The Art of Drawing Cards and The Tarot - Paperback

by Aldegonde Perenna (Author), K. A. Laity (Author)

There's nothing quite like this tarot book. The editors of this curious volume threw in every method they could find for reading and playing cards. Cartomancy in nineteenth century France was not a world without rules, but one with too many! Often they were at odds with each other. While one could read fortunes with regular decks, the true artists read the tarot. The majority of this book focuses on the arcane mysteries of the tarot deck as told by a renowned mistress of divination.

Or is she?

Aldegonde Pérenna, the Polish Sybil was actually Gabrielle Paban, born in Lyon 22nd February in 1793. She wrote under noms de plume such as Gabrielle-Radegonde Pérenna on esoteric topics like fortune telling, astrology, and cartomancy, and under her own name books promoting morality for young people. The Bibliothèque nationale of France lists a total of sixteen works attributed to her given name and at least four more for her pseudonyms. Her interests ranged far beyond the occult.

This guide for reading tarot draws on the deck created by France's first professional cartomancer, Etteilla -- but with a difference. Actually many differences. Paban gives several cards Masonic titles and many more completely new names. Often she ignores the standard interpretations. Paban's explanations offer both humour and a wry sense of mischief. This manual reinforces the idea that the history of tarot reading is full of unexpected correspondences and marvelous invention. Could this be the guide that transforms your own connection to the cards into something completely original?