The curiosity or the desire to have foreknowledge about one’s own future is something of a universal human instinct. And this holds as true for the so-called superstitious man as for a battle-hardened skeptic. And the curious thing is even those skeptics (usually safely armored with their reason and their logic), and who sometime subject themselves to a fortune-telling session more for the fun of it than anything else (or so they would claim) often fall under the sway of the predictions, especially if the predictions in question appear to be dark or unfavorable.
Table of Contents
Gypsy Fortune Teller
This strange but universal tendency is after all the source of all fortune telling practices as also of their popularity. And since the ancient times and in many different cultures of the world, the figure of the fortune teller was often regarded as a venerated one. We’ve often heard of the Gypsy fortune tellers and in the days of yore, Roma divination was renowned and highly valued for its truthfulness. However, the most revered among the community was not the diviner (or diviners since almost all the members of these nomadic people were skilled to some degree in the practice of divination), but the fortune-teller who could predict near accurately events of the past and the future.
On a side note, it may interest you to know that Roma fortune tellers or diviners, known as ‘drabardi’, were always female. The reason for this is not clearly known but what is known is the fact that fortune telling acted as one of the chief livelihoods of these people. Another curious fact is that Romani people practiced fortune telling or divination only with non-Romani people, ones they called Gadje; but never amongst the members of their own communities.
Fortune Telling Today
In the western world, some of the most common methods and techniques used today for fortune telling include reading cards, crystal gazing, palmistry or hand-reading and horoscope astrology. (Some other methods are often more popular in other countries, e,g., I Ching and Face Reading in China; Omikuji in certain parts of Japan; Parrot astrology in places like Singapore or South India; Kau Cim in Hong Kong; and so on).
Now, the aforementioned methods most popular in the western world for the purpose of fortune telling are also practiced as forms of divination. However, a curious reversal has taken place in relation to the related practices of divination and fortune telling in our modern world. For, whereas fortune telling in Roma traditions was seen as a more revered vocation, today divination practices actually command more respect and fortune telling, in many regards, is relegated to the status of a superstition-ridden practice and at worst, a form of charlatanism.
We can cite different reasons for it. First of all, of course there are charlatans and con artists who exploit many gullible or unsuspecting people, even though the former have little to no knowledge, experience or abilities relating to divination.
Another reason is that most practicing diviners of today put much greater emphasis on evaluating influences and measuring potential outcomes surrounding a person, an event or a particular circumstance. In other words, they exert more effort in understanding a person’s innate nature as well as his usual proclivities and for the most part, limit themselves to explaining how these factors can influence the course of their subjects’ future lives. So, this practice in part is related to what we call personal profiling.
In fact, most diviners or psychics of today maintain that rather than making accurate predictions about future, their principal aim is to enrich their subjects with providing valuable insights about their own nature, abilities and potentials; since this knowledge can help the subject or the seeker to commit themselves to more meaningful actions in the future and can lead to their general well-being. Some divination practitioners also incorporate a number of modern techniques such as holistic healing, psychology, etc. to gain a better understanding of their subject and his problem or concern. For all that, however, the diviners still rely heavily on their intuitive abilities and on the guidance of the ‘spirit’ or some spiritual/supernatural agency in order to arrive at their conclusions.
Fortune Telling Cards
Reading cards is one of the most popular techniques employed by many modern day psychics for divination or fortune telling. Different readers use different card decks such as Lenormand, Tarot, Kipper, Oracle cards or even, regular playing card decks. Although different decks enjoy different degrees of popularity at different countries or regions, it is safe to claim that altogether Tarot is the most popular card deck used for divination purposes. It is claimed that the complex and intricate imageries of Tarot cards (especially those belonging to the Major Arcana) which also correspond to primal archetypes, act as a more potent trigger to the card-reader when it comes to reaching his/her utmost psychic abilities. Many claim that this becomes even more valuable when the divination session is more concerned with fortune telling or with predicting certain future events and not just with personal profiling of the subject. Although nothing can prove the veracity of this claim, still the huge popularity of the Tarot cards worldwide as an extremely potent divination oracle remains a fact.
How To Fortune Telling
There are many ways you can make a fortune teller. However, the most common and uncomplicated ones are the paper fortune tellers. You’ll need to cultivate some basic origami skills to make a paper fortune teller, such as the ones with four triangles on each side of a square paper (with triangles on one side containing penciled numbers and the others names of certain colors). These are fun fortune teller tools or exercises that you can practice on your own or with your friends.
If you want to find how to make these and other fun and attractive fortune tellers, just browse the internet. There are loads of good resources with detailed instructions.
Wondering what to write on fortune teller? Be creative and imaginative, but since mostly these are fun exercises, write down some positive, inspiring, nice or just fun quotes. It all depends on who you are playing the games with and the nature of connection and intimacy you’ve with them. So, use your tact.
On the other hand, if you are playing the game on your own, it’s a good idea to pencil some resolutions such as:
“I’ll complete all the leftover household chores tomorrow!”
“I’ll lend dad a hand in weeding out the backyard this weekend.”
… and so on. Have fun!