The playing cards are just a modern day evolution of the Tarot deck. We still have the 4 suits of the Minor Arcana, Ace-10. The wands, cups, swords and pentacles just translate to the clubs, hearts, spades and diamonds. Then, we have the 4 suits of the Court cards. The members of the court are the King, Queen and Knight and Page. We still have the king and queen but instead of the knights, they are the Jacks. We don’t have any pages in the playing cards, which are the children in the Tarot. The modern day playing cards don’t include any of the Major Arcana cards 1-21, which are the collective and universal archetypes of mortal existence. The fool card is the only exception. Technically the f
Tarot cards can be interpreted differently from their typical definitions, which may be considered unusual. An alternative approach to reading cards can be seen with the example of the 10 of wands, queen of swords, 6 of wands, 3 of swords, ace of pentacles, knight of pentacles, and 3 of wands. The traditional way of reading the example of the first card, the 10 of wands, would fall under the realm of “normal” interpretation, such as: the burden of responsibility, suffering at the hand of success, carrying a heavy load, doing it alone, or even exhaustion. Going a step further than the definition of exhaustion, we could say that this person in the card has reached the point of burnout, or has
We normally think of addiction as being represented singularly by the ol’ devil card. Traditionally, this card represents fear, anger, worry, all unproductive thoughts and emotions, suppression, obsession, bondage, hedonism, unconsciousness, negativity, relinquishment of personal power, attachments, hopelessness, darkness, vice over virtue, and addictions. There is a saying that the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t, and that maybe so. There is comfort in familiarity, even if it is an unhealthy pattern. In the devil card we see this beast who seems to have dominion over the animalistic side of human nature as represented by these two feminine and masculine archetypal figures.
