READING WITH THE PLAYING CARDS
The Fifteen-Card Spread
One card lay-out method I like to use with the playing cards comes from Richard Webster’s book, Playing Card Divination for Beginners, and uses fifteen cards (see the illustration below):
The cards are turned over and read in the order in which you first laid them out. Each of the ‘limbs’ of the lay-out can then be read as one whole message.
You will need to choose a significator for the person you’re reading for. Since I’m a devotee of Olney Richmond’s ‘card science’ system which has been revived by Robert Lee Camp (see bibliography at the end of this lesson), I like to use a person’s birth card for their significator, but you can use a King for any adult male, a Queen for any adult female, and a Jack for any young person. Try to use the court card of whatever suit seems most like them.
The Three Aces Spread
Another reading method I like to use with the playing cards is an adapted from of a spread in the book, Mastering the Tarot by the late, great Eden Gray. The Three Aces Spread is good for yes-or-no questions, but ones you might want a little more information about than just a yes/no. You define the yes-or-no question you want answered, then shuffle and cut the deck as you usually do. Holding the shuffled pack in your hand, face-down, you’re going to deal-out three piles of cards, face up, from left to right. Because the playing cards don’t have a major arcana like the Tarot deck does, you’re going to deal no more than ten cards in each of the three piles.
What you’re looking for are the aces. When you get to an ace, stop, then start on the next pile. If you deal out a total of ten cards in each pile, but none of the piles have an ace, take that as a definite no. If only one or two of the piles contain an ace, that is a yes, but a period of waiting will be involved before it comes about. If all three piles contain an ace, then hot damn! That’s a definite, unqualified yes.
Next, observe which suit the aces came from. Ace of Hearts? Emotions or loved ones are involved. Ace of Clubs? Communications of any kind, ideas, business, or someone’s personal effort could be involved. Ace of Diamonds? Money, financial issues, or values could be involved. Ace of Spades? A sudden change, some legal issue, or a mysterious development could bring about the result. In the Tarot, an Ace reversed is taken as a ‘no’ answer. With the playing cards, only three of the four aces have what could be considered a ‘reversed’ orientation, the ace of diamonds being the only reversible one, so if you turn up an ace of one of the other suits and it’s upside-down, take that as a no.
An example of this method appears below: 
I can’t recall the question I asked; I think it had something to do with a U.S. government official, but I got a pretty-strong yes.Given the two aces in this reading are the Spades and the Clubs, I’d hazard a guess someone is in for a certain degree of difficulty, either a surprise or a legal challenge, a little further down the road, because of their communications or business/work activities. The benefit of spread is, if it tells you yes, it will also tell you why.
I have reasons to believe that Spade element is Fire and Club is Air.
I have seen that same attribution of element-ownership, Spades=Fire and Clubs=Air somewhere, but I can’t recall exactly where. Since Clubs seemed to me to be roughly-analogous to Wands in function (both get waved in the air), and Spades struck me as being roughly-analogous to Swords in function (both cut), the elements I assigned to both followed-on from that. But your correspondences make sense. Clubs and Swords are weapons (which are wielded in Air), and Spades and Wands are tools. Also, Clubs are associated with communications, which is a very ‘air’ thing. Richard Webster, in his book “Playing Card Divination for Beginners” says Spades=Fire and Clubs=Earth(!). I always thought Diamonds were Earth, since Diamonds are analogous to Pentacles/Coins. I’m going to have to do more research on this matter. Thank you for mentioning this!
Hi! Great information in this article & thank you for sharing.
Question, for Spades the Section of Medieval is missing. What is their medieval section?
Thanks!
Thank you for calling this to my attention! I overlooked that detail. It is now corrected.