Russian Gypsy Fortune Telling Cards
Today I discovered this quirky little deck.
This deck is based on a set created for Svetlana Alexandrovna Touchkoff by her mother who was taught this art by an 80-year-old Russian woman after WWII.
These are highly unusual cards in that each square picture has been split in half with the halves scattered among the set – only 25 cards in all. This means each card has four different half-scenes. In readings, the cards are laid down in 5 rows of 5 cards, and the reader looks for ways to rotate cards next to each other to make matching halves. Completed objects are then interpreted according to their orientation: up, down, facing left or facing right.
Excerpt from the book:
“Fortune telling was once an integral part of people’s lives in Russia, especially before 1917. During the week they told fortunes, while on Sundays they went to church and prayed. Everyone in the house participated. One person would do the reading, while the rest of the family or friends would sit around the table, listen, and make contributions. This was a time before table games or encounter sessions were developed. People wanted to have their fortunes told because it was a time they could concentrate on themselves, talk about their feelings or frustrations, and formulate strategies for the future. It was generally a happy time with everyone participating. The people believed in the predictions, yet they were not controlled by them. An individual’s free will or God’s intercession could turn any situation around. This open attitude by the Russian people toward fortune telling and the psychic world has remained to this day.”
~ Svetlana Alexandrovna Touchkoff
Introduction from Russian Gypsy Fortune Telling Cards
Janis
I would like to know what my financial situation is going to be like for the rest of the year. Will I win the lottery and can you predict how much this will be?
Tamara Demetro
I am of the Rromani Karldarash (Russian) Rromani tribes.
These are replicas of Rromani card origin. Not just Russian but
Russian Rromani (authentic Gypsy). They were not created at the
time of the late eighteen hundreds or nineteen hundreds they were
just shared by the Rromani woman with a non Rromani woman out of
friendship and trust. Their are many various tribes of Rroma and
many various oracles as a result but they have elements within all
that unite them. They do not tell you your future they help you
with wisdom about the future that was and is already being created
from within and around you. They offer a channel to the higher
power within each universal, so that you can hone your instinctual
awareness to align your mind with your divine. The reason people
know it is there reading is that is speaks to you in a way that you
know it is only picking up the voice of the higher wisdom and warns
against listening to our lower negative whisperings wishing to
deceive and harm us. Like the story of the angel on one shoulder
and the Devil on the other. In essence it comes from the “good
guys” within each of us, above, below, within and all around. There
is much history unprecedented not yet revealed to most in regards
to the stereo types, persecution and a 1000 year misunderstanding
about the real Rromani and the spiritual traditional culture still
lived and practiced till today by many Rromani world wide. The
medicine cards, fortune telling cards(spiritual,physical fortune)
are a true blessing and a wonderful complimentary healing art, to
many of the east meets west alternative ancient healing arts now
found in our Western world. As Ms Wakame said I have witnessed all
of my life since the age of eight years old as I am a tribal member
and traditional “Dobodni” oracle reader of the Rroma myself.
Blessings to this good medicine and to the people it helps bring
spiritual awareness, enlightenment and instinctual atonement to;
good fortune to you all<3
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Wow Tamara, I deeply appreciate the time you took to comment and to share this information. These cards have been acutely enlightening and have taught me a lot. No matter how light or heavy I travel I go EVERYWHERE with them.
nathan
Interesting…the time period just before television but after the turn of the 1900s, when much of middle America was as poor and life was as hard as Eastern Europe would have been is so fascinating. The things people did as hobbies, the way that you would spend your time when you had nothing to actually spend but time…traveling freak shows and old school baseball and whatnot.
Ms. Wakame
It’s interesting how Touchkoff talks about her personal experiences with the cards in the introduction:
If anyone is interested in reading more, I got this off the excerpt from the Look Inside feature on Amazon.