PHILOSOPHY

This section focusses on the philosophy behind the signature method Read Like the Devil, drawing on semiotics, cultural studies, and Zen.

Some of the examples also compare the different cartomantic traditions pertaining to the history of the Marseille Tarot, the Lenormand Oracle, and Playing Cards.

If you want to avoid scrolling, use the links below to get to the relevant topic:

Marseille Tarot

Lenormand Oracle

Playing cards

Marseille Tarot

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The point of cartomancy
The point of cartomancy

Cartomancy or coaching? Restructuring a business without destroying it. Two 3-card readings of the same cards in reversed order.

The question of time in cartomancy
The question of time in cartomancy

Most think that divination is about reading fortunes or the self in relation to time. But what if I proposed that this is never the case, as we mostly read the cards for place, spatial metaphors, and the geography of the unknown?

The fortuneteller: A portrait
The fortuneteller: A portrait

The question that discloses a surprising portrait of the fortuneteller.

The inner voice as a dimwit
The inner voice as a dimwit

Falling for fallacies that cartomancers apply to their practice and what to do about it.

Reading against what you want to hear
Reading against what you want to hear

How to avoid giving in to the desire to read for your emotions, with an example from Richard Gere and the Dalai Lama.

Finding a form
Finding a form

Which cards can make us reflect best on how to find our own form?

Cartomancy and the reliable factor
Cartomancy and the reliable factor

A 3-card reading on what the most reliable factor is in our cartomancy practice.

Lenormand Oracle

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Reading cards for miscommunication
Reading cards for miscommunication

Communicating anything often features mis-communication as its core modus operandi.

Calling on the dull ancestors
Calling on the dull ancestors

If you're fearful, would you call your Genghis Khan type of an ancestor? What could he teach you about fear, when he had none? Think again.

More of this, less of that
More of this, less of that

When it comes to knowledge in times of crisis, the comforting is not hearing what's comforting but knowing what to do more of and less of.

Euphemisms in Lenormand
Euphemisms in Lenormand

When the context is informed by euphemisms, then what?

The steel door of a grand tableau
The steel door of a grand tableau

Why use cards to move a mountain? Because that’s where the magic is.

The story behind the image
The story behind the image

What do we notice when we read behind the surface level of the image?

Playing cards

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Conserving energy
Conserving energy

Conserving energy by discarding belief in the self.

Self-help doesn’t work in divination
Self-help doesn’t work in divination

“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better” doesn’t work in divination. Let’s see what does.

Parallel and oppositional
Parallel and oppositional

A 13-card reading on the art of saying no to what we vote for indiscriminately.