HOW TO READ VERA SIBILLA CARDS

A Beginner's Guide to the Italian Oracle

This summer, my book The Magic Lantern Sibilla is coming with cards by Anastasia Kashian. It is a 352 page book and 52 card deck to help you learn the divinatory system of this Italian oracle. Up until this year there has been no substantial book in the English language with new cards, to help you learn the method of reading. because, while there is plenty of information to read Lenormand or Kipper cards, the Vera Sibilla has not been widely used outside Italy. This is a Quick Look at how we read the cards, so I’m sending in the Maid to help you get started, because she’s always reading in the back kitchen!

APPROACHING VERA SIBILLA

The Vera Sibilla is 52 card oracle deck from 19th century Italy. It is a cousin of Lenormand, Kipper and Zigeuner or ‘Gypsy cards,’ what swept Europe at about the same kind. The cards depict ordinary subjects like people of different ages and backgrounds as well as topics like sorrow, merriment, hope, melancholy, love, despair; and places or actions like reunion, house, gift, journey and letter. It is utterly non-esoteric, so you will never need to know what astrological sign it is, nor worry whether you connect it any part of the Tree of Life. These cards speak familiarly and directly, so that a reading is usually a quick, not an arduous, undertaking. You can ask them direct questions and be answered very simply

If you already read Kipper, Lenormand or Gypsy cards, you have a natural advantage, as you already know how to read cartomantically - that is, you understand that a card like Letter can mean written communications, letters, emails, but also documents, books, news and messages: you just select the appropriate meaning that connects with the question’s topic.

THE CARDS AND THEIR FUNCTIONS:

Every card has its own array of meanings, but certain ones are categorised by their function. The ones representing people talk about male and female characters of all ages and kinds. These can representing the querent, or the people they associate with: here is Widower, who would represent single, older or divorced man; while Beloved is a single young woman; Scholar would represent a creative person. Each of these also has other meanings too: here we also see, respectively, ‘distance’, ‘devotion,’ and ‘education.’

Here are some cards that represent different functions: Sickness is one of the things that disrupts life, whether it is a cold, a long illness. or more serious recovery from surgery. Constancy is one of the cards that support life: it gives us the perseverance to continue, and represents sustained effort or work.. Gift of Jewellery represents one of our personal life factors - the presents, opportunities, or offers that come to you.

Some cards represent states of being where we see the subjects undergoing deep emotions: Gladness of Heart, shows people being lovingly-bonded, enjoying a festival, representing, social commitment to your group/ family; Reunion represents the ability to meet, recover, or be reconciled after estrangement. Prison, shows restriction, dependence, and powerlessness to do what you want.

THE SUITS:

The 52 cards are arranged over four suits, exactly like playing cards. Each suit has its own modality or mood which tends to colour

Hearts: are Passive and Positive: they deal with connections and close relationships, familiar things and shared values. The cards are largely simpatico, unsuspious, warm, open and simple. They can bring warmth to Diamonds, but are easily dominated by Spades, though they are supported by Clubs,

Clubs: are Dominant and Positive: they are helpful, confident, public-spirited cards; they deal with social bonding, communication, and can be ebullient, and creative. The can uphold Hearts and Diamonds supportively, and they can help nullify the misfortunes of Spades.

Diamonds: are Passive and Negative: they are conscious of status, material concerns, the status quo; they are sometimes cold and cerebral but mentally intent, and they often deal with work and news related topics. They can be dominated by Clubs and Spades, but they combine well with the Hearts to support the household.

Spades: are Dominant and Negative; they represent troubles, difficulties, sorrows, things to do with violence, delays, restrictions. They are sorrowful, they expect the worst, being suspicious and unhappy. They can nullify the warmth of Hearts, curb the helpfulness of the Clubs, and make Diamonds more materialistic and cold.

Without knowing anything about the cards, we can quickly see how the modalities hint at answers, in the following pairs:

Here we are asking about a new project’s progress: 6 Diamonds Thoughts, with 6 Spades Sighs. Please bear in mind that Substack squashes images set together like this, so their tops and bottoms have been cut off here!

These are two negative suits: one with a passive and the other with a dominant influence. It might be hard to muster ideas very progressively with these two.

With these next two, we ask about recovery from an illness: King Clubs Doctor, with 8 Hearts Hope:

With a longer reading you can check the suit modalities, but always look at the two end cards for a quick summary of how things are playing our or not. A reading beginning and ending in two spades is unlikely to be very hopeful!

UPRIGHT AND REVERSED

Vera Sibilla is read both upright and reversed, giving us potentially 104 general meanings and degrees of meaning. When we start learning, we take it gently, a few cards at a time - which is how reversed cards are introduced a few at a time in my book. You will soon learn that upright and reversed card applications can behave in different ways, because they can:

1. reverse the upright card meaning for the worse. Upright King Hearts,Gentleman means a man who will treat you honourably and protect you, but a reversed Gentleman means an unfaithful, power-hungry man who means you no good. Here, in answer to a question about whether Hobbs & Brown is a good broker to help invest money: 6 Hearts, Money & reversed Gentleman tell you ‘no, this is not a good place.’

2. Reversed cards can behave aberrantly to improve or worsen the upright effect. Upright 3♦ Gift of Jewelry can be a present, proposal or opportunity, but reversed Gift can indicate an incompatible partner, or a worthless gift. So, asking ‘will my boyfriend bring me a nice souvenir from his holiday?’ and you get Jack Clubs, Servant. with reversed Gift 3 Diamonds - no, he will bring you some trashy trinket, the wretched low life!

3. Reversed cards can also be better than the upright meaning : Upright 10 Diamonds, Levity is a card that diminishes any card it accompanies, often indicating recklessness and carelessness, whereas a reversed Levity is about attention to detail and a stroke of good luck. Here we asked whether the photo you took would win anything if entered into the Photographic Competition: 3 Hearts, Viewpoint shows what’s coming towards you, while reversed Levity 10 Clubs says ‘Seize the day, enter the photo immediately!’.

QUESTIONS:

Vera Sibilla is an oracle that speaks frankly, so word your question carefully! What you ask is what you get, most times. But the question you reserved in your head rather than asking might be the very question that the cards answer, you have been warned!

You can ask yes/no questions like ‘Will I be well enough to go on holiday after the operation?

If you have plans or ideas ask, ‘How will my plans work out?’

Avoid any ‘should I or could I’ questions - these try to cast responsibility upon the cards.

Turn any questions which seek advice from the cards, into a better question, as Vera Sibilla will generally refuse to advise you and merely talk about the topic of your question: so ‘What can I do about the annoying neighbours? will just talk about the querent’s next-door neighbours! This is also a nosy, third-party, question about people who have not given consent to be read for! It could be rephrased as, ‘What are the consequences of taking my neighbours to court?’

LAYING CARDS:

Most often, Vera Sibilla cards are laid in lines of 3,5,7,9 cards: this gives us a line where the central card gives us the hinge or the central issue of the question, and the two end ones give us two pillars to act as doorkeepers which frame it. Here I asked will the TV paper come before I go away?’ - as I wanted to set programmes ahead but our postal delivery had become very patchy at the time.

Reversed Levity talks about electric things, including tv. Letter is not only a physical letter but documents, news and books and magazines, and Pride is the best card in the deck giving me a big affirmative - yes it will arrive in time!

Whether the number of cards drawn is short, as in the example above, or has more cards in the line, we read the hinge as the representative of the question; the cards before the hinge as the ‘what started this’ or ‘how the question has presented itself?’ The cards after the hinge give us ‘how the question plays out.’

A CHECK LIST BEFORE YOU START TO READ A LINE

• Is the line answering the question? - Check Pillars and Hinge. It may very well be asking the question you didn’t vocalise!

• Does the querent come into the reading on any face or court card? Obviously in a question for a young man where the Widower is the only face card, it is not representing him, but could be his grandfather or represent a sense of isolation..

• What suits open and close the line? Use your skill with suits’ modalities to check the likelihood of success or failure, but read the cards also.

• What is your general sense of what the cards are saying?

DAILY PRACTICE

The best tool that beginners can use is the daily reading where, at the beginning of the day, you ask how the day is going to fall out, and then draw a line of 3, 5, 7 or 9 cards to read on this. You write down the cards or take a picture of them, and make your own prediction based upon what you find. Later on, at the end of the day, look over the daily reading and you nots to see how you did. You will find that some things you over-dramatised things, rather than giving them an everyday gloss. After all, these cards are often operatic in appearance, so remember to scale the drama down for an ordinary day! You will also learn just how the cards are speaking and expressing themselves.

Here is a more dramatic day from my own practice: we tried to go out in our old car but its dashboard message was alarming: ‘DON’T DRIVE! THE ENGINE IS COMPROMISED! it was like seeing the blue screen of doom on a computer, and our hearts sank. While we waited for the road-side assistance to arrive, I asked the cards ‘what is wrong with the car?’

The hinge card of Thief told me that there was an intrusion or something was stolen, while the two end cards, Journey and reversed Soldier confirmed that moving was not going to happen. Yes, the cards described what was happening. See how Thief separates Letter (news, information) from Marriage (contract, connection)! The Letter card with the Journey & Thief is saying ‘journey information has been stolen.’ Thief, Marriage and reversed Soldier tell me that ‘intrusion has caused connection to be covertly breached at night.’ Reversed Soldier often talks of wandering about at night and covert attention or spying.

When the roadside assistance man came, he started to strip down the engine only to find rat-droppings, and that the main electric cable connecting the car and its computer had been eaten through by rats. The Thief in this instance was revealed to be the rats who had spent all night chewing through the cable, breaking the connection. The car was shored up enough to drive us to a garage where we had to say goodbye to it and find a new second hand car, rather sooner than we had wished.

You see here how the cards’ meanings melt together; note especially how Thief with Marriage gives us ‘breach of contract’ or, in the context of this question, ‘intruders break the the connection.’ This is how we learn to read.

FURTHER UP AND DEEPER IN

The simple reading style that you begin with when you first learn is going to grow much more sophisticated the longer you practice reading Vera Sibilla. You will learn card combinations, where two or three cards melt together like wet paint to make another meaning. You will also learn how cards behave and what they have to say when they appear in different parts of the line. Also you will learn how to read bigger spreads and tableaux of cards to give you an in depth view of your question. It has taken me many years to learn Vera Sibilla, but I know you are going to discover a wealth of skills as you read the slides that The Magic Lantern Sibilla flags up for you! I hope you enjoy this quirky and immediate oracle whose frankness and wit will have you gasping with astonishment!

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The Magic Lantern Sibilla is coming this summer: in June 2025 in US and August in UK. But you can grab a copy early from me at the TABI Conference (see below).

Otherwise, please pre-order to avoid disappointment - it is commercially available to order from all the usual places you buy books, and will be available too in Europe and Australia.

https://schifferbooks.com/products/the-magic-lantern-sibilla

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Magic-Lantern.../dp/0764368974

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