READING WITH THE KIPPER CARDS
You have a Kipper deck available, but you don’t have your yes-and-no stones or a pendulum with you. In a pinch, the Kipper cards will answer yes and no questions, because every card in the deck is associated with yes, no, or maybe.
THE GRAND TABLEAU
Another card reading method which is used with both the Lenormand deck and the Kipper deck is called the ‘Grand Tableau’ which in French literally translates as ‘big picture.’ This lay-out uses all 36 cards in the deck, which can be quite challenging for even an experienced reader. I shun this layout, purely because of its size, but it is a traditional lay-out, and it can give the reader a very comprehensive overview of the inquirer’s situation, so for those interested, the lay-out appears below:
If you want to try your hand at this spread, Alexandre Musruck, author of The Art of Kipper Card Reading offers seven helpful tips, although I don’t put them in quite the same order he does:
Tip 1: Read the first three cards in the uppermost left corner. These cards start the game and set the theme and tone for the reading.
Tip 2: Turn over the other three corner-cards of the spread. Read them in order from lower left corner to upper left corner to upper right corner to lower right corner. That’ll be cards 28-1-9-36. If you had to phrase these four cards in a sentence, how would it read? These cards can show what dynamic is at work in the reading, and often shows an aspect of the question of which the inquirer was unaware.
Tip 3: Find the inquirer’s significator in the spread. Where did it land? Note in which direction the significator is facing. Everything behind the figure is in the past, everything in front of the figure is in the future, above the significator are things on the inquirer’s mind, and the cards below it are things the inquirer feels they’ve mastered.
Tip 4: Box the significator. Look at the eight cards immediately surrounding the significator. These cards identify matters of the most immediate concern to the inquirer.
Tip 5: Keep in mind the Kipper ‘houses.’ Each of the Kipper cards are numbered; if, for example, you have the number 36 card in the number 25 card’s position, take the number 25 card’s meaning into consideration when interpreting the number 36 card and synthesize the two. In this case, it could mean pursuing their dream, or traveling abroad, could bring the inquirer great honor and recognition.
Tip 6: The Knight maneuver. The Knight in chess moves in an L-shaped manner. For any card in the spread you want clarification on, seek out the cards in every direction away from that card where, if you were moving a knight, you would end up.
Tip 7: Mirroring. If you feel the reading is lacking clarification, or one particular card has you stumped, imagine the reading as a sheet of paper. Mentally fold in it half vertically, then fold it in half horizonally. Which cards are in the exact same position in the vertical-fold? The horizontal fold? These cards can shed light on the first card, but don’t do this with every card, as that could be both time-consuming and ultimately, too confusing.
One tactic I sometimes use when reading the Grand Tableau is, imagine each card is a word or two, or a phrase. Then think of the Grand Tableau as the run-on sentence from Hell, the kind that really should be broken up into two or three smaller sentences. An alternative to this approach is thinking of each row of nine cards as a separate sentence.
Another observation I’ve made about the Grand Tableau lay-out is that the cards will come in pairs or triplets in terms of their meaning; your intuition will help you spot ‘em.
I want a kipper reading
I don’t do readings. My hope is that by talking about these various divination methods, people will feel sufficiently knowledgeable-enough to give them a try. Education about divination is my focus. If you want a Kipper Card reading, I would suggest trying a Google search, something along the lines of ‘Kipper Card Reading (then enter your location here)’ and it may come up with a listing of card readers who are closest to you. Good Luck!
i am so glad i found your page! i was able to do a 7card spread and your notes have really helped! i have the little guide book but i feel that this is much more helpful as it only states an all card spread. thank you so much for sharing this!! i cannot thank you enough!
You’re quite welcome! I’m glad my website helped you.
I have a question… Why i can’t read over 3 other cards? 37. POVERTY, 38. TOIL & LABOUR and 39. COMMUNITY? Are the positive or Negative in a yes/ no reding? But i find this site great! Good work and a happy 2121! Greetz Kim
And a good and happy 2021 to you too, Kim! 37. Poverty 38. Toil & Labour and 39. Community are cards which were added to the Fin de Siecle Kipper Card deck by Ciro Marchetti himself, to better-reflect some of the harsh realities of late-nineteenth century life, which is when the Kipper Deck came into being. As for their positive/negative orientations, I’d say Poverty is negative/no, and Community is positive/yes.
Toil and Labour is a bit more tricky. It’s obviously meant to reflect the dangerous, grueling, under-paid, and boring, but necessary jobs available to the working class back then. Such a job would be better than no job at all, but that’s not saying very much. At best, I would put Toil & Labour in the neutral/maybe category, or maybe a begrudging ‘yes.’ Toil & Labour is a nose-to-the-grindstone sort of card, so it could be taken as a ‘if you work at it hard-enough, then the answer is ‘yes.’ Or, it could be saying, ‘it’ll be far more work and effort than you expect, so unless you’re willing to put the effort in, no matter what it takes, the answer is likely ‘no.’ I don’t like to be so wishy-washy about the positive/negative orientation of a card, but Toil & Labour is one of those cards which could go either way. It’s a plain-brown-wrapper card if I’ve ever seen one. It is certainly not a robustly ‘yes’ card. I hope all this has answered most of your question.
Great content. Thank you very much.
Reblogged this on I Am Shay Says and commented:
For anyone who is a tarot reader…
Hallo,
they are talking about mc1 and mc2 about frontsite and backsite but the man doesn’t look to the right or to the left, how do i have the make sure witch is frontsite and what is backsite.
also in the book of toni puhle she speaks about frond and backsite.
I have the fin de siècle kipper cards.
i hope you understand what i mean.
gr. nancy
Dear Nancy B: I think I understand what you mean. In the Fin du Siecle Kipper Deck, both the Main Male (Number 1 card) and the Mautre Man
Dear Nancy B: I think I know what you mean. In the Fin du Siecle Kipper deck both the Main Male (Number 1 card) and the Mature Man card (Number 5 card) are looking directly at the viewer. In those cases, when you want to determine which other cards they are ‘facing’, then take note of the angle at which their bodies are positioned. If their faces were looking in the same direction as their torsos, then what direction would that be? You can then interpret the cards accordingly. I hope this helps.
Hello, I used to make a 3-card
spread and the third card was Big
Fortune, but in the case I asked
about it turned out that it was lost
and the money was lost. Does the
third position card suggest what’s lost?
Hmmm…that is the first time I’ve fielded this question, where a seemingly-good third card in a 3-card reading turned out to indicate a reversal of fortune. Short answer: the third card can indicate a loss. That’s the problem with 3-card readings–they leave a lot of information out! Sorry to hear about your loss. To cut down on the likelihood of this problem happening again, what I would suggest for future 3-card readings is, if the third card appears to be something positive, then you draw one to three clarifier cards to help better define what the third card means. In truth, you could draw clarifier cards for the past and present cards as well. Or, you could choose to do the Six-Card Hungarian Method, which is two past cards (one over the other) two present cards (one over the other) ad two future cards (one over the other). I hope this helps.
I have a question. I asked for messages from Above, and I received 1 – Main Male and 31 – Bad Health, clarified by the bottom of the Deck, 35 – Pathway.
My interpretation is that a male figure in my life is going to pass on. Is that correct, or is there another meaning to this?
That is one possible interpretation. Another could be that, because of the Main Male’s health problem, he may be taking a different pathway in life, possibly going on a journey related to his health problem. The Pathway card is related to the concept of ‘long term’ and suggests the Main Male’s health problem will be here for a while, and something he’ll be wrestling with for some time to come.
Hello.
Where ist the Six-Card Hungarian lay-out?
Oh, let me check.
Checked a few of my posts and I can’t find it. Tell you what–I’ll do a separate mini-lesson on the Six-Card Hungarian Method, it’s a great little lay-out everyone should know.
Can you tell me what cards 37-39 mean please. ?
I assume you’re talking about the Fin de Siecle Kipper deck by Ciro Marchetti. Card #37 is Poverty, which could refer to past, present or future poverty, depending on where the card lands in the spread. It can indicate a job which pays so poorly, it isn’t enough to live on. Expenses exceed income. Depending on the cards around it, it can represent poverty of spirit.
Card #38 is Toil & Labour, depicting girls working in a 19th century textile mill. It refers to working hard, long, and exhaustingly for poor rewards, and can refer to a minimum wage job. It could indicate that whatever you want, you will have to work very hard for it–perhaps harder than whatever you want is worth to you.
Card #39 is Community, and depicts three working-class people outside some commercial establishment, such as a pub or restaurant. It can refer to anyplace where people come together for mutual support and fellowship, whether it’s a church, local tavern, public park, a civic center, or the like. It is your support network; no matter how hard life may be, you’ve got support. The cards around it could indicate what sort of support network it is referring-to. I hope all this helps.