About Reading Playing Cards.
Cartomancy is any fortunetelling method using cards, this practice goes back for hundreds of years. This includes readings with playing cards, tarot cards, oracle cards or any kind of cards. The first appearance of playing cards in Europe was within the eleventh century. But the true origins and source of the playing cards are genuinely lost to history.
Our modern playing cards have some fascinating facts about them. There are 52 weeks in a year, 52 cards in a pack, there are 4 seasons, the playing cards also have 4 suits. The symbols on the playing cards the hearts, spades, clubs and diamonds are called the pips. In a standard set of playing cards, if you count all the pips (symbols) within the entire deck they add up to 365 pips, the exact same number of days within the year!
Traditionally the person who’s cards are being read is called the questioner, another name for the questioner is the querent. The person interpreting the meanings of the cards is called the reader or seer. In most forms of Cartomancy the querent is asked to select a specific number of cards by the reader.
The cards chosen are then placed in a pattern called the spread. So for instance, a very simple spread would be just 3 cards, laid down in a horizontal line. The card in the 1st position indicates the past in the questioner’s life, the 2nd position card would indicate right now, in the present, the 3rd position card would indicate the nearby future. There are thousands of spreads that exist, and more being created every single day!
Personally, I began my career as a reader by learning to read playing cards first. There are dozens of methods to read playing cards but the 3 most commonly used methods would be:
- The 52 card English method, includes meanings for each card in the deck.
- The 36 card French method, that eliminates the 2, 3, 4 & 5 cards.
- The 32 card Italian method, that eliminates the 2, 3, 4, 5, & 6 cards.
How The Cards Are Interpreted
The suits of the cards represent different areas of our everyday life:
- The Hearts ruling over love life & friendship.
- The Diamonds over our financial life & career.
- The Clubs are related to ideas & projects.
- The Spades are related to delays & challenges.
The face cards, the Kings, Queens & Jacks represent the various people within our lives. The numbered cards, give clues to timing of events. For instance, the aces represent a new phase that is just starting, an ace represents a new beginning, while the tens represent endings or the completion of an older phase.
An added layer of meaning can also be discovered by paying attention to the groups of cards that show up as well. So if there are several diamonds within the clients spread, that would likely indicate the reading is related to financial matters. If there were many aces that showed up within the spread, this would suggest that there are lots of new beginnings within the client’s life!
The missing cards also provide a picture of the situation, if a client is asking about a new project and most of the cards are wands, and diamonds but there are no spade cards, and the suit of spades is completely missing from the reading, this would indicate that the path is clear of delays & challenges and would be a very positive sign!
