Spying with old cards
Sometimes I take out my most precious possessions, the unique in the world 1700s cards in my collection, unique in the sense that no one else actually has them, and ask spying questions. As I get to ride with the whole range of emotions, from melancholia to bliss, I wonder if the fortunetellers that came before me also said things like this line below, given that we’re talking about three centuries of history:
The way of dealing with the Queen of Spades is by making transactions with the Queen of Clubs. But whereas the Queen of Spades has it, the heart, the Queen o Clubs only has it by ways of wishing for it. Meanwhile, the King of Hearts acts from the force of the crying heart where the Dame de Pique is concerned, offering the Dame de Trèfle nothing but clubs. The exchange is on a par, 5 to 5, but a heart is a heart and a stick is a stick. That makes a whole lot of difference. What is the power of the spell here? The King of Hearts should know.
If you didn’t guess already, what I’m talking about here is a heartache. Not only did my querent offer both his home (Ace of Hearts) and his sports car (6 Hearts) to his mistress, the Queen of Spades, but he also promised (9 Hearts) to protect her (6 Clubs) in sickness (7 Spades) and in health (2 Diamonds). Then what happened? The Queen of Clubs happened.
Here then the question: what did the Queen of Spades say to the man that made him choose the Queen of Clubs instead? ‘She said no,’ the man said, ‘so I did what I had to do,’ he then also said. ‘Then why are you here?’ I asked him, and we both proceeded to read for the detective story of his heart. In this story it was not the Queen of Spades who was the fickle one. Rather, and true to his suit of Hearts, the problem was precisely with the ruler, the King of Hearts himself. If the woman raised a wall all the way to the 6 Clubs, opposing the man’s offer, what did he then do? Did he analyze the situation, dig into the woman’s motives, or did he let his blood rush into his veins as soon as he laid his eyes on another candidate who was going for his heart? He did the latter. He went with the robustness of his unstable heart.
Traditionally we say that as far as speed is concerned, the suits of hearts and diamonds are slower than the spades and the batons. But not always. If a man’s heart is easily swayed, though not in depth, but rather, in the shallow waters, he will move much faster than the best fencer. In amorous matters, especially the Jack of Hearts has come to represent in divination both the man in love, Romeo himself, and also the gigolo. As an older, and more experienced man, the King of Hearts embodies in equal measure both these two, the helpless lover and the hopeless playboy. He may be considered a principled ‘family man,’ but as history has shown, this image only stretches so far, as many a King of Hearts could demonstrate a mastering ability to shift allegiance more rapidly than even the quickest river.
‘So which one is it?’ I asked the man, pointing to whose heart was to blame here. ‘What is your grievance, exactly?’ Pulling an extra card for it, the card of 5 Hearts showed the Queen of Spades as having her heart in the heart, so to speak, at the core of the string of numbers from 1 to 10. For the sake of symmetry, I pulled an extra card for the Queen of Clubs too, whose measure of love showed her self-interest. True to her suit, the Queen of Clubs displayed a heart of wood, her 5 Clubs being no match for the 5 Hearts that the Queen of Spades had invested in the affair.
‘You’re here because the Queen of Clubs’ feelings towards you are not congruent with your own nature. You laid your eyes on her and thought that you could dance with her, but to what gain? If the other one said no, it’s because she found you wanting.’
‘Still, she said no, knowing that I loved her’ the man said, and I asked in return: ‘was it a contest, your conquering act?’ I further probed, and then suggested that one doesn’t win the heart of the Black Queen by being superficial. If all the King of Hearts has for her is sweet talk, he might as well spare his energy, for when it comes to conquering, the suit of Hearts has nothing on the suit of Spades, and the hearts are fated to lose to the sharp swords when the latter are engaged. As a matter of basic principle, one suit of cards cannot win over another, if the war they’re at is not congruent with the very nature of the suit that engages the other. In love the hearts win, but if the love is subject to be won, or must be won through other means than those of the heart, then the hearts lose. This is called common sense.
‘What then?’ the man asked me, and I said, ‘then nothing.’ ‘You can’t make a promise for the 10 Hearts only to fall short of 1. If you give her 9 and then your 2 eyes sparkling, yet in a new direction, the Queen of Spades will act according to her suit. She will cut into your heart, leaving you bleeding.’ ‘But I love her,’ the man cried, and it was my turn to think that there was no resolve for this one.
Was it the old cards that did it, fall in such a merciless way, even when the reds were shining more convincingly over the blacks? I placed the cards back in their case, and thanked their maker. Jakob Holmblad’s Samlede Værker (The Collected Works) is not available anywhere else, but my book on how to read the playing cards is. As accompaniment to the book, I made a special cut of cards based on the Goodall and Son design from 1870, now with gold edges and casino green, to make the gambling on love more interesting. You’re welcome to it.
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The Read Like the Devil trilogy
In addition to method, philosophy, practice and techniques, the book in this series dedicated to reading with the playing cards features student examples and demonstrations of how to achieve coherence an precision.
