spirituality 11.pdf

7/29/2019 spirituality 11.pdf

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spirituality - lesson 11: cards

hat trick design created their own set of playing cards using only typographical elements. the deck of cards features theusual 52 cards and 4 suits each reinterpreted using letters and numbers.more

the origin of playing cards lies in them being used for divinatory purposes.through cleromancy/ sortilege cards are thought to allow messages from thesubconscious mind to emerge into the conscious world. along with other objectssuch as sticks, arrows, bones and beans, cards were used for the casting of lots,the oder in which they fell or were dealt would then be interpreted. korean playing

cards often bear an arrow on the back as a nod to their lineage.

chinese domino cards showing characters from thestory of the rivers banks, date unknown
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the origins

eastern playing cardsthe origin of playing cards as they are known today isthought to be 9th century china. from china they were introduced to europe andthen the rest of the world. certain chinese cards bore symbols imitated frompaper money which denoted their value. all early card games have their roots inprimitive conditions and so it is not known who is the inventor of them. as the

early printed cards of the tang dynasty bore the same symbols as the printedmoney of the era, they were not only used as the tools for gaming but also thestakes for gambling.

the oldest chinese card game based on money is made up of 120 cardscomposed of 4 identical sets of 30 cards each. the cards are narrow, flexiblestrips of card approximately 2cm wide. there are nine cards to each of the threesuits coins, strings of coins, and myriads of strings of coins; and three extracards, the red flower, the white flower and old thousand which are distinguishedby seals and inscriptions. these extra cards would often feature imagery ofinstances in chinese folklore.

early korean playing cards, date unknown

one of the most popular card games in the east is the japanese flower game'hanafunda'. the hanafunda deck has 48 cards composed of 12 suits, with 4cards to a suit. each different suits represents a month of the year, and each cardwithin a suit represents a season of the year. the pictures are usually stylized

flowers and fauna particular to japan throughout each season of the year.variations of the flower game are also popular in korea such as 'hwa-tu'.interestingly almost all early card games relate to the human interest in thenatural world and their place in it. another place where cards are closelyentwined with religious symbolism is in india.


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hwa-tu is the korean version of the japanese playing card game hanafuda.hwa-tu is translates into english as 'flower cards. 48 cards, divided into twelvesuits each named for flowers or plants during a month of the year; each suitcontains four cards, one for each season.

hindu playing cards, date unknown

some theorists believe that playing cards arrival to europe was via india bytraveling fortune tellers. the reason for this is that some european cards featureup the four suits: the ring, sword, cup, and baton, which are commonly seen inhindu iconography. there are also striking similarities between the spanish gameof hombre and the indian game 'ganjifa'. alternatively some experts say thatcards probably travelled to india from europe thus explaining the similarities, thedebate continues to this day.


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normally indian cards are small lacquered discs with a diameter of 2.5cm, indianplaying cards are separated into 8-10 colored suits. suits are divided into tendifferent incarnations of vishnu: matsya the fish, kourma the tortoise, varah theboar, nara-simah the lion, vamanavatara the dwarf, paracu rama of the axe,

rama chandra the gentle rama, krishna the black, buddha the enlightened andlastly kalki the white horse. it is interesting to note that the symbols used on thecards are similar to ones that exist in the stories of the scythians, which persisted

in the legends and rites in greece.

italian (venetian), playing cards, with the swords back-to-back and curvedoutwards,1462

to further support the idea that playing cards entered india from europe is the

many cards which feature the symbols for french suit symbols, also there is nomention of card games/playing cards in 'the book of one thousand and onenights'.

spanish, 1575


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tarot cards by nicolas bodet, belgian, 1743-1751


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italian (milanese), tarot cards, 1820

playing cards in europeitaly's claim to be the first european country to have playing cards probablyholds the most weight, due to venice's importance as a seaport. wether theywere brought by travelers or merchants it is not known but emblematic cardsbearing distinctly eastern symbolism had appeared by the late 14th century.

playing cards prompted endless and elaborate theories into their meaning,some claim that the cards came from india or persia whilst others say egypt. theeastern designs rapidly evolved into the basic 'latin' suits of swords, staves, cupsand coins, which are still used in traditional italian and spanish decks. it has beensaid that the four italian suits are the four sacred symbols of hermes, forginganother link to fortune-telling. those who sought help from hermes would have tooffer silver to the priests, (the crossing of a gypsy's palm with silver is the thesurvival of this ancient rite.) it is more likely however, that the suits and numerical

values are copies of the four chinese suits of coins.

playing cards vary across italy due to each province being ruled separately whencards arrived. however, the most interesting deviation of playing cards to occur in

italy are... tarot cards according to history tarot cards are first documented initaly shortly after the arrival of playing cards. evidence indicates that they werecreated between 1410 and 1430 in northern italy, when additional trump cardswith allegorical illustrations were added to the four-suit decks. the book 'le jeusdes tarots' by court de gebelin (published in 1781 in paris) offers an insight intohow tarot cards may have evolved from playing cards. gebelin's theory suggeststhat playing cards had come to italy from egypt and that the iconography on

many of the first cards which surfaced was based on hieroglyphics. from thispoint the theory follows the hieroglyphic system that all gods were letters, all


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letters were ideas and that all ideas were numbers with each number being aperfect sign. based on this it is interesting that the number 7 translates to thetarot card system retaining all its spiritual affiliation being represented by thechariot of the sun. also, 13 represented by death retains its early easternsignificance of misfortune. tarot reading systems varies from place to place, butis nearly always used for divinatory purposes.

later developmentsby the 15th century in europe, the suits in playing cards varied from country tocountry but always the symbolism chosen to represent the different cards hadspiritual connotations; in germany, hearts, bells, leaves, and acorns became thestandard suits and are still used in some german decks today. the four suitsspades, hearts, diamonds and clubs now used in most of the world originated infrance in around the late 15th century. the trfle (club) was probably copied from

the acorn and the pique (spade) from the leaf of the german suits.as cards were normally printed and colored by hand it made them almostexclusive to the wealthiest and most noble people. this being the case it was no

wonder that these people soon began to grace the cards that they played with. inearly european games kings were always the highest card in their suit. however,by the late 14th century special significance began to be placed on the nominallylowest card. now known as the ace, it sometimes can the highest card and thetwo, or deuce, the lowest. this concept may have been hastened in the late 17thcentury by the french revolution, where games started being played 'ace high' 'asa symbol of lower classes rising in power above the royalty.'

cards and their connection to money remains to this day, be it through gamblingor payment for a tarot reading - the two are never far apart. ultimately cards aprovide the notion of chance with a physical property. whether it is the desire to

see the future or to improve it playing card's appeal is to give an insight into theunknown.

english, 1678


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german, early 17th century

italian, early 18th century


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french, 1856

british, date unknown


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american, 1865

during soviet russia the only vendor for playing cards (and most other things) was the soviet state. one of the limited number


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of decks they offered were these devoted to mayan culture.more

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text extracts and some images were taken from the excellent book:

'a history of playing cards a bibliography of cards and gaming'

by catherine perry hargrave

ISBN 0-486-41236-9

dover publications, mineola, new yorkpublished in 1966
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spirituality 11.pdf