What is Fortune Telling?
Fortune telling is the practice of depicting a person’s future. Typically this involves the use a divination tool for this purpose, such as Tarot cards, crystal ball, astrology chart or I Ching. A person who sees into the future may be called a fortune teller, psychic, clairvoyant, crystal-gazer, seer, soothsayer and prophet. Similar abilities come under the label visionary, oracle and augur.
History of Traditional Fortune Telling
FORTUNE TELLING has fascinated people throughout the world, from the earliest times in history. Palmistry, dream interpretation, astrology, omens and the many other forms of divination, were taken very seriously by our ancestors. Evidence indicates that various forms of fortune-telling were practiced in ancient China, Egypt and Babylonia as far back as 6000 years ago.
The soothsayer wielded an important influence over the courts of Kings and empires, even as late as the Middle Ages. Between the 14th and 16th centuries, there was hardly a monarch who did not have his court astrologer to guide him in problems of state.
A fortune teller is a person who predicts the future. The term fortune telling is particularly associated with the Romany people, or gypsies, who have a special word for it – dukkerin.
Traditionally, gypsies or traveling people practice tea leaf reading (called tasseography or tasseomancy), crystal ball reading and cartomancy (card reading, such as Tarot card reading).
Methods of Fortune Telling
What are the types of fortune telling? There are many different methods fortune tellers use to divine the future, including:
- Tarot cards
- Astrology: star, rising and moon signs
- Clairvoyance, clairsentience, clairaudience and claircognizance
- I-Ching: throwing sticks, coins or bones to receive a message
- Oneiromancy: dream interpretation
- Palmistry: reading the lines and mounds of the hand
- Graphology: study of handwriting
- Scrying: using reflective objects like crystals balls or mirrors to see the future
- Necromancy or mediumship: invoking souls of the dead
- Numerology: patterns and meanings in numbers
- Physiognomy: study of facial characteristics
- Phrenology: study of contours on the skull
- Remote viewing: Mind travel to the future
- Oracle cards: modern method
What Is The Best Way To Tell Fortunes?
There is no one correct way of divining the future, Tarot cards for example are not necessarily more accurate than astrology. What is important is that they are both tools which allow the reader to tap into their unconscious and pick up ‘messages’ from cosmic energy fields. Readers usually find they are naturally attracted to one type of divination tool over another.
The desire to know our own fortune is as old as time.
Humans have always been fascinated by what is in store for them. When most people ask for a reading, what they really mean is they want to know what is in store for them. But the Tarot cards offer so much more than simple traditional fortune telling. They can offer insight into a situation which is currently, or may soon affect your life.
They can reveal hidden agendas, how other people view the situation and what is the likely outcome given a specific action. Not only that, but they can tell you what your life’s purpose is and what karmic lesson you need to resolve in this life.
When you think about it, isn’t that just as exciting?
How Do You Use Tarot For Fortune Telling?
It is widely recognized by occultists and diviners that Tarot cards always give an accurate response to questions about the future. When a question regarding either the past, present or future is asked the reader will choose a specific Tarot spread to determine the response.
They will set out a series of cards in the spread’s formal pattern and then study the results. Some readers study the cards based on their face value and images, whereas others will use psychic powers to read at a deeper level (see psychic reading). It is not really clear how an experienced Tarot reader can see into the future.
Personally I think it is because the future already exists and that the cards allow me to tap into a stream of consciousness, called the Akashic Records, that I otherwise could not access. The presence of the cards and a level of psychic awareness lift me into a higher stream of consciousness.
The Tarot pack is like a machine that has been put into the hands of ordinary men and women which allows them to briefly escape into a spiritual world where the past and future are gathered.
See also:
How to read Tarot cards: In 6 easy steps.
What is the best Tarot deck for beginners?
Free Fortune Telling Card Reading
Here is an example of a fortune telling reading.
Ask a question, and pick a card!
Then, scroll down for your message.
Your Reading
Ace of Clubs
Expect good news in relation to finances. Depending on your situation, this can relate to property, work or a sudden little windfall.
10 of Hearts
Happiness and success in your ambitions. Success comes in an area you have put work into, particularly great news if you’ve experienced delays.
9 of Diamonds
Depending on your situation, expect either a change in residence or unexpected travel.
Ace of Diamonds
Traditionally the Ace of Diamonds represents engagement or marriage. But nowadays it can also mean moving in together or the deepening of a relationship. If you’re single, then meeting someone who is marriage material.
8 of Spades
News of a journey across water. You or someone you know will be taking a trip. This trip will open your eyes to new information.
2 of Spades
If you have been asking, ‘can I trust this person’, the message is no. Stay alert.
If this message doesn’t apply to you at the moment, it will do in the coming days.
8 of Hearts
There is a possibility of friendship turning into love. For some this will be great news, but for others (who are already in a relationship), be careful not to give someone the wrong impression!
4 of Hearts
Travel or change of location is possible with this card. At the very least it means you have cause to get out more in the coming months.
Synonyms for fortune telling include: precognition, ESP, telling the future, foresight, extrasensory perception and prophecy.
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