Part 55

(b) One heart and one club, a day of very good fortune.

(c) One heart and one diamond, a day of good fortune.

(d) One heart and one spade, a day of moderate fortunes.

(e) Two clubs, a day as (c).

(f) One club and one diamond, a day as (d).

(g) One club and one spade, a day of fair luck.

(h) Two diamonds, a day neither lucky nor unlucky.

(i) One diamond and one spade, a day much as (h).

(j) Two spades, a day of no luck.

ARE YOU TO BE LUCKY?

Ever since the pack of cards has been constituted as it is now, it has been considered that the four suits have a definite value as far as luck and fortune are concerned. This is a fact that most people probably know, but for the benefit of those who are unaware of it, we will point out that hearts stand for more luck than all the others, that clubs are the next in point of favor, that diamonds come third, and that spades bring no luck at all.

These values are used in the following method of finding out whether you may consider yourself as lucky or not. The full pack is taken and, from it, all the twos, threes, fours, fives and sixes are extracted. These cards are put on one side, as they are not used, and the remainder is shuffled.

The next thing is for you to cut the short pack with the left hand and then to deal it into four equal stacks. Each stack is given one card at a time; that is to say, the eight cards of one stack are not allotted all at once.

This done, you take the third heap, without looking at the other three, and turn up the cards. Most likely all the suits will be represented and the thing is to note how many cards there are of each. If there are most of hearts, your good luck is assured; if clubs predominate, then you are still fortunate; if diamonds head the list, you will have average luck; but when spades are in the majority, your best plan is to tell yourself that there is no such thing as good and bad luck.

One thing more about the reckoning. If, say, hearts occur only four times in the heap, and no other suit is present as often, then, as we say, good luck is yours. But, should hearts occur five, six, seven or eight times, then your good luck is correspondingly increased in amount. The same rule should be applied to the other suits.

PEERING INTO THE FUTURE

You probably have some question that you would like answered. It may concern--well, it can concern anything you like and you need confide to nobody what it is about. This is a method of obtaining the answer to such a question:

If you are of the female sex, take the four queens from a pack and, if you are a male, take the four kings. Place them face down on the table in front of you and, with your eyes shut, shuffle them round and round, using only your left hand. Work the cards round in the opposite direction to the movement of the hands of a clock. When you have lost all idea of the identity of the cards, still with your left hand and with your eyes tightly shut, place the cards in a line in front of you. Now, open your eyes and turn the cards face up.

The card to the left of the line stands for "This year"; the card filling the second position stands for "Next year"; the card coming third, for "Sometime"; and the card at the right of the line, for "Never." The card that is a heart answers the question and the others are ignored. Thus, if the heart fills the second position, the answer is "Next year"; if it comes fourth, the answer is "Never."

It is claimed by astrologers that a true answer to the question is only obtained on the first occasion that this method is employed after a new moon has appeared.

WHAT REVERSED CARDS REVEAL

In most cases, the cards of an ordinary pack look the same whether viewed one way or the other; in other words, if they were cut in halves across the shortest dimension, each half would be exactly alike. But this is not so in every case. Take, for instance, the aces of hearts, clubs and spades; with these the tops and bottoms would be different, though with the ace of diamonds, they would be the same. All the sevens offer further cases where the two halves are not identical and the same may be said of some of the eights. In addition, it must be pointed out that all packs do not follow the same arrangement, so that a list of these unbalanced cards cannot be given.

Astrologists have long considered that these cards, which are not alike top and bottom, possess certain powers in deciding one's luck. This is how they act:

Take a full pack and shuffle it thoroughly, then cut with the left hand. After that, turn each card over, one by one, and it is advisable to work slowly, as mistakes are easily made.

Look at every card in turn, count the pips on it that are the right way up and those that are upside down. When the latter are more in number than the former, you have a reversed card. Set it aside and continue with the cards that follow. Note that it is not any card that permits of being reversed, but only those that are actually reversed, that should be set aside. Note, also, that a reversed card to you is not reversed to someone sitting opposite you.

When the pack has been run through and all the reversed cards taken out, note what you have found. Count up the number belonging to each suit. If hearts are in the majority, you are indeed lucky; if spades figure most, you are the reverse. Clubs are not quite so lucky as hearts and diamonds rank a little below clubs.

Should any suit figure much more than the others, then the above readings are strengthened.

CARD COMBINATIONS