Playing Cards
Playing With Your Unconscious Mind
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Enter a New World
There is a wonderful history in what we call Playing Cards. Rooted in an ancient traditions the system of the cards gives us a window to a way of thinking about the world that is hidden from us today.
The Calendar
Everyone knows that the Moon has phases. That is called a Lunar cycle. The Lunar cycle as reckoned from new Moon to new Moon is 28 days which is a Lunar month. There are 13 Lunar months (or cycles) to one Lunar year. There are 13, 28 day months or 364 days in the Lunar year or one day less than the typical year we use; known as Gregorian year. The Gregorian (or solar) calendar year is 365 days.
Neither calendar is completely accurate. The solar cycle is actually 365 ¼ days. The Lunar calendar year is 364 days.
Here’s where it gets a little dodgy. In Western Christendom we use the 365 day Gregorian calendar but to compensate for the ¼ day we add a “leap year” every 4 years placing an extra day in February. In the 364 day Lunar calendar, the compensation is done each year by adding a “day out of time” usually at the Winter Solstice. Some say that in ancient meso-America an extended Summer Equinox was used to compensate the calendar deficiency.
At this point in the discussion the information becomes very scarce. Experts on historic calendars start to argue with astronomers. Historians dispute astrologers. The farther you go back in time the worse the disagreements get.
But for our discussion we can agree the advantage to the Lunar calendar is that each of the 13 months is exactly 28 days. There are 4 weeks each with 7 days per week; 52 weeks per year. The length of the year is 364 days.
Card Theory
How does that relate to “common” every-day playing cards? With the cards: 13 cards in each suit, 364 divided by 13 = 28; 4 suits x 13 = 52 (the number of cards in the deck), 364 divided by 52 = 7; 7 x 4 suits = 28; therefore 13 x 28 = 364. Note all the relations between the cards and Lunar calendars.*
Another relationship: if you count the jack, queen, and king numerically it would be 11, 12, and 13. If you then add all the numbers represented on all the cards it will total 364 or the number of days in the Lunar year.
Of course our ancient forefathers knew these relationships and more. They utilized this data in ways we barely understand. Certainly they knew other things in this relationship we can’t comprehend.
It is only the Lunar calendar that is referenced to cards. The cards mirror the Lunar calendar; 13 months-13 cards per suit; 52 cards per deck-52 weeks per year; 4 seasons (or 4 quarters) 4 suits and 13 weeks per season. The Lunar driven cards are the touchstone to both our most important celestial relationship and the unconscious mind that is fueled by references to the Moon.
To make things more interesting the 13th letter of the Hebrew alphabet is מ (mem). It also references the number 4 (also 40). In numerology it is “reduced” to a 4, 1+3=4. This of course relates to the Lunar cards: 4 suites and 13 cards per suit and 4x13=52 as in 52 cards per deck.
For me there is no doubt that the complex numero-celestial relationship is the source for the unconscious influence this system has on us and our world. As in most things of ancient origins various camps of researchers argue about the historic roots that gave us the cards. Yet I have always held that we have conflated bits of cardboard for the system behind them in a clumsy manner.
It we separate out the numerical significance then it appears that we have a very ancient system that goes back beyond the Hebrews to even older ideas as we discover מ is in turn influenced by the Egyptian water hieroglyphic.
In its symbolic form water is often taken as divine knowledge. The unstoppable flow of knowledge is water-like in its movement towards the recipient who is open to it. That is the symbolic storyline behind mem. Something that has been known by the mystical traditions but was covered up by institutions and organizations. There is so much more beyond the scope of this essay.
Yet there it was encoded in the Lunar cycles and carried to the world by the humble deck of cards.
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