Playing-Card Insets: Random Thoughts on Coffee Grounds and Numerology

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Two separate insights regarding the Lenormand playing-card insets have been gnawing at me lately. (Three if I count whether or not to even bother with them.) As a result of my cursory study of traditional cartomancy, I discovered that the divinatory meanings for the playing cards don’t align all that well with those of the Lenormand insets that are common to both systems, which has deterred me from exploring the use of the insets in prediction although I would definitely like to familiarize myself with them. Another concern is that, while Lenormand doesn’t lend itself to application of numerical symbolism in the same way as tarot, I’m certain there is a more convincing way to incorporate it than by “Theosophical derivation.” My syncretic opinion is that playing cards have enough of a foothold in suit-and-number theory (red, black, active, passive, odd, even, etc.) to make them useful for this purpose without resorting to mathematical legerdemain.

In a previous essay on the subject of coffee-ground reading as a precursor to Lenormand, I discussed the premise that “dots” and “dashes” of coffee residue on the inside of a cup lend positive or negative nuance to the interpretation of the standard figures, a technique that seems to have been lost to the “dustbin of history.” My solution was to compensate for its apparent absence in modern practice by using dice, while proposing that the tasseomantic concept of “dots-and-dashes” could have been subsumed in Lenormand’s positive and negative attributions. But then I began thinking that maybe inclusion of the playing-card insets is where this notion went. So I decided to have a look.

In the Lenormand universe, Hearts are considered mostly positive and Clubs are predominantly negative; Diamonds could be characterized as “positive-neutral” (Caitlin Matthews says they mean “Maybe Yes”) and Spades are more “neutral-negative” (e.g. “Maybe No”). In the playing-card world, Hearts and Diamonds tend to agree in principle with their Lenormand counterparts but Clubs and Spades are flipped, with Spades holding the dubious honor of worst suit.

I decided to first lay out the 36 Lenormand cards according to Andy Boroveshengra’s take on which cards are positive, positive-neutral, neutral, neutral-negative and negative, and then look for alignment between the qualitative nature of the insets and that of the general card meanings.

In Andy’s method there are — from right-to-left above — eight positive cards; eight positive-neutral cards; six neutral cards (eight if we include the uncategorized Gentleman and Lady); four neutral-negative cards; and eight negative cards.

Among the entirely positive cards, there are three Hearts, four Diamonds, one Spade and no Clubs, while the positive-neutral group includes four Hearts and four Spades, with no Diamonds or Clubs. Of these sixteen favorable cards, six are higher-numbered pips and seven are court cards, suggesting the accumulation of fortunate “dots” in tasseomancy.

Excluding the Gentleman and Lady (Ace of Hearts and Ace of Spades), the neutral population has three Spades, two Clubs, one Diamond and no Hearts; the positivity is beginning to erode at this point.

The neutral-negative set contains two Diamonds, one Club and one stray Heart with no Spades; Diamonds are starting to show their unpleasant side while Spades have stopped declining. The entirely negative cards present six Clubs and two Diamonds with no Hearts or Spades.

Of these twelve less-favorable factors, all seven black cards are Clubs with four difficult Diamonds and a single challenging Heart joining them. If I don’t think too hard about it, I might see them as loosely depicting the accretion of unfortunate “dashes” in coffee-ground divination.

Overall, this is a credible visual display of the assumptions regarding the qualities of the four suits, with eleven red cards (only four of which are Diamonds) and five of the more encouraging Spades shading toward positive while seven grim Clubs and five of the less upbeat red cards lean in the negative direction. Interestingly, five of the six neutral cards are black. It’s clear from this breakdown that the Spades are not as bad as one might have expected (all nine are neutral or better), while the Diamonds as a whole are not as good as they ought to be (five of the nine are neutral or worse). Only Hearts and Clubs live up to their advance billing.

Next I will delve into the numerology, but first I want to digress into the symbolic “shape” of the suit emblems. The Hearts and Clubs are rounded in appearance, implying that they are self-contained and relatively unmoved by outer turmoil for “good” (Hearts) or “ill” (Clubs); a useful adjective would be “insular” (i.e. subjective). The Spades and Diamonds are sharply-pointed in silhouette, giving the impression of being less private in their outlook and more objective in their action. We will see how this plays into the numerical interpretation of the playing-card insets, which include only the numbers Six through Ten of the numerological canon.

In occult numerology, the odd numbers are unitary and active while the even numbers are binary and passive. The former are unbalanced and seek to return to equilibrium; the latter are harmonious and interested in maintaining the status quo. Therefore, at least in theory, even-numbered red cards should be the most promising if one is seeking tranquility, while odd-numbered black cards should be the most inimical to that goal. The court cards are not affected by this dichotomy, except to say that the male Kings and Jacks would qualify as “active” and the female Queens as “passive” in line with traditional esoteric principles; I’ve included them in the table below for completeness.

According to this model, the Lenormand Sixes, Eights, Tens and Queens should be peacefully poised while the Sevens, Nines, Jacks and Kings (as well as the two remaining Aces) should be dynamically active. In the nominally fortunate suits of Hearts and Diamonds, the atypical Ace of Diamonds (Sun) and the balanced Sixes and Eights are all in the “positive” subset of the deck. The 10 of Hearts is also well-placed in the “positive-neutral” group, so only the 10 of Diamonds falls out of the benevolent pattern, appearing in the “neutral-negative” population. The 9 of Hearts (the “wish” card in cartomancy) is also in the “positive-neutral” category, but the 7 of Hearts and the 7 of Diamonds are in the “neutral-negative” array and the 9 of Diamonds is among the wholly “negative” cards, implying that these three red but numerologically unbalanced cards (Tree, Birds and Coffin respectively) are more problematic in nature.

In the less agreeable suits of Clubs and Spades, the Six and Eight of Clubs are among the most negative cards, gaining little from the harmony of their numeration, while the Six and Eight of Spades are more favorably placed in the “neutral” realm, which mitigates the less savory implications of the black suit. The 10 of Clubs fares better, moving up to “neutral” along with the Ace of Clubs, while the 10 of Spades slides over into the “positive-neutral” category. Regarding the odd-numbered “active” cards, the 7 of Clubs and 9 of Clubs are both firmly ensconced in the “negative” zone, while the 7 of Spades comes in at “neutral” and the 9 of Spades makes it all the way to “positive-neutral.”

Taking this overview in its entirety, we can see that the red suits coupled with harmonious binary numbers are with few exceptions the most favorably disposed, while paired with dissonant unitary numbers they are usually less salutary. Among the black suits, the Spades gain a little traction by being joined to more congenial numbers, but the Clubs struggle to escape the taint of negativity no matter how they are aligned numerically. I’m not sure I adequately answered my own question about a possible correlation between coffee-ground “dots-and-dashes” and playing-card insets, but I obtained a wealth of ideas about how to slice-and-dice the latter into meaningful information.

Since the graphic above is hard to read, here is a list of the various groups. (For reference, I’ve used the expressions “passive and benign” for the even cards and Queens, and “active and acute” for the odd cards, Jacks and Kings; to complete the picture, I’ve described the Hearts and Clubs as “subjective” in nature while the Diamonds and Spades are more “objective,” both due to their emblematic appearance.)

Entirely Positive:

Clover (2) — 6 of Diamonds (Red/Even/Benignly Objective)
Bouquet (9) — Queen of Spades (Black/Court/Benignly Objective)
Stars (16) — 6 of Hearts (Red/Even/Passively Subjective)
Heart (24) — Jack of Hearts (Red/Court/Actively Subjective)
Sun (31) — Ace of Diamonds (Red/Odd/Acutely Objective)
Moon (32) — 8 of Hearts (Red/Even/Passively Subjective)
Key (33) — 8 of Diamonds (Red/Even/Benignly Objective)
Fish (34) — King of Diamonds (Red/Court/Acutely Objective)

Positive-Neutral:

Rider (1) — 9 of Hearts (Red/Odd/Actively Subjective)
Ship (3) — 10 of Spades (Black/Even/Benignly Objective)
House (4) — King of Hearts (Red/Court/Actively Subjective)
Child (13) — Jack of Spades (Black/Court/Acutely Objective)
Stork (17) — Queen of Hearts (Red/Court/Passively Subjective)
Dog (18) — 10 of Hearts (Red/Even/Passively Subjective)
Lilies (30) — King of Spades (Black/Court/Acutely Objective)
Anchor (35) — 9 of Spades (Black/Odd/Acutely Objective)

Neutral:

Bear (15) — 10 of Clubs (Black/Even/Passively Subjective)
Tower (19) — 6 of Spades (Black/Even/Benignly Objective)
Garden (20) — 8 of Spades (Black/Even/Benignly Objective)
Crossroads (22) — Queen of Diamonds (Red/Court/Benignly Objective)
Ring (25) — Ace of Clubs (Black/Odd/Actively Subjective)
Letter (27) — 7 of Spades (Black/Odd/Acutely Objective)

Neutral-Negative:

Tree (5) — 7 of Hearts (Red/Odd/Actively Subjective)
Snake (7) — Queen of Clubs (Black/Court/Passively Subjective)
Birds (12) — 7 of Diamonds (Red/Odd/Acutely Objective)
Book (26) — 10 of Diamonds (Red/Even/Benignly Objective)

Entirely Negative:

Clouds (6) — King of Clubs (Black/Court/Actively Subjective)
Coffin (8) — 9 of Diamonds (Red/Odd/Acutely Objective)
Scythe (10) — Jack of Diamonds (Red/Court/Acutely Objective)
Whips (11) — Jack of Clubs (Black/Court/Actively Subjective)
Fox (14) -9 of Clubs (Black/Odd/Actively Subjective)
Mountains (21) — 8 of Clubs (Black/Even/Passively Subjective)
Mice (23) — 7of Clubs (Black/Odd/Actively Subjective)
Cross (36) — 6 of Clubs (Black/Even/Passively Subjective)

Originally published at http://parsifalswheeldivination.wordpress.com on August 21, 2023.