Not long ago, I was fortunate enough to find a high-definition image of La Sibylle des Salons (aka The Parlor Sibyl) from 1828, and yes this could be the first edition of the deck. This deck is more straightforward than the Tarot or the Petit Lenormand, because the cards inside are not metaphorical, they represent the actual people, events and results. In this image, the instruction card of the first edition of La Sibylle des Salons is captured with the divination techniques recorded on it. Let's travel back to 200 years ago, to see how people used cards for divination at that time.
The description begins with a brief introduction to the deck of a total of 52 cards, they are easy to understand. The cards clearly and accurately reveal the fate of the querent. It relieves the readers of the burden of memorizing the meanings of the cards and allow them to improvise. In just a few words, the greatest advantages of La Sibylle des Salons are clearly expressed, and it is really a great copywriting.
Next the author describes the preparation before divination. He says to use the deck with an open mind, they speak for themselves, we do not need to give them the traditional meanings, the meanings sometimes change with the moment. Seeing this I couldn't help but feel that in an age when everyone was memorizing traditional meanings, it was really surprising to see someone come up with such an avant-garde idea that really coincided with me. Interpreting the La Sibylle des Salons or Tarot, we learn the basis of the meanings of the cards, but more importantly, we need to be flexible and learn to adapt. It's a pity that we don't know who wrote this card.
Next comes the part of how to draw the cards. After shuffling the deck, the querent first cuts the cards with his left hand and then draws 35 cards from them and places them in order. We have to find the card that represents the querent among the 35 cards (you can specify it in advance or draw one at random) and count the 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th and 35th cards starting from the one following the indicator. If there is no indicator among these 35 cards, then this is not a good omen. You need to reshuffle, cut and draw 35 cards until there is an indicator card in it.
If everything goes well, then the 35th card must be the indicator and we need to interpret the 5 cards we have drawn. After that we cut the rest of the cards into four piles. The first pile represents the querent himself; the second pile represents his home; the third pile represents the future; and the fourth pile represents the unexpected. Finally, the author says that if the cards are reversed, the meaning is the exact opposite.
This very valuable information reveals to us the method of drawing cards in that period, not only randomly choosing, but also counting them out. This method is also applicable to reading playing cards.
Have you enjoyed this so far? If so, please like and share this post so that more people can see. If you are interested into cartomancy, you can also follow my IG: Hariolus1995 for more surprising and enlightening content!
--------Original text in French--------
Ce jeu composé de cinquante deux cartes revêtues de sujets qui s’expliquent assez d’eux même, à l’avantage d’indiquer d’une manière aussi claire qu’infaillible le sort futur de la personne pour laquelle on fait les cartes; il soulage la mémoire de celui qui s’en sert et prête aux improvisations les plus brillantes dans ce genre.
Il faut une grande présence d’esprit pour apercevoir dans les cartes ordinaires les combinaisons infinies et toujours obscures qui s’y présentent. Celles-ci au contraire parlent d’elles même et on n’est point obligé de leur donner un sens de convention qui varie suivant le caprice de celui qui les emploie. Pour faire usage de celles qu’on présente au public il ne s’agit que de connaître la manière de s’en servir ; la voici en peu de mots.
Après avoir bien battu les cartes, on fait couper avec la main gauche par la personne qui désir connaître son sort avenir. On tire trente cinq cartes qu’il faut ranger en ordre sur une table. Cette opération faite, on compte par sept en commençant par la carte qui suit immédiatement celle qui représente la personne pour laquelle on fait les cartes.
Si cette carte n’était pas sortie ce qui serait d’un mauvais augure; on recommence à battre le jeu tout entier et on extrait de la même manière trente cinq cartes jusqu’à ce qu’elle sorte; on explique le sens de chaque septième san s’inquiéter des autres jusqu’à ce qu’on soit revenu à la carte par laquelle on a commencé on rassemble ensuite celles qui restent; on les fait couper et on les divise en quatre paquets.
Le 1er pour la personne
Le 2e pour la maison
Le 3e pour son avenir
Le 4e pour la surprise
On se rappellera que lorsqu’une carte se trouve renversée il faut en augurer tout le contraire de ce qu’elle annoncerait dans le sens naturel.
Comments