Prophetical, Educational and Playing Cards

Since the creation of the world mankind has realized a divine power shaping his destiny, and has tried to conciliate the unknown god. Since life is made up of happenings that ar...

Playing cards may be classified under three distinct heads. First, are those intended for divining purposes; these have descended from an ancient religious cult that would be en...

The ancestor of all our common games of cards is probably L'Ombre, El Hombre, or The Man, sometimes also called La Beste, the origin of which has been traced to the middle of th...

Many writers have thought that Playing Cards were simply an evolution of Chess, and the features connecting them have been widely discussed, since there are strongly marked attr...

Although treated by modern writers as one of the minor of the twelve gods of Olympus, Mercury was by no means so looked upon by the ancients, who revered, feared, consulted and...

Sometimes the collection of fifty-two cards, adopted from the French, was called "a stock," notably in the play of "The Three Ladies of London," where one of them says: "Now, al...

The numbered or what are technically known as the pip cards of the Tarot pack are divided like those of more modern ones into four sets, called by English-speaking people "suits...

It has long been the opinion of students that the key to many things that are mysterious to Europeans could be found through studying the habits, customs, games, or cults of Asi...

Without in the least crediting that cards that are derived from ancient mysteries are able to reveal the incidents connected with human life, many people consider the trial an i...

It was but natural that, from the very date of the readjustment of the Book of Thoth, when it was deposed from its high position of being the voice of the gods to become the too...

Thanks to the lovers of woodcuts, prints, and engravings, the history of European Playing Cards has been preserved. Through these it has been investigated, as it would have been...

The great authority on modern Egyptian discoveries, M. Gaston Maspero, says in his book, "Ancient Sites and Modern Scenes": "On the outskirts of Thebes there are ruins that lie...

A great Chaldean god was Nebo, mentioned in Isaiah xlvi:1, "Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth," and he had an immense influence over the lives of the Assyrians and Babylonians, ext...

It is probable that one of the oldest existing packs is the Tarot pack now preserved in the Cabinet des Estampes in Paris. Others discovered in the back of a book in Florence in...

The complete pack of Tarots (sometimes called "the book of Thoth") contains seventy-eight leaves, and, of these, fifty-six bear pips, with four court cards to each suit, which s...

According to Spanish writers, the authentic history of Playing Cards in Europe begins about 1332, for they point with triumph to an order issued by Alphonse of Castile, presumed...

It is practically impossible to bridge the chasm between the abandonment of the actual and open worship of Mercury in his own temples to the transference of his heraldic emblems...

To consult the Tarots, the Initiate must invite the Inquirer to designate what the cards are to be asked to reveal, and, as has been mentioned, this calls for the selection of o...

When Mercury's emblems were discarded by the French, some four hundred years since, to be replaced by local designs, it was but natural that the points should be accorded origin...

If an apology is needed for writing again on the subject of playing cards, the excuse may be offered that new lights have been turned on the subject, so that there is fresh info...

Consultation of the divinities--Wave offerings--Prayers-- Priests and Priestess--Hermetic books--Ishtar--Rods-- Jackstraws--Rites--Graven images--Divining arrows-- L'Ombre--Egyp...

The original game played with cards--L'Ombre and its successors--Manilla--The Matadores--Spadille--Nine of Money--The game described in "Cranford"--Punto-- Primero--Philip of Sp...

Paio--Stock--Widow--Bunch--Pips--Court cards--Their historic derivation--The number of pip and court cards-- The Joker--His origin in America--Cunning Mercury-- Fantastic design...

Chess a battlefield--The Emperor Akbar and his queen-- Lady Dufferin's description of the Palace of Glass-- Living Chess--Two Jokers--Derivation of Chess--Troy-- Crete--Nig--Egy...

As early as 1656, according to the writers of the day, a pack of cards was called in England, "a pair of cards," which was evidently derived from the Italian, Paio, as the combi...

Divining cards--Tablets of fate--Tarots--Gambling cards-- Their difference--Persian cards--Oldest emblems--Standard packs of Tarots--German designs--French designs--Rouge et Noi...

The Pique--Its names--Dr. Stukley's cards--A Picke-- Clubs, the emblem of Agnes Sorel--Hearts--The Ace--The Earl of Cork--Le Borgne--Spanish nicknames--The Deuce-- The curse of...

Cards--Charles V--Proclamation in Paris--Red Book of Ulm-- Palamedes and the siege of Troy--Egyptian gambling rods-- Cards as postals--Evolution--M. Angelo--Prince of Pisa-- Maf...

M. Maspero's description of temple--Mr. Rawlinson's account--Psammetchas--Nebo and Thoth--Symbols--The month--Its device--Tablet of Khufu or Cheops-- Hieroglyphically described-...

Invectives from State and Church--Destruction in Nuremburg--Its Museum--"The Devil's Picture Books"-- Bishop Latimer--The Text--German instructive cards--Those of China and Japa...

Oldest French pack--The costumes--Charles VI--The marriage fête--The fire--Original French Piquet pack-- Invention of French pips--Vignoles and Chevalier--Jacques Coeur--The Pal...

Discoveries of Messrs. Cushing and Culin--Arrows of Divination--The Magi before Pharaoh--The Rod of Moses at Horeb--The connection between arrows and cards--Korean cards--Alaska...

The rank of Mercury--His occupations--His statues-- Cadueceus--The purse bearer--The sword--The cup of Hermes--The four symbols--Nebo's temple--E-Sigalia-- Pozzuoli--Its merchan...

Suits--Court cards--German, Spanish, Italian and French cards--Emblems of Mercury--Four castes--Lucky devices-- Addha--Nari--Phallus--Cteis--Vau--Jod-He-Vau-He--Divining arrows-...

Mysteries--St. Paul--Osiris--Bewildered historians-- "Portrayed on the walls"--Nebo the Writer--Gypsies--The crossed palm--Spanish cards--The Egyptian fleet--Essay of Count Emil...

Chaldean god--Different names--Parent--Wife--Presides at birth and death--Sword as symbol--Assyrian gods--King's temples--Protector--Hymn to Nebo--Borsippa--E-Zida--Great librar...

Its leaves--Mercury's attributes--Il Matto--Nebo--Tablets of fate--The Atouts--Their significance--de Gebelin-- Egyptian deities--Parchment records--Thoth the framer of laws--Bi...

Methods--Etteila--Le Normand--Fortune-telling cards-- Rules--Meanings of cards with French pips--A fortune told--The hairdresser of Paris--The First Napoleon--Les hautes science...

Print lovers--Invention of Xylographic arts--Earliest wood cuts--Double purposes--Rare prints--Gregineur--Dr. Stuckley's pack--Cologne engraved cards--Spanish pips-- German embl...