Reviews
Fifty-Four Devils: The Art & Folklore of Fortune-Telling with Playing Cards by Cory Thomas Hutcheson
silent_forest's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
5.0
Excellent volume on cartomancy.
threadybeeps's review against another edition
3.0
Hmmm, it was fine but not quite what I was looking for, and the ultimately kind of redundant among the other books on my cartomancy shelf. Very bare bones basics. If you have access to the Hedgewytch stuff (it's back on the Internet apparently), which the author cites as a strong influence, probably not much here will be of interest. I found the instructions for the basic 5-card spread kind of confusing?? I'll have to sit down and see if I can actually follow them step-by-step. There are also instructions for a tableau with a full deck, but I can't see myself ever actually doing that.
If you are brand new, it's a perfectly serviceable place to start. The chart of all the abbreviated card meanings is kinda neat, I did print out a copy to keep at my reading table for quick reference/inspiration.
I am an Ana Cortez gal, and I do love her system, no plans to set it aside, but found myself wanting something a little more witchy, or folky, or whatever. Did not exactly scratch the itch! YMMV depending on what you're looking for.
If you are brand new, it's a perfectly serviceable place to start. The chart of all the abbreviated card meanings is kinda neat, I did print out a copy to keep at my reading table for quick reference/inspiration.
I am an Ana Cortez gal, and I do love her system, no plans to set it aside, but found myself wanting something a little more witchy, or folky, or whatever. Did not exactly scratch the itch! YMMV depending on what you're looking for.
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