09/18/2025
𝑭𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝑮𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝑫𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏: 𝑫𝒊𝒔𝒄𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑴𝒚𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍 𝑺𝒊𝒅𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑪𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒔
Playing cards have existed for over a thousand year, in one form or another. It is thought that they started out in China, thought with a different composition that you may be familiar with. Over time (and through much travel) they evolved into the cards we know today. It was actually the French card makers that simplified their design into the four suits that are now standard.
Many of us grew up playing games like Go fish and Crazy Eights. And we got older we may have moved on to play games like Rummy, Crib, Hearts, and Poker. Cards are not just for games though. They have also been used for divination, also known as cartomancy; most popularly between the 18th and 20th centuries. While most are in agreement that the card suits correspond to the suits of the Minor Arcana of tarot (with the same elemental and personal correspondences), there seems to be some differing in opinion/practice when it comes to the meanings/how they are interpreted. Some systems interpret the cards as if they are the familiar Minor Arcana, while others have a list of specific meanings for each card that deviate from tarot in part or as a whole. If you would like to learn more about using laying cards for divination I recommend Playing Card Divination for Beginners by Richard Webster.
Another great use for playing cards is as a tool to develop your intuition/psychic abilities, much like Zener cards are used. Begin by shuffling the cards. Before turning over the top card place your hand on it and see if you can determine what it is. You can start small by determining the cards are red or black; recording your results to see how many you get right. Once you are comfortable with your progress you can move on to intuiting the suit, and then eventually the card itself. At first it may seem like you are guessing, but the more you practice and develop your skills you will see it is more than that.
My final thought on paying cards today, and the reason I wrote this post, is about something I saw on social media. A woman was describing how she just learned that the structure of playing cards represent our calendar (the Gregorian Calendar). I feel like I have heard this theory before, but had forgotten about it. This appears to be the case since about 1582 when the Gregorian Calendar was adopted in Europe to correct discrepancies in the previously used Julian Calendar. The correspondences to the calendar year are thus:
• Red/Black cards = Day and Night
• The 4 suits = the 4 seasons
• 13 cards of each suit = 13 lunar cycles in a year
• 12 Court Cards = the 12 months
• 52 main cards = the weeks of the year
• Additionally, if you add the value of the cards together (where Jacks = 11, Queens = 12, and Kings = 13) you get 364 days. This is where the Jokers come in. Adding one makes the full 365 days of the “normal” year, while adding both equals the 366 days of a leap year.
Other themes suggest that the court cards represent specific important historical figures, and that the suits represent varying societal/economic levels from peasants to royalty. If you would like to learn more about this you can find more information on sites like https://www.copagusa.com/blogs/product-information/history-meaning-and-uses-of-a-deck-of-playing-cards?srsltid=AfmBOoq901O5jNJ0q5HBXWPBpuz8MDESVkbJJiMlo10vrItqMaJ84RPM
𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐰 𝐌𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐧
Twitter:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheShadowMaven
Instagram: the_shadow_maven
Website: shadowmaven.ca
