Science of the Cards



A Little History

The Book of Destiny, often referred to as the Destiny Cards, the Book of Life, the Cards of Life, the Mystic Cards and the Science of the Cards, is an ancient esoteric science that has been kept secret for centuries. Mystical orders in existence since before ancient Egypt have carefully preserved this information until it was time to be released to the public. That time is now.

Olney H. Richmond was the self-appointed Grand Master of the Order of the Magi and in the 1890’s released the Mystic Test Book, which began to reveal this system.

In 1947, Edith L. Randall and Florence Evylinn Campbell printed their book, Sacred Symbols of the Ancients, The Mystical Significance of our Fifty Two “Playing” Cards and Their Amazing Connection with our Individual Birthdays.

In the early 1970’s Arne Lein was making some fascinating predictions with the cards. Robert Lee Camp has also published books and online courses to teach his system of the cards. There are so many wonderful people who are using and teaching the cards that I wish to mention here. Many authors include Saffi Crawford and Geraldine Sullivan, Gina Jones, Sharon Jeffers, and Tom Morrell. Joseph Jacobs has been utilizing the cards to enlighten individuals for many years. Iain McLaren-Owens has some very advanced card methods and has been working with and expanding on this system for over 40 years.

Accessing many new and old sources of information has led me to learn there may be some pieces of the system that go deeper and are very advanced. The more information available means a deeper and more detailed reading. From my own experience and those of my colleagues, we do know this system is extremely accurate.

There have been many mysteries hidden in the cards to keep the mystical teachings moving forward. The history of the cards is said to date back over 20,000 years. Does it tie back to Ancient Egypt or tie closely with the Mayan and Aztec calendars and the Chaldean numerology system? Or is a gift channeled to Olney Richmond at a time when we were ready for this kind of information? Where did this Science of the Cards really come from and how far back does it go? I don’t think anyone really knows this answer. It doesn’t really matter. What matters is the amazingly accurate information and guidance we receive from the Destiny Cards. That information is changing lives and helping us in our journey in life.

This is powerful system for both prediction and self-understanding. You can learn about your past, present and future with this system. Although very complex, a layperson will get value from the books and will be able to do simple interpretations for themselves, friends and family.

The Book of Destiny System

This system uses a regular deck of playing cards. It is based on numerology, astrology and the science of the cards. Unlike tarot or oracle readings, these cards have a special position for every year of your life, which includes your Life Spread that covers your entire lifetime, and a Spiritual Spread that tells you about yourself prior to your incarnation on this planet. Each year the cards change position to give you insight into the influences the cards bring.

The numbers on the cards have significance in their own right as well as the court cards. Each suit, Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds and Spades, gives meaning to each card. The position the card holds in the Grand Solar Spread has significance as to their planetary influences.

As the cards change positions each year, their planetary influence will also change separate from the planetary influence of the row or column they appear. All of these things combine together to interpret your reading.

The Deck is a Calendar

There are many significant relationships for a deck of cards that are common with our calendar and numerology. There are four suits of thirteen cards each totaling 52. There are 52 weeks in a year. If you add 5 + 2 = 7, seven is the number of days in a week and a spiritual number that is considered magical in numerology. Based on the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, which were the seven visible planets seen in ancient times, the astrologists mapped out 52 cycles that we now call our weeks.

If you add up each of the numbers from all four suits of the cards, counting Jacks as 11, Queens as 12 and Kings as 13 you will get 364. Then add the Joker at one and one-quarter, which represents 1/4 for each suit and 1/4 for itself you will get 365 1/4 which is the actual number of days in a year.

The twelve court cards represent the twelve months of the year. The four suits represent the four seasons of Spring (Hearts), Summer (Clubs), Autumn (Diamonds) and Winter (Spades).