TITLE: Clearing the Waters
AUTHOR: Jose Leitao
PUBLISHER: Hadean Press
ISBN: 978-1914166198
PODCAST EPISODE: None
REVIEWER: Hilary Wilson
Playing cards are cheap and plentiful regardless of where one lives. There are a myriad of folk traditions surrounding them in just about every culture. One of the more mysterious traditions involves Saint Cyprian in the Iberian Peninsula. Due to translation barriers, and the complexities of research post-Inquisition, these traditions have long been a mystery in the English-speaking world. That is, until now.
CLEARING THE WATERS: A MONOGRAPH ON SAINT CYPRIAN DIVINATION FROM THE 17TH TO 19TH CENTURY (Hadean Press, 2022) is the culmination of years spent by José Leitão combing through records of the Portuguese Inquisition as a PhD student at the University of Coimbra. These court records often contain the intimate details of various divination techniques - incantations, card spreads, or even how to read the future in a scattering of beans. Through these records, he has been able to begin tracking the circulation of European texts and grimoires in the Iberian Peninsula. The bulk of his studies of folk magic and religion have focused upon the figure of Saint Cyprian of Antioch.
The Portuguese BOOK OF ST. CYPRIAN has long been known for its focus upon card divination. This focus upon cartomancy, unusually, is infamous for a pseudo-hagiographical narrative incantation which features a seven-year seafaring journey made by Saint Cyprian himself. This incantation was commonly paired with cartomancy to deduce whether or not the questioner’s love interest was remaining faithful. This odd incantation spread throughout Portugal, finding its way into other Cyprianic methodologies of divination which further muddied the waters as to its meaning and origin. Leitão sets out to solve this mystery in CLEARING THE WATERS.
Through the Portuguese Inquisition records, Leitão tracked this incantation as it spread throughout the various divinatory practices of the Iberian Peninsula to discover how it became associated primarily with contemporary Cyprianic divination. This study goes through practices as varied as hydromancy, coscinomancy, and favomancy before landing upon the more common cartomancy found within the BOOK OF ST. CYPRIAN. The analysis is concise and thorough, including a 400-year-old history of Iberian urban magic, and an analysis of the history of the Portuguese BOOK OF ST. CYPRIAN itself.
Of priceless value and interest to the academic magician are also the appendices in the back of this concise volume. Leitão has, for the first time, transcribed and translated many notes from the Portuguese Inquisition records. These sections are offered in both Portuguese and English and provide a deeper look into these historical practices and the time period itself. These resources are fascinating and invaluable, and often paired with Leitão’s own analysis of the texts which has uncovered an entire new area of study for future scholars.
AUTHOR: Jose Leitao
PUBLISHER: Hadean Press
ISBN: 978-1914166198
PODCAST EPISODE: None
REVIEWER: Hilary Wilson
Playing cards are cheap and plentiful regardless of where one lives. There are a myriad of folk traditions surrounding them in just about every culture. One of the more mysterious traditions involves Saint Cyprian in the Iberian Peninsula. Due to translation barriers, and the complexities of research post-Inquisition, these traditions have long been a mystery in the English-speaking world. That is, until now.
CLEARING THE WATERS: A MONOGRAPH ON SAINT CYPRIAN DIVINATION FROM THE 17TH TO 19TH CENTURY (Hadean Press, 2022) is the culmination of years spent by José Leitão combing through records of the Portuguese Inquisition as a PhD student at the University of Coimbra. These court records often contain the intimate details of various divination techniques - incantations, card spreads, or even how to read the future in a scattering of beans. Through these records, he has been able to begin tracking the circulation of European texts and grimoires in the Iberian Peninsula. The bulk of his studies of folk magic and religion have focused upon the figure of Saint Cyprian of Antioch.
The Portuguese BOOK OF ST. CYPRIAN has long been known for its focus upon card divination. This focus upon cartomancy, unusually, is infamous for a pseudo-hagiographical narrative incantation which features a seven-year seafaring journey made by Saint Cyprian himself. This incantation was commonly paired with cartomancy to deduce whether or not the questioner’s love interest was remaining faithful. This odd incantation spread throughout Portugal, finding its way into other Cyprianic methodologies of divination which further muddied the waters as to its meaning and origin. Leitão sets out to solve this mystery in CLEARING THE WATERS.
Through the Portuguese Inquisition records, Leitão tracked this incantation as it spread throughout the various divinatory practices of the Iberian Peninsula to discover how it became associated primarily with contemporary Cyprianic divination. This study goes through practices as varied as hydromancy, coscinomancy, and favomancy before landing upon the more common cartomancy found within the BOOK OF ST. CYPRIAN. The analysis is concise and thorough, including a 400-year-old history of Iberian urban magic, and an analysis of the history of the Portuguese BOOK OF ST. CYPRIAN itself.
Of priceless value and interest to the academic magician are also the appendices in the back of this concise volume. Leitão has, for the first time, transcribed and translated many notes from the Portuguese Inquisition records. These sections are offered in both Portuguese and English and provide a deeper look into these historical practices and the time period itself. These resources are fascinating and invaluable, and often paired with Leitão’s own analysis of the texts which has uncovered an entire new area of study for future scholars.