Playing Cards Not Only for Games

Those 52 Symbols Have Deeper Meanings and Uses

Sep 11, 2007 Deborah Leigh Ketner

An ordinary deck of playing cards can represent an Almanac and The Bible, while serving as an amazing tool for intuitively interpreting some of Life's greatest mysteries.

Does it matter how playing cards found their way into modern civilization? Probably not.

Whether they originated as a means for playing games of chance or skill, gambling or for divinational purposes is unclear. It’s highly doubtful whether historians will ever agree on any one theory, given the amount of mystery and conjecture surrounding the subject of playing cards and their origins in general.

Some facts do become clear, however, from study of the subject.

Playing Cards and the Calendar

An interesting relationship exists between playing cards and the calendar which many find fascinating as they begin to learn cartomancy. For instance, there are:

• Twelve face (or court) cards, directly relating to the twelve months of the year and the twelve signs of the zodiac.
• Two colors to the deck - red and black - matching the two halves of the year (summer solstice and winter equinox).
• The four suits - Diamonds, Clubs, Hearts and Spades - match the four seasons of the year.
• Thirteen cards in each suit to match the 13 weeks of each season.
• Deck holds 52 cards just as there are 52 weeks in a year.
• All of the spots on the cards in the deck equal 365, the number of days in a year.

Consider Karl Palmen's Playing Card Calendar.

Playing cards and The Bible

It has also been said that playing cards bear a direct relationship to the Bible.

For example:

• Ace = One God in Heaven.
• Two = The Bible's two sections, the Old and the New Testament.
• Three = The Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.
• Four = The four evangelists of the Gospel: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
• Five = The five wise maidens who were ready to go with their lamps trimmed with oil and that five foolish maidens were shut out.
• Six = God's creation of the world in six days.
• Seven = The Sabbath.
• Eight = The eight people who were saved after the flood: Noah, his wife, his three sons and their three wives.
• Nine = The ten lepers that Jesus cleansed; One came back to give thanks and nine did not.
• Ten = The Ten Commandments.
• The King = One King of Kings and Lord of Lords in Heaven.
• The Queen = The Virgin Mary who conceived through the Holy Spirit.
• The Jack of Spades = Satan, the Dark Force in life.

Read more on the historical use of playing cards in A Soldier's Prayer Book.

Playing Cards and Divination

The four suits of the deck are often thought to parallel the four elements of the universe: Water, Fire, Earth and Air. When the cards are shuffled, as in the elemental process of Creation, the results are said to be the forming of the future.

There are considered to be at least three popular methods of reading playing cards:

• The English method, which uses the entire deck. The joker, when it presents itself in readings conducted by this method is said to indicate that the future is filled with riddles the recipient must solve on the road to happiness and personal fulfillment.
• The Italian/French method, which does not use any of the cards from the suits under the number seven.
• La Baraja Espanola – or Spanish Deck – which consists of 40 cards minus the eights and nines. In many ethnic circles, this is the deck considered most useful for gaming and perceiving the future.

Through these intriguing applications, a deck of playing cards can represent an almanac, the Bible and also make it possible for intuitively interpreting answers to your own most pressing personal questions.

The copyright of the article Playing Cards Not Only for Games in New Age is owned by Deborah Leigh Ketner. Permission to republish Playing Cards Not Only for Games in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Playing cards aren't just for games