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Russian Cartomancy


Decan

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I post a link (below) toward a video-interview with Dmitry Korolev about Russian cartomancy: "the Babushka Way".

Here it is a general presentation concerning what is Russian cartomancy, but it is a clear and lively presentation.

I tried to find this video on YouTube but apparently it only exists on Facebook (for now at least). Dmitry Korolev is young but quite knowledgeable!

 

In a few words, Russian cartomancy is folk cartomancy, and traditional. There are definite meanings (not too much) for the cards, and definite spreads to deal with a Russian deck of 36 playing cards.

It's really interesting and Russian cartomancy seems easier than French cartomancy (actually I don't know much about French cartomancy, it's a bit a shame but well...); Russian cartomancy is "down-to-earth" (not esoteric) and comes from folks through words to mouth, from houses and families (not exactly from erudite people who wrote books).

Enjoy the video-interview I'm sure that it's a system that's worth the value for many!

 

https://www.facebook.com/caldeirapt/videos/2763628466988756/

 

Edited by Decan
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Cool!  I watched the video and read the article he posted on WDA.  Since I have those Russian playing cards, it was fun to learn more about the details fm the Babushka pov (no I did not take the course but tempting).  Very "earthy' indeed!  and easy to remember.  I LOVE the spread he demonstrated.  Think I had a dream about it last night  🤔

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Yeah! I was tempted too for some times... and with Black Friday your temptations become the devil, and well... 🙂

He has a channel on YouTube with detailed explanations concerning the meanings of the cards and spreads in Russian Cartomancy. Actually they deal with large spreads!

 

Below the Russian deck I ordered and received lately! The King of Hearts depicts Nicholas II apparently, for the others Romanov I don't know and Rasputine doesn't seem depicted in this deck.

 

russia11.jpg

Edited by Decan
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The Jokers are swans right?
Rasputin for the Knave of Spades  or King to be more disrespectful, but maybe he is to be discarded in their minds.,  Like statues of Stalin and other stains on their history.  

 

But Rasputin was difficult to be rid of...

He was poisoned, shot, bludgeoned, drowned, frozen, and only died of exhaustion.

 

Glorious

eta: the above quote fm a Youtube commenter.

 

Edited by bastetly
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Yes jokers are swans!

You're probably right about Rasputin...

 

Some other decks are the Great Russian Standard (Piatnik), nice but less decorative and of course less aristocratic! Otherwise there is the Palekh playing cards (very decorative!!) by Piatnik too I think. Probably many other decks but with any deck it's okay here, you just have to discard the 2/3/4/5 in each of the suits because you use a deck of 36 cards only (like Lenormand).

 

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My fav cards are those beautiful Aces.  The Courts were used as insets for a Lenormand deck.  My honorable mention one in your poll 😄  I thought it interesting when he said that these were the modern pre-Bolshevism Romanovs dressed up at a masquerade party.  They had me fooled  🧐

I bought the New Style awhile back.  Artsy and a little sinister but plain Aces.  And I have several of the patience tile decks of which he discusses in his YT vids.  I didn't realize I'd already subscribed!

 

So you went for the WDA Course(s) eh?  That sounds like a lot of fun.  I'll keep an eye on your progress lol, and perhaps play along sometimes.  I hope you get some joiners on this platform!  

 

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12 hours ago, bastetly said:

The Jokers are swans right?
Rasputin for the Knave of Spades  or King to be more disrespectful, but maybe he is to be discarded in their minds.,  Like statues of Stalin and other stains on their history.  

 

But Rasputin was difficult to be rid of...

He was poisoned, shot, bludgeoned, drowned, frozen, and only died of exhaustion.

 

Glorious

 

 

His death has a lot of legend around it. It's highly unlikely that he went through all that (the drowning, the poison. etc.. ). But he did have gunshot wounds to his head. It's hard to survive gunshots to the head. There was an autopsy made and no evidence of poison or drowning was found.

 

Many of his wounds seemed to have been inflicted post-mortem apparently.

 

I don't think the ordinary Russians would have viewed him as an evil man. Most had probably never heard of him. He was a deeply religious man, possibly a spiritual healer. He just got caught up in the politics of the day and landed up on the wrong side of it. He's been painted as the devil through wild tales and movies. 

 

And of course, him welcomed into the Tsar's court, didn't make him a friend of the Bolsheviks. And they would most likely have shot him if the nobility hadn't. But his death had nothing to with the Bolsheviks. It was internal court feuds and politics. 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Marigold
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Hi Marigold 🙂  I don't know where to start.  First I agree w almost all of your post.  But you seem to have either mis-read mine, or I didn't make clear enough my post, which tend to be on the short.

 

I posted a comment I found online about Rasputin's death:  I think the he was posting a folk-myth that surrounds the legend of Rasputin.  And his response to it  "Glorious" if it were really true, which of course it cannot be (I don't think??? lol)  I bet he was roundly mutilated by the Romanovs post-mortem!  I have certainly read that.  I was not implying the Bolshevics killed him or had anything to do w him (except hating him and inciting others to do so), at least I don't see that I did!

 

Now I was basically commenting on a deck of cards depicting the Romanov family-relatives in costumes.  Alive and thriving, pre-Bolshevic Revolution.  The later makers of this "aristocratic" looking deck may not have wished to include a man peasant-born into these cards.  Peasants of the time very well may have revered him as a gifted mystical healer/deeply religious, incl. the Czaress.  But popular legend has portrayed him a rather sinister influence on the royal family nonetheless and may be why he would not be represented in the Golden Russian card deck.  

And to quote an over-used saying imo "does that make sense?"

 

And also not germane to our convo, I wanted to cross out the line "and other stains on their history" and thought that I had!  I'll leave in the Stalin remark.  Remedying that now.

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Ah sorry. I actually thought that is was strange that you would post something like that. I know you better than that !!

 

I think I am guilty of not having paid attention sufficiently to the thread. And therefore posted nonsense. I saw Rasputin and that sort of worked like a wind up mechanism. 

 

Sorry !!!!! Thanks for clearing all that up. Oops.

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Hahaha.  I often skim things and think that I've read them.  And then I comment.  Which is why I'm a heavy editor.  Terrible habit but there you are  🙂   I'm so glad I was able to clear things up.  I don't converse as easily as others do on this kind of platform.  I'm used to looking at faces and hearing voices to get my cues, and even that is very little these days.

Rasputin looks to have been a highly intelligent and intuitive man.  Caught up in very dangerous upheaval.  Who could have survived those times?  I own an old book publ. in 1928 titled "Rasputin The Holy Devil" by Rene Fulop-Miller.  I think it's time I read the damn thing.  It's pretty dusty, the pages have yellowed and the cloth covering is blood red!  🙈

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AH AH, I used my google-fu and found a Russian deck with Rapustin! It is the Joker in the Romanow playing cards (piatnik)!

This deck is nice with people in costumes too, but for Fortune Telling with playing cards, it's probably not the best choice because the King of Hearts is completely frontal (actually it's important that this court card with a few others are side-face, or at least not completely frontal, it's with regard to directions).

In the Palekh playing cards I noticed as well that the King of Hearts is a bit too frontal, which isn't perfect.

 

Otherwise, I don't bother with political things, I'm just interested in art, what people look like and the general vibe and inspiring folklore, these things. Well of course I won't buy a deck with Vladimir Putin displayed on it! They sell a few of them like that. I just ignore them.

 

joker11.jpg

 

Below the King of Hearts in the Palekh (well, I'm probably a bit too picky because we could say that he looks "more or less" toward the right).

It's just because I love nice cards that I consider these decks, any common deck of playing cards is usable of course!!

 

king_p10.jpg

Edited by Decan
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2 hours ago, Decan said:

Well of course I won't buy a deck with Vladimir Putin displayed on it! They sell a few of them like that. I just ignore them.

I hesitated to post this because I don't want you to think I'm challenging you here. But surely in these Russian decks there are depictions of a Tsar - another and even a bigger autocratic figure ruling over a great empire. Would Vladimir Putin be any different ? It's just a symbol.

Edited by Marigold
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1 hour ago, Marigold said:

But surely in these Russian decks there are depictions of a Tsar

Yes absolutely, and Nicholas II is the King of Hearts in the Golden Russian I have, apparently in other decks too!

It's about nice costumes for me, I'm someone superficial and I don't bother about these things, history in all countries is full of atrocities and kings were all sort of tyrants (if they weren't literally), likely power drives men crazy, and a Tsar had a Lot of Power!

There were kings in France in England (actually there is still a Queen in the UK) and everywhere... well, every deck of playing cards have Kings, Queens, Knaves.

 

Concerning this thread @Marigold it is about the Russian method of fortune telling with playing cards, which came and developped in Russia during many generations. I really don't want to go to another field. For people (like me) who love nice decks, historical decks of cards are just nice. For Vladmir Putin or something, it's another topic, not cartomancy.

Edited by Decan
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On 12/3/2019 at 3:12 AM, Marigold said:

His death has a lot of legend around it. It's highly unlikely that he went through all that (the drowning, the poison. etc.. ). But he did have gunshot wounds to his head. It's hard to survive gunshots to the head. There was an autopsy made and no evidence of poison or drowning was found.

It makes for great drama, though:
 


(That's an excellent movie, BTW. And it's the only one with all three Barrymores - Ethel's in it, too.)

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55 minutes ago, Decan said:

Yes absolutely, and Nicholas II is the King of Hearts in the Golden Russian I have, apparently in other decks too!

It's about nice costumes for me, I'm someone superficial and I don't bother about these things, history in all countries is full of atrocities and kings were all sort of tyrants (if they weren't literally), likely power drives men crazy, and a Tsar had a Lot of Power!

There were kings in France in England (actually there is still a Queen in the UK) and everywhere... well, every deck of playing cards have Kings, Queens, Knaves.

Yes. Just because we're used to looking at "generic", nameless royalty on poker decks doesn't negate that. Even the best of them could be a-holes.

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1 hour ago, Decan said:

Concerning this thread @Marigold it is about the Russian method of fortune telling with playing cards, which came and developped in Russia during many generations. I really don't want to go to another field. For people (like me) who love nice decks, historical decks of cards are just nice. For Vladmir Putin or something, it's another topic, not cartomancy.

I want to echo what @Decan said and ask that the political side of things is left out of this discussion. There is so much more than that to talk about when it comes to Russian methods of fortune telling and I am dying to hear about it! 😀 

 

And how beautiful that new deck of yours is Decan! 

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On 12/3/2019 at 9:26 AM, bastetly said:

My fav cards are those beautiful Aces.  The Courts were used as insets for a Lenormand deck.  My honorable mention one in your poll 😄  I thought it interesting when he said that these were the modern pre-Bolshevism Romanovs dressed up at a masquerade party.  They had me fooled  🧐

I bought the New Style awhile back.  Artsy and a little sinister but plain Aces.  And I have several of the patience tile decks of which he discusses in his YT vids.  I didn't realize I'd already subscribed!

Their square patience cards look very nice, and seem easy to use (but I will watch a few videos later)!

 

For the Russian way to use the playing cards it's as well a question of patience, particularly for the Russian Classical Spread (sort of inescapable "Tsar Spread") which is a multi-spreads in one bigger spread, a bit like a matryoshka doll, and you really have to do each of the spreads, and to don't skip one!! For a beginner like me it's a bit challenging at this point (while the meanings for each of the cards and the classical combinations aren't a ton!)

The main thing here is more the way they deal with the cards through specific (and a bit sophisticated) spreads!

 

It seems that apart the playing cards, Lenormand is really famous in Russia, and they apply Russian techniques for Lenormand, which can be very interesting for me.

Edited by Decan
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I try to deal with the Devil's Mirror spread (it is the name for the Tableau with russian playing cards).

Not easy at all! Now I understand why it is named the Devil's Mirror LOL. But with a lot of practice... Not for now, I begin.

 

If you want to try something with russian playing cards and methods, first look at the videos concerning the meanings of the cards (there are not a ton of meanings for the cards, really!), then look at another video which is the Chatterbox spread. You can have a traditional practice with just that, and it's for free!!

 

Below a pic of the Great Russia Standard (Piatnik), very good quality and not an expensive deck. I'm wondering if I don't prefer this one, while my other deck is lovely. I didn't order the Palekh playing cards because the cards themselves could be a bit distracting, which isn't really good with playing cards probably (it is maybe the same with Lenormand).

 

russia10.jpg

Edited by Decan
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I just recently, let's say within the past two weeks, discovered Dmitry Korolev's YouTube channel and I am thoroughly enthralled with it. Dan's knowledge, teaching, accent and manner have captivated me and I wanted more. That is when I found your post yesterday or the day before on this site, Decan. I followed the link and watched the video interview twice! Yesterday, I had searched and put some Russian playing cards on my eBay watch list --and I can't make up my mind as to which ones to buy! I try to calm myself down by saying, "Really now...won't one of your regular decks of playing cards work just as well?" "Must they be Russian?" 😍

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Great! One of my favorite decks is the Great Russia Standard (Piatnik).

Russian method with playing cards is very pragmatical I find, and not that complicated too. Of course not a method to use if you want a Message from your spiritual guides. It's very cartomantic, there are meanings (not a ton), and you pull the cards the old way (it's a bit sophisticated with regard to that).

They have as well many love spreads, probably because people in Russia are interested in this, and I as well found that many cards refer to bureaucratic stuff; this is likely because bureaucracy is something important in Russia; in France bureaucracy is something a bit heavy too, so I can connect here! 🙂

Of course any deck of playing cards is okay!

Edited by Decan
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I prefer the Great over the Golden as well; however, in one YouTube video, I think it is the Golden deck that Dmitry uses, as I recall him pointing out that very Nicholas II ? as the King of Hearts (although, the tsar is probably on other Russian decks) as he goes through the court cards (and those queens look familiar as well) and the video in the above link he holds the Ace of Spades really close to the camera at one point.  Alas, I feel compelled to use Russian cards in Russian-oriented-folk-spreads. 🤨

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9 hours ago, 53rdspirit said:

Alas, I feel compelled to use Russian cards in Russian-oriented-folk-spreads.

I can understand that, absolutely!

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