The Origins of Playing Cards

Is a pack only for playing games?

an's mind likes to categorise and classify experience… the elements, cardinal points, lunar cycles, virtues, heavenly spheres, temperaments, taxonomies and hierarchies. Many packs of playing cards have been designed as such a system, a practical 'mnemonic' or device for representing life's basic facts, a memory aid or teaching tool, a means of condensing knowledge. The subject can be anything from botany to heraldry, from cosmology to geography. For instance, an early set of educational cards was invented by Thomas Murner, a Franciscan monk. Political satire has also been an inspiration for playing cards.

The format of the pack - suit symbols, numeral cards, court hierarchy - has served many secondary purposes beyond a gaming device. It can be used for predicting the future, and in the case of the tarot, it has almost become a popular religion. This is also the origin of quartet games and Happy Families games which have educational purposes.

In view of this, fanciful or exotic theories have been suggested to explain the origins or true meaning of the pack of playing cards and its symbolism. However, the early evidence suggests that it was nothing more than a new kind of game, at least to begin with. What has happened since then is another story…

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