# The Playing Cards Suit **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [December 12, 2003, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-playing-cards-suit/218496 "2003-12-12T01:50:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![battousai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2bfe46/32.png) [@battousai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/battousai)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-playing-cards-suit/218496/1 "2003-12-12T01:50:44Z")
Believe it or not it was invented by the french but not quite for the reasons Cecil has given. The cards had different meanings. The suits cards, diamond, Club,Heart, Spade:King Queen Jack, in combitnation with the different numbered cards and coloured suits were ment to give a message in secret. Any person who didnt know the meaning of mixed cards just thought the people were playing a game. These messages make it even to todays games such as Poker and Jin, even though the original messages were lost, the different pairs in the games did have a meaning at one time. * * * Link to column: [Origin of suits of playing cards](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_308.html) – CKDH ---
**Author:** ![battousai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2bfe46/32.png) [@battousai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/battousai)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-playing-cards-suit/218496/2 "2003-12-12T01:59:38Z")
I forgot a part, another system was created by the english, called Tarot, the different combinations of cards, just like that of the normall playing cards, were secret messages. This system was created during the crusades, which were for the holy grail, of course wasnt a cup but mary magdalens bones, proof against the catholic churches ways, not going to explain. The crusaders didnt want the catholic church, which at the time was a major power which rivled the english court ship and royalty, to know. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-playing-cards-suit/218496/3 "2003-12-12T04:46:35Z")
Do you have any backing for these assertions? ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-playing-cards-suit/218496/4 "2003-12-12T04:51:11Z")
Oh, it’s Mr Illuminati. Never mind, carry on. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-playing-cards-suit/218496/5 "2003-12-12T05:17:43Z")
I once told a girl I knew who was into Tarot that it was really a way for early Christian missionaries to spread the Gospel by aranging the cards to tell various fables from the New Testament. The next day, she threw out all her Tarot stuff. Always wondered if I should have told her that I was just making shit up. Probably best that I didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-playing-cards-suit/218496/6 "2003-12-12T19:42:25Z")
Nobody should bother to rebut this believer in conspiracy theories until it can provide a reputable cite for its misinformation. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-playing-cards-suit/218496/7 "2003-12-12T22:41:51Z")
The actual origin of the cards is far more insidious. See, there is a hidden and secret ORDER to the cards. - The first two are 23, which is a reference to the Illuminati secret code 2332. - Next comes 4, and there are four points to the compass and four Secret Leaders of the Illuminati. - The next four are two are 5678, which are the same, since 56 = 7 x 8. The fact that four numbers are so tightly unified is a statement that the Four Secret Leaders act as One. - Next comes 9, which is German for denial. - Then comes 10, representing the Ten Commandments, the foundation of all justice - Then J for Justice, Q for Quality - K for Kamchatka, the secret location of the Holy Grail - and A for the Illumin **A** ti See? It’s all a secret code that only the knowing can decipher. I hope they don’t kill me for revealing thAAAAAAAUUUUUUGRHH ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-playing-cards-suit/218496/8 "2003-12-14T23:35:53Z")
“Revealing thAAAAAAAUUUUUUGRHH?” What’s that? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-playing-cards-suit/218496/9 "2003-12-14T23:49:23Z")
**Dex** , If you can read this in the afterlife I just wanted to tell you I admire the willpower it took for you to type your death agony. ---
**Author:** ![RiverRunner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/977dab/32.png) [@RiverRunner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RiverRunner)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2003, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-playing-cards-suit/218496/10 "2003-12-15T04:18:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Alan Smithee \* > \*\*“Revealing thAAAAAAAUUUUUUGRHH?” What’s that? \*\* I don’t know, but you can find it in the Castle “AAAuugghh.” RR ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2003, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-playing-cards-suit/218496/11 "2003-12-15T04:28:58Z")
Isn’t that in the Carmaaaargh? ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2003, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-playing-cards-suit/218496/12 "2003-12-16T15:36:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AndrewT \* > \*\*Do you have any backing for these assertions? \*\* Try checking out Piers Anthony’s “Tarot” series. It’s full of meticulous research such as the above. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2003, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-playing-cards-suit/218496/13 "2003-12-17T04:48:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by battousai \* > \*\*This system was created during the crusades, which were for the holy grail, of course wasnt a cup but mary magdalens bones, proof against the catholic churches ways, not going to explain. The crusaders didnt want the catholic church, which at the time was a major power which rivled the english court ship and royalty, to know. \*\* The Crusaders were Catholic. In fact, the Crusades were pretty much official Catholic undertakings. And their major goal was to take back the Middle East/stop Muslim expansion. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2003, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-playing-cards-suit/218496/14 "2003-12-17T05:02:40Z")
And the Tarot deck is from 14th-15th century Italy. The earliest known deck that still exists is the Visconti-Sforza deck, which is partly owned by the Pierpoint-Morgan library, and partly by several Italian museums. You can buy modern reproductions. The Italians probably got the idea from Muslim Spain or North Africa. They were first used to play a trick taking game called Tarocchi, which is known in Central Europe as Tarock, and in English as “Catching the Moon”, and is still around. And the modern deck of cards probably developed from the Tarot deck…not as an alternative to them.