‘Not just a party trick’: The true magic of card reading, according to a Filipino cartomancer

'Every day is a fight for cartomancy to be taken seriously,' Reina Regina of Four Wands Tarot Shop says

Being a frequent church-goer, Reina Regina, a 29-year-old registered nurse who currently runs a shop for cartomancy decks, is no stranger to asking for signs. But it was only when started doing tarot reading that she got clear answers to her queries. 

“I would talk to God and ask Him to send me signs. But you have to interpret those signs, you know? And there’s always a chance you won’t see them or you’ll get them wrong,” she told Rappler in an email interview. 

“But when I started reading tarot, conversations got easier. The answers became much clearer. Now I got specific messages like: ‘This will succeed. This is dangerous. Stop that. Focus on this. Let go of that. Yes. No. Go for it.’” 

It was in 2016, when she was “getting disillusioned working in hospital administration,” when a friend gave Reina her first tarot reading. That time, the reading said that she would be moving to a more creative line of work “soon.” 

Fast forward to 2017, and she came to realize how her reading from a year ago had come true: she had resigned from her hospital work, started her freelance writing career, and got her first tarot deck. 

What is cartomancy?

From reading tarot, Reina also taught herself Lenormand and learned fortune-telling from her friends. She would read books related to cartomancy and stuck Post-it notes of her interpretation of cards for easier memorization. 

For her, though, attending a class or earning a certification doesn’t necessarily make one a good cartomancy creator.

“It’s more important to live the lessons the cards are teaching you, and to recognize their themes in everyday life,” Reina said. 

Tarot may sound familiar to many – which is why there’s a common misconception that doing tarot is the catch-all term for any and all kinds of readings with cards. However, tarot is simply one kind of card-reading practice under a larger umbrella.

Reina explained that the correct catch-all term would be cartomancy, or “divination using cards.” The term originates from carte, which means “cards,” and mancie, which means “to see.” 

Systems that fall under cartomancy include:

• TAROT: the most popular system. It’s typically made up of 78 cards reflecting the entirety of the human experience, arranged in the iconic structure of the Major and Minor Arcana. Since the tarot carries a lot of symbolism and heavy themes, it’s best for open-ended questions that begin with how, why, or guidance for. 
• LENORMAND: a 36-card cartomancy system. It’s suitable for practical, straightforward questions that begin with who, what, where, and when. The answers are read in groups of three, five, nine, or all 36 – which is called a Grand Tableau. 
• PLAYING CARDS: a system used also to read fortunes. There are many ways to do this, such as: 1) the archetypal method, where the playing cards predict your future using story characters, or 2) the Romani method, or where you make a wish and the cards tell you whether or not that wish will come true. 
• ORACLE CARDS: comes in all shapes and sizes. Oracle decks can be centered around deities, angels, affirmations, advice cards, virtues, and more. 

Reina also emphasized how necessary it is for practicing cartomancy creators to have an understanding of what makes each system unique. 

The Filipino cartomancy community

While interest in tarot – and cartomancy, in general – has been revived recently thanks to social media, the practice still isn’t as widely accepted in the Philippines as compared to Western areas, given how predominantly religious the country is. 

“Most often I find myself saying that reading cards is not talking to the devil,” Reina said. “While we can call on angels, deities, or ancestors when we do cartomancy, the most important part of reading cards involves talking to our inner selves.”

Reina narrated how a scene in the GMA series Maria Clara at Ibarra showed Kapitan Tiago telling Maria Clara not to mention fortune-telling in front of Padre Damaso because, “Bawal sa relihiyon natin ‘yan (That’s not allowed in our religion),” but also in the same breath asks, “[Baka pwede akong magpahula] tungkol sa negosyo (Maybe I can ask about the fortune of my business)?” Reina said that this is reflective of how cartomancy is seen in the country. 

“The Philippines is this place where, on one hand, we have people saying cartomancy is bad,” she said. “On the other hand, some people ‘believe’ in cartomancy, but in a very trivial way.” 

Reina recalled how she once did a tarot livestream with a known brand and some comments kept on saying that tarot was evil. She said that she has friends and customers who are even in the “cartomancy closet” so as to hide their cartomancy practices from their families. 

She said that even her own family doesn’t seem “very open” to her doing cartomancy, despite her thriving business. Even her tarot stickers listings get deleted on online platforms because witchcraft and sorcery products aren’t allowed. 

“Our work is treated as entertainment and party tricks at best, or [we are deemed] quacks and scammers at worst,” she continued. “In a country so gripped by patriarchy, poverty, religion, and complex politics, every day is a fight for cartomancy to be taken seriously.” 

Reina stressed that while there are unethical readers – the same way unethical doctors, lawyers, and businessmen also exist, and that some would argue that the belief in this kind of thing is ridiculous – many in the cartomancy community still put their respective practices in high regard.

“We care for our clients and genuinely want to empower them. It’s more than just a party trick or ‘sideline.’ It’s a real vocation and craft.” 

Given her nursing background, Reina explained that she takes a psychological approach to reading tarot and doing cartomancy.

“A good reading can delve into our thought patterns – what we experienced in our past influences our present choices, and thus our future outcomes,” she shared, adding that the “true magic of a card reading” happens after leaving the table. 

For Reina, each card has a “story, with characters, settings, moods, and moral lessons.” And each reader also has their own style of interpreting the nuances of each card. 

“Our cards can tell us what might happen in the future, but what will happen is up to us – whether we’re willing to do the work of breaking unhealthy cycles and making brave new choices,” she said. 

Making their own art as a Filipino cartomancy creator

Co-running the Four Wands Tarot shop, Reina knows full well the struggles and challenges Filipino cartomancy artists go through when creating their own decks. 

Because of how rare and expensive Lenormand decks are in the country, for instance, she even decided to make her own DIY deck two years ago, with the whole experience making her realize how vital it was to improve the local cartomancy industry.

“My deck was born from another very Filipino trait – which is abilidad (resourcefulness). If we can’t have something because it’s too expensive, we’re really good at making improvised alternatives,” Reina said. “I named it the ‘Resourcful Lenormand’ as a kind of middle finger to people claiming it’s okay to pirate decks because authentic decks are unavailable to us.” 

Nonetheless, good cards, no matter where they’re made, remain quite pricey – around P1,500 to P3,000 per deck. And while cartomancy creators recognize that affordability is a factor for customers, Reina stressed that lowering costs really affects the quality and production of the decks. 

“Filipino printers don’t have the capacity to produce fancy decks yet, so we’re very limited in terms of materiality when we print decks here,” she explained. 

She added that several local printers have a pwede na ‘yan (that’s passable) mentality, which results in creators insisting on do-overs to ensure quality decks. 

If creators want more complex features for their decks, they have no other choice but to work with manufacturers abroad. Aside from the pricey production costs, creators also need to take into account the shipping and custom fees. There’s also always the possibility that working with international manufacturers could result in their designs getting stolen and having pirated copies of their designs. 

“I always say to please be kind to your cartomancy creators,” Reina shared. “Be kind to them and support authentic decks, kasi grabe ‘yung paglusot nila sa butos ng karayom (because they really go through a lot) just to create these spiritual tools for you.” 

Bootlegging, she said, is one of the worst practices in the cartomancy community: “Instead of supporting us, many Filipinos in our immediate community shunned us, saying we were “divisive,” “angry,” “too much,” or “ang daming kuda (blabbing on too much),” for being so vocal against bootlegging.” 

“It was disappointing, but also an eye-opening experience to the reality of our niche. It’s easy to forget that there’s a person behind each cartomancy deck that has a family and a home and bills to pay.”

Reina recalled how one partner creator was branded as an elitist for asking people to use only authentic decks, when said creator couldn’t even afford to buy a new light bulb because her shop sales were low. She emphasized that making, buying, using, and defending bootleg decks is the same as stealing from small businesses. 

“Indie decks are priced a certain way not because we’re big, capitalist corporations but because they are expensive to produce and we spent a lot of time learning how to design them,” she said. “Sometimes, we barely even make any profit from them – we just want to make our mark on the world with our art.” 

Reina shared that after spending enough time in the field of cartomancy, readers tend to start developing their own decks.

“Readers tend to find an advocacy we want to champion or a gap our work hopes to fill,” she said. 

Mentioning several decks made by Filipino cartomany creators, such as the Midnight Madness series, the Light Doll decks by Lois Veloso, and Tetz Agustin’s decks, Reina said that their customers having their own decks is a way for them to practice reading for themselves, too. 

“While we do a lot of good reading cards for people, we can’t always be present to read cards for them 24/7! Translating the advice we give into deck form then teaching our clients to pull cards for themselves helps them become more independent. In this way, we’re able to share our wisdom on a bigger scale,” she added.

That’s why having a clear intention is the most important advice she could give to anyone planning to create their own deck.

“All art sends a message whether we like it or not, so you have to be very careful that your deck sends exactly the message you’re trying to convey.”

She said it would be difficult to promote and market a deck if the creator doesn’t even know its purpose and target audience, especially if the creations are met with questions and helpful and unhelpful criticisms.

“It will be easier to navigate those conversations when you’ve done the inner work, you’ve run the research, and you know your concept like the back of your hand.” – Rappler.com