Hands of Fate the Art of Divination With Playing Cards

Hello everyone, it'south been a while since I last did a volume review, and I'm happy to say I got around to doing ane again this calendar month. This time I will be reviewing a book on Cartomancy, Hands of Fate past Robin Artisson. This book was recommended to me by Jess Rollar from Java with the Fool for being a very interesting Cartomancy organisation, and as I got eager to dive into Cartomancy (using playing cards instead of tarot) this quickly establish its way onto my table.

Most the Author & the volume

I must admit, I haven't heard of this writer earlier but after adding this book to my list on Goodreads I apace saw this homo had written several other books of spiritual nature besides. His description given there is as follows.

Robin Artisson has been studying folklore, mythology, and the interior metaphysics of sorcery and traditional witchcraft for over twenty years. His specialty areas of noesis include spiritual ecology, occult history, herbalism and wortcunning, divination, and soul-flight or trance induction, along with a vocational interest in the extraordinary exploration of the eldritch dimensions of the mind, the soul, and the globe.

Author description from Goodreads

Given this description, which granted I didn't read till I was halfway through the book, I saw this man had more than feel with the occult than I expected. The familiarity with the topic he says to have and the amount of books he has written would normally get my hopes up, and they were until I was halfway through the introduction of the volume and I institute it hard to have this human seriously, more than on that subsequently.

As I said, this book is near Cartomancy, but more than specifically, almost Mr. Artisson's own method in doing so. A arrangement he build for himself based on his research and experimentation. I therefore desire to focus less on his estimation of how i taps into the practice of Cartomancy, and more than then on how this system is build upwardly and my impression of it. I say this considering the introduction kind of let me down, while the arrangement itself was extremely intriguing to me. I don't wish to fustigate on other peoples believes on the occult, and then equally it is of secondary importance to the purpose of this book I will be reviewing the organization covered within these pages primarily, touching only on the residuum where it applies.

The Book & Its Contents

Starting time things outset. This volume in it'southward design is decent. The cover is interesting, the text is well formatted and readable. It's a thin book, merely 70 pages and from what I could tell is not available as an due east-book.

I am actually a petty chip bummed about that fact seeing how the book holds up, or rather, attempts to practise so. Within the first 5 minutes of opening the cover and gently flipping through the pages I already pulled 2 of the pages out without whatsoever effort. I arraign the poorly done glue binding, only suspect that is what makes this little book affordable. When I asked Jess about this she replied to have the aforementioned issue with her re-create. In other words, you can expect to loose a page or 2 if y'all're not careful with this book (and even if you're careful, information technology may all the same happen).

The book is pretty nicely build-up. While the introduction goes mostly into the authors personal views of how divination works and methods on how to do and then. Personally, I can't say I agree with his point of view entirely and his writing style merely gives me this fairy-tale feeling that forced me to read this book equally 'for entertainment purposes' in social club to just go through information technology. I think knowing to wait this beforehand would help a future reader, especially if you are quite down to earth like I am with these things. That said, in that location are some phrases here and there that I do recollect are valuable.

Within the introduction he mentions to take inspiration from sometime 19th and 20th century books on card divination, so knowing what sources he may have fatigued from before writing this book helps us understand a little more where he is coming from. Seeing, even so, how he reverenced old sources information technology was no surprise to me to read his – in my opinion – somewhat former-fashioned and fantastical view of what divination is. The views we have on occultism today is different from that of 200 years ago. Some things he's suggesting aren't that odd necessarily, but the fashion he'southward phrasing it and how oddly specific he is in some of his methods of 'successfully practicing divination' that was entertaining in a way I wouldn't want to see in a legitimate divination book. Sharing these $.25 with others got a like response from them and I wish I could say otherwise seeing how intriguing the remainder of the volume is to me.

The real meat and value of the book starts in the chapter thereafter "A Cunning Method of Cartomancy". From that point on he goes on to depict his system, the associations, his methods of reading with is in the form of storytelling, example readings to further explicate that and some other possible options to use the system. Finishing off the book with a quick overview nautical chart of all the meanings in the organization. The build up is adept, there's enough information to work with while being brief plenty in how to practise it.

This organization of Cartomancy goes over a method of reading as if the upshot of the cards is a metaphorical tale. I think when the author goes over the the 'story catchers' in "Now Permit the Easily of Fate to Tell a Tale" information technology sort of clicked with me how this organisation was intended and written the manner it was. Yep, part of information technology is a little more entertainment than my usual cryptic psychological approach to tarot would be, only like a proficient story, there'southward frequently a message hiding backside information technology and that's sort of what this method does as well.

As I said, I am very intrigued by this system and think it has a lot of potential in many ways, fifty-fifty outside of divination. (Yeah, I'm thinking of using it for my TTRPG games as well)

One matter you may notice is that I have written on and marked pages in the attached photographs with pencil. While I normally don't do this in whatever of the books I read this helped me filter out the valuable information for subsequently reference. Seeing how the book holds upwardly on its ain, I'm not in the slightest bit regretful well-nigh my decision to do and then, merely thought I'd give a heads upward for those that notice it and wonder why.

To Tell a Tale

One of the methods the author describes, which I assume is the primary way of reading with this system, is what he calls a Story Catcher. He argues that by forming a story out of the cards drawn we can pull many intertwining layers and connections that our subconscious communicates to us. (Although he calls it the Costless Soul, I interpret that as existence our intuitive self or subconscious cocky)

The method lets you depict a menu to decide the blazon of tale to answer your question and based on that you draw 6 to 12 cards in groups of 3. Each group of three has its own significance in the 'story' (referred to as personal, relational, tangible and unseen fortunes) and there's also a theme or type of story y'all have based on which suit has a majority. The case reading for this method was quite interesting to see how the story aspect is 'intended' and how layers and patterns are formed.

I think one could even apply this or a similar method to reading Tarot cards, and the story aspect makes information technology useful outside of divination likewise, interim more than so as story prompts.

The Jokers

1 affair I came across during my inquiry on Cartomancy is that some books or articles go out out the jokers, and some use a Fool & Devil clan from the Tarot Major Arcana. Seeing this book go over the use of Jokers in the system got me curious how he approached this, and it seems a little in line with the Fool & Devil clan.

In this arrangement it is important i can distinguish between a 'calorie-free' and a 'dark' joker, where the low-cal joker is associated with positive, helpful and amplifying free energy and the dark joker with the opposite kind of energy.

I thought I'd briefly mention it seeing every bit non all systems and sources seem to include the jokers and some might similar to know of a way to implement them.

Recommendation

So would I recommend this volume despite my problems with how the book holds upwardly and the introduction?

If you're looking for a new divination organisation using playing cards and/or enjoy a fantastical story telling way of doing and so, so yes, I would highly recommend giving it a shot. I genuinely wish this volume was available every bit an east-book for a few bucks to featherbed the poor bounden quality. (Mayhap skip the introduction to only savor the Hands of Fate system.)

If, however, you are very bothered past a not so serious/downwards to earth divination approach and so this book may non be for you. If I wasn't a big fan of storytelling games and fantasy then I think I would've judged this entire book as a large joke, but since that is something that interests me, I found information technology quite intriguing. I do typically have a more psychological arroyo to divination just I think this system can definitely enrich my exercise.

If you're simply looking for a bones and practical guide to Cartomancy, I would non necessarily recommend Easily of Fate merely rather Speed Learning Cartomancy past Julian Moore, which I will exist reviewing like this when I've read through it in its entirety (just its been a good and definitely practical guide so far).

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Source: https://asheattitude.wordpress.com/2020/11/30/hands-of-fate-robin-artisson/

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