The History of Cartomancy

Playing cards have always been magical. While not as ubiquitous and long tenured as dice and other means of games and gambling, card games have been a part of western culture for over 600 years. Inevitably, as soon as something gets used for games, it immediately gets used for divination and fortune-telling as well. This form of divination has been called Cartomancy and since the 15th century it has an incredibly diverse and fascinating history, one which currently sees it as the second most popular form of divination in the western world.

You can listen to The History of Cartomancy online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

The History of Cartomancy is an episode from What Magic Is This? by Douglas Batchelor.

This episode is 03:05:31 long.

This episode was published on Apr 18, 2026.

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