Queen of Hearts or Royal Tart? From Player To Fortune Teller

by Katie

Deep in the French Quarter of old New Orleans there are magical shops like Marie Laveau's on Bourbon Street, where locals and tourists know they can stop in to have their futures read by an authentic fortune teller. Chances are good Miss Irene will be in the back of Marie Laveau's using only a deck of common playing cards. Why playing cards? Miss Irene knows her Royal Highness the Queen of Cups, masquerades as the common Queen of Hearts when she visits the Quarter. Do you know who's behind the masks of royal respectability in your deck of tarot cards?

According to Wikipedia, today's King and Queen, and Page of Cups of the noble Rider Waite tarot card deck, were once a rather sporting trio of common playing cards. Historical documents show decks of playing cards resembling ones used today were probably brought into Europe during the late 1300's. At that time, armies of Middle Eastern slave-soldiers called the Mamelukes occupied Egypt. When the fearsome horsemen moved north and invaded Europe, evidence of their playing cards appeared along the same routes.

The Muslim-influenced Mameluke decks, which made it to Europe by the 1300’s, had 52 cards with four suits: the golden chalices, the scimitars, the polo sticks, and the coins. The King (Malik) of the Golden Chalices, the Deputy King ( Naib Malik) and the Second Deputy (Thani Naib) are now known as the King, Queen, and Jack of Hearts or Cups. The court cards of the Mameluke deck had abstract designs instead of face cards with the military titles written below. The ace through ten of golden chalices appeared as spot cards or symbols.

The Golden Chalices were accompanied by a rogues' gallery of friends such as the King, Deputy King, and Second Deputy of the Scimitars (spades or swords). Scimitars were the crescent-shaped sword favored by the Mamelukes in battle. This suit had an ace through ten of crescent- shaped symbols within the design. The King, Deputy King and Second Deputy of Polo Sticks (clubs or wands) had an ace through ten of polo sticks in the design. Similarly, The King, Deputy King and Second Deputy of Coins (diamonds or pentacles) had spot cards for the ace through ten of coins.

The Tarot decks we see today are based on these early Mameluke decks; Sometime between 1410 and 1430 the Italians added an additional 22 trump cards to a 14 card per suit variant of the playing card deck to make the 78 card Tarot deck we know today. So, the next time you visit the French Quarter and the wind blows you through the famous black-shuttered doorway of Marie Laveau's magical shop, please say Hello to Miss Irene for me, who is, in my opinion, the true Queen of Hearts of Bourbon Street!

California Psychic Katie is Daily Mantra’s in-house Tarot and Rune expert.

| 10/07/07 | Lessons