Developing a Personal System for Reading with Playing Cards

cardlady22

Are you confused, or unsatisfied, with how/why meanings are given in the playing card books you've read? Would you like to know how to set up your own system?

Over in this thread, I posted a PDF compilation of the suit associations given in various playing card methods.
http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php?p=2872243&postcount=47

The easiest part (for me) is assigning a season to suit. I can see the logic in putting both red suits together for spring/summer; and then the black suits for autumn/winter. (especially in geographical areas where the seasons are wet/dry) But, I prefer an alternating red-black, which has the benefit of following a plant "life cycle" theme:
:heart: Spring, breaking up through the earth
:club: Summer, growing leaves use photosynthesis
:diamond: Autumn, harvest & storage
:spade: Winter, dormant seed for the next cycle

Elements are the tricky part. Do you start with an astrological wheel basis? in which case you need to choose how to follow the order by quarter: fire, water, air, earth
or by sequence fire, earth, air, water *Aries or Leo start point

And then my brain considers the fact that if you use quarters, there is an element "not present" for each.
spring - no water sign
summer - no air sign
autumn - no earth sign
winter - no fire sign

Or is the starting reference made by the 1:1 assignment of suits with those of the tarot? That just brings them straight across. I'm not as happy with that thought.

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Next step is how you use the pip numbers (numerology) and the Court cards. (zodiac signs)

I do like the way Ana Cortez gives a female persona to the Tens, making them similar to a Page/Princess. It makes the 1-9 numerology simple.

The way I assign the courts relates to the modes of the astrological sign.
Cardinal - King
Fixed - Queen
Mutable - Jack
 

cardlady22

Astrological Map form

One of the things I like to do is experiment with what if graphics. I've found the easiest way to do this is to print off a blank form, have it laminated at an office supply store's copy department, and use Dry Erase markers.

Here's a Zodiac Wheel that a friend Deborah Lowrey designed, with a few re-coloration tweaks of my own. The elemental colors of the signs are in an inner ring. The modes are marked with color circles outside the diagram. True Blue is cardinal/Kings. Heart Pink is fixed/Queens. Green is mutable/Jacks.
 

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hunter

The idea of the pages is good. I really like the idea of 12 courts though.

I'm not sure if I want to do, maiden mother crone, or the astrological signs for the courts. Can I do both? Would mother or crone be fixed? Is maiden cardinal?

Corrine Kenner's system of pips looks good to me. She uses Cups/Hearts for Fall, Pentacles/Diamonds for Winter, Swords/Spades for Spring, and Wands/Clubs for Summer.
 

cardlady22

I'm not sure if I want to do, maiden mother crone, or the astrological signs for the courts. Can I do both? Would mother or crone be fixed? Is maiden cardinal?
I could be very off, but using the Triple Goddess Moon Phases would make me place them by quarter as
Maiden- waxing, cardinal (fits more as the Jack by appearance)
Mother- full, fixed
Crone- waning, mutable (fits more as the King by appearance)

Corrine Kenner's system of pips looks good to me. She uses Cups/Hearts for Fall, Pentacles/Diamonds for Winter, Swords/Spades for Spring, and Wands/Clubs for Summer.
This arrangement makes me feel like the Year is starting with the Fall. Is that the way she describes, or my own personal bias creeping in? Actually, when you look at calendars from all over the world, there are many Start Points. I've mocked up quite a few from the solstice and equinox points.
 

cardlady22

Gregorian Week form

Since a deck has 52 cards in it, there is a quick way to assign and lay out your preferences according to the weeks in the modern calendar. There are 13 in each season, but the actual day of the equinox or solstice varies from year to year. The quickest solution (for me) was to divide the year into 7 day periods and mark the week they happen. That would be your starting card. Personally, I use an Ascending order:
Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5 . . . 10, Jack, Queen, King
 

Attachments

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hunter

I could be very off, but using the Triple Goddess Moon Phases would make me place them by quarter as
Maiden- waxing, cardinal (fits more as the Jack by appearance)
Mother- full, fixed
Crone- waning, mutable (fits more as the King by appearance)

This arrangement makes me feel like the Year is starting with the Fall. Is that the way she describes, or my own personal bias creeping in? Actually, when you look at calendars from all over the world, there are many Start Points. I've mocked up quite a few from the solstice and equinox points.

I'm going to have to look at my books. I think the year might start with Aries, but maybe there is no official start.

I got in "Psychic Tarot" for my Aquarian Tarot, today. I'm torn between studying the Aquarian and cartomancy tonight.
 

hunter

I really want to spend some serious time on cartomancy this weekend. I pulled out my cute pink playing cards and have a pretty pink bandana that matches.

I found the pages of the Tarot of the Vampyres that I saved on the pips and courts, when the great tarot purge took place. I think all this info matches up well with the Corinne Kenner books.

The pink deck really calls for the courts to be read as maiden, mother ,crone, I think.
 

hunter

Oooh very helpful. Thank you! :)
 

Richard

I can't decide about the courts. I've been taking the queens cardinal and the kings fixed, which seems to be rather common among Tarot readers. However, kings cardinal and queens fixed seems a more natural correlation, as it preserves the ordering of the courts and signs. Of course, mutable seems appropriate for the jacks.

The Triple Goddess concept might work, but I'm not sure if the moon phases correlate very well with the zodiac. My mindset is rather conventional (yawn): kings-masculine, queens-feminine, jacks-androgynous. In this connection, I don't think of masculine and feminine as biological genders, but as elemental properties, masculine referring to fire and air, feminine to water and earth.