Playing Cards: the Affordable Tarot

The Queen of Spades represents
insight and ambition

Tarot is expensive. Most decks cost between $25-40, with hand-crafted and rare ones marked upwards of $80. If you can afford to buy a hand-crafted deck, by all means, support tarot artists! But for full-time creative writers and freelances, it can be hard to justify spending the equivalent of a week’s groceries or your Internet bill on a pack of cards, especially if you’re new to tarot.

As an affordable alternative, I present to you the traditional playing card deck, which actually has its roots in taromacy.

The Suits

Every playing card in a deck falls under one of four pictorial suits: clubs, diamonds, hearts, and spades. Tarot and traditional playing cards originated from the same decks, so while their respective suits have different names, they hold similar meanings.

Before you advance to learning about the meanings behind face cards and the numbered pip cards, you can do a quick general reading using just the suit associations below to get a feel for the situation or character in question.

	PLAYING CARD SUIT	TAROT SUIT	MEANINGS	ELEMENT
♣	Clubs	Wands	Dreams, passion, social sphere, adventure	Fire
♦	Diamonds	Pentacles	Money, career, possessions, health	Earth
♥	Hearts	Cups	Emotions, creativity, relationships, family	Water
♠	Spades	Swords	Intellect, communication, education, writing	Air

The Face Cards

These are similar to the court cards in tarot, but one face short. There's no corresponding playing card for Tarot's Knights, so your can use Jacks generally combine the meanings of Knights and Pages.

FACE CARDS	TAROT COURT CARDS	REPRESENTATIONS
Jacks	Pages/Knights	Children and teens, or adults young at heart
Queens	Queens	Women, typically over 30
Kings	Kings	Men, typically over 30
Jokers	The Fool	The querent (or protagonist)

By Suit

Each face card has its own personality and temperament. When combined with different suits, each takes on an array of distinctive traits.

As you keep reading, you may see a pattern between the face’s characteristics and the suit’s associations. With practice, you’ll become as familiar with the faces in your deck as you are with your own characters.

	JACK	QUEEN	KING
♣ CLUBS	Risks, athletics, impulsiveness	Energy, passion, creativity	Charisma, temper, inventiveness
♦ DIAMONDS	Complexity, hard work, reliability	Practicality, duty, ambition	Drive, mentorship, satisfaction
♥ HEARTS	Romance, whimsy	Empathy, family, love	Acceptance, diplomacy, patience
♠ SPADES	Rebellion, intellect, politics	Insight, organization, ruthlessness	Introspection, ethics, communication

As Characters

Similar to the court cards in tarot, the face cards represent archetypal figures and personalities. As a writer, you can build characters to match these faces or do a reading to see who your protagonist will meet next, who is secretly in love with them, or who is plotting against them.

	JACK Youth or teen	QUEEN Woman	KING Man
♣ CLUBS Brunette Hazel eyes Chaotic-aligned	Privileged child, protégée, student, adventurer, apprentice	Single Socialite, artist, influencer, friend, celebrity	Single Socialite, artist, influencer, advisor, celebrity
♦ DIAMONDS Blonde or redhead Green eyes Lawful-aligned	Heir, child of important figure, young upstart Materialistic, motivated, self-centered	Non-monogamous Businesswoman, politician, entrepreneur, doctor, boss	Non-monogamous Businessman, politician, entrepreneur, doctor, boss
♥ HEARTS Dark blonde or light brown hair Blue eyes Good-aligned	Child, sibling, mentee, ward Dreamer, empathetic, nurturing, open-minded, creative	Married, engaged, dating Maternal figure or female love interest Homemaker, teacher	Married, engaged, dating Paternal figure or male love interest Mentor, spiritual guide
♠ SPADES Dark brown or black hair Brown eyes Neutral or Evil-aligned	Orphan or stepchild Warrior in training, rebel Ambitious, intelligent, competitive	Widow or divorcee Stepmother Police, military officer, warrior Rival or antagonist	Widowed or divorced Stepfather Police, military officer, warrior Rival or antagonist

The Pip Cards

Like the pip cards of tarot, these numbered cards signify events, reveal insight regarding circumstances or influences, and bring to light issues weighing on the querent’s mind.

Pip cards are especially useful to writers in constructing plot points and setting. In combination with face cards, they can also help divine character’s motivations and specific details about their relationships and interactions with the world.

By Suit

PIP	♣ CLUBS	♦ DIAMONDS	♠ SPADES	♥ HEARTS
Ace	Inspiration, passion, drive	New project, achievement	Insight, epiphany	New relationship
2	Preparation, planning	Over-commitment, multi-tasking	No communication	Developing relationship
3	Leadership, adventure	Teamwork, networking	Misunderstanding	Friendship, celebration
4	Goal achievement	Hoarding, possessiveness	Contemplation	Isolation, apathy
5	Rivalry, disagreement, irritation	Unemployment, lost possessions, bankruptcy	Discord	Loss, despair
6	Victory	Gifts, pay raise, new resources	Travel, recuperation, closure	Nostalgia, rekindled relationship
7	Adversary, defense, conviction	Dissatisfaction, reassessment	Deceit, theft	Wishful thinking
8	Organization, rapid change	Focus, practice, training	Powerlessness, stasis, loss of agency	Detachment, divorce, breakup
9	Endurance, strength, finalization	Independence, agency, wealth	Anxiety, nightmares, guilt	Sensuality, pleasure, spiritual growth
10	Responsibility, debt	Bounty, property, inheritance	Surrender, victimhood, sacrifice	Fulfillment, family, happiness

Numerological Meanings

Many cultures ascribe weighty symbolism to numbers and their combinations. Here are a few basic correspondences to help you find meaning in the pip cards. 

#	PIP	MEANING	LIFE CYCLE	TIME	SEASON
1	Ace	Beginnings	Birth	Dawn	Spring
2	Two	Balance	Infant	Morning	Spring
3	Three	Communication	Toddler	Mid-morning	Spring
4	Four	Stability	Youth	Late morning	Summer
5	Five	Disturbance	Teenager	Noon	Summer
6	Six	Growth	Young Adult	Afternoon	Summer
7	Seven	Harmony	Mature Adult	Evening	Autumn
8	Eight	Change	Middle Age	Night	Autumn
9	Nine	Mystery	Old Age	Twilight	Winter
10	Ten	Endings	Death	Sunset	Winter

And there you have it! I hope these tables helped. What are your experiences with playing card divination? Do you use any other tarot alternatives? Tell me in the comments!