Karty Do Wróżb
Fortune Telling Cards from Poland by Ewa Hadydoń.
Karty Do Wróżb (Cards for Oracles) were published by the Państwowa Agencja Reklamowa (National Advertising Agency) in Wrocław in 1984. The graphic design is by Ewa Hadydoń, a Polish artist born in 1951. She graduated from the Państwowa Wyższą Szkołę Sztuk Plastycznych in Wrocław (today the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Fine Arts) in 1974. She has been practicing Zen since 1981 and has lived permanently in Sendai, Japan since 1989. She has been engaged in mystical Zen painting and calligraphy for a long time.
Hadydoń’s cards offer the usual themes common to Fortune Telling cards, produced in an imaginative, surrealist style, almost abstract. The minimal background detail emphasizes the symbolic imagery. In addition, the deck is divided into six categories distinguished by background colour, each category containing 6 cards:
- The cards with a yellow background represent a gallery of characters to which the possibility of divination relates: Mistress (woman), lover (man), widow, widower, soldier and judge.
- The orange category represents successful circumstances: Hope, joy, unexpected good event, gift, money, luck.
- The red category represents circumstances related to relationships: Desire, loyalty, constancy, hospitality, wedding, child.
- The green category relates to matters of the home: Home, letter (message), gossip, visit, game, journey.
- The blue cards represent unfavourable circumstances: Trouble, temptation, hypocrisy, bitterness, enemies and thieves.
- The white category shows the fatal management of adversity: Sorrow, misfortune, jealousy, falsehood, illness and death.
Above: Karty Do Wróżb Oracle Cards from Poland designed by Ewa Hadydoń, published by the Państwowa Agencja Reklamowa (National Advertising Agency) in Wrocław in 1984.
Cards measure 93x64 mm with a simple reverse side featuring the graphic motif of the heart. The pack was produced in a tight plastic case and supplemented with simple instructions on how to proceed when using the cards. The enclosed instructions also state the total production run of 200,000 copies and the original price of 140 zlotys.
By Marek Brejcha
Czech Republic • Member since June 13, 2024 • Contact
My relationship with cards grew from playing to collecting and transformed into publishing as well. I am part of the team at Counter Clockwise, a small company that publishes traditional card games.
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