DAILY RESIDUE: A Cartomancy Journal
Pandora Cards
Posted on Wednesday, May 20, 2009 at 10:44 pm
I was digging through my box of older and less-used decks when I came across this tiny one called Pandora Cards. I can no longer remember where I got it from, but I must have bought it close to 20 years ago judging by the decks it was stored with. It was almost like seeing it for the first time! I was honestly confused when I came upon it… lol. It’s definitely a quirky one though…
It’s published by U.S. Games in 1989 and created by Richard A. Blake and Louise Janitsch Blake. The blurb on the side of the box says, The First Steps to Overcoming Problems. I tried doing a search on it but didn’t have much luck. According to Amazon, it’s out of print. I guess it didn’t do very well?
The LWB, which is more like a little white paper, summarizes the deck as:
...a tool for self-awareness by indicating on each card a potential challenge or problem.
It then goes on to say that these cards are for making us aware of the feelings and circumstances that affect our daily life so that we can improve and protect ourselves.
From what I can see, the cards mostly portray a variety of bad character traits (the LWP calls it an emotion or expression of denial). There are 56 cards total, and one of them is actually a blank so that readers can fill it in with a problematic trait of their own if the cards didn’t cover it. As you can see from the pictures, it’s pretty simple looking with a keyword to represent the problem and a little devil to enact the scenario.
In the pack, there are 2 “Hope” cards. To read, you would first draw the cards at random until you get a Hope card and then draw one more, which would be the one that’s representing the problem you need to solve. On a whim, I decided to give it a try… except I ended up drawing 4 cards instead of just one. I figured I have lots of problems… heh. Here’s what I got!
Well. For those who have been reading my posts on work-related problems, this would come as no surprise. :p Frustration, Deceit, Spite, Stagnation. YES on all accounts. I was expecting the cards to show me problems within myself or my character though, but I guess it’s talking about external problems I’ve been dealing with instead.
Looking at this, I’m not sure how these cards are going to help me overcome said issues being that it’s supposed to be a problem-solving tool. I guess it might be useful for people who don’t know what the problems are and need a bit of guidance in the right direction. Here, it’s unfortunately just re-emphasizing problems I already know… and ones that I have no control over to boot. Still, it’s an interesting deck in its own right. At the very least, it’s quite different from anything else I have- plus I had a good laugh over some of the cards. :D
Has anyone heard of or used these before?
Subscribe to this blog
Hi,
I have been looking for those cards, but just recently I found the actual name. I have used them in workshops and are very… how could I express it… cute buy in an annoying way ha ha ha. They’re fun when used within a group :D so you can all share your little devils. Enjoy your deck!!!