I have a large archive of cartomantic readings. From one paragraph to many pages each of my written texts for individual situations present a twist, a flip, or a surprise. I am what you may call a ‘traditional’ non-traditional fortuneteller.
If I had to repeat the same idea connected with the so-called standard meanings of the cards, I would die from boredom. So I don’t. I read for the question, not the symbolism of the cards. I don’t even like symbolism, and even though none of us can escape it, I prefer to prioritize seeing what function each depiction on the cards I’m reading with performs.
About this, I’ve now filled over 5000 pages of text in my 20 books dedicated to the category of philosophy and practice of divination. That’s a lot of words describing what is otherwise obvious and simple: with the cups in the tarot we drink, we use the coins for transactions, with the batons we build relationships or orchestrate a plan, and with the swords we keep order or impale the ones who bother us. The same applies to playing cards, and as far as using fortunetelling oracles, such as the Lenormand pack goes, we do the same: we read the function of the image as it relates to the question on our table. Symbolism can come after it, if we can’t help ourselves to better ideas, and still insist on seeing especially the trump cards as ‘archetypes.’
But let’s see what I mean by ‘The flip’ in this new series of short numbered readings with a twist geared primarily to my paid subscribers. ‘The flip’ is about a presentation of a divination situation where what you see is not entirely what you get. You hear the question and see the cards on my table. You may think, ‘I know the answer to this,’ and you may even come close to the exact formulation I myself may also come up with under normal circumstance. But since not all readings are created equal, some will pose an interesting challenge. So ‘The Flip’ will will be about a surprise, or the kind of twist that we may not even think about in a million years. That’s the fun part.
Now, since every flip I intend to write about will contain a clear transmission, I’ll stay true to my substack philosophy: if it’s a lesson, you pay for it. To the readers in the wings who may find this tedious or disappointing, I will say this: I value your presence here and I will continue to write for free as I have done for many years. But some writing is fun to be rewarded for in the form of something other than ‘the reader’s attention.’ These days everyone says, ‘attention is the new currency,’ and ‘oh, we have to be ever so grateful for people’s attention.’ I don’t care about attention. If others find what I have to say of value, they follow me by paying due attention. If they don’t, they go somewhere else. Why make a fuss about it? I don’t. So there’s that.
The flip
Let’s see some cards now: 10 Cups, 6 Cups, 2 Cups hit my table in response to a woman’s resolve to be done with paying attention – yeah, precisely – to a close friend: ‘I’m so done with this,’ she said. ‘I just feel that we’re over now, and there’s nothing more to get out of this relationship. This woman does nothing for me anymore,’ she concluded.
Pay attention to how her resolve translates into what we may take as a foregone conclusion: if you’re done with a situation, then you’re done with it. What need is there to ask the cards a question about it? Now granted, we could say, as per my instruction in all my teachings, that when we go from 10 Cups to 2 Cups, we can talk about diminished interest. But is that really what we’re talking about here? Now try to imagine this woman’s face when she saw these cards landing on the table. See, here comes the flip. What did she say and what did I say?