The Witch's Pack offers readers a concise, well-sourced, and practical guide to the witch's card-based arts. Innovative approaches to old traditions in this volume include unique spreads, such as "the witch's table," advanced reading techniques, and rarely detailed methods of cartomantic craft, including Leland's Aradian spirit conjuration, card-based sigilization and incantation formulae, and ritual card pairings for sabbats and seasons. In addition to a solid introduction to divination and magic using playing cards, this volume includes a brief essay exploring the inherent pairing structure in the trump sequence of the Marseille tarot. The sound approaches in The Witch's Pack seek to offer a corpus of transferable lessons that can be utilized with any playing card deck or old-style tarot deck alike, emphasizing skillful pattern discernment over keywords and memorization.
From the Introduction:
The slim volume you now hold in your hand is inspired by the tradition of chapbooks from the mid-1800s detailing cartomantic operations, including works such as Mother Bunch's Golden Fortune-Teller (1857), The New Fortune Book or Conjurer's Guide (1850), and The Spaewife or Universal Fortune-Teller (1827). In the age of these concise books, now long passed, the reader could explore a variety of cartomantic methods and rhyming mnemonics without spending a fortune. Their methods were simple and accessible to all, designed for use by common folk. Anyone could pick up a deck of cards and begin to explore the subtle arts of cartomancy. In the spirit of this tradition, this work is intended to be both concise and practical.
Today, one can find any number of oracle decks in a variety of themes and art styles, so why should the modern witch bother to train in the discipline of old folk cartomancy? Put simply, folk cartomancy offers us a connection to our past and to arts that are skill-based rather than product-based, cunning rather than consumerist. By learning these methods and approaches, the witch can read with cards in a variety of styles, including the elusive tarot minors in unillustrated decks like the Marseille tarot. The history of folk cartomancy is old and rich indeed.
In fact, evidence suggests the existence of diverse folk-magical practices involving cards long before the tarot rose to its now prominent position. Huson (2004) notes that La Spagna Istoriata, published in 1519, makes reference to making a circle and "throwing the cards." Pierre de l'Ancre (1622) notes the use of cards to forge pacts with devils. In Witchcraft and the Inquisition in Venice, 1550-1650, Martin (1989) describes alleged witches Angela and Isabella Bellochio, who supposedly used cards extensively in their rites. Leland's (1899) collection of Italian folklore published as Aradia: The Gospel of the Witches of Italy lists the ability to "divine by cards" as a gift given to those who follow the path of witchcraft. Unfortunately, the practitioners who belonged to these currents of cartomancy were not so fortunate as to bequeath their work in the form of a cohesive tradition. Instead, it is up to us to reconstruct their wisdom from the fragments we collect like jewels...
