Mantra/rhyme whilst dealing the cards

[jaygon]

As mentioned on one of my older posts, my mother was quite adept at reading with playing cards, a system she learned as a child from her aunt. I watched her read, as a child, and I recall she had a rhyme/chant which she always recited when dealing the cards.

I cannot recall it verbatim but it was something like :

To seal you,
To crown you,

What’s sure to come true,

For those who you love, 
For those who love you

I’m not sure how local or universal this mantra was and wondered if anybody recognised it and/or could clarify the actual words?

Best,

Jay

[akiva]

It's difficult to know exactly what the mantra means, but to me it sounds like it could be a form of old style cartomancy that made piles or heaps of cards. Usually as a closing to a complex method. Though often they were used independently. The 5 heaps I know and sometimes use are:

 

For you

For the home

For what you don't expect 

For what you do expect 

The wish/surprise

 

As you can see, it's quite similar. The heap names vary depending on country/method/author but I reckon that your mother was using something similar. 😊

[jaygon]

Thank you! It seems so! And there may have been other parts to the mantra which I have forgotten. 

 

What would ‘to seal’ and ‘to crown’ mean?

[akiva]

I'm not sure, possibly "to seal" could be referring to the querent, and "to crown" could be the querents aspirations/achievements?

 

My other idea would be that these were spread positions and your mother would recite the mantra while laying the cards out. A bit like a celtic cross. Though the last 3 lines seem so much like the 5 heaps to me 😊

[Laura Borealis]

"Seal" might be like "cover" in the Pictorial Key's instructions for the Celtic Cross spread. You say "This covers him" while placing the first card over the significator. The second card is "This crosses him," and the third is "This crowns him." And so on for the rest of the cards in the spread.

 

1. This covers him
2. This crosses him
3. This crowns him
4. This is beneath him
5. This is behind him
6. This is before him
7. Himself
8. His house
9. His hopes and fears
10. What will come

 

That's in The Pictorial Key to the Tarot by A.E. Waite (1910). Eden Gray has a similar chant in The Tarot Revealed (1960) (and in her other books too, if I remember right). Hers is in a little different order but much the same.

 

"Covers" and "crowns" sounds a lot like your mom's "seal" and "crown." It might be something passed down by word of mouth; maybe she learned it from a relative. Actually it wouldn't surprise me if A.E. Waite got the chant from playing card readers back in the day, and adapted it for the Celtic Cross.

[jaygon]

Thank you! Yes ; she most certainly learned it from her aunt, who taught her to read. 
 

Her aunt would have learned over 100 years ago. 
 

There may have been an extra line or two to the mantra. I guess it’s something I could adapt myself! 

[DanielJUK]

There used to be rhymes as well to remember the playing card meanings.

These are from a 1915 book.....

 

https://sacred-texts.com/tarot/ftc/ftc19.htm

 

But I can't see any of the dealing rhymes as part of them.

[jaygon]

Thank you! I will check this out! Who knows ; perhaps my mother just ‘liked’ to say it as she dealt, perhaps that was how she was taught.

 

The mantra itself may not be specifically linked to the dealing, in its origin.