Saint Cyprian’s deck of cards
Using as inspiration José Leitão’s work on the Iberian tradition of Saint Cyprian, artist Natalia Lee Forty has created a unique cartomancy deck meant to enter into conversation with the longstanding Lenormand and Sibilla tradition.
“Cyprian took the deck of cards and passed them, one by one, in seven basins of holy water, each one from its own church; after this he said the Creed over them in a cross, that is, made the sign of the cross over them with his right hand. Next he passed them through the waves of the sea, wrapped seven times so as not to get them wet.
After this the cards could divine all that was happening with his family and all other things he desired. ”
Using as inspiration José Leitão’s work on the Iberian tradition of Saint Cyprian, artist Natalia Lee Forty has created a unique cartomancy deck meant to enter into conversation with the longstanding Lenormand and Sibilla tradition.
These are Bridge sized cards (57mm x 89mm), printed in colour on Eco Herbage stock with a matte finish, which includes a saddle-sewn booklet of 22 pages all presented in a tin case.
This 40-card deck uses as its foundation the Iberian baraja pack of cards, which contain 4 suits (batons, coins, swords, and cups) ranging from the Ace to 7, with three Court cards. For the illustrations, Natalia mainly surveyed José Leitão’s work on Cyprianic cartomancy, while also looking at other traditional fortunetelling and cartomancy decks.
This deck is simple in its aim, meant to be read as is, taking the card insert and the illustration to be read cohesively within a spread as ideograms, or more contemporaneously worded, pictograms.
Natalia has created the suits to sit within a Cyprianic landscape, both rural and somewhat urban. The suits are as follows: the batons reveal the outside world, the land, country. The cups reveal the inner world, contained within the home, the hearth. Conversely, the suit of coins and the suit of swords blurs these two contrasts, playing with the world contained in the home and that which is encountered outside the home.
