If you ever held a deck of cards in your hand, you most certainly tried to predict their random order. People seem to have always been fascinated by these simple representations of numbers and symbols. Ever since they came out in Europe some time during the 14th century, they have been used to foretell different things.

Although it is one of the most common and widespread methods of divination, not much is known about the origins of cartomancy. Apart from the fact that cards have been around of over 6 centuries, we know next to nothing about how this practice was born. However, it is generally believed that cartomancy originated somewhere in Western Asia (China most likely because that's where the first playing cards are thought to have emerged) and that it traveled from there to Egypt and then to North Africa, and finally, to Europe (Spain to be more precise) somewhere around 1379.

It is unclear if at first they were used as playing cards or to tell the future, but we do know that the Spanish called them naibi which means "to foretell". They quickly became popular throughout Europe that, by the 18th century, everyone was relying on them to look into the future, which caused fortune tellers to make quite a pretty penny (consequently, a lot of con artists appeared on the "market").

Although there are many variations of the number of cards and their symbols, the normal playing card deck today is a representation of the French model, that uses 52 cards divided into four suits (clubs, hearts, spades and diamonds). These are the most common and widespread, but throughout the world you're going to find many other designs (Germany, Switzerland, Spain and Italy all have alternate suits - and that's just in Europe, we're not going to talk about the Chinese symbols that brought about Mahjong bricks).

The numbered cards are known as pip cards and the others as face cards. The face cards are an European invention and resemble royal characters as they were invented by higher class players in the medieval times. Each card, each suit and each number has its own significance in fortune telling, but we're going to talk about that a little later.

People who use cards to predict the future are called (what else?) "card readers" or "cartomancers" (but that's a bit of a mouthful, so we'll stick with the first) and they specialize in interpreting various signs from card combinations in order to predict the future. Just about any deck of cards can be used for fortune-telling (in America the normal 52 deck of cards is used) but there are special decks, with special symbols that have been created for the sole purpose of predicting the future. These are known as tarot cards. True fortune tellers believe that a tarot deck should not be used for other purposes (other games, that is), while other go as far as saying that no one but the owner should ever touch the deck (boy! they sure do like to keep things mysterious).

This is just a short introduction into the world of card-playing and its significance. But rest assured, we're going to tell you more about the secret arts of reading the cards, just you wait and see, I mean read.