Hands of Fate: The Art of Divination with Playing Cards

The book is an interesting take on playing card divination. His method is like the minor keys of tarot with a twist. It is very direct and I myself prefer the minor keys for divination and the major keys for meditation. The description of the court cards are the best I have seen, and I have read many tarot books. The 4 suits are referred to as elf arrows (spades), desires (hearts), trees (clubs), and coins (diamonds). Robin as gives a reading method called story telling that initiates your creative imagination, and it produces very accurate readings. Playing cards are the best way to conceal your divination art when you are out in the public. The book is short and sweet. If you have a hard time remembering the meanings of each card, just buy some cheap bicycle cards and use a permeant marker to write one word each on them. Thanks Robin for sharing your knowledge. You have opened up a new path for me using playing cards.

Very informative and easy to follow. What took Mr. Artisson years to compile is a blessing to us. This is the best book I've ever read on the subject of learning how to read playing cards. Thank you for your helpful insight.

I looked at over a dozen different playing cards systems, older and modern, but knew there was one out there that better fit my style of reading. This book presents a “cunning method” to reading the cards, meaning that the standard layout of the cards are given visual correlations to backup the meanings applied to them. The way that the court cards are treated here is what fully caused the stamp of approval from me. Depending on the method you choose to read the cards, the court cards can be read as actual people, or energies applied to the cards like the other cards in the deck. This was the most important factor to me. That is information that can’t be known from the synopsis of the book, but something told me this was the one so I purchased it (thank you spirit). It has become the most essential book purchase of my card journey and totally replaced tarot (both illustrated and pips decks with numerology). It presents a very spirit-centered approach. The ONLY THING MISSING is that it is not available as an ebook!!! It’d be nice to also own the book in digital form. Tons of spirit-thanks to Robin for releasing this short and to-the-point layout of methods for using playing cards as a tool for divination.

A very straightforward a nd simple, but extremely effective method of divination using regular playing cards. I love this book! And I would recommend it to anyone with these arcane interests.

Not long- to the point.. I had issues with some of the elemental correspondences, but overall not a bad reference.

I am totally put off by how much darkness there is in this short book. With very dark rituals described as required before reading the cards, and more than half of the cards being given extremely negative meanings, the specificity and absurdity of the method make it both inaccessible and unappealing.It is creative, but insane.

Great book, i really like his method of using the cards to tell fayrie tails. Short book and straight to the point, he doesnt waste a lot of book space preaching theories and regurgitating the same magical ideology a lot of authors feel so inclined to remind you of in every work. Summary, great book on a practical and discreet system of divination. Well worth the money. Ill be looking into more of his works in the future.

This tome is concise and useful. The seasoned cartomancer or the neophyte will find worthwhile and invaluable information into divination with playing cards.

From all the systems of playing cards divination I have stumbled upon so far, this one seems to be the one I was looking for. Nevertheless I can imagine it's not for every taste. If you are looking for an introduction to cartomancy, there is at least one very good system available online for free. Find it, try it. On the other hand in case you are looking for more than a list of card meanings, if you are looking for a system which would give you a narrative instead of a list of words to memorize, then this book could be the one you are looking for. Get it.

One thing that got me thinking about not purchasing this book at first was a review written before regarding cemetery dirt or something like that, but I got over it and got the book. Well, the cemetery thing is a part of 4 examples the writer gives out regarding where one gets the energy/focus to read the cards (the cemetery ties with our ancestors), just like another example he gives is a familiar. Apart from that, I really like the way the author approaches the 4 suits in cartomancy, makes for an easy way to read the cards (like a story) and so far my brain clicked with these "instructions". very glad I followed my gut and got this book.

A brilliant piece, I enjoyed it immensely.

I have been interested in traditional playing card divination and cartomancy in general for a long while now. There are not many books on the subject, and half of what are available are total nonsense. This book however, is brilliant; it's meanings arise from old card interpretations and the techniques described for divination are old-school as well. This is why it is such a good book, as cartomancy is old fashioned you need to learn the old meanings, interpretations and layouts. Simply copying meanings and spreads from the minor arcana in tarot will get you no where. I highly recommend this book for folk wishing to move into playing card cartomancy, as it is one of the very best I've read, and by now I've read most of them!

This is an excellent little chap book of sorcerous divination i have just received my copy today and yes it is a small volume but it is absolutely packed with very useful information on divination and sorcery with playing cards I cannot recommend this enough it has opened up a whole new area of study for me absolutely love it