About

cartomancy, camelia elias

Welcome to The Cartomancer

What you can expect to read about here are three types of essays:

Essays dealing with method, and instruction on how to read a string of cards, primarily Marseille Tarot, Lenormand oracle cards, and playing cards.
Essays dealing with going beyond method. Once a method is stable in your head, there’s no reason not to ditch it in favor of a more sophisticated dance with the cards. For instance, here I offer rituals with cards inspired by seasons or conceptual thinking, sometimes based on a form of bibliomancy. I open the dictionary, ask: What topic should I ask the cards about today? It works wonders.
Essays combining cartomancy with Zen.

My archived Patheos essays from Agora are all substantial contributions to cartomancy representing the three types of topics above.

What I have in mind for The Cartomancer as an individual blog here is more inconceivable badass cartomancy – as others put it – engaging a vein that’s even snappier than my trademark under the signature, Read Like the Devil. I address contemporary concerns to which I add a twist. The backbone for my teaching is this attitude in response to ‘popular problems’: Haha. Really? I don’t think so.’ For instance, if I write about patience as a virtue, you can be sure I’ll ask a very nasty question that leads you to an unexpected place.

A bit about myself

I work with contemplative arts. I love problems, from math to pains in the soul. You have a problem of any kind? I give you an idea to work with in 30 seconds flat. You go, ‘no shit,’ and that makes my day.

My training is in reading signs and sitting Zen. I teach people to read cards like the Devil, which is to say, I teach people to develop penetrating vision. If you have clarity, you have no problems. You’re Zen.

What I bring to my cartomancy practice is years of university teaching and researching as a tenured professor and chair of American Studies and conscious self-inquiry and investigations into the nature of the mind since 1984.

Generally I’m interested in language and its oracular power. Oracles give us access to the present, which most people don’t live. Oracles give us access to spontaneous knowledge. That beats all other claims.

Cards are like a Zen master’s stick. They whack you over your head, pointing to what attitude is seated in you. Maybe you want to change that.

The purpose of my cartomancy can be summed by three strong intentions:

I use cards as a window to actions free of culture, consecration, validation, and approval.
I use cards to tell unusual stories, de-mythologize too, and get to the core of ‘you’ as a construct.
I use cards to re-calibrate businesses. I design models that put you and your employees in an authentic position, beyond cliché and blah blah.

You can also find me here:

Enjoy this space, and keep going.

Camelia Elias