Playing Cards

diane drizzy

So, I've read all the posts everyone's replied to about playing cards. I got several books also (and there aren't too many!). I guess my question is what methods are people using? The easiest one I'm finding is to simply follow the minor arcana and the jacks stand in for knights. Any suggestions or methods? I'd really like to become more skilled with them. :)
 

Fulgour

ONE method

In fortune telling by means of an ordinary deck, it is usual to
discard the deuces, threes, fours, fives, and sixes of each suit,
with the remaining cards thus forming the piquet pack of 32.
 

Lee

Fulgour said:
In fortune telling by means of an ordinary deck, it is usual to
discard the deuces, threes, fours, fives, and sixes of each suit,
with the remaining cards thus forming the piquet pack of 32.
This is one method of reading with playing cards. There are plenty of people, now and in the past, who read with the whole deck.

-- Lee
 

zorya

hi diane, it's a real advantage to be able to pick up a deck of playing cards and be able to read with them. you can even do a reading in front of someone, while they just think you are playing a new kind of solitaire!

playing cards have been around a long time, and several different methods of interpreting them have developed.

some methods read like some of the fortune telling decks of the past, with 'tall dark strangers' etc.

i use the whole pack, the courts i read as king, queen and the jack more like the knight than the page.

the pips i interpret by combining their suit with numerology. i do find i read more love into the hearts than i necessarily do with the tarot's cups. :)

here is a link to an index of numerology threads that might interest you; http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11533
 

diane drizzy

Thanks so much guys!
All your responses have been helpful. :)
 

Luminessence

For the court cards, I read the King as the perfected form of the energy of the suit, the Queen as the receptive form, and the Jack as the immature but enthusiastic form - loosely speaking, of course.

For the pips, I combine the elemental meaning of the suit with the numerological meaning of the card number. I use conventional numerology, not tarot-style numerology - there are some differences.

So, for example, a 7 can represent reflection, analysis, searching for knowledge. So the 7 of Spades - 7+Air - would mean studying, learning, and analyzing information, while the 7 of Clubs - 7+Fire - would probably indicate a spiritual quest and searching for truth within yourself.

I'd really like to experiment with playing card readings some more. Reading with playing cards is really challenging for me, but in a fun way :)
 

Nevada

Lee said:
This is one method of reading with playing cards. There are plenty of people, now and in the past, who read with the whole deck.
I use the whole deck. I practiced using playing cards for several weeks during the past year, and it worked great. The only thing was, I missed the artwork. Just an aesthetic thing, really. But now that I know I can do this, I'll feel that I can read nearly anywhere there's a deck of cards, rather than thinking I can't because I don't have a Tarot deck with me.

It's also a good way to read for someone who has a hangup about Tarot (fears that it's evil?) but not about playing cards, or when you don't know what deck to use.

It's a little more objective, for me, for personal readings. I'm not sure how to explain that. (BTW I love my 1864 reproduction poker deck recommended by Umbrae.) I don't feel the attachment that I sometimes feel to a particular Tarot deck or card. It's a bit like clearing my head outdoors after gazing at artwork in a museum for too long.

But I really prefer the artwork. :)

Oops--your question was about method. I studied Choice Centered Tarot by Gail Fairfield when I started out reading playing cards. I like her numerological system. I combined her meanings for Page and Knight to fit the Knave or Jack in playing cards.

But I sometimes found myself giving playing cards a more "pictorial" interpretation, or going by what was missing, or what predominated in the spread. (If there were a lot of fours, I'd see Emperor influence, and so forth.) Sometimes I even used the corresponding Rider-Waite meanings (even though that's not my primary Tarot reading system).

You just have to play around with them and see how your intuition works with them. I do recommend getting a nice deck that you use just for divination (at least to start out).

The thread with Umbrae's recommendation is here:
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=19464

I printed out and studied some of the more traditional playing card systems that were recommended online, but most didn't click for me. That's why I adapted the Fairfield method to reading them.

I developed a spread for playing cards, based on Solitaire [the traditional solitaire game commonly known as Klondike], which I can use when all I have is a digital Solitaire game on my PC or PDA. I then developed that spread into an organic Tarot spread. I used that spread every day for about 3 months, for my personal readings. I learned a lot in that time. As with most things, practice helps.

Nevada
 

Logiatrix

Playing Cards: My System...

~Uses the whole deck, without the Joker.
~The Jack reads as Knight or Page, depending on the cards around it.
~As others have posted, the pips read numerologically, combined with their suit.
~The Trumps are brought into the reading based on elemental and numerological strengths throughout the spread.
:)
I tried to come up with more complicated systems--even doubling the deck for a while--but ultimately, simple proved to be better.
I like what Nevada said about clearing the head outdoors; that's exactly why I like my poker deck so much: it's the clear space those little cards provide.
There is considerable freedom in the visual simplicity of playing cards, and I also believe that reading with my playing card deck "kick starts" my intuition (whenever it needs kicking, LOL).
As a matter of fact, I read with my playing cards equally as often as I read with my tarot cards.
:D
 

northsea

What's a good book or website for the traditional playing card meanings?
 

Lee

northsea said:
What's a good book or website for the traditional playing card meanings?
Here is an interesting and informative site:

http://www.serenapowers.com/playingcards.html

There's a full set of meanings when you click on "For a full list of the meanings for a 52 card deck, click here."

At the bottom of the page there's links to several of the more common playing-card books available.

Here's a review I wrote of a few of those books:

http://www.tarotpassages.com/playingcard-lb.htm

And here's a review of a book which I think someone linked to in this or another thread. I think of all the books, I would recommend this one:

http://www.tarotpassages.com/playingcds-lb.htm

-- Lee

EDITED a year and a half later... As of this moment, I would recommend the Ana Cortez book rather than the Webster book I mention above.