In a spread, Gilles de Rais marks emotion at flood stage: overwhelming feeling, tears and sorrow, jealousy and suspicion, behavior tipping toward the compulsive.
— The divinatory art of the 52-card deck —
The 9 of Hearts — tradition’s famous “wish card” — is in the Playing Card Oracles a card of overflowing feeling. He is Gilles de Rais: emotion risen to flood stage, capable of sweeping everything away — or, channeled selflessly into compassion, becoming one of the most positive cards in the deck.
A prominent figure in fifteenth-century France, Gilles de Rais (pronounced “Jeel duh Ray”) was a man of tremendous stature and nobility. But as time wore on, his motives became increasingly self-serving — and much as Water that rises to become a flood, his decadent behavior swelled out of control, wreaking havoc for everyone and everything.
As the overflowing Hearts on the card suggest, this Nine represents excesses of emotion. Those expressing its energy can easily feel “swept away” by the sheer intensity of their own sensitivities, giving rise to fears, insecurities, and compulsive behaviors.
The positive expression comes with the vibration of the number Nine, which is humanitarian: by taking an active concern for others, the extraordinary depth of feeling represented here can be channeled, like Water itself. The passion of the Heart suit becomes centered in compassion — and when this Nine’s energy is manifested in a truly selfless way, it can be one of the most positive cards in the deck.
In a spread, Gilles de Rais marks emotion at flood stage: overwhelming feeling, tears and sorrow, jealousy and suspicion, behavior tipping toward the compulsive.
As an energy, its redemption is specific: channel the flood. Turned outward as active concern for others, the same depth becomes compassion and humanitarian love — the card at its very best.
Watch the direction of the current: self-serving motives swell this Water out of control, as they did the man himself. Selflessness is not just this card’s virtue; it is its safety.
Traditional cartomancy calls the 9 of Hearts the wish card — the deck’s celebrated omen of a desire granted.
In the Playing Card Oracles, the Nines are the final trials: the last pip before the court, a full pendulum swing from the Ace, where success is measured by the degree of selfless humanitarian action — and motives of selfishness always spell disaster.
Tradition calls it the wish card. The Playing Card Oracles reads it as Gilles de Rais: overwhelming emotion and its extremes — fears, jealousy, sorrow — which, channeled selflessly, transforms into compassion and humanitarian love, one of the deck’s most positive expressions.
A real figure of fifteenth-century France, a man of tremendous stature and nobility whose motives grew increasingly self-serving — Water rising to a flood. The card takes from his story its warning about unchecked excess of feeling.
Nines are the final trials — the last pips before the court, cards of endings and extremes. Their calling is humanitarian: success is measured by selfless action, and because they border the court, Nines occasionally represent people, typically youths.
The full grammar of the deck — geometries, timing, and the voices of all fifty-two — lives in The Playing Card Oracles: A Source Book for Divination.