ASK THE DECK
Cartomancy Playing Card Reading
Three cards from an ordinary 52-card deck, past, present and outcome, each read by its traditional meaning.
Past
Present
Outcome
What Cartomancy Is
Cartomancy is fortune-telling with playing cards. A question is read through the cards drawn from an ordinary deck, each card carrying a traditional meaning built from its suit and its rank: the suit says what part of life the card speaks about, the number or court figure says how. The word joins the French carte to the Greek manteia, divination, and came into English in the nineteenth century. The practice is older. The first printed guide to reading playing cards was published in Paris in 1770 by the seed merchant and reader Jean-Baptiste Alliette, under his name spelt backwards, Etteilla, using the 32-card piquet deck; he only turned to the tarot later. Tarot reading is a branch of cartomancy, not the other way round.
English-language cartomancy, the system used here, settled in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries through fortune-telling chapbooks and the small printed decks sold with meanings on them. It reads all 52 cards, treats the Nine of Hearts as the wish card and the Ace of Spades as the card of endings, and gives each suit a season. The meanings on this page follow that tradition and say so when readers disagreed.
How to Read Playing Cards
- Ask one question. Playing cards answer best when the question is about one matter: a person, a job, a decision.
- Draw three cards for past, present and outcome, or one card for a plain answer. Shuffle a real deck or use the draw above.
- Read the suit first. Three Hearts and the matter is emotional; three Spades and it is serious. A mixed draw is read card by card.
- Then the rank. Aces begin, Tens complete, Nines fulfil, Sevens test, Fives upset. Court cards are people, or the suit's quality in a person.
- Let the position shape it. A hard card in the past is over; in the outcome it is a warning you can still act on.
The four suits
Hearts
love, feeling, family and home. Season: spring. Tarot: Cups.
Clubs
work, effort, ambition and friendship. Season: summer. Tarot: Wands.
Diamonds
money, practical matters, news and travel. Season: autumn. Tarot: Pentacles.
Spades
difficulty, endings, hard truths and decisions. Season: winter. Tarot: Swords.
The ranks
- Ace: a beginning; the suit at full strength.
- Two: a pair, a balance, an exchange or a choice.
- Three: growth, and a third person in the picture.
- Four: stability, foundations, a pause.
- Five: change, upset, movement.
- Six: harmony, flow, help along the way.
- Seven: a test, uncertainty, a warning.
- Eight: movement, pressure, a journey.
- Nine: fulfilment, the wish, the culmination.
- Ten: completion, the suit at its fullest.
- Jack: a young person, a messenger, news.
- Queen: a woman, or the suit's quality grown mature.
- King: a man of authority, or the suit's power.
The old books described court cards by colouring: Hearts and Diamonds fair, Clubs and Spades dark. Read that as a convention from a time when every reader's circle looked much the same, and use the court cards for the people in your question, or for the quality they stand for: the Queen of Clubs is a capable woman, and also capability.
All 52 Playing Card Meanings
Every card has its own page with the full meaning, the card in love, in work and money, as a yes or no, the birthdays it belongs to, and its tarot counterpart.
Hearts: love, feeling, family and home
Hearts are the suit of feeling. They speak about love, friendship, family, the home and everything that is decided by the heart rather than the head. In a reading, a run of Hearts means the matter is emotional at root, and that the answer will come through people rather than through money or effort. Hearts are generally good news; even the harder ones (the Seven, the Five) describe a feeling going wrong rather than a disaster. Old cartomancers gave the suit the spring, and matched it with the Cups of the tarot.
Clubs: work, effort, ambition and friendship
Clubs are the suit of effort. They cover work, business, study, ambition, and the friendships and rivalries that come from doing things with other people. A reading full of Clubs says the answer is earned: it depends on what you do next, not on what you feel or what you are given. Clubs are mostly encouraging, with warnings about haste (the Eight), stalling (the Four) and quarrels (the Five). Old cartomancers gave the suit the summer, and matched it with the Wands of the tarot.
Diamonds: money, practical matters, news and travel
Diamonds are the suit of the material world: money, property, contracts, news, journeys with a purpose, and the people who deal in them. A reading full of Diamonds says the matter is practical, and that the answer will arrive as something concrete: a message, a payment, an offer, a trip. The suit is neither kind nor cruel; it describes what is on the table. Old cartomancers gave the suit the autumn, the harvest season, and matched it with the Pentacles of the tarot.
Spades: difficulty, endings, hard truths and decisions
Spades are the suit of difficulty. They cover endings, losses, illness, conflict, warnings, and the clarity that comes when something is cut away. A reading full of Spades says the matter is serious and that the answer is unlikely to be the one you hoped for, though the Six and the Ace can mean relief and a clean break. Spades are honest rather than cruel: they name the problem. Old cartomancers gave the suit the winter, and matched it with the Swords of the tarot.
Your Playing-Card Birth Card
Cardology, the American tradition that grew out of nineteenth-century cartomancy, gives every birthday one of the 52 cards. The rule is simple: take 55, subtract twice your birth month, subtract your birth day, and count that number through the deck from the Ace of Hearts (1) to the King of Spades (52). 1 January is the King of Spades, 30 December the Ace of Hearts, and 31 December comes out at zero: the Joker. Each card covers about seven birthdays a year, listed on its page.
Choose a month and a day. The card comes from the cardology rule: 55 minus (twice the month plus the day), counted Ace of Hearts to King of Spades.
This is a different calculation from the tarot birth card, which reduces your whole birth date to a Major Arcana number. Find that one with the tarot birth card calculator.
Cartomancy and Tarot
The 52 playing cards and the 56 Minor Arcana of the tarot are the same family. Hearts are Cups, Clubs are Wands, Diamonds are Pentacles and Spades are Swords; the pip cards match number for number, and the Jack stands where the tarot has a Page and a Knight. What the playing-card deck lacks is the 22 Major Arcana, so a playing-card reading stays close to everyday life: people, money, work, feeling. Every card page here links to its tarot counterpart, and the tarot card meanings cover the rest of the deck. For a reading with the full 78 cards, use the three card tarot reading.
Yes or No With Playing Cards
The old one-card rule is that Hearts and Diamonds say yes, Spades say no, and Clubs say yes with effort. Every card page gives its own answer and the reason, and the three-card draw above tallies them. For a written answer to a yes or no question rather than a tally, use the yes or no oracle.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is cartomancy?
Cartomancy is fortune-telling with playing cards: a question is read through the cards drawn from an ordinary deck, using the traditional meaning of each suit and rank. Hearts speak of love and home, Clubs of work and effort, Diamonds of money and news, Spades of difficulty and endings; the number or court figure on the card says how. The word comes from the French carte and the Greek manteia (divination). Tarot reading is a branch of cartomancy that uses a 78-card deck.
Can you read tarot with playing cards?
Yes, in the sense that the 52 playing cards match the 56 Minor Arcana of the tarot: Hearts are Cups, Clubs are Wands, Diamonds are Pentacles, Spades are Swords, and the Jack stands in for the Page (the Knight has no counterpart). What a playing-card deck lacks is the 22 Major Arcana, so a playing-card reading is a reading about everyday life rather than about the big archetypes. Every card page here links to its tarot counterpart.
Do playing cards have reversed meanings?
Traditionally, no. Most playing cards look the same upside down, and the old cartomancy books read each card one way, letting the cards around it and its position in the spread do the shading. Some modern readers mark one end of each card to read reversals; this page does not, and the 52 meanings here are written to be read upright.
What is the wish card?
The Nine of Hearts. In English cartomancy it is the card that says the thing you asked for is granted or on its way. The Nine of Spades is its opposite, the card of misfortune, and the Ace of Spades is the card of endings; those three are the most famous cards in the deck.
Are the three cards random?
They are picked by a fixed rule from what you type and the date, so the same question gets the same three cards all day, and asking again is a real second look rather than a re-deal. A draw with no question gets a fresh spread each time. There is no artificial intelligence involved, and nothing you type leaves your browser.
What is a playing-card birth card?
In the cardology tradition every birthday has one of the 52 playing cards: the card is 55 minus twice the month plus the day, counted from the Ace of Hearts (1) to the King of Spades (52). 1 January is the King of Spades; 30 December is the Ace of Hearts; 31 December gives zero and is the Joker. It is a different calculation from the tarot birth card, which reduces the whole date to a Major Arcana number.
52 cards, every meaning written for this page and reviewed by Taro.
Tarot Card Meanings
The 78-card deck the playing cards grew up beside.
Three Card Tarot Reading
The same past, present, future draw with the full tarot deck.
Tarot Birth Card Calculator
Your Major Arcana birth card, a different calculation from the playing-card one.
Yes or No Oracle
A written answer to a yes or no question, not a tally.
Rune Meanings
Another old system, 24 symbols instead of 52 cards.
Explore More Spiritual Tools
Discover more ways to explore your spiritual journey
Looking for more spiritual guidance?