Monday, March 26, 2007

Arcana - Playing Cards

Bear with me as I try to figure out some history about playing cards and tarot cards. I've heard lots of explanations through the years about how the four suits (hearts, clubs, diamonds, and spades) of our modern playing cards correspond to the four suits of the tarot (cups, wands, pentacles, and swords). I'm writing a series based loosely on certain aspects of the tarot deck and need a place to gather information. Voila! Welcome to that place. ;-) If you have any information on this subject you'd be willing to share, please post a comment!

Here are some sites I've found that have good information:

http://www.woodenhorsebooks.com/Playing-Card-Names.html - gives names of historical figures associated with certain playing cards in table form.

http://www.gambling.freegames.eu.com/playingcards/index.html - I think this site has some interesting information, including the following sections:

"It is likely that the ancestors of modern cards arrived in Europe from the Mamelukes of Egypt in the late 1300s, by which time they had already assumed a form very close to those in use today. In particular, the Mameluke deck contained 52 cards comprising four "suits": polo sticks, coins, swords, and cups. Each suit contained ten "spot" cards (cards identified by the number of suit symbols or "pips" they show) and three "court" cards named malik (King), nā'ib malik (Viceroy or Deputy King), and thānī nā'ib (Second or Under-Deputy). The Mameluke court cards showed abstract designs not depicting persons (at least not in any surviving specimens) though they did bear the names of miltary officers. A complete pack of Mameluke playing cards was discovered by L.A. Mayer in the Topkapi Sarayi Museum, Istanbul, in 1939; this particular complete pack was not made before 1400, but the complete deck allowed matching to a private fragment dated to the twelfth or thirteenth century."

"The cards manufactured by German printers used the suits of hearts, bells, leaves, and acorns still present in German decks today used for Skat and other games. Later Italian and Spanish cards of the 15th century used swords, batons, cups, and coins. It is likely that the Tarot deck was invented in Italy at that time, though it is often mistakenly believed to have been imported into Europe by Gypsies. While originally (and still in some places) used for the game of Tarocchi, the Tarot deck today is more often used for cartomancy and other occult practices. This probably came about in the 1780s, when occult philosophers mistakenly associated the symbols on Tarot cards with Egyptian hieroglyphs."

"The four suits (hearts, diamonds, spades, clubs) now used in most of the world originated in France, approximately in 1480. The trèfle, so named for its resemblance to the trefoil leaf, was probably copied from the acorn; the pique similarly from the leaf of the German suits, while its name derived from the sword of the Italian suits. It is not derived from its resemblance to a pike head, as commonly supposed. In England the French suits were used, and are named hearts, clubs (corresponding to trèfle, the French symbol being joined to the Italian name, bastoni), spades (corresponding to the French pique, but having the Italian name, spade=sword) and diamonds."

Surfing further on that site, I find they get their information from Wikipedia. Hmm. Of particular intrest to me is how the modern suits correspond to tarot suits. See the chart here: http://www.gambling.freegames.eu.com/playingcards/suits/index.html, or here's the nitty-gritty:

spades=swords
hearts=cups
clubs=wands
diamonds=pentacles

Continuing, they identify some of the names that correspond to the court cards:

"Rouen courts are traditionally named as follows: the kings of spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs are David, Alexander, (Julius) Caesar, and Charles (Charlemagne), respectively. The knaves (or "jacks"; French "valet") are Hector (prince of Troy), La Hire (comrade-in-arms to Joan of Arc), Ogier (a knight of Charlemagne), and Judas Maccabee (who led the Jewish rebellion against the Syrians). The queens are Pallas (warrior goddess; equivalent to the Greek Athena or Roman minerva), Rachel (biblical mother of Joseph), Argine (the origin of which is obscure), and Judith (of the Apocrypha). Parisian tradition uses the same names, but assigns them to different suits: the kings of spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs are are David, Charles, Caesar, and Alexander; the queens are Pallas, Judith, Rachel, and Argine; the knaves are Ogier, Le Hire, Hector, and Judas Maccabee. Oddly, the Parisian names have become more common in modern use, even with cards of Rouennais design."

I think I'll stick with the originals and use the Rouen designations:

King of Spades/Swords=David
King of Hearts/Cups=Alexander
King of Diamonds/Pentacles=Julius
King of Clubs/Wands=Charles

Queen of Spades/Swords=Pallas/Athena/Minerva
Queen of Hearts/Cups=Rachel
Queen of Diamonds/Pentacles=Argine
Queen of Clubs/Wands=Judith

Knight of Spades/Swords=Hector of Troy
Knight of Hearts/Cups=La Hire
Knight of Diamonds/Pentacles=Ogier
Knight of Clubs/Wands=Judas Maccabee

Also interesting:

"The Joker was an American innovation. Created for the Alsatian game of Euchre, it then spread to Europe from America along with the spread of Poker. Although the Joker card often bears the image of a fool, which is one of the images of the Tarot deck, it is not believed that there is any relation."

But what if there were? Hmm. Something to ponder for future use.

For right now, my first Arcana story will be titled King of Swords and will feature a warrior named David. Coming from Phaze in May 2007 as part of the Fortune's Fool anthology.
Posted by Bianca D'Arc :: 9:28 PM :: 0 Comments:

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