Oct 22, 2013

The Great October Book Giveaway - 54 Devils by Cory Thomas Hutcheson

I'm pretty excited about this next book for several reasons.  I adore folklore in all its forms, I'm a big fan of cartomancy, and the fellow that wrote this book is a fiercely intelligent lore-seeker and one half of the super-duo that host the podcast New World Witchery.  He's also just all-around awesome AND he sent three autographed books for me to pass on to you!

I'm reading this right now and appreciating that Cory breaks down this reading system in a way that even people like me, who never really did anything with playing cards besides throwing down some "Go Fish," can understand.  I'm also drooling through the appendix of folklore, of course. 

Here's our next book:


"Fifty-Four Devils:    The Art & Folklore of Fortune-telling with Playing Cards
This brief-but-richly drawn book explores the practice of divination by playing cards—known as cartomancy. It reveals the “secrets in plain sight” which hide within the pips, kings, queens, and jokers of a standard deck. Explore one method of divination in-depth as you meet the “fifty-four devils”—the symbolic spirits of each card—and learn about invoking ancestral blessings for card readings, the folklore of playing cards, and how to relate fairy tales to a spread along the way."



There is so much folklore around practicing divination at this time of year in particular, why wouldn't you want to grab yourself this book for a Halloween treat?  And although this is a gem on its own, I found a fun companion for each copy.  As I was searching for a set of playing cards for myself (because my only deck features a long-bankrupt airline logo on it - not exactly a fortuitous sign,) I came across some really unique decks by the Bicycle playing cards company.

So - I bought some for you too!


Here's what I've got:

The Guardians deck:

 The Zombie deck:


 The Club Tattoo deck:



Here's the part we've all heard before - but once more for the newbies....

The entire lowdown on the giveaway rules is on this post, but all it takes to be in the running is for us to have bumped into each other somewhere on the interwebs.  Let me know in a comment (on this post) how we connect (no need to repeat yourself if you've left this info before) and ensure that I can track you down if you win.

Also, if there's a deck you prefer, you can let me know.  I can't guarantee you'll get the deck you want, but I'll do my best.

You've got until Saturday, October 26th at 6pm (Pacific time) to get your comment in!  Best of luck!



*all photos and descriptive text are property of New World Witchery/Cory Hutcheson and Bicycle respectively.  Photos/text are only used to promote the above products.