Cards and Their Associated Meanings

Collected articles on the the history and culture of playing cards.
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Re: Cards: History, Meanings, and More

Unread post by MagikFingerz »

This is amazing! Great job, Lara :D
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Re: Cards: History, Meanings, and More

Unread post by dazzleguts »

You really made this look good. Coloured text really pops on the new forum. I will add some history later.
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Re: Cards: History, Meanings, and More

Unread post by laranovales »



Thanks @Magicfingerz and @Dazzleguts!

I put these info together because some people were having a bit of a mental block on their personal deck designs and knowing more about cards and their origins and what nots really helps i think. :P

And yes I am a sucker for colored texts if you didn't notice from my blog posts (if you read it) and even in Aethercards. :P

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Re: Cards: History, Meanings, and More

Unread post by Assassino13 »

This is so cool! It even made it onto the coveted bookmark section of my computer.
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Re: Cards: History, Meanings, and More

Unread post by laranovales »



***BEAMS*** awww shucks! I feel honored to have my post bookmarked. =^-^=

anyway I see a design/dev board there. So I am guessing that this topic will be moved soon to its appropriate forum.
Is this right @Russell?
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Re: Cards: History, Meanings, and More

Unread post by Russell »

The design topic "Drafting Board" is mostly for people to show off unreleased decks or card ideas and suggestions.

I'm thinking of creating a 'Knowledge Base' forum to put all the reference material in.
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Re: Cards: History, Meanings, and More

Unread post by Adam »

Excellent Contribution!! This is really great information.
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Re: Cards: History, Meanings, and More

Unread post by laranovales »



Oh yeay it has been moved to the knowledge base!
Awesome!

This is a great idea! And A great way to keep things organized. GOOD JOB GUYS!
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Re: Cards: History, Meanings, and More

Unread post by sprouts1115 »

we also need the knights in your list. i find it interesting the modern list in rank of order of the trumps is not the same order by this monk in 1470.


http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Sermones ... _Cum_Aliis" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Primus dicitur El bagatella (et est omnium inferior): The first is called The bagatella (and is the lowest of all)
2 Imperatrix: Empress
3 Imperator: Emperor
4 La papessa (O miseri quod negat Christiana fides): The Popesse ("O wretches! That which the Christian Faith denies.")^
5 El papa (O pontifex cur, &c. qui debet omni sanctitate polere, et isti ribaldi faciunt ipsorum capitaneum): The pope : (O Pope why, etc., who must rule with complete holiness, also these criminals make of you their chief)
6 La temperantia: The temperance
7 L'amore: Love
8 Lo caro triumphale (vel mundus parvus): The triumphal chariot : or "the little world"
9 La fortezza: The fortitude
10 La rotta (id est regno, regnavi, sum sine regno): The wheel "i.e. I reign, I reigned, I am without kingdom"
11 El gobbo: The hunchback
12 Lo impichato: The hanged man
13 La morte: The death
14 El diavolo: The devil
15 La sagitta: The arrow
16 La stella: The star
17 La luna: The moon
18 El sole: The sun
19 Lo angelo: The angel
20 La iusticia: The justice
21 El mondo (cioe Dio Padre): The world (i.e. God the Father)
0 El Matto sie nulla (nisi velint): The Fool, thus null (unless they wish)
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Re: Cards: History, Meanings, and More

Unread post by RSLancastr »

Thank you for all of the work you put into that, but I think it is better suited (so to speak) to a tarot/cartomancy forum than this one. Of what use are the putative "meanings" for the cards (which constantly vary from reader to reader anyway) to a cardist or a playing card collector?

Also, what New Age cartomancy practitioners call the "Major Arcana" (in order to make them sound mysterious) were originally (and still are) "the Trumps".

Because Tarot decks were originally created for playing card games, not fortunetelling. Modern Tarock decks (Tarock being a card game popular in some countries, mostly in Europe) are more closely related to Tarot decks than are modern standard playing card decks. So your statement that modern playing cards descended from tarot decks is inaccurate (although many New Age books say that it is so).
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Re: Cards: History, Meanings, and More

Unread post by RSLancastr »

sprouts1115 wrote:we also need the knights in your list. i find it interesting the modern list in rank of order of the trumps is not the same order by this monk in 1470.
The order - and even the names - of the trumps has varied quite a bit over the years, sometimes from deck to deck.
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Re: Cards: History, Meanings, and More

Unread post by lumpyliew »

Honestly , I only read the first few parts .... It's definitely hard work... Thanks for the informations !
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Re: Cards: History, Meanings, and More

Unread post by ibrahimjaber »

Great Topic with a lot of great Information & new things I never knew about
Thanks a lot
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Re: Cards: History, Meanings, and More

Unread post by dazzleguts »

Fortune telling is only one of the many secondary uses people have had for playing cards:

http://www.wopc.co.uk/cards/secondary-uses.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Cards: History, Meanings, and More

Unread post by Becky C »

I wasn't sure where to ask this question so if I'm in the wrong place I apologize. Can anyone explain "squeezers" to me. I am pretty new to collecting and keep seeing this pop up as I am looking at cards but have not seen exactly what makes them different. Thanks
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Re: Cards: History, Meanings, and More

Unread post by dazzleguts »

Hey Becky
Before card makers began placing the numbers and suit signs (indices) in the corners of the cards you had to spread your cards wide in order to count the pips, and to see what courts you had, or, move your cards to the front of your hand one at a time. After indices were introduced it became possible to "squeeze" your cards together and still know what they were. Much easier to keep the value of your hand to yourself since without indices it takes more spread between the cards to fully see pip cards then it does to see the courts. One aspect of the story of indices in the US is illustrated on the back of the "Bulldog Squeezers". You can read more about it here:

http://www.wopc.co.uk/usa/squeezers/squeezers-35.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Cards: History, Meanings, and More

Unread post by Becky C »

Thanks
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Re: Cards: History, Meanings, and More

Unread post by RSLancastr »

Becky, a bit more:

As Dazzleguts said, playing cards originally had no indices in the corner, making it neccesary to look at the entire face of each card in your hand to know their rank and suit.

In the late 1880s, the idea became popular to make it possible to tell the rank and suit of a card without pulling it out of your hand.

Several competing methods/standards for this improvement vied for popularity with the card-playing public, two of which became the most popular:

In one, called "Triplicates", a tiny image of the entire face of each card was printed in the cards' upper-left and lower-right corners.

In the other, called "Squeezers", just the card's rank (2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,J,Q,K) and suit-sign(Heart, Club, Diamond, Spade) were printed in the upper-left and lower-right corners.

Over time, the "Squeezers" standard became the most widely-accepted (probably because the teensy card image on "Triplicates" was more difficult for those with weak vision to make out), and became the standard we are familiar with today.

Back during the Triplicates/Squeezers battle, even though the term "Squeezers" was trademarked, it became a sort of generic term for any deck which used this method of indices.

Nowadays, it is so much the standard that few people other than collectors know that there is even a name for it, or that cards at one time had no indices at all!

When a playing card collector uses the term "Squeezers" now, they are most probably referring to those old decks with the trademarked term "Squuezers" printed on the box.
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Re: Cards: History, Meanings, and More

Unread post by Blake »

This is fantastic! Well organized and very informative. I just finished a book called A History of Playing Cards and a Bibliography of Cards and Gaming and I highly suggest it for anyone interested in more information about the history and what not. I would also suggest Roll the bones if you are interested in the history of Gambling in general ( although it is about 500 pages and some people do not want that much lol)
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Re: Cards: History, Meanings, and More

Unread post by dazzleguts »

Hey Blake. You might like "The World of Games" too then. Subtitle: Their Origins and History, How to Play Them, and How to Make Them. It shows and talks about ancient and modern games from around the world. Many are gambling games and there are tons of great pictures.

I have the Hargrave History too. It's a shame USPCC got rid of that collection.
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Re: Cards: History, Meanings, and More

Unread post by RSLancastr »

All of my playing card (and Tarot card) reference books are still in boxes out in our garage... <sniff!>
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Re: Cards and Their Associated Meanings

Unread post by laitostarr777 »

This is a very good explanation for Cartomancy side of playing cards
Great work!
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