Included: Book and Cards. The Russian Gypsy Fortune Telling Card by Svetlana Alexandrovna Touchkoff, are based on the authentic Gypsy teachings of nineteenth-century Russia.
These stunning full-color cards - illustrated in the Russian "Palekh" style - and accompanying book combine the beauty of Russian lacquer-box and the fun of an age-old system of anticipating the future and illuminating the present. By doing a card reading, we are reading our psychic barometer. Are there storms brewing for us, or is there smooth sailing ahead? Will our plans meet with success or failure? Is love, money or travel favored at this time? Like the pilot using the weather report to his best advantage, so we can use the cards. Fortune telling was once an integral part of people's lives in Russia. Everyone in the house participated. One person would do a reading, while the rest of the family or friends would sit around the table, listen, and make contributions.
In Western society, people also have sought to understand the many forces inside and outside of them. Areas of specialization have developed. Astrology, numerology, and palmistry deal with the interpretation of outside forces, while psychology and dream interpretation try to unravel the inner or subconscious mind. The Russian Gypsy Fortune Telling Cards have a mystical power of predicting events, therefore dealing with both forces, psychological and outside forces, by indicating favorable and unfavorable circumstances. They can help us by revealing the situation, by making us aware and by enabling us to choose the qualities that we should put forth to meet the situation. Yet, the cards do not seek to control us. How we see events and react to them is left to our own free will. The Russian Gypsy Fortune Telling card is like a barometer, naming for us the vibrations that surround us constantly.
Gypsies in Russia have always been renowned for their fortune-telling abilities. This is due to their chosen lifestyle, freedom of movement physically, emotionally, and spiritually. One of the best description of them is found in the poem, "Gypsies," written by the nineteenth century Russian poet, Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin. He described their lively freedom, their clamorous wandering through Bessarabia and the steppes (present day SW USSR.) They led a simple, quiet poor, yet peaceful existence.
The plot of the poem reveals the essence of Gypsy freedom. Aleko, a fugitive from civilization, is found by the young Gypsy, Zemfira, who takes him as a lover and brings him into the gypsy camp. He is very happy living the free life of wandering over the steppes and performing with a tame bear in various villages. Zemfire asks him if he regrets leaving the civilized world; the large buildings, fancy clothes, feasts, and beautiful girls. Aleko answers:
Regret what? If only you knew,
If you could imagine
The lack of freedom in the suffocating cities!
There people in crowds, fenced in,
Cannot breath the morning breeze,
Nor the spring scent of the meadows;
They are ashamed of love, persecute ideas,
Sell their own freedom,
Bow their heads in front of idols
And beg for money and chains.
What did I throw away? The agitation of betrayals,
The sentence of prejudice,
The crowds senseless persecution
Or brilliant disgrace.
The Gypsies were always welcome into the villages in Russia and cities. Their colorful, gay caravans brought diversion and entertainment to the inhabitants. Along with songs, entertainment, and trading, fortune telling was the most sought after activity. Besides their ability to look at things as they really are and not be afraid to voice these things, they also had an uncanny ability to foretell the future. This ability to foretell their own and other peoples' futures made them desirable visitors wherever they went.
The Gypsies used a variety of tools in their fortune telling; from crystal balls, tea leaves, palm reading, playing cards to the present set of cards, the Russian Gypsy Fortune Telling Card.
Our brains have logical and intuitive capabilities. Society demands logical thought and action that produce an orderly environment, and yet, at the same time, stifle the soul. Through the cards, the Gypsies could unlock the intuitive side of peoples' natures. Not only could the Gypsies interpret the cards, but the person having the reading done would intuitively know what the card was referring to.
- Find a flat surface, at least 20 by 20 inches (51 by 51 cm). If you don't have that much space, you should be considering buying the Miniature Fortune Telling Card, which is a miniature card and saves space.
- Take the cards in your right hand, face up, and shuffle them into your left hand, toward your heart. Do this five to ten times to clear the deck.
- Concentrate on what you want the cards to tell you. Either ask a question or go over the areas you want information on, such as love, money, health, success at a project, travel, what the future will bring. As you are concentrating, shuffle the cards again from right hand to left seven times. Have someone count the number of shuffles, or do it yourself. Stop after the seventh shuffle and hold the cards in your left hand without moving them about any further.
- With your right hand, pick up the deck and place the cards on the table face down. With your left hand, cut the cards once toward you.
- Once again pick up the cards with your right hand and place the deck in the palm of your left hand. Make sure you don't turn the cards any further as it can affect the reading of the last card.
- Using your right hand, start laying the cards out. Take the top card and, turning it over, place it on the table right side up. Repeat with four more cards, placing each to the right of the last card.
- You will have a row of five cards. See if any two adjoining cards will form a complete picture if rotated. Rotate these cards to form the picture and push all five cards toward each other so they are touching.
- Starting on the left again, lay five more cards under the first row. You can now turn each card in any direction to form a picture. However, don't switch places of cards. They can only be rotated in place. Continue laying the cards out until you have five rows of five cards each. Pay particular attention to the last card, not moving it unless a picture matches another card.
A reading can be done anytime, anywhere.
Do a reading only once a day per person, as you are getting the general flow of energy. Doing more than one reading in the same day interferes with this flow of energy and tampers with the advise.
A tarot reading can be done when you want a general forecast of the psychic energy around you, like a weather forecast. This can be done for yourself, for a group of friends who are with you, or even for someone who is close to you but not present at the time of the reading.
The tarot cards can be read when you have a problem that you want advise on. You can ask the tarot cards a question you need guidance in resolving. The cards will not solve the problem for you, but will set out the situation like a road map, so that all aspects will be revealed to you and you can chart the correct course. The cards are sometimes like the oracle at Delphi, speaking in riddles that you have to interpret.
Don't charge money for doing a reading. Friends may bring wine or food as friendly gestures, but charging for the reading is not right.
Do only one reading per person in one day.
Don't do readings on Sundays.
Don't do readings for children. Children can play with the cards, putting pictures together. There is nothing to harm the children; in fact, it is educational for them to match the pictures. However, the lives and brains of children are changing and expanding so rapidly that any prediction becomes obsolete almost instantaneously. Generally, cards can be read for someone over sixteen years of age, but again, events can happen too quickly at times to be predicted. Eighteen onward is a good age for doing readings.
Do not use the cards to determine timing for criminal activity. |
