Playing cards, used by inmates in jails for card games, are now being used to get help on cold cases. Each of the 52 playing cards contains information about a murder, a missing person or another unsolved crime. While this topic is not about card divination, I find it fascinating that cards are being used to generate information that would not otherwise be known. Read about it here. The article also shows that the rules concerning use of tarot and other cards in prison cells is not consistent across the prison system (see this post on the use of tarot cards as a religious item in a prison).
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Mary K. Greer has made tarot her life work. Check here for reports of goings-on in the world of tarot and cartomancy, articles on the history and practice of tarot, and materials on other cartomancy decks. Sorry, I no longer write reviews. Contact me
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March 17, 2009 at 7:18 pm
Kirsten
Interesting! Cards with the 52 most wanted in Iraq as their “faces” were used by US soldiers there. And I believe during WWII playing cards were created for Allied soldiers with silhouettes of different planes to help them learn to recognize them.
March 19, 2009 at 10:52 am
mkg
Kirsten – Your observation points out the use of gambling and card playing to bring otherwise unknown information to light. This also goes along with the identification of personality characteristics and awareness of events that the cards have also always been used for.
March 20, 2009 at 11:21 am
David Alan Richards
That’s smart. It’s pychologically a lot more significant then putting a poster on the wall. Not only do the cards get more viewing time, but the prisoners associate the cards with stimulating and fun card games, so they’re more likely to be receptive to whatever’s on them. That’s how TV ads work.