This article is taken from the September 2019 Issue of the Fraternal Review titled, “Masonry & The Tarot”.

Eighty percent of American families play cards regularly. But as they shuffle and deal, very few of them realize the fascinating stories behind their deck of cards.

EARLY CARDS

The origin of playing cards is obscure, even the experts being in disagreement as to the absolute beginning. Some believe that the earliest cards were of Chinese making in or before the 12th century. Other researchers think that cards originated in Hindustan around 800 A.D.

Whatever their exact origin, early cards were used for divination as well as for games, and they were identified with symbols of religious rites. Early Korean cards are very narrow and often depict arrows, derived from the ancient belief that arrows could tell the future. Cards were brought to Europe by returning Crusaders, and gypsies no doubt promptly began to use them for telling fortunes.

Cards are first mentioned in Italian writings in 1297 and in French papers in 1392. Here their entertainment possibilities must have caught on right away, for in 1397 a law was passed in Paris forbidding the playing of “tennis, dice, bowls, nine-pins, and cards on working days.”

CARDS AND THE CLASSES

Originally all decks were hand-painted and thus were available only to the classes who could afford to commission artisans. This card painting was a good source of income. Many great artists tried their hand at it, among them Botticelli.

Card playing remained in wealthy salons for many years — until the concept of textile printing was carried to Europe from the East. Then, someone realized that designs printed on cloth could also be printed on other materials — a new thought which lowered the price and raised the popularity of playing cards.

EVOLUTION OF THE DECKS

Cards have at times employed a variety of materials: ivory, metal, leather, silk, thin sheets of wood, and tortoiseshell. Legend has it that prisoners in the Napoleonic wars even used the leftover bones from their dinners to fashion a type of playing cards!

Each country evolved its own suit signs — such things as flowers, birds, coins, swords, and batons. Cards in India were round and printed with such suits as fish, shells, and animals.

At first, only the Italians printed designs on the reverse side, and these were only stars, crescents, or dots. Our current deck is believed to have evolved from the ancient tarot decks of Italy, elaborate and fanciful fortune-telling cards.

SUITS AND ROYALTY

The four suits we now use originated in Provence, France, in the 15th century. At that time the king of clubs probably represented the Pope; the king of spades, the king of France; of diamonds, the king of Spain; and of hearts, the king of England. The queens were said to be likenesses of Marie d’Anjou, wife of Charles VII; Isabeau, the queen-mother; Agnes Sorel, the king’s mistress; and Jeanne d’Arc, the dame of spades or war.

The costumes they wear on British and American cards date from the time of England’s Henry VII. The little numerals and symbols on the corners were first employed in the late 19th century, as was the device of the “double-head” cards.

THE MANY USES OF A DECK

Throughout the years decks of cards have had uses other than for games and fortune-telling. In 1509, a Franciscan friar turned some into scientific learning cards, the forerunner of the schoolchild’s “flash cards.” Cardinal Mazarin used special decks to teach young Louis XIV his geography and history.

Cards have also played a part in politics. In the 17th century, decks appeared in England satirizing high officials and noblemen, while a Dutch deck created in 1719 constituted a satire on the Papacy.

Our ordinary deck has an interesting sort of mathematical parallelism — the 52 cards equalling the number of weeks in a year; the 365 spots in the pack, the days in a year; the 4 suits, the weeks in a month; and the 12 picture cards, the months in a year.

[“Playing Cards Down Through the Years,” text and image are on a single page in a folder at the Iowa Masonic Library, source unknown.]

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