Cartomancy with a 32-Card Deck: History, Meaning and Method

What is cartomancy?

Cartomancy is the art of reading playing cards to shed light on a question. The word covers the reading of any pack, including tarot and oracle decks, but in France it is commonly applied to the 32-card deck, the four-suit pack used for belote or piquet. The cards from 2 to 6 are removed: what remains in each suit is the ace, king, queen, page, ten, nine, eight and seven, that is 8 × 4 = 32 cards.

Readings are also done with the 52-card deck, with the 36-card deck (the Lenormand) and with tarot. This page presents only the French tradition of the 32-card deck.

A little history

Playing cards reached Europe in the second half of the fourteenth century. From the sixteenth century onwards, there were books of “lots” that combined a card draw with oracular texts, such as the one by Francesco Marcolini published in Venice in 1540. But cartomancy as it is practised today, with ordinary cards read as a language, is later: the Encyclopædia Universalis notes that few traces of it are found before the second half of the eighteenth century.

The most solid date is 1770: that year, the first known practical treatise appeared in Paris, by Etteilla (Jean-Baptiste Alliette, 1738–1791), on reading a 32-card piquet pack, with the addition of a special card, “Etteilla”. In it he sets out meanings for the cards, upright and reversed, and spreads. He claimed to have learned his method from an Italian: what is his own and what came from elsewhere remains hard to tell apart. Later, Etteilla turned to tarot (1783–1785).

At the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the famous Marie-Anne Lenormand (1772–1843) gave card reading great visibility in Paris; the decks that bear her name were published after her death and were not created by her. In the nineteenth century, cartomancy became a parlour entertainment and a literary subject: Balzac alludes to it, and an 1848 vaudeville is titled La Tireuse de cartes. For a broader overview, see the history of cartomancy.

The 32-card deck at a glance

This correspondence with tarot is a modern and practical habit, not a historical filiation: French playing cards and tarot decks do not derive from one another in this way. The domains of the suits, for their part, vary from one manual to another.

Court cards, aces and numbered cards

In most manuals, the court cards (king, queen, page) represent people or qualities: the king is the mature man or authority, the queen the mature woman, the page the young person or the messenger. This is not a portrait: one can read in them a temperament, a role, and sometimes a part of oneself.

The aces are beginnings and centres of attention: the ace of hearts, the home; the ace of diamonds, the message; the ace of clubs, luck; the ace of spades, the turning point. The numbered cards (7, 8, 9, 10) describe rather situations, everyday events and states. The higher the number, the more fully the theme of the suit unfolds.

The names of the court cards in the Paris portrait (David, Pallas, Charlemagne, Judith, Hector, and so on) are a late nineteenth-century addition. They have no divinatory value.

A simple reading method

1. Formulate an open question: “How should I approach…?”, “What do I need to face up to in…?”.
2. Shuffle and cut, for example with the left hand as custom has it, then gather the pack together.
3. Draw a small number of cards (three to start) and lay them face up.
4. Read by suit first (which area is touched?), then by court card or number (who or what?), then combine the neighbouring cards.
5. Write down the question, the cards and your interpretation, so you can reread them later and see what actually happened.

You will find a full walkthrough in the simple spread with a 32-card deck and in the three-card spread.

Reading the cards together

A single card says little. Cartomancy reading relies on proximity: the ace of spades next to the ace of clubs does not mean the same thing as next to the ace of hearts. One therefore reads in pairs or threes, looking for a sentence: “a person of authority (King of Spades) brings a message (Ace of Diamonds) that touches the home (Ace of Hearts)”.

In some manuals, direction matters: cards turned to the left belong to the past, those turned to the right to what is coming. Many present-day readers simply prefer to read the positions as stages of a reflection. Here the cards are words, and what counts is the sentence you draw from them, reread with a clear head.

What the research says

There is no evidence that reading cards makes it possible to know the future. Psychologists explain the impression of accuracy through several mechanisms: the Barnum effect (in 1949, Bertram Forer showed that people judge a vague description valid for almost anyone to be very accurate), confirmation bias (we remember what fits), and cold reading (the reader adjusts what they say to their listener’s reactions).

This does not take away all value from the practice, provided it is taken for what it is: a way of asking oneself questions, of putting words to a situation, of taking time for oneself. The cards serve as a mirror; they announce nothing.

Good practice and limits

• Do not ask questions about health, pregnancy, death, gambling or the stock market: a card replaces neither a doctor nor financial advice.
• Do not read for someone who is not present, or to put pressure on anyone.
• If a card worries you, remember that it is not a sentence; in case of distress, talk to someone: 3114 (national suicide prevention line in France), or 15 or 112 (emergency number throughout the European Union) in an emergency.
• Meanings vary between authors. Keep your own, noted in a notebook, rather than looking for an “official” meaning.

Where to go next

Begin with the portraits of the four suits: hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades. Then open the cartomancy guide to reach the profile of each card. If you are torn between a 32-card deck and tarot, the guide to choosing a tarot or oracle deck may help, and the tarot deck collection presents those we offer.

Frequently asked questions

Also read

The meanings mentioned belong to tradition and symbolism. They are neither promises of results nor medical advice. Back to Cartomancy with a standard deck of playing cards.