Playing Card Divination

Most of us use playing cards for - well, for card-playing, which seems rather obvious. But playing cards have other uses, including divination, and telling fortunes by playing cards is a fairly popular area of interest.

Telling fortunes by cards is technically termed "cartomancy," a useful term, but one that includes telling fortunes with any type of cards. Thus, cartomancy would encompass three related, but separate, areas of interest:

Telling fortunes with standard playing cards, i.e., the usual 52-card deck
Telling fortunes with tarot cards
Telling fortunes with specially-designed fortune-telling cards

This article will deal only with the first area. If you are interested in tarot cards, please visit our tarot page. If you are interested in specially-designed fortune-telling decks, you can find an interesting article on that subject here.

The first thing one must realize, when using a standard deck of playing cards for divination, is that there is no "official" correct way of doing so. There are books on the subject (we'll list some later), and some of these books agree with each other; but not all are in agreement. The reason for this situation is that divination by playing cards developed independently in different areas at different times.

Divination is accomplished by establishing a set meaning for each card. Theoretically, one could do this oneself. Here's how:

Keep a notebook or journal strictly for playing card divination.
Each day, and preferably at the same time each day, write a note in the journal stating what your predominant mood is at that moment. Keep it simple, like, "sad," or "happy," or "slightly frustrated." Also make a quick note about what's going on in your life, like, "I'm about to take a short trip," or "I've just fallen in love."
Shuffle the deck of playing cards, and draw one card face down. Record the card you've drawn.
After you've accumulated enough data, you should be able to draw some correlations. For example, you might see that every time you draw a club, your mood is something close to "slightly frustrated." (This is just an example; I'm not suggesting that this is what the suit of clubs means.) Do this long enough, and even individual cards will take on significance.

This isn't a bad method, but it is a slow one. If you're anxious to get started on a slightly faster track, consider purchasing one or more of the books listed below.

Playing Card Divination for Beginners: Fortune Telling With Ordinary Cards, by Richard Webster. A good place to start.
The Fortune Telling Book: Reading Crystal Balls, Tea Leaves, Playing Cards, and Everyday Omens of Love and Luck. Obviously, this book covers a lot more than playing cards, but it does include playing card divination, and all of the subjects are of interest.
The Oracle of Love : How to Use Ordinary Playing Cards to Answer Your Relationship Questions, Predict Your Romantic Future, and Find Your Soul Mate. On the other hand, this book is very specific; it deals with the use of playing card divination as it relates to romance.
It's In the Cards, by Marthy Jones.
The Fortune Teller's Deck: Predict Your Future With Playing Cards, by Jane Lyle. A book on playing card divination, and a special deck of playing cards.

Here's hoping the cards predict wonderful things for you!

Thanks to the nice folks at Google, you can search our site for a particular term or phrase: