READING WITH THE SIBILLA CARDS
The Sibilla deck lends itself well to what I call ‘big-block’ readings. ‘Mini-Grand Tableau’ spreads, where you’re laying out four rows of four cards, four rows of five cards, five rows of five cards, five rows of seven cards, or any variation on that theme, then reading each row horizontally like a sentence. For those readers familiar with the classic Celtic Cross, these cards also work with that lay-out (and I will cover that lay-out in a future lesson), but I like doing the big-block sort of readings with the Sibilla.
The Sibilla does not have any cards clearly intended to serve as significator cards like the Kipper deck does, so for those lay-outs which do require a significator, the reader is encouraged to select a significator which most-closely represents the inquirer. A business person would be represented by the Merchant card. A military person, the soldier card. A married woman, the Wife card. Any female under forty could be represented by the Young Woman card. An elderly person by the Old Woman card. I like using this deck with the 25-card lay-out I’ve devised. I also like using it in another lay-out, one which doesn’t require a significator card to be chosen, which appears below:
In this layout, the two columns on the left are the past, the two columns in the middle are the present situation, and the two columns on the right are the future. You read this spread by starting at the top of the two left-hand columns and work your way down, reading them as pairs. You then proceed to the two present columns and read them the same way, then the two right-hand columns. This lay-out is good practice in learning how to read the Sibilla cards as pairs, and learning to integrate their separate meanings into one coherent message. Sometimes, you may even find three or four cards will be working together on the same message. This lay-out is a good first lay-out to use when learning the Sibilla.
Though the Sibilla deck contains some rather antiquated images on many of the cards, their message relates to things people in every era can relate to–victories, defeats, emotions, enemies, friends, character strengths and character flaws, to name a few. May they bring you enlightenment and encouragement!
EXERCISES
- Do a three-card lay-out with this deck. Did you get any useful information, or is a three-card lay-out, in your judgement, insufficient information with the Sibilla?
- Do the Six-Card Hungarian lay-out with this deck. Is this spread any better than the three-card spread?
- Do the Mimir’s Head lay-out, which I covered in an earlier lesson, with this deck. That’s the seven-card lay-out. Is this a good spread to use with the Sibilla?
- Do two big-block lay-outs; your choice of either nine-card, sixteen-card, twenty-card, twenty-five card, or thirty-five card lay-outs. Remember, these are read as horizonal rows. Note the answers you get for each, then answer these questions: Did the larger of the two big-block lay-outs yield any more useful information than the smaller one did? Is bigger necessarily better with the Sibilla deck? Did the big-block layouts seem to address more than one issue? Did the narrative fall apart at some point?
EXTRA CREDIT: Read either the six-column example lay-out in the picture above, or the big-block layout at the beginning of this lesson. You will notice they are the exact same cards, but spaced differently. How does the different way in which they are laid-out and read, change the meaning?
SUGGESTED READING
Murray, M. Jacqueline. Gypsy Oracle Cards: A Handbook for Interpreting the Sibilla Della Zingara. Italy: Lo Scarabeo Press, 2017. ISBN: 978-8883957857.
Though it focuses on the Zingara Sibilla deck specifically, the Sibilla deck which I used in this lesson, this book gives a good, thorough introduction to the meanings and associations with each of the Sibilla cards, as well as discussing lay-outs to use with the Sibilla deck. Available through Amazon.com.
Thank your for this post, this is amazing and very helpful! 🙂 Unfortunately there is very few material about Sibilla cards out there.
The Sibilla deck isn’t as famous as the Tarot deck, but it seems to be getting a little more attention in recent years. I know of at least one card reader/psychic on YouTube who uses them.
I do not know anyone on youtube that use them. Could you send me the link? In Brazil many people use Sibilla, but it seems people do not teach much about how to use them. I’ve seen a series of videos from a brazilian sibilla reader that helped me a lot, but I still like to look for other sources.
Thanks so very much for sharing your knowledge!! I’m just beginning Sibilla and simply love your willingness to help others learn. 🤗
You’re quite welcome! It’s odd–I’ve never wanted to be a teacher, but when it comes to the subject of divination, I have this odd tendency to slip into teacher-mode. I’ve been a ‘collector’ of various divination methods over the years, and I enjoy sharing them with others.
One psychic card reader on YouTube, who only goes by the name of Marie (her YouTube channel is called Marie’s Table), sometimes uses Sibilla Cards, although she calls them by the ‘brand-name’ of her particular Sibilla deck, the ‘Gypsy Oracle Cards’. Her YouTube channel is at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBwF07inC7P3z5tsSPNNHtw. I hope this helps!
She really seems to use it a lot. The problem is that she only reads about Trump lol.
Sadly, he’s a huge target for readings these days! I look forward to the day when he’s just a distant memory, and not a big focus of concern. I like it when Marie uses the Gypsy Oracle Card Sibilla deck, because those, I have a pretty-good grasp of.
Indeed. I found out some people are making many readings about Bolsonaro in Brazil as well. They are more accurante than the ones of Mary. I feel Mary often shuffles it wrongly and doesn’t formulate good questions…”What’s going on with Trump?” It is such a vague question in my opinion…
Hello, look for Tom Benjamin and Kelly The Truth in Story in YOU TUBE, both read and have some teaching there with Sibillas.
Thanks for the tip!
Discovered Lenormands and Sibillas just a few months back after many years of being a Tarot chick and, they’re just neat. I’ve personally enountered three different systems, the Vera Sibilla, the Sibilla Indovina, which is the one I seem to be clicking with, but that might just be a function of more attractive artwork on the cards and… the Gypsy Witch Fortune Telling Playing cards/Maybe Lenormand, which has the most variation from the other two. My guess is that Mlle Lenormand was most likely using plain vanilla playing cards for her readings. They’re an old tried and true, after all.
Not to be contrary, but some Sibilla cards are “numbered” both “Salons” and “La Vera” use regular playing card suits and numbering. The Gypsy Oracle or Sibilla “Ze…” something isn’t numbered, and that is the one you are using here.
For people learning, I think this is a very important distinction that doesn’t seem to come across in your article. If I missed where that information was put in I do apologize.
I know you did mention there are other versions of the deck. But you state with some conviction that Sibilla cards aren’t numbered and that just isn’t true.
Ah, I was unaware of that. Thank you for setting me straight. And you’re right; it’s an important distinction which I should have been aware of before posting. Clearly I will need to re-visit and revise that article sometime soon.
I now use the Sibilla almost exclusively as it delivers the exact kind of details my clients are looking for. Just as an aside traditionally the significators are the two Lovers (Jack and Queen of Hearts). I recoiled in horror at the thought of using the Soldier as a significator! Totally understand your reasoning though as there is very little out there so it’s a kind of feel your way along experience and of course whatever works for you is the best way to do it! There is a good (debated) book in English called Italian Cartomancy by Alessandra Venturi, which, if it is arguable about whether her method is truly traditional, at least gives a native Italian reader’s take on the Sibilla. It has lots of info not found elsewhere. The problems with it are a) It’s difficult to find and b) she gives no reading methods, just an in-depth look at each card, upright and reversed. Apparently the methods will be explained in the next book, which hasn’t appeared. There’s also some controversy about her traditional meaning of the Peacock or Pridefulness card (2 Clubs). Some traditionalists view this as a highly negative card, but Venturi reads it as one of the most positive cards in the deck. After observing my readings I have found the latter to be the case, but some of her other meanings didn’t ring true to me. However, lacking anything better this is probably the best source on card meanings. I just wish the author would release an ebook version and also publish the next two promised books in the series which deal with the methods and combinations.
I really love this deck, although I use the more traditional version mentioned in the comments above as it has the card values which add to my interpretations. Before I discovered the Venturi book I used to sit and pull 5 cards from the deck before pressing play on a true crime show and seeing if I could figure out the murderer. I learned a lot that way and it’s great fun. Like the tarot the traditional meanings are great to know, but your own observations alongside is the best way to go.
Also I use the line of 5 or 7 mostly, although the 9 card box works well. I hadn’t thought about trying a bigger block, but I’m certainly going to give it a go. I have found that Lenormand techniques such as mirroring work great with the Sibilla too, though I know some people will read this and recoil at THAT 😀
Thank you for the information! That’s what I like about the Sibilla deck, and the Kipper deck as well–they get into the nitty-gritty details of people’s lives. They don’t call for people to do any deep, meditative thought, they just show people what is going on in their world, right here and right now, and that is what most people want, I think. If at all, the Soldier card would be a significator *only* for a very specific sort of client, one who has made a career of the military. I can understand your recoiling at the idea of using it as a significator for anybody.
Sorry! Love to share info and I forgot to say that Venturi also introduced me to the concept of strong and weak suits. Hearts and Spades are strong and Clubs and Diamonds are weak, barring a few exceptions (for example the Peacock being highly fortunate despite being in Clubs). The strong suits overpower the weaker and are given much more prominence in a reading. It helps me pull out nuance for a reading I would never have gotten otherwise. Of course you need the other, more traditional deck, with the card numbers to be able to use this unless you have an excellent memory. And one final tip. There are two versions of the traditional deck, both have the card inserts, but one has the little pictures like we’re used to while the other, made for the Italian market, simply has a letter and the number. This can be confusing for new readers as C is not Clubs it’s Hearts (Cuore), F is Clubs etc so it’s another thing you need to memorise. Much easier for a beginner to get the other deck.