The Square of Sevens | Page 8

Panic or a
Plague. But it is held that by such prior Shufflings, Dealings, and
Placings are much cherished the accidentall Declarings of Fates
intelligence; and that by the other Processes, embracing The Sacrifice,
there remain for Reading just the Cards decreed; free from disposition
by light-fingered Craft, or from ticklish Arrangements by Skill.
A Thing of Great Mystery and Fair Harmony--as Jacobus of Utrecht

calleth the Soul.
And the Square itself, the Parent of the Parallelogram, is of great
Harmony as a Mystery. Indeed all other Methods of reading fortune in
Cards are incomparable to it.
Of Summarizing in the Parallelogram its Aspect and of the Fortune or
Experience of the Querist that it will Report.
With your Parallelogram thus built, observe it as an Whole; and remark
if it hath an Agreeable or Unpleasing Aspect--one Auspicious or
Unkind, according as it contains rather the red or the black Suits. For a
Red Aspect is kindly. A Black Aspect contains many less favorable
cards, especially if they be Spades.
Of Hearts as a Portent.
And, for another Matter, and a wider Notice as to the Suits of Cards:--it
has long been assured by those best knowing Card Intelligences that the
Suit of Hearts is the Suit of the Affections, Passions, Fancies and
Feelings.
Of Diamonds.
And the Suit of Diamonds ever refers to Condition in Life, Society,
Wealth, Position and the Fine Arts; and contains many Comfortable
Cards.
Of Clubs.
In the Clubs lies the Judgment, the Intellect, the Will, and the Affairs of
a Man's Brains, and what he doeth of his own Mastery and Genius.
Of the ominous Spades suit.
The Spades is ever the suit of doubtful or worse Prognosticks; of the
Events that arbitrarily fall to Man's Lot, those things which hardly can
any Prescience or Plans or Conditions of our own making amend.
Thence is it that in especiall comes a serious, nay even a gloomy

appearance to the Parallelogram. Your first Glance at it, therefore,
gives you a Generall Character in it, to state first to the Querist before
its details.
Of a particular Uncertainty in a Prognostick.
But particularly note that Matters to be read in its Cards may often refer
not to the Future, or to the Present, but to the Past. Especially is this the
truth with the Old or Elderly or with those Wed. Such must expect to
be told of Experiences that lie behind them, rather than before them, of
Good or Evil; for Fate oft allows sparingly of Incident to those of
middle years, or later; and therewith she is often pleased to make her
Oracle speak coldly to a Querist, of Ancient Circumstances.
The Shot seldom goeth twice into the same hole; and a Dead Trouble or
Joy rarely Reviveth. And a Blessed Thing that 'tis so!
Hence, whether a Significancy in a Card speak of what is come or is yet
to come, at best is none too certain; only it is true that the greater or
harder Experiences of Mortall Lives seldom be duplicated. With the
Young or Unwedded, the Significancies are of the Future, with far
more determination.

Of the Reading of the Parallelogram, according to the Tavola; and of
the Wish-Cards.
Note now your Card in the Right-Hand column, and also the Card next
it, of course to the Leftward; which Leftward Card is spoken of as
Influencing the other.
Of the Influences, In which the Philosophick will find a likeness to
Human Circumstances.
The Significancy of it, for good or evil, is given in the Tavola that
follows in this Book, by its proper Suit and Degree: and this you will
tell to your Querist. Next note the card, which was just now an
Influencing Card, but which, now in its turn, is to be considered

according to the Influence cast on it by the Master-Card, beyond it,
leftward. Declare this Significancy. Last, declare what may be the
Significancy of the Master-Card, as such and alone. And so proceed, as
to each card in the Parallelogram, ever naming last the Significance of
the Master-Card, until your Parallelogram is all interpreted to the
Querist. And note that the Master-Card even as an Influence is not more
potent than another, (as far as is known), and that its Dignity and
Potency arise only in its being uninfluenced; and, so speaking, from its
Significance with a certain Individuality not belonging to its two
Fellows. Nor are there; any Influences cast Upward or Downward by
the Cards, out of the Row in which each lieth.
Having read the Parallelogram from beginning to end, slowly and
honestly, lay forth those three Wish Cards, early chosen by your
Querist, but not dealt in the Square.
Of the Querist's Wish.
If they contain more Red than Black Cards, this shall