Browse:Run Cards (Volume 1, entries 2939–2940)
Run Cards
Volume 1, entries 2939–2940. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → SHRINES: ALTARS - CANDLES - SAINTS; NEW ORLEANS AREA → (2) CANDLES. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 2939
You can easily tell that they are candles being burned over you. You can take a - even with a deck of cards and tell when a candle's being burned over you. (How would you do that?) You take a deck of cards and if you run a deck of cards wit a queen and a jack running in diamonds - you take a deck of cards and shuffle them off, put 'em in nine piles, one time. Shuffle 'em off again and put em in piles. Shuffle 'em off again and put 'em in piles. Search the piles and see if you find any three times you run 'em off in the nine piles, three times [if] you can find that the queen and the jack are in the same pile. Then you come back with the cards in five piles and try it the same way, three times, and see if you find the queen and jack. See which one leads the other and when the deck is facing you, which one you find first more often, the queen or the jack. Then you will know a woman is burning candles. Then you will see if a woman have any candles burning on you. Now, your way to get them out. You'll have to make a novena yourself against that, and burn a candle against that. But keep yours in a continous burning and when your candle is out, be sure that it don't go out until it burns out. And when your candle burn out, then the candle against you will go out, unless. (About those cards you spoke about. If the queen comes first more often, then a woman is burning the candles?) Then a woman is burning the candles.
(If the jack comes first, then a man is burning the candles?)
Then a man is burning the candles.
(I wanted to make certain I understood that.)
That's right.
Entry 2940
If a person is burning a candle against you, you don't know exactly who it is. All right, you get you a deck of new cards. This candle, well you name 'um - you name the candle, just say, like if you take hearts or diamonds or what- ever you want to call it. You run them cards three times - you cut and run 'em three times. Understand? All right. And if it shows up what you running on in them three cuts, you lay 'em down - don't play 'em. It's regular old playing deck of cards like you go to the drug store and buy. You run them three times, the deck, and you lay 'em down and go out about your business. Well, tomorrow, you run 'em three times again, see. And if they running the same thing [you run them the third day], you run 'em nine times - that'll be three days. And if they run the same thing [on the third day], all right you lay 'em there. If they don't run the same thing, it's certain. You understand. If they run the same thing, it's just like if you put your hand on something and knows when something is going on. If you put your hand on and feel it, why you know it's moved; well if it ain't - if it don't move and you got your hand on it and you don't feel it, why you know it ain't moved. So, that's the way that goes.