Friday, April 22, 2011

Vendredi: Ace of Spades

The Ace of Spades is often portrayed (in literature, poetry, rock-and-roll, and cetera) as a card of doom if not outright death.  Bad luck, or at the very least a bad attitude, will stalk the unfortunate who has this card turn up in their hand.  As is usual with broadly held beliefs about cartomancy, this is a complete misconception. 

Some readers will speak of the Ace of Spades as “the death card” but what they are referring to, in a kind of psychic’s shorthand, is an ending or conclusion in a person’s life.  It may be as benign as the satisfactory completion of a project.  On the other hand, it may be a great upheaval such as a physical move, the loss of a job or a change in personal status.  Often the card portends a marriage or the birth of a child.  Just as often, though, it signals the end of a relationship or a diagnosis of infertility.

The important issue with the Ace of Spades is not the card itself but where it sits in the spread.  The cards around it are the determining factors.  If the Ace of Spades is surrounded by Hearts, for instance, a new and life changing relationship may be coming the querent’s way.  Or perhaps they are heading toward reconciliation with a close family member.  Or, as noted, a child is on the way.  These are just a few examples but you get the picture.

The thing to remember is that the Ace of Spades signifies not just a little blip on a querent’s daily radar, but a life changing event.  And many times embracing versus resisting such change is the driving factor that brought that person to ask the cards for insight in the first place.  Bon Vendredi ~

Header: Card Players by Lucas van Leyden

3 comments:

Timmy! said...

Plus, it's the only card for Lemmy...

"And that's the way I like it baby, I don't want to live forever... And don't forget the Joker!"

Sorry, I couldn't resist... But I'm sure you knew I was going to do that, Pauline.

Editilla~New Orleans Ladder said...

This fit so perfectly with my grief over the passing of a fine New Orleans musician, Mickey "Slewfoot" McLaughlin RIP.
So I hung you on the Ladder right beneath a youtube of him playing along the river.

It was strange, I saw the article about his death, and thought of the Ace of Spades... and then spotted your tweet about this post.
This was Reaper Business, not Gods or Angels or any of that stuff to make us feel better. The Existential Quantifier, the Reaper doesn't just Take us back to our Creator, but handles the whole Operation beginning with the Psychic Death Notices through to gathering together those connected with it however tenuously.
That's my story, at least, and I'm sticking to it.
Thanks Yous.

Pauline said...

Timmy, I almost went there myself.

Editilla, thank you too and I have to agree with your story, brother. This place is a little less for the burden of Slewfoot's passing; and a little more for the blessing of his music.