IN Soviet time playing cards was one of the most common games not only among adults, but also among children. And on long-distance trains, on beaches, in courtyards and in school backyards, only the lazy did not play cards. Many people “played” cards - “fool”, “point”, “king”, without thinking at all about their sacrilegious (literally stolen from the Church) symbolism. Undoubtedly, cards are one of the oldest ways to “occupy yourself”, “pass time”, but you should know that at first they were used exclusively for pythic, fortune-telling purposes. It sounds strange, however, ancient world“playing cards” was obscene, outrageous, as if someone now intended to “play”, for example, Russian coat of arms or Orthodox “shrines”. Gradually, the oracle meaning of the cards lost its original meaning (largely thanks to Christianity) and became profaned. Ancient card symbolism has changed beyond recognition over the millennia. Today, for most people, playing cards is simply a “pleasant”, easy pastime, not associated with any mystical and symbolic depths. But is this really so?

Card learning

History shows that in addition to card games decks were used in other cases as well. Since their appearance in Europe, playing cards have been used for pedagogical purposes. True, there were no Christian symbols on them. With the help of maps they taught geography and history, law and logic, Latin, astronomy, grammar, heraldry, military art and mathematics.

At the beginning of the 16th century, the Franciscan monk Thomas Murner published the book Chartiludium logicae, consisting of educational playing cards, through which he taught logic. The monk achieved such success in pedagogy that he was accused of witchcraft. Murner was defended by the scientist Johann von Glogau, who proved that the methods used by Thomas were based on mnemonics (memorization using pictures) and were completely spiritually harmless. Thomas later published this book as a deck of educational playing cards. The deck consisted of 51 sheets, each of which depicted 16 mnemonic symbols. Each playing card covered a certain range of logical rules. Currently, the Murner deck is available in two copies: one in the museum in Basel, the second in Vienna. The method invented by Murner seemed effective to European teachers of the 16th and 17th centuries. This technique was readily used to train royalty. For example, it is known that Louis XIV was taught using playing cards and engravings. When Louis was six years old, he had four decks: Geography, Kingdoms, Kings of France and Tales. But cards are different.

Card game in Russia

The card game in Russia dates back more than four centuries. One of the first mentions of maps is in the list of worldly “non-corrections” of the Ryazan Bishop Kassian dating back to the 16th century. In the “Code”, a set of laws of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, published in 1649, card games were equated with serious crimes and were severely punished, including the death penalty. Nevertheless, in the inventories of the property of the royal court of the 17th century, card decks are mentioned more than once - obvious evidence that the court was not alien to this fun. According to the historian I.E. Zabelin, in 1635 for royal family Hammer cards were purchased at the auction (that’s what the cards of the first analysis from the first engraved prints were called). Around the same time, the icon maker of the Armory Chamber, Nikifor Bovykin, “was ordered to again paint an amusing game of cards in gold with colored paints for the prince’s mansion.”

Peter I did not like cards; many of his associates, including Alexander Menshikov, along with chess, were also fond of card games. It was from then on that cards began to occupy the leisure time of the Russian aristocracy. They became especially popular during the reign of Catherine II. It was rare for a noble house to do without cards, and card tables were an obligatory part of the furnishings.

In the 18th century, card decks came to Russia in two ways - through Germany and Poland, hence the double name of the suits: spades (French version) and viney (German version). In Russia, they were manufactured by individual private individuals. In 1765, under Catherine II, a special tax was introduced on the sale of cards in favor of Orphanages in St. Petersburg and Moscow. In 1798, the Alexander Manufactory was built near St. Petersburg. In 1817, by decree of Alexander I, it was given a monopoly right to produce maps. They were always stamped with a picture of a pelican feeding its chicks with its meat, and an inscription in Latin or Russian: “He feeds his chicks without sparing himself.” Russian maps for a long time did not differ in any obvious originality, repeating European models. In the second half of the 19th century, the Aleksandrovskaya manufactory began to produce cards based on images taken from folk tales in the style of Russian Art Nouveau.

The ability to play cards in the 19th century, along with knowledge of French, dancing, horse riding, and the art of pistol shooting, was considered a sign of generally accepted secular education. A Russian, European “enlightened” nobleman could easily get by without knowledge of Christian theology and church symbols. Furthermore. Maps, which were, in the words of Pyotr Vyazemsky, “one of the immutable and inevitable elements” in Russia, largely reflected the philosophy of Russian life in the 18th and 19th centuries. This was expressed with maximum accuracy by the hero of Lermontov’s drama “Masquerade”: “No matter what Voltaire or Descartes interprets, The world for me is a deck of cards, Life is a bank: fate strikes, I play, And I apply the rules of the game to people.”

During the reign of Alexander I, the card game was marked by freethinking - the emperor did not like either cards or gamblers. In the minds of the “golden youth,” this only made the cards more attractive. The card game has acquired the character of a romantic rebellion against routine and cruelty real life. It was like a masquerade, where people whose faces were hidden by a mask were capable of actions and words that were unthinkable in everyday life. Cards, like the same mask, liberated sinful passions and exposed feelings. The concepts of honor and honesty among young nobles were also corresponding. Paying off a gambling debt was precisely a matter of honor, since the creditor in this case was not under the protection of the law and authorities. Honor and honesty were considered different concepts. An honest act could be despised if a person were suspected of cowardice.

The life of famous card players is a whole string of entertaining adventurous stories and historical anecdotes. Among them is the fabulist I.A. Krylov, an intelligent and prudent player who devoted many years to the game, saw in it a way of making money and gaining independence. Much was written with chalk on green cloth by such great writers as Pushkin, Nekrasov, Dostoevsky. Cards transformed the life of the famous composer A.A. Alyabyev, hussar, A.S.’s closest friend. Griboyedov and Denis Davydov, in an adventure novel. A fearless warrior, a knight in relation to the ladies, at the same time a gambler (cards were part of the compulsory set of hussar activities), the author of the famous “Nightingale” embodied the romanticized type of hussar that arose in the public consciousness after the War of 1812. After an argument at a card table in his own home, he was suspected of murder. After the trial, the composer and hussar was deprived of ranks, orders, and nobility. He spent 20 long years in exile, categorically refusing to fulfill the penance imposed on him - public repentance three times a week. Sudden transitions from luxury and wealth to poverty and back were common for card players. Pushkin, who himself spent a lot of time at the card table, never romanticized the passion for cards, with his inherent brilliant insight in the story “The Queen of Spades”; using the example of his hero the German Hermann and his “devilish” loss to the famous gambler millionaire Chekalinsky, he showed the invisible to For many, the internal, “uterine” relationship between the dark infernal world and the card game. The end of this short story is noteworthy: “Hermann has gone mad. He sits in the Obukhov hospital in room 17, does not answer any questions and mutters unusually quickly: “Three, seven, ace! Three, seven, queen!..”

Why did Hermann “turn around” and instead of the “prophetic” ace, pull out the queen of spades card? Traditionally, the queen of spades in card fortune telling means an old woman, femme fatale, widow, queen of swords. She was usually depicted as the goddess of war - Athena or Minerva. From these small components (old woman, widow - death, war - destruction) it is easy to notice that the Queen of Spades is nothing more than a “secular”, coded image of the devil in his female form. It was not the “damned countess” who deceived Hermann. He was not a victim, as they say in Pushkin studies, of “blind fate”, of cosmic fate. He was cheated, “threw”, cheated by personal will through addiction and trust in card fortune, “the father of lies and a murderer from the beginning” - the devil.

Let's get back to history. Gradually, the card game lost the character of liberal free-thinking, “Voltairianism.” During the reign of Nicholas I, cards again became a common activity at court. They were no longer destined to disappear from Russian life. Their popularity only grew. The author of the brochure “On Card Fun,” published in 1914, noted that “almost all innocent entertainment has been replaced by gambling and especially playing cards. Today both old and young, rich and poor, high-ranking officials and ordinary workers are addicted to playing cards.” The heyday of the gambling business occurred at the beginning of the 20th century, many clubs appeared where playing cards became the main activity. But maps were never destined to play such a role as at the end of the 18th - first half of the 19th century. Winning or losing in a serious game was perceived as a sign of fate. A famous gambler, raider, adventurer, and at the same time a valiant hero of the War of 1812, Fyodor Tolstoy the American killed eleven people in duels. Subsequently, having lost eleven children, he noted each personal loss in a memorial book in a short word“even.” The count ended his life as a very religious man, spending the rest of his years in constant prayer.

Maps and Church Society

What about the Church? Why, while condemning the gambling nature of card games and calling on believers not to sit at the “card table,” did she not resort to such a weighty argument of disgust from card passion as blasphemous symbols of suits? It is known that the clergy, both rural and urban, in the 19th century often “indulged in cards” to take a break from the labors of the righteous. Did the priests, as they say, not take into account the shameful nature of the card symbolism? Some may have “taken it”, only because of the prevalence of card playing among almost all classes and the “dominant” position of the Church in imperial Russia; they looked at these symbols with a detached, “cloudy” social eye, approximately the same way as we looked at them in Soviet times. ubiquitous red stars, ceasing to see in them the stamp of godlessness, a replacement Orthodox cross to an atheistic star. “The habit has been given to us from above,” and therefore, having become accustomed to something, a person ceases to notice and “delve into” the symbolic paradigms that initially confused him. There is one more feature. The 19th century in Russia was a century of symbolic insensibility, a century of classical, academic, one might even say, detailed anatomical painting, which was based on the spirit of rationalism and materialism.

Interest in symbols begins to re-emerge at the beginning of the twentieth century. It was then that symbolic schools of painting and poetry appeared in Russia, cultural historians discovered the world significance of, in many ways, also a very symbolic, ancient Russian icon. The Bolshevik revolution of 17 for many decades rolled back public interest from infernal dark symbols, Kabbalistic and Masonic signs, otherworldly meaningful outlines of folk religions and pagan cults. This is understandable. “The whole world” first built - military communism, then - communism, then - developed socialism, then - just socialism, and then suddenly they ran en masse into a “democratic society” with a capitalist face. There was no time for “Shakespeare”, the boots would not have become leaky. But everything is in the past. Today, the card, “black-and-red” symbolism is revealed to the point of elementary transparency. And we, Christians, have the full, documented right to identify its anti-Christian orientation and warn “these little ones.”

Orthodox symbolism of the cross

About blasphemous card symbolism

Ushakov's dictionary answers: “ace” is a word of Polish origin from the German Daus and means a playing card worth one point. The German-Russian dictionary also indicates another meaning of the word : Daus is the devil. It is quite possible that Daus is a corruption of the Greek "diabolos" - a dispeller of slander. The structure of a card deck is known to everyone: king, queen, jack, even lower tens, nines, and so on up to sixes or twos in a full deck - a typical hierarchical ladder from the highest dark forces to the lowest, “demonic sixes”. In Christianity, the number “six” symbolizes the completeness, the perfect number of days of creation. In a deck of playing cards, based largely on the symbolism of the anti-Christian teachings of Kabbalah, the number “6” symbolizes the beginning of our mortal, “lower” world. Sometimes another card is added to the deck - the Joker. An ambiguous figure in tights, a jester's cap, bells, a broken pose. And in his hands is a royal staff with the dead head of a man strung on it, which has now been replaced by secular artists with musical “cymbals.”

Temple in Demre

In pre-revolutionary stage performances, a similar character was called Fradiavolo. The Joker card is the highest, it has no suit and is considered the strongest in the game. At the top of the pyramid, in any case, is not the monarch, but the very Daus, from whom only sign of the cross and you can shield yourself with prayer. Thus, the hierarchy in the card deck is subordinate to the “prince of this world.” “Trump” cards, their very name, have their own special purpose. “Kosher”, i.e. “clean” is called in Talmudism ritual sacrifices, therefore, the real meaning of card games lies in the humiliation of our shrines, because by covering the cross with the “trump six,” players unconsciously claim that the “six” is higher and stronger Life-giving Cross! An indication of the anti-Christian background of card games are some of their rules, such as when a combination of three sixes beats any other combination.

All four card suits imply the cross of Christ along with other sacred artifacts that have become symbols Orthodox faith: spear, lip and nails. All four christian symbol in total they demonstrate the redemptive suffering on the Cross of the Son of God, His Feat of saving humanity from death, separation from the Creator and the power of the devil. Let's talk in more detail about each of the card suits.

Temple in Demre

So, the card suit “cross” is a sacrilegious image of the Cross of the Lord. The card suit “vini”, or otherwise “spade”, dishonors the gospel pike, the spear of the holy martyr Longinus the Centurion: “One of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear” (John 19:34). The card suit “worms” defiles the Gospel lip on the reed: “One of them took a sponge, gave it vinegar, and put it on the reed, giving Him to drink” (Matthew 27:48). The card suit “diamonds” blackens the Gospel forged tetrahedral nails with which the Savior’s hands and feet were nailed to the Tree of the Cross. The Apostle Thomas, who said, “unless I see in His hands the marks of the nails, and put my finger into the marks of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe” (John 20:25) and, “I believed, because I saw” (John 20:29).

For modern man All these Gospel analogies seem to be “priestly fables”, a far-fetched correlation between Christian symbols and card symbols. If so... There is a lot of historical evidence of their symbolic identity, found in Lately on ancient vestments, church vessels, during excavations of Orthodox shrines. This is exactly the case, that Orthodox shrines The symbols depicted are identical (literally, one to one) to those used today in playing cards, but one significant caveat needs to be made. It was not Orthodox artists and temple builders, jewelers and artisans who blasphemously copied card symbols, but “dark people”, haters of the Church of Christ, using their power, wealth and social influence, tore from us Christian symbols of salvation and, for occult, “vile” purposes, designated them decks of playing cards. We will present only one piece of evidence of this symbolic sacrilege, but it is documentary and irrefutable.

Temple in Demre

Documentary evidence

In Turkey, in the city of Demre (Myra Lycian) there is an ancient basilica temple. Initially, in its place stood a church where St. Nicholas the Wonderworker was buried in a marble sarcophagus. The stone church was destroyed by an earthquake. Then, on the church ruins no later than the 7th century, admirers of St. Nicholas erected a temple in the form of a basilica. It has undergone many historical destructions and reconstructions, mainly affecting the temple façade. In 1087, Italian merchants opened the sarcophagus in the temple and took the relics to the city of Bari, since there was practically no one left in the surrounding area who professed Christianity.

Over the years, the church was covered with sand brought by the Miros (Demre) river flowing nearby. The thickness of the sand layer reached 5 meters. In 1853, after the start Crimean War, through the Russian consul on the island of Rhodes, the Church of St. Nicholas with a plot of land around it was bought by representatives Russian Empire in the name of Princess Anna Golitsyna. Excavation and restoration work has begun. However, very soon the Ottoman government declared the deal invalid and annulled the signed agreement. A century later, in 1952, one of the Turkish newspapers acknowledged the existence of this deal due to the fact that a year earlier excavations around the Church of St. Nicholas began a second time. They lasted four years, during which they managed to remove 5-meter sand deposits and restore the temple interiors and partially the paintings. Today the temple is open as a museum (almost in the open air) for pilgrims and tourists. We write about it in detail in order to exclude the possibility of dating the temple painting later than the century of the iconoclastic heresy. The wall paintings in the temple are authentic. This is not a “remake”. On the left side of the altar in the temple there is a large utility room. It features all four Christian "card suit" symbols on one of the marble columns. They, of course, are not “cards”, but truly Christian ones; it’s just that any person who sees them for the first time immediately remembers the ones similar to them, depicted on the “cards”. He sees and thinks.

Playing cards have become such an integral part of our lives that few people think about the history of the appearance of symbols denoting suits.

According to one version, cards intended for the game originated in Asia, and from there they were brought to Europe by the Arabs. The cards transported by Arab merchants were similar to modern tarot and were divided into four suits: cups, pentacles, swords, staves.

Other historians are of the opinion that maps were invented in Europe - they were drawn by the jester of the French king Charles IV for the entertainment of the royal person.

In the countries of the Old World, playing cards were first mentioned in the mid-14th century. At all times, decks varied in number and composition, but had a number of similarities:

• Cards are divided into four suits (typically the presence of cards that do not belong to any of the suits, the so-called jokers).
• Within the same suit, cards have a rank, indicated by numbers, letters or an image.
• Each card is assigned a unique combination of rank and suit.

The deck that is familiar today with standard suit designations originates from French cards made in the 15th century. The fact that it was the French deck that became widespread is explained simply by the low cost of production. The fact is that in it junior ranks were designated by abstract icons that were easily reproduced using stencils and did not require drawing engravings.

The origin of the symbolism denoting suits also has several options:

1. The four main social classes of feudal society (army - ♠, church - , merchants - ♦, peasantry - ♣).
2. Knight's ammunition (♠ - spears, - shields, ♦ - banners, ♣ - swords).
3. The symbolic crucifixion of Jesus Christ (♠ - the spear that pierced the heart of the savior, - the sponge that quenched the thirst of Jesus, ♦ - the heads of the nails that nailed the hands and feet of Christ, ♣ - the cross on which he was crucified).

The latest version is due to the fact that the church has always condemned card games, considering them the work of the devil. Interestingly, it is still European countries preserved very well unusual names card suits. For example, in Germany ♦ are called bells, - hearts, ♣ - acorns, and ♠ - leaves.

The names of the suits of the Spanish deck are literally translated as coins, cups, clubs and swords.

The French use the terms: squares, hearts, clovers, spades (spears).

In Russia, designations borrowed from French or with a similar name have taken root. For example, tambourines from the word tambourines, worms from the adjective red, which means red. The name of the club is nothing more than a transcription of the French "trèfle", and spades are both the pronunciation of the French "pique" and the name of the weapon.

Hierarchy of suits

The rules of individual games establish a certain hierarchy of suits. An example is games with bribes (in bridge and, sometimes, in poker, the following gradation by seniority is used - ♠, , ♦, ♣). Since there is no generally accepted standard assigning rank to suits, each game has its own order.

Trumps and special suits

In the group of games with tricks, one suit during the round is considered trump and has more weight in relation to others. There are games in which one (or more) suit acquires a special status. An example is the game “Spades”, where cards with the same symbol are constantly in the trump position.

Another option for using special suits is the game “Hearts”, according to the rules of which cards with hearts opposite are undesirable.

In the following materials we will also touch on the historical aspects of the emergence of images symbolizing senior cards. This is no less interesting topic, since it is believed that the card images had prototypes from real-life personalities or fictional characters.

Sacred geometry. Energy codes of harmony Prokopenko Iolanta

Card suits. Sacred meaning

The classic names of the four suits are spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs. However, in different languages these suits also receive other names. Peaks, depending on the dialect, become swords, shovels, spears, acorns. Hearts - cups, hearts. Diamonds - denarii, diamonds, squares, bells or bells. Clubs - clover leaves, clubs, flowers, leaves.

There are many interpretations of the shape of card suits. In the occult sense they have the following meaning.

Clubs is a suit that represents a cross. This is exactly the cross on which Jesus was crucified, and which half the people of the whole world worship. Translated from Yiddish, “club” means “bad, unclean.” Reflects the peasant class (“leaves”, “clover”) and the element of air.

Spades, or "vini". They symbolize the spear of the holy martyr Longinus the Centurion, with which the centurion pierced the side of Jesus. Reflects the military class (“spears”, “shovels”, “swords”) and the element of fire.

The hearts represent the gospel sponge, which one of the soldiers filled with vinegar and gave to Jesus to drink. In addition, the suit reflects the feudal class of the clergy, the state (“roses”, “cups”, “hearts”) and the element of water.

The tambourines represent the location and shape of the tetrahedral nails with which Jesus' feet and hands were nailed to the cross. Reflects the merchant class, finance (“bells”, “coins”) and the element of earth.

During the USSR (during the NEP years) there were attempts to give card cards a communist style. The cards depicted workers and peasants, and they wanted to transform the suits into sickles, hammers and stars. However, the distribution of maps was soon shut down, and printing was stopped in order to prevent the spread of “attributes of bourgeois decay.”

Maps by Hans Leonhard Schaufelin, Germany, ca. 1535

Maps by Peter Flötner, Germany, ca. 1535

Maps by Hans Leonhard Schaufelin, Germany, ca. 1535

Maps by Peter Flötner, Germany, ca. 1535

Maps by Hans Leonhard Schaufelin, Germany, ca. 1535

Maps by Peter Flötner, Germany, ca. 1535