Some years ago I made assertion that there is only one form patience that has a use as a fortune telling method. https://anthonylesq.blogspot.com/2013/08/oracle-patience-two-descriptions.html
I am evidently wrong.
This unusual form of card divination that I feature here can be found on p 30 of Muhammed Ali's "Telling fortunes by cards" [Cartlon B Case] as method D. It is a curious cross between a game of patience and a divination method, specifically, the very simple form of patience sometimes called "Roll call" or "Hit or miss". Here is a video showing how you play it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMTJtLrH6WE (I recall reading a book saying that this form of patience, without the divinatory function, is the most efficient waster of time after television--)
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Below is shown the original text of the work, taken from https://archive.org/details/tellingfortunesb00case/page/30/mode/2up . Another version can be found here https://www.gutenberg.org/files/42008/42008-h/42008-h.htm#Page_30
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The instructions, are in summary:
- - Shuffle the 52-card pack
- - Turn out cards, saying " Ace , 2 [...] 10, jack, queen, king" and back to Ace.
- - Whenever the value of the card turned up matches that of the count, it is set aside as a "hit".
- - if 2 or 3 cards of the same value are also turned out, they too are set aside, even if they do not match the count.
- - "Runs" [e.g. 2, 3, 4] are also set aside as hits , even if they do not match the count,
- - the misses are reformed into a pack, and steps 1-5 are repeated with them twice more.
- - The hits are collected (presumably without shuffling), and dealt out in 4 piles, two cards at a time.
- - The book shows the piles as arranged in the form of a cross, each pile named after a cardinal direction, like this:
North
West East
South.
Interpretation:
- each pile is read is an indication of the future. North represents the most immediate future, followed by South, then East, then west,
- Carter provides two sets of meanings, one "ancient' and another "modern" for each card of the 52 card pack.
- Of the two the modern seems to be suited to this method; most of the ancient meanings are directly related to marriage.
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Astute readers would note that this method does not answer specific questions (eg "will i get a job"?) , but rather general open ended readings about what would happen in the future, probably about a week or so.
Regarding the ancient and modern meanings of the cards, (pp 12 and 20, respectively) they too are worth commenting upon. Consider the auspiciousness of the suits: In the ancient system, the suits are ranked thus:
Clubs: Most Auspicious suit signify happiness
Hearts: "lovemaking, invitations and good friends"
Diamonds: Money,
Spades : Least auspicious suit, annoyance, loss.
But, in the modern system, Case reverses the auspiciousness of clubs and diamonds, so diamonds (representing wealth) are more auspicious than clubs, which are reinterpreted as "business matters". Those with a marxist bent would clearly see the stamp of capitalism on this matter-- wealth literally trumping relatonships...
