Reading the Cards,
or “Dealing a Hand”
Reading with this system is a little different to other types of card divination you may be familiar with, such as tarot. Instead of laying out cards in a spread or pattern, you can deal the playing cards as though you are starting a game.
The typical number of cards in a reading will either be one, two, or five. If you are using just one card, then the answer for the whole reading is given on the page for that result. If you are using two or more, the reading is performed differently. Several of the cards can be read together and have equal importance for the final answer.
Let’s look at how each of these can work, and then at some examples of the actual answers we can get from the cards in each format.
One-card Reading
This is drawing a single card when you need a quick answer to a specific question.
Look at the definition, and also the suit to determine how lucky the card appears to be in general. Many of the Spades cards will carry a warning about events, whereas a Heart card usually suggests a good outcome regardless of the specific number. (We’ll look at these meanings in detail in a later section.)
Two-card Reading
Shuffle the deck, and then take the two cards from the top. It doesn’t matter which one comes first; you can hold both in your hand and shuffle them around. Both cards are equally important in the reading, and both apply to the reading. There isn’t a fixed definition for “Card 1 means this, Card 2 means that;” instead, the two meanings interact with each other.
Five-card Reading
The format for reading with five cards is very different from the one- and two-card readings: it is structured like a game of five-card stud poker. (In recent times the most popular type of poker has become Texas No Limit Hold ‘Em, but older forms from the 1800s used five cards instead of seven and revealed more of the cards to everyone, reducing the ability to bluff. Stud poker works very well as a format for divination!)
The first two cards are dealt together. These give the reading’s current situation. You can move these in any order after you have picked them up and held them in your hand, just as you can for the two-card reading earlier. Place the first two face up in front of you and work out what you think they mean before moving on to the third card. In some versions of stud, the first card is face down to everyone else and the second one up, but there are no other players to hide the results from in this reading so you can look at both face up immediately.
The third card is then drawn and placed to the right of the pair (again, face up). This card shows an aspect which is coming to challenge the situation, such as an external influence or person. The third is often called “Third Street” in poker.
The fourth card is drawn and again placed to the right of the current three. It represents forces and ideas which will help the client. In poker, this card is called “the Turn” or “Fourth Street.” It often turns the direction of the hand in unexpected ways. In divination, it can offer a way past an issue that seemed hopeless moments before.
The fifth and final card shows an action or route that you can take to resolve the situation for the best results. It can therefore be a suggestion to be bold or a warning to play it safe. (Card five is called the “River” or “Fifth Street” in poker, where it is decisive in whether the hand is a success or earlier promises haven’t worked out. If you just needed one more card for a combination, it’s this one which sometimes “sells you down the river.”)
A typical five-card spread is therefore:
1, 2 = Current situation, any order
3 = Challenges
4 = Helping influences
5 = A suggested action for best results
Now let’s look at some examples of readings using each of these formats.
One-card Reading Example
A friend asked whether she should take a risk and apply for a job with more responsibility. She talked a little about two options, listing details about money and travel. Drawing just one card revealed the Nine of Clubs, “Dancer’s Promise.”
This is the card of intuition, of walking through life really connected to your inner self. All her discussion had been about technical things, but a job is something that will affect you quite deeply and you will do for hours every day. How did she feel about the two options on an intuitive level, not just around practical concerns like money? At this point, she admitted there was something making her very uncomfortable about the riskier job, but she had been trying to ignore it by looking at the benefits. Intuition—especially a flowing connection like the Dancer has—can be a useful and revealing tool for looking at problems from another direction.
One-card Reading Example 2
A client was worried about keeping some news from everyone. The card drawn was the Seven of Diamonds, “Noble’s Gambit.”
The message was very clearly, “Lean on your friends and family; they will support you.” The Noble calls on the loyalty of those around them and pays it back through good and responsible actions. When they make a gambit, they use friendship to help them win based on the loyalty they have earned previously. The client’s friends would be part of the solution.
The client decided to open up to those close to him. He could even think of examples of when he’d been supportive of them in exactly this way previously! After talking it over, he was sure they’d understand, and that this would be easily resolved with the help of others.
Two-card Reading Example
A client asked about what would happen in the next week. She didn’t have anything particular in mind, only to look at what the future would bring. The two cards drawn were the Three of Diamonds (“Healer’s Gambit”) and the Jack of Clubs (“Trickster’s Promise”).
The Three of Diamonds is usually a wonderful card to see, meaning receiving a nice gift or doing a good deed. Unfortunately, the Jack of Clubs reverses all of that! A Trickster’s Promise is a lie, and changes the meaning of any other card it is paired with. In this case it said that she shouldn’t trust any offer which looked too good to be true in the next few days, especially if it was a free gift.
These changes in meaning are only possible when multiple cards are linked in the reading and are a big part of what the two- and five-card readings add to the divination. The answer isn’t “You will have a good experience and a bad one” separately, the meanings are added together before giving the final answer.
Two-card Reading Example 2
A friend of mine asked about their relationship. (Every good divination system should have plenty to say about romantic relationships!) The cards were the Two of Clubs (“Lover’s Promise”) and the Four of Spades (“Smith’s Folly”).
The first one of these is very simple and an excellent card for romance. It tells us to trust that the best future can happen, to be gentle with each other, and to believe that loved ones can be genuine.
The second card is less positive. Spades are the “Folly” of each Role and usually give a warning. This one tells us what happens when a Blacksmith gets too caught up in the process of their work, losing sight of the end goal and just working all day, becoming greedy, not taking care of their other duties while they pursue this one thing.
Taken together, these two cards told my friend that they should first relax and believe that a good outcome was still possible. She should remember the best and most romantic days, and try to make more of them. At the same time, she needed to look clearly at the important things within the relationship that they’d both stopped doing as daily life got in the way. Inertia and routine tasks can be boring and are the total opposite of the very hopeful Lover’s Promise. The two cards together said that the romance was being stopped by the Folly.
(There’s a happy ending to this one, as they made excellent choices and it worked out better than other friends or I could have guessed!)
Five-card Reading Example
A client wanted to know how to advance at work. They weren’t happy in the work environment, and there was conflict with their boss.
The five-card reading started with the first two cards:
1. Ace of Hearts (Hunter’s Triumph)
2. Nine of Diamonds (Dancer’s Gambit)
These two are dealt together and can be moved into any order in the hand after being picked up and examined. They mean: gaining your heart’s desire, and cycles and habits. The first is a very positive card, the second is neutral. Looking at them together, we see that they say, “This concerns something personally important for you, and there’s a cycle involved.”
We discussed how this message could relate to their work. They said that they certainly weren’t getting their heart’s desire there; every time they seemed to be making progress, they would be ignored and find themselves back at the beginning again. The fact that this had happened repeatedly was exactly what had caused them to look for new solutions now.
The third card shows a challenge in the situation, and it was:
3. Seven of Spades (Noble’s Folly)
This Folly is the ego or prejudice of the Noble, who should know better. Like many Spades cards, this one is quite negative.
The client said that they became defensive and flustered at work whenever circumstances made it look as though they weren’t on top of things. They hated the idea that they were doing a bad job but would then act in ways which didn’t look very reliable (and made everything worse). This behavior fit the reading quite well: a repeated habit of letting their sensitive self-image stop them achieving their desired goal.
The fourth card is a helpful outside influence:
4. King of Diamonds (Sovereign’s Gambit)
This usually means someone more powerful than you who will be spending money, or someone who has money who will be exercising their authority. In a work situation, it is often a boss or person representing a large institution. It is very good that this appeared in the fourth place as a helpful force—it might mean there would be an opportunity for a raise, or at the very least, the attention of a senior colleague who could improve things and be supportive.
The fifth card in this reading is an action which the client should take to make the best outcome happen:
5. Ace of Diamonds (Hunter’s Gambit)
This card is full of decisive action already, even if it hadn’t appeared in fifth place (an action for the person to take). The instruction is to go all-in and commit to something that could have a big payoff. Aces are concerned with just one prize, and much like the Ace of Hearts earlier in the reading, that prize usually has deep personal meaning for the client.
Combined with the earlier card which showed that cycles are part of the problem, the overall reading says “Use the opportunity that is coming up to escape the cycle and move on. Gather all your resources and take a risk if you want to progress to better things.”
I heard from the client later on, who said they were much happier! Their next week had been good, and the month after that was better. They managed to stop assuming that any criticism of their department’s work was about them personally and volunteered for the responsibility they wanted, even though it felt like a scary jump into the unknown. The tense moment of going all-in is a joy for the character in the short story on the Ace of Diamonds page but can be very difficult in real life! Sometimes a suggestion from the cards is all we need to realize that this big risk can still be an option if our desire is strong enough.
How to Interpret Unexpected
Combinations in the Five-card Reading
[Need a paragraph or two here between A and B heads]
FROM SAMMY: As a design standpoint, it doesn’t need a paragraph between the heads technically. If it does from an editor standpoint, please change the “bhead nsp” paragraph style to “bhead.” Thanks!
As soon as a system assigns meanings to the order that cards are drawn in (for example, positions three, four, and five in the five-card reading), unusual combinations of a card and its place can arise. A totally beneficial outcome can appear in a position which indicates danger, or two completely opposite cards can be paired together by the format of the reading. This section explains some of these situations.
Positive Cards in the “Challenge” Third Card Place
What happens when the third card, a problem for us, is one with a very positive meaning? If you draw the Jack of Hearts, it means “Winning the Jackpot”—that hardly sounds like a problem!
The key to any unexpected combination is to look at how the basic definition could be made into a good or bad thing for you. In this case, someone else is taking the jackpot shortcut. The action will be fast so you are short on time to beat them. Read in the “Challenge” position, the message becomes “this card is happening without you—act now!”
Negative Cards in the Fourth “Helpful Influence”
or Fifth “Action for Best Outcome” Places
If a position is supposed to help you but the card is a negative one such as the Queen of Spades (Lady’s Folly, meaning very bad luck) this can be confusing.
There are two main approaches to a negative card in this place. The card could be saying “Bad luck is happening, so you need to accept it. The way to help yourself is to plan so that this doesn’t affect you. The helpful part here is the knowledge that it’s coming.” Alternatively, it might be “What appears to be bad luck actually isn’t. Don’t be angry if things don’t go your way—this will turn out to have been helping you later.” Or, if the first cards are strongly about somebody else, the helpful news may be that they are the ones receiving the bad luck. Card readers are used to the idea that very extreme cards can appear as nice influences; intuition or even some detail of the client’s situation can help us to find the key to a puzzling combination.
Positive and Negative Cards Appearing Together
(For Example, As Cards One and Two)
A good example of this particular conflict is the Jack of Hearts and Jack of Spades in a pair (Trickster’s Triumph and Trickster’s Folly). One means successfully carrying out a trick, and the other is about having the truth exposed so that you can’t do that. How do you reconcile these two?
When we combine two cards, we need to tell a story. The answer to that story isn’t always the same each time. We can also do this when trying to see how any two cards could come together.
The Trickster teaches unexpected wisdom to others. They have unique views that surprise people. Paired with a card that means “the truth is clearly seen,” the combined meaning suggests that their unusual tricks become accepted as superior.
A Triumph card means that success is guaranteed. This combination doesn’t mean taking a risk and getting caught out; it says that the truth and justice of the Folly means that the unconventional approach of the Triumph was always the right thing to do.
There are many cards which appear to fight each other when they first appear in a pair but can be found to be supportive or illuminating if we take a little time to see how they could cooperate.
More Examples of Card Pairs
Making a reading from more than one card can be difficult for new readers, so here are some more examples.
Eight of Clubs and King of Hearts (Hermit’s Promise and Sovereign’s Triumph): To gain peace and a retreat from daily chaos, look for a master who will give you advice.
Ace of Diamonds and King of Spades (Hunter’s Gambit and Sovereign’s Folly): The Ace is a test of skill, going all in to hit a target. The King is the negative effects of inflexible traditions. You are therefore being blocked from pursuing your dream by an institution that won’t bend the rules.
Two of Hearts and Eight of Hearts (Lover’s Triumph and Hermit’s Triumph): The Two means success in love, and the Eight is returning after being away having learned valuable lessons. This is therefore the only combination where you’re allowed to phone your ex.
Four of Hearts and Five of Clubs (Smith’s Triumph and Warrior’s Promise): The Smith brings a reward after a time of peacefully working hard, but the Warrior promises resistance and conflict. Why would you ever resist a peaceful reward? Well, the Smith’s Triumph is the long-term and predictable ending of some work. Sometimes, the way things are traditionally done is too restrictive or isn’t the best way for you. You might also disagree with the reward that appears after so much work. (This turned out to be that the client really didn’t like the ending of his long-running television show. What can I say? Sometimes the cards just read the person’s strongest emotions in the moment!)
Playing Against Fate
A unique way to perform readings is in the format of a card game. Instead of dealing the cards to yourself and then turning them over, you can deal the first card to yourself and the second card to a different pile in front of you, as though it was to an opponent. The third card then goes to you again, giving you two in total, and the fourth card gives another to your opponent. (The opponent’s cards all stay face down; ignore them for now).
You then pick up your own cards and interpret the reading as normal. If you are using a five-card reading, this means putting out a total of ten cards but only looking at the five in front of you.
There is now a way that you can interact with the new line of “opponent” cards, although it is entirely optional. The other player in the game of cards is Fate, who offers you the chance to change your luck. When you have dealt your own cards and looked at them, the answers might not be what you want. In fact, they might be exactly the opposite of what you had hoped for! In that case, there is something you can do: pay to see your opponent’s cards.
Paying to See involves paying a small coin of very low value (of any type suitable to where you live). This should have very little real-world cost. You must take this coin and place it on the table between the two rows of cards. It is now spent, and you may turn over the opponent’s cards to see what they are.
The coin really does have to be spent—take it and put it in a lucky place of water, such as a fountain, wishing well, or river. Alternatively, you can drop it in the street for someone to find as a lucky coin when they walk along. Paying to see Fate’s cards really must cost you this coin; the process is not free.
Now that you’ve paid, you can see the cards. If Fate’s hand is so good that you would prefer it to your own, you can also Change Your Luck.
To do this, pay a second coin in the same way and draw an extra card. You can now take Fate’s hand and discard your own. This buys you the cards in Fate’s hand to use instead of your original answer, but there is a catch: this is not the fate that will come to you if the current situation continues. If you want this second outcome, as well as paying the two coins you will have to take real steps to make this new reading come about. That is where the extra card comes in. That card is the action required to get away from your current fate and move in the direction of the one you have bought. You cannot simply pay coins and change your fate—you must work to reach the new goal using the extra single card as your route.
Remember that all of this is optional. You could deal only to yourself, or deal for the opponent but ignore that line completely. You can pay one coin and then stop after the step of seeing the other cards, or you can go all the way and pay another coin to buy the hand instead of the one you were dealt. You then draw the extra card as your clue on how to achieve it.
Dealing only to yourself without playing against Fate is equally good, but some have found that this optional format adds an aspect to the divination that brings the magic of card games and history to the table.
If you do not wish to use the coins, there is another way to engage with these optional rules: Jokers.
Jokers
Joker cards first appeared in 1857, for the game of euchre. They are very distinctive personalities and art in any deck! They do not form part of the normal divination here, but you can include them in your pack if you ever consider Changing Your Luck as in the previous section.
If a Joker comes up in your reading, immediately put it to one side and draw a new card to replace it. When you have all of your cards, the Joker can then be used instead of coins to Pay to See and Change Your Luck without spending an actual coin. One Joker replaces both coins for these, although you can still choose to do neither or to stop after only Paying to See. The choice is up to you; the Joker simply makes it free and removes the need for coins.
No Reversals
One distinctive part of interpretation in this system is that there are no reversed readings. Cards cannot appear upside down, because many modern playing cards are mirrored. For example, you can’t tell which way up the Four of Diamonds is when you see it, up and down are identical.
This mirroring is deliberate. Early versions of the court cards were not symmetrical—under the familiar head and upper body, the figures used to have legs and feet! The design was changed when it was realised that players were turning these cards right side up in their hands, which gave away to their opponents that they had good cards. (Amazingly, it took over three hundred years to realise this). As late as the 1800s there were still decks in the old style. Even when a pip card (such as the Three of Spades) has one pip in the middle that has to be either up or down, players don’t rotate these cards in their hand. Card numbers are printed in the corners and do not draw attention to the direction the central pip faces.
For all these reasons, reversals are not a part of playing card divination.
Other Card Spreads
The cards can be used in the formats given here or in more traditional tarot spreads. The classic three-card spread showing past, present, and future works very well—each card is read individually and related to only that position instead of shuffling the three together.
Other spread position meanings could be: hopes and fears, choices to be made, the influence of friends, or what romantic events could be in the future. Your cards can use these methods just as easily as the systems given earlier. Begin with the one, two, or five in this book, and also experiment with your own spreads and see which work best for you.
One alternative style in particular is to read five cards without using the place meanings for challenges, helpful influence, and action but instead adding each new meaning to an ongoing story. Speak out loud as you add new cards and try to bring their meanings into the existing mix as though it’s a conversation: “The main message is this, and this. This third card is added to it. There will be this fourth influence. Hmm, I want more detail. What does the fifth say and how does that change the others?”
This method of reading can be quite advanced; it can be difficult to balance five messages if you haven’t had practice with two-card readings first. It is similar to systems such as Lenormand where many cards are used at once—in fact, there is even a famous Lenormand spread, the Grand Tableau, that uses all 36 cards in one big reading! In it, the cards dealt in positions close to the one chosen to represent you are more relevant, and those farther away don’t apply. This isn’t as useful with a standard 52-card deck, as it leads to a lot of ignored cards, but holding five cards in a fan in your hand can provide a lot of information to which your intuition may be applied.
Your ideas don’t have to be limited to only changing the number of cards you draw. One historical method that has been recorded is to drop a six-sided die onto the four King or Queen cards, and note which one it lands on. The number on the dice then tells you the outcome (even numbers only, roll again if it comes up an odd number). I’m fond of dice divination, so I like this mixing of the two. It is a great example of just how varied playing card divination has been in the past.
The deck is yours and the games you play with it are yours as well. Take the spreads in this section as a beginning and find the ways that work best for you. Start simple and find a place that you are comfortable with.
Remembering the Definitions
“Folly? Singer? Promise? Help!” Although the ideas in this system are part of a universal human experience, they’re still new to every reader and learning all the definitions at once can be intimidating. The best way to start is to read all of the next section in order: this will help you see the journey that the Magician takes, from one person to two, to many, from ideals to worldly power and then to inner wisdom.
You will also learn the suits easily. Clubs are first and Promise what’s to come, Diamonds are money being gambled (Gambit), Spades are the dangerous or unlucky suit that shows the flaws of each Role (Folly), and Hearts are your friend because they show success (Triumph). If you read the next section and also look up the individual pages when you try your first few readings, you will quickly find that you remember the name and Role for each. The stories also help to bring the important parts of the meaning to mind.
Now let’s look at the meanings of each card in detail.