We’re in the home stretch talking about the numbers in playing card cartomancy. Last time we covered the eights, this week we’re looking at the nines. I said back in our discussion of the aces that the progression of cards within a suit tell something of a story: beginning with the first impulse in the ace, progressing through various forms and facets as we count on from there. The nines are where we reach the climax of that story. All the nines relate to the ultimate achievement or destination of their respective suits.
Nine of Diamonds: The Culmination of Power – “Idealism”
Throughout the suit of diamonds, we’ve been considering different aspects of power and resources. But power is a means to an end, not an end in itself. The Nine of Diamonds is about what we choose to do with our power, once we have it. Given the ability to change the world, what changes do we seek?
Before you can affect a change in the world, you must first imagine the possible future you would like to see. The Nine of Diamonds is where we give ourselves permission to dream. We don’t constrain ourselves to the bounds of the possible. If anything were possible, what would we do? Where would we go?
If you can dream of a better future, you can start to move the world in that direction. You may never see that future fully realized, but you can fight for change secure in the knowledge that each step along the way moves things in the right direction.
Hutcheson associates the Nine of Diamonds with daydreams, which we’ve already touched on, but also with peace. And what is peace, but a shared – perhaps impossible but nonetheless worthwhile – dream.
Nine of Clubs: The Culmination of Labor – “Harvest”
The Four of Clubs counseled patience: the seeds were planted and we needed to wait for them to ripen. In the Nine of Clubs our patience is rewarded. Here we reach the end of our labors, and get to enjoy the fruits of our toil. The harvest is bountiful.
This card has a little bit of a double-edged quality to it, however. It’s a card about the reward for diligent effort. We reap what we have sown. If we have not been putting in the diligent effort, then that too will come home to roost. It’s about us having made our bed – good or bad – and now getting to lie in it.
This card is sometimes associated with imagery of a forest, but for me it’s less forest-as-wilderness, and more mature orchard. We planted our trees, and waited years for them to grow. Now we have a renewable bounty of fruit. Our long-term investment has paid off.
Nine of Hearts: The Culmination of Intimacy – “Nesting”
I’ve associated the keyword “nesting” with the Nine of Hearts, that’s the energy I get from it. The culmination of intimacy, in all its forms, is the creation of new family and new life. That can be literal: finding a long term partner and creating a home together, a place in which to raise children. It can also be more metaphorical: a friendship deepening to something more akin to a sibling bond, in a way that changes both of your lives. In either case, it’s about the creation of a new family unit; a family of choice rather than one of inheritance.
The Nine of Hearts is linked with imagery of a cottage or a small house, which ties in nicely with our idea of new family. The cottage is not grand nor ostentatious, but it is a place of cozy practicality. Not a mansion, but a home.
Nine of Spades: The Culmination of Strife – “Mourning”
The Nine of Spades is the end result of our journey through strife: mourning that which was lost. Hutcheson associates this card with imagery of a funeral, or a coffin, or a ghost. Funerals and coffins are about recognizing our loss, experiencing our grief and releasing it. We mourn our dead, and commend their remains back to the void – be it the grave or the pyre. The ritual treatment of our dead is as much for the living as it is for the deceased. It allows us to experience our loss, mourn it, and then make peace with it.
The imagery of the ghost cautions us what happens when we cannot make that peace. When the specter of the past lingers, frightful and festering. We become trapped by it, haunted by memories we have no ability to process and no ability to change. Shades of our former selves, with all the joy and vitality leached away from our continued existence.
It’s worth considering the relationship between the Ace of Spades, the Five of Spades, and the Nine of Spades. All relate to death imagery in some form. The Ace of Spades is the moment of death itself. The dramatic, irreversible change that tears away the status quo. The Five of Spades relates to the remains after death: the corpse or the cadaver or the skeleton. The shell of the physical body left behind after the moment of death. The Nine of Spades is about our processing of the loss and our treatment of the remains. Are we able to mourn our losses and go on with our lives? Or do we become haunted by them? The Nine of Spades covers both.
This post is part of a series on playing card cartomancy. You can find the next post here.
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