Before I started out on my journey with tarot, one of the things that I learned was divination and fortune telling with a deck of ordinary playing cards. I recently had someone ask me about readings with playing cards, so I thought I would share some very basic information about this method with you if, for whatever reason, you would also like to try it.
Using a deck of playing cards for divination is actually very easy, firstly because the meanings correlate to those used in the tarot, as well as astrology and numerology. Therefore if you have even a rudimentary knowledge of any of these, you will find reading with playing cards very simple. If you are planning on starting with a regular pack of playing cards and know nothing about tarot etc then fear not, it is still very simple. The main advantages in using a tarot deck is that the images not only help with conveying the meanings of the cards as well as remembering them, but they also add more depth to the message you receive from your reading. So, if you enjoy reading with a deck of playing cards, you may want to eventually think about moving on to a tarot deck to give your readings more scope.
Connections with Tarot
An ordinary deck of playing cards has 52 cards, while a tarot deck has 78. But if we remove the Major Arcana and the Pages from the tarot deck, what we are left with is roughly the same thing in regards to meanings. The suits of a regular deck of playing cards correspond to the tarot suits and astrological elements in the following way:
I should mention at this stage, that some readers make different associations between the playing card and tarot suits. The only one that everyone seems to agree on is Hearts/Cups. Most readers also agree about Spades/Swords. The biggest difference seems to be about which tarot suits are associated with Clubs and Diamonds. I knew nothing of tarot meanings when I was reading with ordinary playing cards, but when I did learn the meanings of the tarot suits, I saw that the Pentacles of the tarot had more or less the same meanings as the Clubs. In The Pictorial Key to the Tarot A.E. Waite, co-creator of the classic Rider-Waite, states that Wands are “…the antecedents of Diamonds in modern cards” (however, he does associate different suits to Clubs and Spades). But many modern readers read Diamonds as Clubs, which is an association I personally do not connect with at all.
All of this only really matters if you have knowledge of the tarot and wish to use what you know when reading playing cards. However, as with most aspects of divination, there are few hard and fast rules, so feel free to use whatever meanings and connections you like. The Playing Card Meanings we have on the site are based on the grid above, but we don’t mention the tarot suits.
The Suits
At the most basic level, it is possible to read the black cards (Clubs and Spades) as a ‘No’ or a response in the negative and the red cards (Diamonds and Hearts) as a ‘Yes’ or a positive answer. The suits also each have a general meaning or theme. These are as follows:
Club cards relate to things of a practical nature, such as finances and possessions and the attainment of material goals. So the cards in this suit can signify a job or the practical things that we do.
Cards in the suit of Diamonds signify expression of the self. This can relate to expressing ourselves creatively, be it through our work or projects, the drives and related urges that we feel.
Heart cards relate to matters of the heart and all feelings. Therefore dreams, desires, love and relationships are represented by this suit.
Cards in the suit of Spades relate to the mind, thoughts and logic. They can represent how we perceive and internalise the circumstances we find ourselves in.
The majority of one suit surrounding a card should be read as the theme of that suit having a strong influence on that card and the reading. For full detailed meanings take a look at our new Playing Card Meanings page.
The Spreads to Use When Reading Playing Cards
You can use any of the tarot spreads on the site that we use for our Free Readings, from simple ones like the Card of the Day reading or Past, Present, Future reading, to the more involved spreads like the Celtic Cross or Horoscope Spread.
We’ve also introduced a new playing card version of a free reading, The Horseshoe Spread, so you can see the cards in action.