From the Piquet Deck to Divination: Functions of the 32 Playing Cards
As fortunetellers, we all go through a kind of fire baptism—the moment our skills are tested for the very first time. Many still recall their first reading with striking clarity. I certainly do. As a teenager, I was deeply absorbed in the occult, with divination at the center of my fascination. This was hardly surprising: I grew up in a family of magic-minded women and formidable fortunetellers. Yet the ones still alive and practicing in my time devoted themselves to the coffee cup, a method that never held my attention. What captivated me instead were the stories of Great Aunt Marija and her cartomancy feats—tales of her finding lost soldiers after the Second World War by laying out a tableau of 32 playing cards. I knew then that this was the path for me, and that if anyone were to carry on Marija’s legacy, it would be me.
Armed with my mother’s Great Folk Dream Book—the first source I ever found with instructions for reading playing cards—I began with “wishes”: simple yes-or-no questions, answered by following the book’s guidance. It was something of a consolation prize. The instructions were detailed, the “meanings” clear enough, but everyone knew that Great Aunt Marija had her own way of reading the cards. No one had ever written it down. A cousin once told me she had inherited Marija’s deck, and that as a child she had even scribbled the “meanings” onto the cards as a kind of cheat sheet. But for years, those cards were nowhere to be found.
So I turned to other systems, eventually learning one orally from a friend. It served its purpose, but it was rigid and left little room for interpretation, and I often found myself stuck. That changed the day I encountered a true master: Camelia Elias, who became both friend and mentor, and whose influence has been immense on how I read cards—whether playing cards, Tarot, or Lenormand. Summarizing her approach would be impossible here, and unnecessary: she has distilled it with unmatched clarity in her Read Like the Devil three-part series, covering Tarot, Playing Cards, and Lenormand Oracle. If I were to reduce her teaching to one sentence, it would be this: the most useful approach is to read what is before your eyes—treating the cards as a visual text, always in relation to the question at hand.
Quite recently, that story gained its coda. When my cousin moved house, she finally uncovered Great Aunt Marija’s deck, complete with the penciled “meanings” she had scrawled onto the cards as a child. By then, I had already gone beyond the schools of meaning and found my own way. Still, holding Marija’s cards felt like closing a circle: her notes remain hers, a trace of her voice in the cards, while my practice has become my own.
The original cards of Great Aunt Marija, with meanings my cousin scribbled on them as she learned cartomancy directly from her, long before the cards vanished and were later found again.
When it comes to the functions of playing cards, systems can be useful—but only up to a point. Lists of meanings may serve as a starting ground, yet they should never harden into canon. The only canon worth following in card reading is common sense applied to the client’s question.
That said, if we look across several European schools of cartomancy, we find broad agreement on the functions of the suits, and to a lesser extent, the numbers.
Hearts concern the matters of the heart: emotional entanglements, kinship, friendships, lovers, but also everything connected to water, fluids, blood, and blonde people.
Diamonds are the currency of life—money, trade, possessions, the value of things, and those who know how to bargain; they are often gingers, people with colored hair, or the gray-haired.
Clubs mark the heavy tread of daily reality: work, duties, effort, the grind of routine, and the weight of obligation. They also represent hard workers and brunettes.
Spades belong to the grave. They dig the earth, sever bonds, and deal with endings, trials, and the merciless enforcement of order. Their people are executioners, stripped of pity, and often black-haired.
This is folk cartomancy at its most direct. With Hearts we love, with Diamonds we trade, with Clubs we labor, and with Spades we bury and cut (Elias, 2020).
When it comes to numbers, we are dealing with the Piquet deck—that is, cards from Seven to King, with the Aces included. This 32-card pack takes its name from Piquet, a centuries-old French trick-taking game. Its wide popularity across Europe left a lasting mark on cartomancy, where the 32-card deck remains the most widely used in folk practice to this day.
So let us delve into the functions of the numbers and the court cards.
Sevens often mark the first challenge, the initial hurdle that must be overcome. Visually, they show a path formed by two rows of symbols, with one standing in the middle to block the way.
Eighths are groups of people: family, colleagues, friends, or even the dead. They point to action driven by the activity of the many.
Nines carry the culminating force that pushes us to a tipping point, where change is imminent: a wish fulfilled, an important document that alters our situation, and so forth.
Tens are culmination and abundance—for better or worse. They signify excess, too much of a good thing.
Jacks are young and inexperienced people: children, youth, helpers, or messengers of the higher suits.
Queens are women ruling the domain of their suit.
Kings are men ruling the domain of their suit.
Aces are piercing and primal initiators: one’s home and heart, an important paper, or one’s own ending.
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With the functions of suits and numbers in place, we can look at how they combine in the individual cards. What follows is not another canon of “meanings,” but a working map: folk functions anchored in common sense and our cultural competence. Read it, test it against real questions, and set it aside the moment the spread—and your eyes—say otherwise.
7♥️ – Emotional struggle, a challenge of the heart, turmoil, feeling unwell.
8♥️ – Relatives, loved ones, a circle of well-meaning people.
9♥️ – The “wish card,” fulfillment of the heart’s desire.
10♥️ – Culmination of love, bliss, lovers’ union.
J♥️ – A blond youth, an inexperienced lover, a seducer, a bearer of good news.
Q♥️ – A blond woman, the female querent, spouse of the King of Hearts, an empathic woman, a mother, a woman of goodwill.
K♥️ – A blond man, the male querent, spouse of the Queen of Hearts, a loving father, a man of affection and goodwill.
A♥️ – Home, hearth, security, one’s heart.
7♦️ – A financial challenge, but also deception and manipulation.
8♦️ – A bank, stock exchange, business meeting, interest group; also the nervous system.
9♦️ – Financial gain, a paper of value, change of plans for the better.
10♦️ – Wealth, treasure, large sum of money, financial fulfillment.
J♦️ – A red-haired youth, a bank clerk, a social climber.
Q♦️ – A red-haired woman, a woman of means, an intellectual, a consultant.
K♦️ – A red-haired man, a man of means, an intellectual, a consultant.
A♦️ – A letter, a coin, a new financial start.
7♣️ – A challenge at work, an obstacle, a tree blocking the path.
8♣️ – Colleagues or friends, a group of workers, collaboration.
9♣️ – Hard work, a change of tactic; traditionally, a short trip.
10♣️ – Pressure, burden, blockage, overwork; also a forest.
J♣️ – A brunette youth, a junior worker, assistant, or athlete.
Q♣️ – A brunette woman, a hard worker, colleague, or friend.
K♣️ – A brunette man, a hard worker, colleague, or friend.
A♣️ – A new project, a beginning.
7♠️ – Illness, sorrow, black magic; also research or surgery—putting something under the knife.
8♠️ – A hostile crowd, bullies, the army, police; traditionally, an infection.
9♠️ – Escalating conflict, strife, a turn for the worse.
10♠️ – Breakdown, exhaustion, total war.
J♠️ – A black-haired youth, thief, criminal, police officer; traditionally, the Devil.
Q♠️ – A black-haired woman, widow, witch, spinster, femme fatale, elderly or high-ranking woman.
K♠️ – A black-haired man, widower, sorcerer, necromancer, judge, elderly or high-ranking man.
A♠️ – Death, an ending, a cut, a blade.
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In the end, the 32 playing cards remain a straightforward folk tool. Their suits tell us where the matter lies, their numbers show us how it unfolds, and their courts bring in the people who take part. Nothing more is needed: no rigid systems, no canon of meanings. Only the cards, the question, and the reader’s clear eyes to make sense of what is on the table.
References
Elias, C. (2020) Read Like The Devil: The Essential Course in Reading The Playing Cards. Agger: Eye Corner Press.
For those curious to see the cards at work, you are welcome to explore my Readings offer.
