You Can Tell Your Future With Playing Cards

Charla Stone
Published January 16, 2020

Many people view those who have the ability to read tarot cards, astrology charts, palms, and tea leaves with a bit of awe and of wonder – and rightly so. Exceptional readers have put a lifetime into studying their tools, having a strong code of ethics, and years of experience with readings. However, did you know that you don’t always need tarot or crystals or other metaphysical tools to be able to take a peek into the unknown? You can tell your own future with many everyday items.

One of the most popular everyday divination with playing cards. Playing cards are derived from and are very similar to, tarot cards. There are 4 suits in a deck and each suit has 13 cards. There’s an extra court card in the tarot, and also has 22 trump cards called the major arcana. However, divination with playing cards can be read like the minor arcana of the tarot. It’s a skill that you’ll pick up very easily but takes a lifetime to master.

Related Article: How to Do Your Own Tarot Card Reading

The Meanings of the Cards

Reading playing cards is important to understanding the four suits in a deck of playing cards pertaining to a different area of your life and even the timing of events. The suit of hearts deal with emotional matters and may foretell events in the summertime.

Diamonds deal with money, material objects, the tangible, and when it comes to timing, they hint at the season of winter. Clubs point to friendships, relationships, matters that require action and springtime. Spades indicate a conflict or warning and resonate with the season of autumn.

Aces: New beginnings.
Twos: A choice needs to be made.
Threes: Things are falling into place.
Fours: Foundation and stability.
Fives: Be prepared for an important event about to happen.
Sixes: A lack of focus.
Sevens: Luck, this can be either good or bad, depending on the surrounding cards.
Eights: Fate, or destiny.
Nines: A conflict or decisions may be coming to a head.
Tens: Completion. endings, or fulfillment.
Jacks: Messages are coming your way.
Queens: Knowledge, awareness, enlightenment.
Kings: Confidence, self-assurance, ego.
The Joker: Some playing card readers include the joker and some do not when performing tarot with playing cards. Whether you choose to do so is entirely up to you. I recommend it. The joker means that something unexpected and unpredictable is about to happen. It cautions you, no matter what the rest of the reading revealed, things could change in heartbeat, so be prepared!

Now that you know the meaning of each suit and card, you need to apply your knowledge to interpret the message from reading the playing cards. Let’s use eights as an example. The eights mean fate or destiny. If you pulled the eight of hearts, it would mean something was fated in a relationship or your emotional destiny. However, if this was the eight of spades, then it could mean that a conflict or disagreement was destined to happen.

Fortune telling with playing cards takes a bit of thought and objectivity to put the interpretation together. The more you understand the tarot card meanings, the better you’ll be at seeing how they all fit together. Half of the art of a tarot card reading is storytelling.

You will develop the skill of reading playing cards, taking the message in the cards, and applying it to your life and the situation you are consulting the cards to answer.

The Layout of the Cards

When you tarot with playing cards, you’re going to lay them out in a pattern on a table or other flat surface. Your pattern is called a ‘spread’ or a ‘layout’. There are hundreds of different layouts to choose from. Most free tarot readings are done in a three-card spread.

You can use the same spreads for playing cards as you do for tarot, or you might want to use something different. For beginners, a simple place to start when using playing cards as tarot is to use a four-card spread.

Shuffle your cards, ask them your questions, lay the four cards out one by one face down, and read them left to right.

Card #1: This represents the main theme of your question.
Card #2: This card is showing you the advantages you’ve got working for you.
Card #3: The next card shows you the challenges, or perhaps what’s working against you.
Card #4. The final card reveals the potential outcome of your question.

Pay close attention to cards that repeat themselves in a spread. In the above spread, you’ve only used four cards. That means that if you get two of any card – two threes, two queens, two sevens – pay close attention. The numbers are trying to alert you and send a message.

Related Article: 3 Common Mistakes When Reading Your Own Tarot

Concluding Thoughts

You can tell your own future without having to be clairvoyant. With experience, you’ll start to become familiar with different combinations and layouts to master fortune-telling with playing cards. You’ll develop a real feel for what the cards are trying to reveal to you. Bear in mind that it’s not a quick fix.

While you’ll be able to learn to read the cards immediately, it takes time, patience, and wisdom to become adept at tarot with playing cards.

There are no hard and fast rules about reading your own cards. Do what feels comfortable and don’t get bogged down with details and thinking there is a perfect or correct interpretation of the tarot. Even the most experienced card readers will sometimes consult reputable professionals to get a second opinion. Approach the tarot with humility, respect, and the mindset that you will always learn something new with each reading.

Editor’s note: This article was previously published November 28, 2016 and has been updated for astrological accuracy.