In previous articles ("Forces and signs of fate. Prophets, politicians and commanders" and "On scenarios of the end of the world, false prophecies and the benefits of sanity") we have already given five, I hope, very useful, advice to future prophets and seers. We will soon continue our work on educating them, but in this article we will also talk a little about the "amateurs".
Do it yourself
The services of professional astrologers, fortune-tellers and magicians have always been expensive, moreover, in this area, with a high degree of probability, one could run into not a “graduate”, but a charlatan who only pretends to be a “learned husband”. But even if there was both money and a desire to turn to some seer, this was not always possible: for example, on a campaign or during a sea expedition. Therefore, various objects and artifacts appeared and became widespread, using which a person could independently make a "request" on any issue of interest to him. These included, for example, beans, which soon replaced the familiar bones (granules) and runes carved on bone sticks or pebbles.
Let us recall "The Lay of Igor's Campaign":
"On the seventh round of Troyan, Vseslav draw lots …"
I like the arrangement by N. Zabolotsky:
“This was the seventh century of the Trojans.
The mighty prince of Polotsk Vseslav
He threw lots, looking into the future …"
Vseslav "threw", most likely, it was the bones.
For all the seeming simplicity of this method of fortune telling, there were pitfalls. First of all, it was necessary to be able to correctly ask a question: the answer to it had to be unambiguous: either "yes" or "no". And so it was pointless to try to ask beans or bones: "Who is to blame?" and "What to do?"
Working with runes is more difficult. First, let's define what it is. Initially, the word meant "all knowledge", later it began to be used in the meaning of "writing", "letter".
In the translation of the Bible into the Gothic language (Ulfila, IV century), the word rune is found in the meaning of mystery and secret meeting. In the ancient Germanic language the verb runen meant "to speak secretly", and in the Anglo-Saxon language the word run (rune) was used in two meanings - "letter" and "secret".
In magic, as a rule, the so-called senior runes were used (futark - after the name of the first six runes). There were 24 of them in total - a series of signs, divided into three "families": Freya, Hagel and Tyr. Each rune had its own name and internal magical meaning. Later, the futark was modified into junior runes (Scandinavian - Danish and Swedish-Norwegian variants), of which there are only 16. On the basis of the Scandinavian, Germanic and Anglo-Saxon ones were created.
According to the "Elder Edda", in order to gain the knowledge of the runes, Odin sacrificed himself to himself, hung on a tree pierced by a spear for 9 nights, and one of his names has since become "Father of the Hanged".
The runes obtained in this way Odin inscribed on the shield that stood in front of him, on the teeth of his horse Sleipnir and the tracks of the sleigh, on the paws of a bear and the claws of a wolf, on the beak of an eagle and its wings, in the language of the god of poetry Braga, on the hand of the liberator and on the traces of a doctor and etc. Then these runes were scraped off, immersed in sacred honey and sent to different regions.
The oldest known runic inscription is considered to be an inscription on a spearhead from Evre Stabu (Norway) - about 200 g, but Tacitus notes the use of runes already in the 1st century. n. NS.
By the way, note that some Scandinavian female names end in "runes": Gudrun, Oddrun. This ending means that this woman can keep the secret entrusted to her - the Normans considered this quality of their wives and daughters to be very valuable (and in this, many will probably agree with them).
Each of the runes has its own meaning, in addition, the meaning of the symbol changes depending on the position - (direct or inverted).
An ancient Icelandic inscription explains the meaning of some runes in this way.
f (fehu) - wealth, good property:
Fe is the hate of a friend, River fire
And the snake trail"
(One after the other, three kenings, meaning gold.)
u (uruR) - light rain or scrap iron:
Ur is the cry of the clouds, And ice powerlessness
And the hatred of the shepherd."
th (thurisaR) - tours, giant:
“Tours is women longing, The abode of the mountain peaks, And the husband of the rune milestone."
Already without any fortune-telling seems difficult, isn't it? But still we will continue.
The simplest way of such fortune telling is one rune at a time: he had to give an answer like "yes" - "no" to a short and clearly formulated question. Much more complicated - according to three runes, the first of which described the situation at the present time, the second - indicated the direction of development of this or that event, the third - answered the question of how everything will end and "on what will the heart rest." In the first case, fortune-telling was limited to one attempt, in the second, the answer could generate additional questions, and then the already dropped pebbles or sticks with runes were again placed in the bag, a new question was asked and the fortune-telling continued. Here, of course, it was already required to be a true connoisseur of runes.
With the spread of Christianity, fortune telling in the Bible became popular: after praying, they opened it at random and read a line that was supposed to be the answer to the question asked. It was this way that Saint Francis chose to find out the fate of (his and his two companions).
Coffee grounds
In 1615, coffee was brought to Europe through Venice, which soon replaced another overseas drink - cocoa (chocolate). The next step was taken in 1683, when the Turkish army retreating from Vienna left many sacks of coffee in their camp: the fact is that one of the reasons for the defeat was officially declared "excessive consumption of the drink of the shaitan", and coffee in the Ottoman Empire for some time was even banned. And the crowns then "tasted" coffee.
But the path of this drink in Europe was still thorny, because the Church opposed its use, the hierarchs of which called coffee "the black blood of Muslims", which had a detrimental effect on Christian souls. The Capuchin monks found a way out: in order to purify the "sinful drink", they began to add milk to coffee - this is how "cappuccino" appeared.
And people who didn't like the taste of coffee scornfully called it "Turkish soup", "soot syrup" and "decoction from old boots."
Some doctors assured that the use of the newfangled drink is extremely harmful to health, however, they also doubted the benefits of tea.
At the end of the 18th century, the Swedish king Gustav III conducted an interesting medical experiment.
By his order, the twin brothers, sentenced to death, were commuted to life imprisonment on the condition that one of them would drink a large amount of tea every day, the other - no less amount of coffee. First, two professors died, who monitored the health of the participants in this experiment, then the king (March 29, 1792), and only then, at the age of 83, the first of the experimental died. What do you think he drank - tea or coffee? The correct answer is tea.
In general, as the unforgettable Kozma Prutkov said, “the wise Voltaire doubted the toxicity of coffee”.
In 1672, the first coffee shop was opened in Paris. And London cafes in the 17th century were called "penny universities", because sitting in them you could learn a lot of new and interesting things while talking.
And after such pleasant and informative conversations, it turned out that at the bottom of the cup with ground coffee there is a sediment, sometimes taking very bizarre forms. People with a rich imagination could see in it the faces of people, and the figures of animals, and astrological symbols - whatever. Italians were the first to think of fortune-telling on coffee grounds in the 18th century, then a fad swept across Europe. The trouble was that not every person possesses a developed imagination that makes it possible to see an "amphora" or "constellation Bootes" at the bottom of the cup. And there and then there were enterprising people ready to do it for them - for the appropriate payment, of course. It was suggested to slowly drink a cup of freshly brewed coffee, thinking about what worries most, and then, taking the cup in your left hand, make three circular movements clockwise and turn it over, placing it on the saucer - so that one edge of it is at the bottom, the other - on the edge.
The method was, in general, not new, because before they tried to do similar things with molten wax or tin. But the process itself was more pleasant and sophisticated.
Legend claims that some gypsy, guessing by the coffee grounds, predicted the date of his death to Paul I, but personally I am skeptical about this story.
Another legend says that Charlotte Kirchhoff predicted to young A. S. Pushkin's service, receiving money and two exile, and in 1837 advised to beware of the "white head, white horse and white man." But, at the same time, it is known that Pushkin was not in the least afraid of quarrels with Dantes, who was blond, and was not afraid of him. So, it is quite possible that this legend arose after the death of the poet.
And then cards appeared, fortune-telling on them pushed into the second and even the third plan all the other methods available to "amateurs". But professional fortune-tellers and fortune-tellers also appeared on the cards almost immediately, especially the gypsy women who were previously guessing, mostly by the palm of their hand, were especially delighted at their appearance.
It is curious that gypsies, as a rule, do not use the tarot deck, but the most ordinary playing cards.
Whether or not to take the cards in hand …
Many myths are associated with the Tarot deck, suffice it to say that some "researchers" found their traces in Ancient Egypt, whose priests allegedly encrypted secret knowledge in the symbols of the Major Arcana cards.
Supporters of another version claim that the Tarot cards originate from 22 letters and 10 Sephiroth of Kabbalah and appeared around the 3rd-4th centuries. BC.
Still others are trying to prove the connection between the Tarot deck and the Vedas.
In fact, for the first time a game similar to modern card games appeared in China in 1120, when a certain court officer (his name was not preserved by history) came up with the idea to put on 32 plates four groups of symbols dedicated to heaven, earth, man and the laws of harmony … Soon this game came to India, the Arabs borrowed it from the Indians. And the first Europeans who got acquainted with the maps were the inhabitants of Spain - they learned about them from the Moors no later than the XIV century. And already in the second half of the XIV century, the Italian artist Nicolo Caveluzzo wrote about the card game "Naib", brought "from the land of the Saracens."
The first documentary mention of maps in Europe is associated with an attempt to ban them: it was in Bern - in 1367.
Beginning in 1377, all over Europe, playing cards began to be equated with other gambling, prohibited in monasteries and condemned as sinful. In Bologna, at the request of the Franciscan preacher Bernardino of Siena, all the decks of cards were burned in 1423. On February 7, 1497, cards, among other "vain" objects, were burned in Florence on the orders of another monk, the Dominican Girolamo Savonarola.
All of this was reminiscent of the notorious "fight with the mills," and the prohibitions only fueled interest in the new fun. The example was set by those in power, who were not going to deny themselves entertainment for the sake of the “holy fathers” and fanatical monks.
In 1392 Jacquemien Gringonier drew three decks of cards for the French king Charles VI - some of these cards have survived and are now considered the oldest in the world.
Some educators have tried to use maps to teach pupils and students. For example, Thomas Merner, a bachelor of the Krakow Theological Faculty, suggested using them to teach logic - dividing its main provisions by color (composition "Chartiludium logicae", 1507).
At the beginning of the 15th century, the first symbolic cards appeared in Milan and Ferrara - the predecessors of the Tarot. The oldest surviving deck is the Visconti Sforza deck, commissioned by Bonifacio Bembo in 1428 on the occasion of Bianca Maria Visconti's wedding to Francesco Sforza. These maps did not yet have numbers, letters of the Hebrew alphabet, astronomical symbols, or even familiar names.
The name "Taro" comes from the Italian word tarocchi (trump card). It appeared about 100 years later than the cards themselves and meant not only a deck of cards, but also a game similar to the modern bridge, which was called "tarokki" in Italy, "tarok" in Germany, and "tarO" in France. The cards of this deck are called "lasso" - from the Latin word "secret" - in alchemy and in homeopathy, this was the name of the constituent substances, the ingredients of which were kept secret. There are 78 cards in total: 56 numerical and court cards of four suits (they are called the Minor Arcana and practically do not differ from ordinary playing cards) and 22 symbolic cards - the Major Arcana, which play the role of "trump cards". The older ones are divided into three series of 7 cards: the first corresponds to the intellectual sphere of human life, the second to the moral sphere, and the third to material life. Their modern names appeared in the manuscript "Sermones de Ludo cum Alis" - in 1500.
In the 16th century, poets began to use symbolic cards to describe in verse the character traits of their patron or lady of the heart - this genre was called tarocchi appropriati.
The expressions of their faces do not change, noble kings lie
And finally, in 1540, Francesco Marcolino da Forli, in the book "Fortune-telling" ("Le Sorti"), first proposed to find out fate with the help of cards, and two methods were indicated: a more complex one, using the Tarot deck, and a simpler one, using regular cards.
And in 1589, Tarot cards first appeared in the case of witchcraft, which was tried in Venice.
In 1612, the author of the anonymous treatise "The Glory and Confessions of the Rosicrucians" gave new descriptions of divination using the Tarot deck - "to receive advice and information about the past, present and future."
However, the Tarot cards gained real popularity after the publication in France of the books of Zhebelin and Mellet dedicated to them (both were aristocrats - they had the title of count). It happened in 1781. Fortune-telling on Tarot cards has become a "visiting card" and the famous Alessandro Cagliostro (Giuseppe Balsamo).
Later appeared the semantic dictionary of the Tarot Etteila, "Predictive Tarot" and "Gypsy Tarot" by Papus. In addition to the traditional version of the Tarot deck, many "alternative" ones were created: the Marseilles Tarot (card numbering appeared in it), Egyptian, Ryder-Waite and even Salvador Dali's deck.
But what "recommendation to clients" I read on one site: "You need to believe in what you predicted, otherwise it will not come true" (!).
I will not comment: I already wrote about this in a previous article: On scenarios of the end of the world, false prophecies and the benefits of sanity): chapter "Life is bad without a sucker."
Take off your mask
Interestingly, many of the drawings of the classic tarot deck have "prototypes". For example, the image on the card "The Hanged Man" ("Traitor") was copied from an Italian caricature of the 14th century: on it, suspended by one leg, was depicted the Condottiere Muzio Attendolo, better known by the nickname Sforza - "Strong" (it became a family). Hired by Pope John XXIII for the war with Naples, he went over to the side of the enemy. On the cartoon, by order of the Pope, it was written: "I am Sforza, a dork from Cotignola."
In the life of Muzio Attendolo there was also an episode associated with fortune-telling. At the age of 15, pondering whether he should join the detachment of the Condottiere Boldrino da Penicale, he decided to throw an ax: if he sticks into a tree, he will become a soldier, no, he will stay at home. The ax, as you probably guessed, did not fall to the ground after this throw.
The son of this condottiere married the illegitimate daughter of the Duke of Milan, Bianca Maria Visconti, and became the founder of a new dynasty of rulers of this city.
He, ironically, was the customer of the famous Visconti-Sforza Tarot deck, among which there was a card with a caricature of his father, which, otherwise, might have been forgotten forever.
No less interesting is the card "Papessa" (Major Arcanum II): the card of the classic tarot deck depicts a woman in a monastic cassock, in a crown, with a cross and a book in her hands. This drawing echoes numerous rumors about Pope John - she was told about in an article by Pope John. The biggest secret of the Vatican (Ryzhov V. A.).
In the picture of the "Justice" card, we see the traditional image of the ancient Greek goddess Themis.
The Power card usually depicted Hercules or Samson (in this case, there is a broken column next to him).
On the map "Hermit" (sometimes - "Time") you can recognize the god Kronos.
The card "Jester" ("Fool") is currently equal in value to 56 cards of the Minor Arcana and symbolizes the human soul. The drawing on it resembles the depiction of the vice of Folly in Giotto's fresco.
By the way, outwardly similar to the "Jester" Tarot "Joker" in a regular deck appeared in the United States around 1857 and was originally called "Best Trump Jack", then - "Imperial Jack" (Imperial Bower). It was used as the most senior trump card in the popular game “eukker” in those years, and in poker it became the so-called “wild card”.
The joker has nothing to do with Tarot cards, it was supplied with a similar pattern later.
Recall once again that both the usual deck of cards and the Tarot deck were created for entertainment (play), the function of a prediction tool appeared later and does not have any mystical foundation.
A kind of fortune-telling on cards are all kinds of solitaire games (from the French word "patience" - "patience"). According to one version, the first solitaire was invented by the French mathematician Pelisson for Louis XIV. According to another, for the first time, the Bastille prisoners began to lay out the cards out of boredom. Already in 1826, the book "Collection of card layouts, known as Grand Solitaire" was published in Russia.
In the book of the Englishwoman Adelaide Cadogan "Illustrated games - solitaire" a description of 25 solitaire was given. All in all, there are currently 225 of their varieties, and the most popular solitaire is probably the notorious "Klondike", which can be played on any computer.
But cards, nevertheless, can be used to predict the future - if you follow the example of Napoleon Bonaparte, who often sat down to play with his generals on the eve of the battle, and, according to the manner of their play, made conclusions about the psychological state of partners. Those who were inclined to take risks, making high stakes, were sent on the offensive, those who were cautious - to defend themselves or to reserve.
Napoleon had another story related precisely to fortune-telling on cards. The notorious Maria-Anna-Adelaide Lenormand allegedly predicted a quick marriage for him, a brilliant career and setbacks that would haunt him in the event of a divorce. Here, however, there are two versions of Lenormand's divination method: some argue that she read Napoleon on Tarot cards, others - that on the coffee grounds. There is no documentary evidence of this legend, but, in any case, it is hardly possible to recognize this prediction as "brilliant". After the divorce from Josephine (December 16, 1809), Napoleon bathed in the rays of glory for three more years and entered into an extremely profitable and prestigious marriage with the princess of the imperial house of the Habsburgs.
And the defeat in the next war against the whole of Europe (if not in a year, then in five or ten years) and the betrayal of his comrades-in-arms, tired of his endless adventures, could have been predicted by many other, more serious people. Provided that one day he would have a desire to listen to them.
