Using playing cards in place of the Major Arcana

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This was a really interesting way of reading playing cards I fount on auntietarot's blog (she really does her research and finds much older sources on how to read both playing cards and tarot).

This was a method written about by a lady named Madaline Montalban who discovered this while she was visiting Spain and she wrote about this method in the 1950's.

Basically you remove the Joker, the four Aces, the four Nines, the Ten of Hearts, and all 12 Court Cards and these are what you use in place of the 22 Major Arcana Cards in a tarot deck.

I copied the list of card correspondences and listed them below:

King of Diamonds No. 1, The Magician
Queen of Diamonds No. 2, The High Priestess
Queen of Clubs No. 3, The Empress
King of Clubs No. 4, The Emperor
Knave of Hearts No. 5, The Hierophant
Queen of Hearts No. 6, The Lovers
Nine of Hearts No. 7, The Chariot
King of Hearts No. 8, Justice
Knave of Clubs No. 9, The Hermit
Nine of Diamonds No. 10, The Wheel of Fortune
Nine of Clubs No. 11, Strength
Knave of Diamonds No. 12, The Hanged Man
King of Spades No. 13, Death
Ace of Clubs No. 14, Temperance
Knave of Spades No. 15, The Devil
Nine of Spades No. 16, The Tower
Ace of Diamonds No. 17, The Star
Ace of Spades No. 18, The Moon
Ace of Hearts No. 19, The Sun
Queen of Spades No. 20, Judgment
Ten of Hearts No. 21, The World
The Joker No 0/22, The Fool



So I think I'm going to practice using this interesting cartomancy method for some political readings and post them on here.

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Here's a political reading I'm attempting using this interesting method.

I did the cards like it said and asked "Will Donald Trump bring the United States to to ruin when he becomes president again?"

The way this works is I shuffle and cut until I pull out The Joker (representing The Fool), and whether he is rightside up or not I place him in the center, then I reshuffle and recut the cards and pull out 5 to form a cross pattern around The Joker. Now for this I need cards that can be reversed, and I ONLY read the reversed cards and disregard the upright cards (except for The Joker). If all the cards I pull are upright, it means that the future message is inconclusive and I must wait at least seven days before asking again.



First as you can see I pulled The Joker in reverse, which means "Things will not go smoothly" in regards to the question I ask.

The right (present) and the bottom (what fades out) both have upright cards, which means they must be disregarded as there is no clear answer on the present situation surrounding Trump, or how the problem will eventually "fade out" (IF it ever does...)

To the left, representing the past, I pulled the Queen of Clubs aka The Empress. It means "Loneliness gives way to much sociability; but new acquaintances may be self-seeking." (Sounds like Social Media lol )

To the top, representing what is to "immediately happen" regarding this situation with Trump, is the reversed King of Hearts aka Justice. " Be on your guard as others are not well disposed towards you."

Finally the card laid on top of The Joker, the King of Spades aka Death. "Your plans and hopes can’t succeed. Change your aims." This is the overall outcome of the situation


Sounds to me like even if Trump does win the election in the end, his plans to "Make America Great Again" won't come to fruition (as if we need the cards to tell us that).

But I see people obsessively thinking about him through the Queen of Clubs/Empress

I see the legal system being abused for political reasons through the King of Hearts/Justice

And finally I see that unless we make serious changes to our system we will continue to stagnate through the King of Spades/Death.

Btw given that this is a method of cartomancy discovered in Spain, I just want to add I find it fascinating that different regions around the world have their own methods and rules for reading the cards.

Like for example how in Germany the Spade cards are viewed as positive cards (unlike most other systems in which spades are all bad) while the Clubs are regarded as the "bad" cards.

This even translates into the Lenormand card system where just about every card with clubs featured at the top center has the most negative meanings.

For example in Lenormand Queen of Clubs = The Snake which is a bad card warning of danger and betrayel regarding a woman who comes into the picture.

While on the other hand Queen of Spades = The Bouquet which is a much more positive card implying a helpful and kindly woman enters the scene.

there may come a time to do away with all the lawyers.

Another reading I attempted using this same method.





And a list of every card's meaning.

so IOW civil war's on the way.

pogo said, "we have met the enemy, and he is US." we allowed a civil war before and perhaps we're overdue for another?

that ex-air force woman who needlessly got herself shot, is surely a tragic case.