When I first met Ryan he talked about a Gypsy (A Roma or Romani) woman who he met through her daughter. The older woman had once traveled in a caravan in a REAL wagon like you see in the movies around Nevada and the surrounding states. Ryan, being Ryan HAD to ask about Cher’s song and if it was true. The answer was a bit more chilling. Her family had to flee a town when the men were accused of being thieves and yes, the women had a certain “reputation” and she left it at that.

What grabbed my attention was the fact that this lady, who has now long since passed away, told Ryan after teaching him how to do a reading that she personally created, was that he had the GIFT. Ah, so I’m not wrong. If a Romani can “see” him, and pass on a technique and say that he had a special gift, knack, that none of her other “students” had, then I must learn this. And I’m not wrong about what I see either.

It took 4 months to get a lesson. I haven’t learned how to guide the querent YET but I did have my first lesson so Ryan could ask the questions that had been troubling him. When I got my first reading, he was taken aback as no on had ever asked the kinds of questions I asked. I asked two dead men to come forward and two living. But what we asked is private.

BACKSTORY – Or detour if you like. I met a 20 something Romani girl working at a gas station in Smithville, NJ back in 1998. She spied a book on my front seat by Alexandra David Neil ‘s adopted son, Lama Yongden. The young lady lit up like a Christmas tree and said “OH I LOVE books like that” and because I had JUST finished reading it, I gave it to her through my driver’s side window and never saw her again.

My next encounter was this past August 2021 in a trailer park in Carlin. But he was only part “gypsy” as he claimed but because of that he had sight and could feel energy. I would later find out from my husband, that there is a rather LARGE Romani population here in Elko County and he had treated several as patients. HUMPF – Wish he had said something years ago.

In college, the Anthropology Department Chair had written a book about the Gitani of Andalucia. I questioned her about the book because she talks about flamenco. I had studied flamenco guitar and my Puerto Rican Spanish professor had taught me the proper flamenco use of castanets. His cousin was a professional dancer back in Puerto Rico. I threw a hissy fit when Quintana admitted that she NEVER bothered to learn any of the musical instruments nor did she bother to learn FLAMENCO! HOW THE HELL do you spend years with a group whose life revolves around music and you’re not a musician. Her book reveals the lack of understanding of just what MUSIC does to a soul and to a culture. But that is the only rant I’ll let loose or I’ll lose my audience yet again.

So thats my backstory with Romani – that and we saw several dressed in full 19th century garb in Rome in 2003 and got pick pocketed on a subway by a gang. The Romani are an incredible people!

Cartomancy has a long history – some of it disputed. Some of it fascinating. Some of it forgotten. Two outstanding articles are freely available. Dusty White’s presentations on the history of cartomancy are also a must if you can wade through the audio.

https://robertmplacetarot.com/2015/10/25/a-history-of-oracle-cards/comment-page-1/

BUT I’ve never seen anything nor read ANYTHING like what I learned.

First you must purchase a brand new deck of 52 ordinary playing cards like you see in any supermarket or what they use in casinos.

Remove the four queens if you wish to speak to four women. Living or dead. But you must decide on four women you wish to query. You also must have known or know the women or men. You can’t ask questions of say the President of Romani or the actor or super model you fantasize about.

Remove the four kings if you want answers from men. Even if it’s only one man, you pick four. Again living or dead. Discard the Joker. ELIMINATE all distractions so put the kids and pets outside or avoid doing it at home at all. No radio, TV, or music or anything to take away from your focus for both the querent and the reader. Be great if we had one of those parlors where you close the heavy drapes and the door, right? Turn off cellphones and electronic devices that might suddenly beep. Unplug Siri and Alexa!

You cannot ask questions of the person holding the cards.

Choose the four women or four men wisely. If men, return the queens to the deck. If women, return the kings. Ask the querent to shuffle until he/she feels like they have shuffled enough. Have the querent hand the deck to the reader.

Here is what is so different than anything I’ve ever seen. INVITE, yes INVITE each lady or gentleman into the room as if they were contestants waiting in the wings on stage to be invited onto the stage or into the studio living room.

“WELCOME Martha, please come in. Thank you for coming. Have a seat! Good to see you!” Do this whether the person is alive or dead. You the reader are summoning the SPIRIT of the person. YES, the SPIRIT will be answering your questions and they have no choice in the matter. They must answer truthfully if they know the answer. Truly welcome each individual even if you do know who he/she is and would like to punch the person out. YOU the, reader, are to stay dispassionate.

You can ask, which of these ladies (or men), are the most jealous of my success? Or wishes me harm, the most? Or stole from me the most? Or care for me the most? Affairs of the heart are why most people seek out a tarot reader. That and careers I guess. So which one of these potential bosses wishes to hire me?

Which of these men, betrayed me the MOST. The MOST is the keyword. For all you know at the moment, each one betrayed the querent.

The reader only guides the querent to ask questions from the heart. Guide, not put words in the querent’s mouth.

And the READER cannot gasp, gulp, spook, or get emotional. I stink at that. I did gasp and I did shiver but it was my first try.

My first inclination was to ask questions of deities but you can’t do that. You must have known the dead person well and the living person well. I protested that I thought I knew Shri Ganesha quite well but no, you can’t ask questions of non-humans per se. As the querent, therefore, I had to think of four men or four women I wanted to question. I picked four men. Two living and two dead. The answers were uncanny. Ryan got answers that were also uncanny and the last one unnerved him.

It MIGHT be possible to ask which store should I visit or which slot machine will pay off but that experiment waits for another day.

With the question asked, you go left to right with the cards facing the reader. You pull a card from the top of the deck, try not to look at it and lay it like you do in Solitaire about a half inch down from the top edge facing up on top of the first queen or king. If the card you pull is the SAME suite as the queen or king, STOP the answer is this person.

Keep pulling and asking and going left to right. The higher the number, the stronger the answer. You might not get an answer at all. Stop and ask another one.

You’e not supposed to read for yourself but having a Sun sign in Gemini, a Rising Sign in Gemini, and Mercury in Gemini, I thought one of my twins could be the querent and the other the reader to generate an example using cards I never opened until today that I bought in a shop in Xian, China in 1987. Yeah, I know cool, right?

If you have EVER seen this method used to ask question of the living and/or the dead using cards, let me know. It is unique in my experiences.