PCO: Seven of Clubs & the power of word-bending

So... today I was watching Law and Order: SVU, one of my favourite TV shows. As usual, while watching TV, I kept shuffling my Playing Card Oracles deck. It's a force of habit. I started doing this to "break" the deck and making the handling easier. And now I just can't stop.

As soon as the episode began, and the victim appeared, I decided to do a "reading" about the criminal. What were the killer's intention, how was he working. I do that with tarot cards too. I found it's a great way to explore the meanings of the cards beyond some boundaries – especially that ones that determine the so-called "bad cards" and "good cards".

I used the Playing Card Oracles present spread: pulled four cards, placed them vertically (one under the other) and assigned to each position one part of the body: head, throat, torso, foot.

The cards I got were:

Head (♦/Fire): 12♦

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Throat (♣/Air): 7♣

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Torso (♥/Water): 11♦

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Feet (♠/Earth): 5♠

First I was a bit nonplussed. None of the cards were really terrible, and we were talking about a serious stalker. The 5 of Spades in the Foot position told me this person wanted to take something from another - probably from perceiving that the victim was taking something from him or her.

I was surprised that Livia, Queen of Diamonds, showed up in the first position. A nurturing woman, who cares for others and support them...the in Head position? First I thought "hum, the stalker must be a woman". But the show didn't give any evidences – all their suspects were males.

But the card that really left me wondering was the 7 of Clubs, the Sword of Enchantment, in the Throat position.  This position is about ideas, communication, agreements (or disagreements)... yeah, I had two huge question marks planted in my eyes,

I knew this Sword wasn't good there, even though the card is usually a good one. You know, one of these cards that mean "phew!" in most readings. Except that, here, it didn't mean phew!...it was more like "what the hell!?". I kept staring at the spread, trying to figure out the criminal's motive. The Sevens are card of great power – that's why they are represented by swords, in the first place. So who is holding the handle?

Livia.

And who is the sword pointing to?

Dango, Jack of Diamond, an immature guy who wants attention but... guess what, is under the thumb of a hierarchically superior woman. But this isn't any sword – it's the Sword of Enchantment, the one that tells us that the mind has the power to turn certain things into reality. The card of magic, enchantment.

But it did not scream "magic" to me. Nor it seemed to be telling me about a synchronicity, or a coincidence... if anything, it told me something was unseen. The way the power of this sword was being used was not obvious. Hidden influence.

The episode went on. They found a guy, it wasn't him – he was a pervert, but not a stalker. Then they found another guy, this one obsessed with the victim... but too silly to seem capable of pulling off this whole master plan of evil. He was, anyway, the prime suspect, and I found myself wondering what the hell was Livia doing there after all. This guy was certainly more a Dango than anything else.

 

Then, all of a sudden, it hit me. The Sword. In the Throat position. It wasn't about magic here at all... but more about the power of some people's words. How they manage to twist and bend reality with the stories they tell, the things they say. Some use it for good - telling stories, creating worlds so convincing it's hard to believe they don't exist. Others use it badly – to manipulate, hurt, lie etc.

There it was – the bad side of the 7♣ was the choice of using the sword's magic in a negative way. Being it in the Throat position, it was about communication.

Livia, you naughty girl! Twisting Dango's obsessions – manipulating the poor guy, you know he ain't gonna accuse you. You take care of him, and he probably likes it. Using his dependency against him... tsk tsk. That's not nice.

I immediately knew that the "stalker", as obsessed he was, wasn't the one responsible for hurting the victim. Someone was behind him. Someone stronger than him, who supported him and put up with his crap for some reason. And they found her in the show – the guy's self-proclaimed girlfriend, who was mad because the victim had so many men around her already! Why did she have to go around seducing other guys and robbing them from the girls who had no one? (Hum... is that a 5 of Spades I see here?)

The girl was, of course, completely nuts. The victim hadn't seduced the guy – he suffered from erotomania, and believe that the victim loved him. But it didn't make any difference in the end. If she couldn't fully have him, then no one else would. Not satisfied with attempting against the victim's life, Livia killed our poor Dango in the bath tub.

Tells something about the all-consuming power of the fire, doesn't it?

The Bridge Spread

Some people have asked me about the layout that I used in the last post. It's called "The Bri
dge", and it comes from Ana Cortez book The Playing Card Oracles. I find it to be a very to the point spread, that helps us see the good and the bad we have in the present, and integrate it with the past and the near future developments.

For those interested, I am sharing it below:

"This is a picture layout that gives you a general look at the energies at play in a person's life. Before shuffling, locate the 6 of Clubs ("The Bridge") within your deck and lay it face up on the table. Now have the person you are reading for mix the cards and turn one off the top of the deck for each of the four sides of "The Bridge".  These can be laid out in whichever order feels right intuitively.
The card to the left of "The Bridge" represents the past or what you are leaving behind. The card to the right is what is to come. Above symbolizes what is on The Bridge, for example, what is currently being manifested or carried with you across The Bridge.
The card at the bottom shows what is underneath The Bridge, in other words, what is being transcended. This is the fodder for transformation, the situations which must be overcome in order to change the conditions of the past into the promises of the future."

(From: The Playing Card Oracles, p. 176-177)

An old experiment with the PCO: Reading without a question

I did this reading back in 2007 for my (then) 13 years old sister (she's now 15). Yeah, family has always been my Guinea pig. She didn't want a reading, but I gave her the deck to shuffle and did it anyway. I wasn't being much serious either, but turns out that the reading was fantastically accurate. And my sister isn't a very open person – I knew nothing of this before the reading.

I used the Playing Card Oracles and the method is one taught by the PCO book. Its called "The Bridge Layout". You put the card 6♣ (which is the Bridge card) in the middle, and then draw other four cards and place them around it. The layout for my sister's reading was this one:

...2 ♥.

Jack ♥... 6 ♣...8 ♥...

...6 ♥

First thing I noticed, before I even tried to see what each position meant: too much water. Too much emotion, maybe? It crossed my mind that it might be the hormones... I don't know why, maybe because they 'mess' with out inner waters... and everything else, actually.

Then i saw the numbers...all were even, except for the J♥, that's 11. I saw a that she had a "Jack" (a young boy, probably her age) that was knocking her over. She had been until now protected (maybe by the family – 6♥.), and now something is breaking this protection. Slowly of course, since it's only one card. Then I started interpreting the cards positions. The J♥ is the past – I saw him as the one who started this big emotional storm that's going inside her. But because of the other even numbers, I can see she's still holding it back.

The 2♥ represents the gifts of the present and for me it meant obviously that this 'gift' was a feeling of 'love'...not really Romeo & Juliet undying kind of love, just an initial thing (the number is low), something she had never felt before. It excited her.

The 6♥ was in the obstacles of the present position, and it seemed to me it was very hard for her to move on from the comfortable 'home' feeling of what she already knew to something more instable. Typical from this age, the difficulties of having to face the world and different experiences and feelings.

In the future position I saw the 8♥ as representing that maybe this would become more intense. Not necessarily the 'love' thing, but more the whole 'emotion' thing. The card, that is called "The Garden", has a serpent in it... I thought that it might be related to a awakening sexuality.

I gave her the reading and she didn't say anything. Days later, however, she confirmed that I was right, and that she was very surprised, since she hadn't even asked the question out loud. It was interesting... my first reading without knowing what the other wanted to know. Great for practice!

Review: The Playing Card Oracles

First of all: this is not tarot. Also, this is not your "usual" playing cards system with so-called "traditional" divinatory meanings (as if there even were such a thing). If you expect a book on traditional cartomancy or a tarot-like system, then I'm sad to inform you that The Playing Card Oracles is not for you.

Now... if what you want is a system that is deep, unique, innovative and different from everything you ever saw before, then this is definitely the book to get. Really! The Playing Card Oracles is one of the rare divination decks & books that actually thinks outside the box. It teaches you things you didn't know. It doesn't recycle knowledge from other sources. It gives you something new.

The book is amazing - an interesting and rich mix of images, poetry, fairy tales (all original) and divination. Ana Cortez' writing style makes you feel as if you were talking to her. I must have read this book dozens of times already and I never get tired of it. It always gives me food for thought. Also, the way it teaches you to read common playing card decks, usually used for games, is amazing. The meanings given by Ana Cortez are at the same time intuitive and complex. They bring together numbers, colours and images. And they even include Geomancy, which is a fantastic addition to the system.

This is not 'cartomancy 101 for dummies'. The PCO requires proactivity - it asks you to rise to the challenge of deciphering its many layers. You need to read the book, open yourself to its myth, practise with the cards and see what works for you and what doesn't. Ana is not inflexible or bossy: she gives you the basic meanings, but you are encouraged to come up with your own. This book really explores the world of the playing cards - its legends, its mysterious history and its usage as an oracle. It's a complete system on it's own, and what you cannot learn from the book, you'll learn from the cards themselves.

As for the cards, they are beautiful. Some pictures are, indeed, a bit dark - but that's what they are meant to be! They are evocative. Don't get put off simply because it doesn't conform to the standard definition of beauty, or because it's not yet-another fluffy bunny deck with colourful art. Give it a chance and the deck will certainly grow on you. But if you do not care for C.J. Freeman's art style in particular, keep in mind that you can still use a common deck of poker cards, with the same results. The system is designed to work with any 52-card playing card deck.

It's sad to see that some people have misunderstood the purpose of this book, and rated it badly here. What they see as a problem, I see as being this book's greatest accomplishment: being different from all other playing card books out there. The Playing Card Oracles is not meant to be a pale companion to the tarot. On the contrary, it is a revolutionary system that goes way beyond mere 'card reading', and teaches you a whole new way of understanding divination itself.

Here are some of the cards: