Cartomancy

Play virtual fortune telling and find out about your self, loved ones, your children.
	Runes
	Runes are ancient Oracles that have been inactive for more than 400 years. They were last in current use during the late Middle Ages. The first glyphs or alphabet were called runes, from the Gothic runa, meaning "a secret thing, a mystery". From the very beginning, the Runes took on a ritual function, serving for the casting of lots, for divination and to evoke higher powers. Runes were carved on amulets, drinking cups, battle spears, and onto the prows of Viking ships, particularly those of healing and magickal qualities. Runes were also used for protection while traveling, or protection while in battle. Ancients used runes for many purposes. Play now
	Tarot
	The earliest names for the tarot are all Italian. Originally the cards were called carte da trionfi (cards of the triumphs). Around 1530 (about 100 years after the origin of the cards), the word tarocchi (singular tarocco) begins to be used to distinguish them from a new game of triumphs or trumps then being played with ordinary playing cards. The etymology of this new word is not known. The German form is tarock, the French form is tarot. Even if the etymology were known, it would probably not tell us much about the idea behind the cards, since it only came into use 100 years after they first appeared. Play now
The tarot symbols The symbolism of the trumps is drawn from the culture of Medieval and Renaissance Europe, rather than from exotic locales such as Egypt or India. Most tarot subjects are distinctive to European Christendom. Illustrations virtually identical to each of the tarot subjects can be found in European art, and such precise analogs are not found in other cultures.
	Cartomancy
	Cartomancy is the act of divining using cards. Divining means to find out by inspiration, intuition or magic; to foresee. Divination is most often practiced as a means of foretelling the future, however, many people who practice divination using cards or other tools find it a helpful tool for exploring the present and the past as well. Play now
The history is cartomancy is shrouded in mystery. We do know that playing cards have been around at least 600 years and it is believed that paper cards originate in China since they developed the first known paper currency which resembled playing cards. It is believed that the tradition of playing cards traveled from Western Asia to Egypt, then to North Africa. From there, they finally surfaced in Europe. One theory of the history states that the Arabs and Moors introduced the cards to the Spaniards in 1379. In Spain, people called the cards naibi, which means "to foretell." Whether they originated as tools for playing games or for divination purposes cannot be sure, however, cards were definitely being used for predictive purposes by the sixteenth century. By the eighteenth century, cartomancers - as fortune tellers were frequently called - were all the rage. The Emperor Napoleon is said to have consulted the cards on a regular basis.
	(I Ching) The Book of Changes
	In the Zhou Dynasty, the Yi jing was used for foretelling the future. It was an oracle used to analyze situations and to decide the proper course of action. The Yi jing contained 64 hexagrams (see below) which each represented a certain stage in the cycle of the universe. More importantly, the Yi jing contained the concept of the universe moving in cycles. There were only 64 hexagrams, 64 states of being for the universe, and it was constantly moving through the 64, starting again at the beginning when it reached the end. The name "Classic of Changes" also stems from this, since the universe is always in a state of change. Play now
These cycles would become a dominant theme in Chinese culture. The Chinese would apply the idea of cycles to their concepts of time, life, and people. The rule of dynasties moved in cycles, from the mythically good first ruler to the degenerate last ruler of each dynasty. Life was a cycle, moving upwards from birth to a peak and then declining into death. This also led to the awareness that everything in the universe is related. If there are only 64 states of being, then these states must be shared by each thing in the cosmos, and as a result, all things are related to each other. Here we start to see the holistic properties of "Eastern" thinking.