Madame Endora’s Fortune Cards

Madame Endora’s Fortune Cards

It was some years ago when I first began to hear of Madame Endora’s Fortune Cards, and how they were “really good”, accurate and powerful. Alas, my studies prevented me from exploring them for some time.

When finally I was able to include Madame Endora’s Fortune Cards in my research, I was at once struck by the fact that there was a ploy to distract the uninitiated. There’s a bit of a sentence at the bottom of each card, that ‘appears’ to be the ‘meaning’ of each card. However, that sentence as a complete ‘meaning’ is a dodge, a ruse. It is incomplete, and perhaps appears shallow. The short blurbs may be used for one card insights, but learning to read well with Endora’s requires just a bit more consideration.

The booklet with the deck is lovely, albeit quite terse. So allow me to elucidate briefly.

The cards themselves are divided up into 8 Royal Courts (those who you might expect to find in your castle), 10 cards from the Realm of Fable (beings from Egyptian, Celtic, & Greek mythos), 10 Bestiary cards (creatures of legend), 12 Treasury cards (items of power), and 8 cards representing The Elements.

Listen three times…

Each of these 40 cards can be understood in three ways.

Each card is:

A Person (or Agent)

A Circumstance (or an Event).

An (Outside) Influence.

How a card is ‘decoded’ depends on the neighboring cards and the question posed.

Whenever one wonders about what the card ‘means’, simply look at it and ask yourself, “What is its form, and what is its function?”

For example, a Dragon is a monstrous beast. What is its function? It gathers, hoards, and protects treasure. A Gate is part of a fence that may, or may not allow ingress and/or egress. That’s it! It’s that simple. Each of the cards contains these qualities.

Now allow me to share with you a spread that shall grant you the facility to reveal what lies in store for your sitters.

The Repository of Power

Have the sitter voice their question. If they have more than one, distill those questions to one. Do not allow them to voice details or back-story, just the question.

Go through the deck and find the One Card that illustrates their condensed question best. Remove it and place it in the center of the table. This card is called the Significator. It should represent the question, not the querent (as significators are often used).

Shuffle the remaining 39 cards.

Spread them in a ribbon. Have the sitter remove three and place them (face down) above the Significator. Then remove two, and place on both sides of the significator. Finally, three more below.

You now have a square of 9 cards. Only the Significator is face up in the center.

You shall turn the cards face up, revealing them as you read the columns in the following manner.

The left-hand column embodies the past.

The center-column represents the present.

The right-hand column expresses the future.

Remembering that each card contains the qualities of Person/Event/Influence, try to create an oracular sentence with each set of three.

When considering the rows (horizontals), the top row represents “Things that you cannot control”. This may also be things you worry about. (Some refer to this line as the “Line of Thought”). Once again, remembering that each card contains the potentials of Agent/Circumstance/Influence, try to create an oracular sentence with this set of three.

The center row represents the most likely path of the current situation. Again, create your oracular sentence.

The bottom row is advising us of things that we have control over, things we may turn into action.

The diagonal from upper-left to lower-right may be read as your line of authority, or power.

The diagonal from upper-right to lower-left may be read as your line of defense.

This deck, compounded with the Repository of Power will enable you to read accurately for any stranger who may enter your tent seeking assistance.

But remember, assistance of the oracular nature must be paid in kind.