The Vera Sibilla & Playing Card Suits

Breaking down the Vera Sibilla into playing card suits

We’re going to be looking in more depth at the Vera Sibilla for a few post, and one aspect I am often asked about is the playing card references.

As we’ve seen, of the two decks (three, if you count the traditional Zigeuner cards also), only one, the Vera Sibilla, includes the playing card equivalents, which adds extra flavour to the cards and allows us to look at them from different angles.

So what further information might that information give us?

We’re going to start by going through the suits first of all, one by one, with brief reminders of the cards’ meanings. It’s worth pointing out also that with all these oracle decks, the meanings of the pips won’t necessarily correspond with what you might have learned elsewhere from playing card or Tarot cartomancy, and those used with oracle decks don’t generally correspond to each other at all either. There were MANY different divinatory interpretations for playing cards across the world at the time that these cards were produced, and not just one single system, as we’ll see when we compare oracle decks on this.

Just something to bear in mind!

Let’s take a look:

C: Cuori (Hearts): Emotions, Happiness, Love, Interpersonal

The Hearts are generally positive cards, but “Red” cards have a less strong influence than the “Black” cards. Their direct opposites appear in the suit of Spades, which gives additional nuance to the cards’ meanings.

A: Conversation (La Conversazione) Gatherings, social circle, talk. People.

2: House (Casa) Home, family, roots, neighbourhood, where you feel safe

3: Waiting (Belvedere) Patience. Something to look forward to. Anticipation.

4: Love (Amore) Love and passion. Romance.

5: Joyfulness (Allegrezza al Cuore) Happiness and joy

6: Money (Denari) Money, assets, plenty, enough. Material security. What you have.

7: Scholar (Letterato) Intellectual, analytical, and artistic matters. Man of Letters.

8: Hope (Speranza) Hopefulness, time for good things, future. Relief coming.

9: Faithfulness(La Fedelta): Fidelity, loyalty, trustworthiness.

10: Constancy (La Costanza). Constancy, steadfastness, prudence, continuity.

11 (J) Lover/Male Lover (L’Amante) The default male significator. Lover, man.

12 (Q) Sweetheart/Female Lover (L’Amante) The default female significator. Object of affection and desire, female lover.

13 (K) Lord/ Important Gentleman (Gran Signore) An older or senior man.

What meanings or qualities, then, can we say the Cuori/Hearts cards add to a reading? For example if you had a spread, regardless of topic or question, with a greater than average number of cards of the Hearts card appearing it?

That would suggest that interpersonal relations or your feelings are likely to play a key role in your answer or the story of the spread.

One question you might have here is why Money is appearing as a Heart (6 of Hearts) rather than one of the other, seemingly more materialist suits such as Quadri (Diamond?)

I think this is because this card as it is drawn speaks most to the the “safety net” or “assets” element of money, to our having enough resources for all our needs to be met, to the sense of material security which brings safety and a degree of emotional comfort, as well as allowing us to have all our creature comforts. It represents “What you have” (and note that its equivalent in the Spades below, the Sighs card, is “What you don’t have”).

Let’s take a look at the rest of the suits in detail.