Fortune Telling Using Playing Cards by Jonathan Dee

Author:Jonathan Dee [Anderson, T. Neill]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-60734-957-0
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Published: 2012-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

16 • THE JOKER

It is commonly believed that the Joker is the last vestige of the Major Arcana of the Tarot to be found in a modern playing card deck. Many people hold the view that this mysterious card is the direct descendant of the unnumbered Fool, which both begins and ends the sequence of the twenty-two trump cards of the Tarot, which dates back to at least the fifteenth century. Alas this is not so.

The Joker was actually invented as an addition to a standard deck of playing cards in the USA in 1857. Its original use was as the highest trump card in the game of Euchre. The card wasn’t even known as the Joker at the time of its conception! Its first title was “The Best Bower,” and it was used as a sort of extra “floating” Jack. Jacks of the same color were thought of as bowing to each other, hence the Joker was the best bower. Nevertheless, card makers soon gave this new addition the familiar motley, the cap, bells and slapstick of the medieval jester, and in doing so may have been consciously emulating cards from an earlier era by copying the Tarot Fool.

The use of the Joker in divination is optional. There are no hard and fast rules and no grand traditions to back it up. Many card readers have found the Joker useful as a “wild card,” a chaotic influence that does not fit within the definitions of the four standard suits. In fact, many suggested interpretations of the card tend to derive from the meaning of the Fool in the Tarot pack. Most decks of cards come complete with two Jokers, although only one is necessary if you choose to use it for fortune telling purposes.

Meaning: The basic interpretation of the Joker card is one of independence, eccentricity and a need for personal freedom. When the Joker appears in a reading it flatly states that it is folly to believe that one can control all the events of one’s own life or truly predict the outcome of one’s actions. It also implies an abandonment of fear and a readiness to explore unknown territory. In essence, the card is completely devoid of materialism. It may show that the practical virtues of modern life are no longer sufficient to fill the void in the questioner’s soul. Sometimes, the card indicates that the questioner is about to embark on a spiritual quest. This may be an inward journey in which he questions all his previously held assumptions, or it may represent an outward journey into the wider world—a journey of discovery that will lead to the unknown. In a more negative sense, the Joker’s lack of materialistic values may be a warning to the questioner that urges him not to be a fool but to take more notice of his own interests.

If the Joker is found early in a reading or in a position that represents the questioner, then it is likely that the questioner is a spiritually evolved person who is somewhat at odds with his surroundings.

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