Judy Mayer’s $6.8 million fortune was not cast by a crystal ball, but by a deck of tarot cards and a bit of “women’s intuition.” Mayer won the jackpot using five of the six numbers she obtained during a tarot reading in 2005.

“She didn’t tell me I was going to win a substantial amount of money. Sometimes they hit on the right things, sometimes they don’t,” Mayer, 56, said yesterday after claiming Manitoba’s latest multi-million dollar lottery jackpot.

Mayer carried the psychic’s business card, on which her numbers were scribbled, inside her purse. Last Wednesday, when she entered the numbers for her ticket, she decided to change the last one. Her instinct earned her a windfall.

John Matheson of Western Canada Lottery Corp. said that he had seen people pick their winning numbers in a lot of different ways, but doesn’t recall anyone using Tarot cards.

Cartomancy is a form of fortune-telling or divination using a deck of cards. The practice was observed as early as the 14th century, when playing cards came into use in Europe. Some practioners (readers) claim that the origins of cartomancy date back to the ancient Egyptians, where the art was derived from the wisdom given by the scribe god, Thoth.

The most popular form of card readings during the 18th through the 20th centuries involved a standard deck of cards. Although they are still used for cartomancy, other decks have been designed specifically for use for divination, best known as tarot cards.

Tarot decks differ from the standard decks in that they contain more cards. A tarot deck consists of 22 Major Arcana (hidden things) and 56 Minor Arcana cards. Both decks are popular with cartomancy practitioners today.

Playing Cards and Their Meanings

Aeclectic Tarot