Evolution of the Suits: Queen of Tarot

Evolution of the Suits

This page shows the evolution of playing card and tarot card suits over time and geography. The suits began with denominations of Chinese currency, and progressed through multiple misinterpretations, as a result of cultural differences and vague, illegible printing techniques.

	Coins	Wands	Swords	Cups
Ancient Analog	Square Holed Coin (1)	Strings of Coins (100)		Myriads of Coins (10,000)
Chinese Suits	coins	strings	Some later decks include a fourth suit, either 1000 cash or 100,000 cash.	myriads
Persian Suits	discs, suns, or coins	wands, sticks, torches, polo sticks	swords	Other suits include slaves, harps, fans, shells, and crowns
Indian Suits	silver coins	slaves	swords	harps
	gold coins	writs	goods	crowns
Mamluk Suits	coins	polo sticks	swords	myriads
Moorish Suits	coins	polo sticks	swords	myriads
Latin Suits	coins	wands	swords	cups
German Suits	bells	acorns	leaves	hearts
French Suits	diamonds	clubs	spades	hearts

Image Gallery

Square Holed Coin (1)

Strings of Coins (100)

Myriads of Coins (10,000)

coins

strings

myriads

discs, suns, or coins

wands, sticks, torches, polo sticks

swords

silver coins

slaves

swords

gold coins

writs

goods

harps

crowns

Madame Le Normand

Tags: france, occultists, cartomancy, fortune telling

Excerpt from E. S. Taylor's "The history of playing cards, with anecdotes of their use in conjuring, fortune-telling, and card-sharping":

The stormy period of the first Consulship of Napoleon and that of the Empire which followed it, was especially characterized by cartomantic practices in France. At this time, there lived in Paris a famous woman, whose renown as a prophetess will probably not soon pass away. This person was Mlle. Lenormand, whose influence with the empress Josephine, and even Napoleon himself, was said to be considerable.

Printing on Paper

Tags: paper, history, printing

660-670, China: First example of printing on paper. Early xylography was accomplished with hemp paper and woodblocks.

The Game of Leaves

Tags: chinese, dice, china, history, 0827, asian

The game was often referred to as "gold speckled leaves", which does make it sound quite a lot like early gold-leaf Tarot cards. Many scholars will tell you that playing cards were invented in 827 because they have conflated these two games. If there is any relationship between these games, which I doubt, it is this:

Éliphas Lévi

Tags: france, occultists, kabbala, cartomancy

Alphonse Louis Constant (a.k.a. Éliphas Lévi Zahed) was a famous French occultist and kabbalist who revolutionized the field of cartomancy. Had it not been for Lévi, the theories of Court de Gebelin might never have become popular.

Etteilla

Tags: france, occultists, divination, cartomancy

Jean Baptiste Alliette (a.k.a. Etteilla) was an influential French occultist who helped establish the occult nature of the Tarot. Had it not been for Etteilla, the theories of Court de Gebelin might never have become popular. It was Alliette who made divination with the Tarot popular.

Papus

Tags: france, occultists, kabbala

Papus was a French doctor, hypnotist, and occultist, who founded the modern Martinist Order and helped to popularize occultism. He was born in Spain in 1865, but his family moved to Paris when he was four years old, and he received his education there. He wrote about the Tarot from a Kabbalistic perspective, and was an expert on the works of Éliphas Lévi.

Antoine Court de Gébelin

Tags: france, book of thoth, egypt, occultists

Antoine Court de Gébelin (c. 1719-1784) was a French pastor who initiated the rumor that the Tarot represented the remnants of the Book of Thoth, the wisdom of the ancient pharaohs. He was incorrect, but his theory gained widespread popularity and it has taken over two hundred years to truly dispense with his ideas. Even today, there are people who believe that the Tarot is the Book of Thoth.

Gamblers caught printing cards in China

Tags: chinese, china, playing cards, asian, 1294, history

On the twenty-third day of the sixth month in the thirty-first year of the zhiyuan period (17 July 1294), we caught Yan Sengzhu and Zheng Zhugou playing cards, and have also found wood blocks to print cards. Each person has admitted to the truth of the accusation. We have, according to the rules, passed judgement and punished correctly the organizer Lu Donger, accessory to gambling Zheng Zhugou, the owner of the premises Jiang Sier, and the block printer Ye Lin, and dispatched to the Ever-abundant Treasury for deposit the nine cards (zhipai) that were about to be destroyed, and...

St. Gallen ordinance ignores cards

Tags: 1364, games, 14th century, history, early references

1364, St. Gallen, Switzerland. A local ordinance forbids dice, allows board games, and leaves the subject of cards untouched. This is often cited as the date before which cards could not have been known in Europe.

Dominican friar describes cards

Tags: early references, 14th century, history, 1377

1377, Basel, Switzerland. A Dominican friar by the name of John describes various types of playing cards in detail.

St. Gallen ordinance forbids cards

Tags: 14th century, early references, history, 1379, games

We know playing cards entered Europe in the 1370s because there are no references before this time, and suddenly they start appearing across the continent. In St. Gallen, an ordinance made in 1379 forbade the use of playing cards.