Zigeuner Wahrsagekarten – 12 card Trigger Layout

Dear Friends: Thank you for all your kind well wishes for my granddaughter Katja. All is Good.

In todays’ post I will be using one of my favourite decks in the Trigger Layout. The Zigeuner Wahrsagekarten or Gipsy fortune-telling cards. Sometimes you just don’t want to do a full board Reading. It does get overwhelming trying to interpret all 36 cards. This is exactly why I designed this simple layout.

You have an option as far as time frames with this layout. Prior to shuffling decide what time frame you want to use in Columns 3 & 4. Remove the Sweetheart (if female) or the Lover (if male) from the deck.  Lay the cards according to the image below:

I always scan the Trigger row (middle) first to get a feel of the situation. I don’t talk about this row right away. I usually start at Column 1 – Past

Note: You don’t have to use the Sweetheart or the Lover cards. You can pick any card out of the deck which you think represents your situation. Also, you can decide not to pick any card at all and that’s ok, too. The cards will tell you what it is you need to know at the time of shuffle.

Isn't the fortune-telling mouse cute?

TRIGGER row – 5, YOU, 6, 7. LOSS. SWEETHEART. DESIRE. FALSENESS

This row is the essence of the reading, the rest of the cards will describe or explain to you what surrounds the essence or core theme. When you read these cards you will get a good glimpse at the entire layout.  The remaining cards are the details surrounding the TRIGGER cards.

LOSS. SWEETHEART. DESIRE. FALSENESS.

Let’s keep the interpretations real simple. A female who in the recent past experienced some sort of shortcoming in a situation or an actual loss is yearning for things which may not be in her best interest. These 4 cards are powerful. We need to find out what lead up to them and what followed them. That’s just one way to Read these cards.

To be continued in the next post Part 2

Interpreting Zigeuner Wahrsagekarten cards

The Enemy As a Situation card:

ENEMY

The ENEMY cards suggests a situation is around you which appears to be not in your best interest.  It could be someone who is not what they seem.  More than likely these circumstances have a way of lingering on around us even though we don’t realize it.  Often emotional strings still remain even if the person or situation has left our immediate lifestyle.

Death as a Recent Past card:

DEATH

The DEATH card is either welcomed or feared.  Since it falls in the spot of recent past this means the energy is departing out of your life. Something (job) or someone (relationship) no longer serves a good purpose in your life and it is just as well it will be part of the recent past.  The death card suggests the elimination of things which no longer are productive or fruitful like a dead end job or dead beat relationship.

Widow as the To Come in the Near Future card:

Even though the WIDOW card doesn’t give the impression it is a joyous immediate future it means you could feel down only for a short time. It also suggests making new connections which as an outsider initially are challenging to do.  As the pending energy card the widow suggests you will be just fine and shouldn’t push anything.

The best advice would be to allow the natural flow of situations.  Whatever the cycle is it will develop into a new one within a few months (always keep the final card in mind when giving such advice).

Journey as the Result or Outcome card:

JOURNEY

What’s the outcome?  You will embark on a trip. The  JOURNEY card does indicate actual travel (trip or change in location) away from that something or someone which is slowly passing out of your life. You will leave behind what has ended or ceased to exist in a way to give you happiness.  If you move (home or job) you will have new beginning but will more than likely have to sever some other ties of past familiarity.

People and situations are in our lifestyle but when change comes knocking on the door (as is represented by the death card) we usually say good bye to aspects of certain connections. Often parts of our personality die and are reborn much stronger.

Widower + Widow

Widow

Widower

These 2 Zigeuner Wahrsagekarten cards are similar in meaning. Obviously the Widower represents a male and the Widow a female.  How would you read these cards if they are side by side in a layout?  There are a variety of combinations.

Actually they can suggest a couple. Both people may have lost partners either through divorce or death and they have joined for companionship in their latter years.  The couple can be younger as well with a similar history.

In the images the people are facing each other which means there is an amicable connection if we just study these 2 cards as if they were a 2 card draw.  A situation could have brought these two people together which was a tragedy or unpleasant experience.

They may actually be both attending the same funeral and are saddened by the loss of a friend/ loved one.

Let’s suppose you were thinking of love or romance when you drew these cards.  The suggestion is that you and the person you are thinking about have been estranged and neither of you is very happy about it.  There is hope that you will speak to each other again. You have a common interest which will bring you back together.

If you were thinking about a change of job these two cards would indicate a slow process. The timing could be off and maybe your reasons for wanting this change is rooted in a personal unhappiness rather than with the job.  These two cards can suggest being interviewed by a man and woman who have no sense of humour.  It’s strictly business with no room for expressing any human emotion.

The Widower and Widow are loyal people.  They are both a lot stronger than they appear.

Sweetheart + Widow duo

In our example today I am displaying an older version of the Zigeuner Wahrsagekarten which has 7 languages.

Sweetheart with Widow as crossing card

This layout is the simple two card draw.  Let’s suppose a female drew the cards.  The fact that the female significator card, SWEETHEART was the 1st card tells me that there will be some personal and pressing issues to address.  The female will probably need to spend some time alone (WIDOW) to do some soul searching about a matter which may have involved the loss of something or someone. She could be depressed or feeling out of sorts and not her usually cheery self.  She will be facing her demons head on.

This would be one way of interpreting this duo.  There are other meanings.

Another equally correct interpretation is that the WIDOW card can also represent a significant female who could involve the person in conversations about some problems.  There will be a sharing of feelings and a sharing of stories.  There could actually be a funeral involved.  At this point I would probably draw another card for clarification of the WIDOW card.

More often than not the sibilla style cards represent situations.  In some cases the card can identify a person.  In our example both delineations could be happening at the same time.  The WIDOW  might trigger some emotional responses which come from a conversation with another lady.

The female drawing this duo will know of the WIDOW’s circumstances before the selection of the cards.  This card is powerful and it’s influence is usually felt prior to the situation.  As a card reflecting one’s emotional state it suggests intensity and various degrees of self experience.

UPDATE: As an add on to this example (actually a real life situation), the female (SWEETHEART) received devastating news delivered by an older woman (supervisor & divorced) that her services are no longer needed at her place of employment.  Yes, the female will be doing some soul searching because she will need to secure another job.  One of the reasons this situation pains (WIDOW) her so much is that it feels like a death of sorts – an ending filled with grief.

Widow

One of the meanings of the Widow card is mourning. Something has or will come to an end. It will cause the deep expression of sorrow. Not all things that come to an end cause mourning and at times a person can feel relief if it is an oppressive or victimizing situation. In that case, this card means a finalization, putting things to rest or burying your past.

When you become detached from someone or some situation you have to let it go. The more you hold on, the more it hurts. Experiencing sadness affects people differently. There are shades of sadness as there are stages in mourning. When the Widow card comes up and is right beside the Sweetheart or Lover card there is a very good chance that the person is grieving. Not in all cases but in most. The Widow card indicates a profound loss. If the person loses sight of the fact that endings are part of life, the pain will haunt them and they cannot move forward. Acceptance is important.

The image shows a woman in a cemetery. She is paying homage to a cross and the ground beneath her where her loved one is buried. She does not realize that it is too late to say all the things that she is silently whispering. The regrets will eat away at her and erode her heart. She should have spoken her mind when the person was alive. This card warns of being sorry for some action taken.

Does the woman in the picture feel a sense of obligation? Do you feel obligated to go through a situation that is depicted in the surrounding cards. Is it your duty? When this card is near the Misfortune card it indicates a pending trauma through some bad news or unforeseen catastrophe. There is a twist of events that will make it difficult to think clearing. Getting stuck in the news.

When the Widow card is beside the Love card it presages that your romantic relationship will become barren of emotions and could very well produce a tear or two. The person is not capable of depth partly because of past experiences and the baggage that is still left over from that.

Coupled with the Journey card there will be some travel necessary probably to come to the assistance of someone who is very lonely and quite possibly depressed. Maybe it’s a funeral.

The Widow card represents a divorcee as well and has aspects of the Queen of Swords in the Tarot- who has known a tough life but at the same time remains emotionally detached while fulfilling her duties and the demands that she faces in her life. In some ways, the Lenormand Scythe card can be linked to the Widow card in that there is a severance of “something”.

Very often the Widow card will signify a woman without an emotionally connected partner. She would be the type of person that does not allow people to get close to her out of the fear of getting hurt.

When the Widow card is next to the House card, grief come to the home and family- an unexplainable event.

If you asked a question about getting pregnant and the Widow comes up as the answer- there is a strong likelihood that you cannot conceive without further medical advice.

One more thing, the Widow card suggests that you are alive but not living life.