As a person, La Hire is the boyfriend, the lover, the charming young man at the center of the question — magnetic, romantic, and carrying at least one thing he is not telling you.
— The divinatory art of the 52-card deck —
The Jack of Hearts is the young lover of the deck — and a one-eyed card with something to hide. In the Playing Card Oracles he is La Hire, the bold and unruly figure of fifteenth-century France: charming, unpredictable, rebellious, and never quite to be trusted with the tarts.
Within readings this card often portrays a young lover — the object of one’s affection. That is natural enough, La Hire being the young male of the Heart suit. But despite the heartfelt affiliations, it is prudent to keep in mind the sly potential of this character. Note that this court is a one-eyed card: he is hiding something.
Ana Cortez points out a delicious detail: the Jacks of the deck behave better when "Mom or Dad" are around — and in La Hire’s case, it was likely Mom herself, the Queen of Hearts, from whom the tarts were stolen. Because he is the most unpredictable of the Jacks, and because the King and Queen of Hearts tend to be soft-handed, a good Spade or even Diamond ruler nearby is better "suited" to keep this knave in line.
La Hire has a mirror-brother in the deck: Pampero, the Jack of Spades, the other one-eyed Jack. Where La Hire hides his other side, Pampero’s simply seems to be missing — and when the two appear together in a reading they complete each other, each supplying what the other conceals or lacks.
As a person, La Hire is the boyfriend, the lover, the charming young man at the center of the question — magnetic, romantic, and carrying at least one thing he is not telling you.
As an energy, he is romance with an edge: flirtation, pursuit, the thrill of the unpredictable. Enjoy it — and count the silverware.
Check the neighboring cards for authority. With a strong Queen or King nearby (especially of Spades or Diamonds), La Hire’s best qualities come forward; left unsupervised among soft cards, the tart-thief tends to reappear.
La Hire is another name the playing cards themselves remember: a popular personality from fifteenth-century France (pronounced "La Air"), his name was printed on the Jack of Hearts in the French pack for over three centuries. The many surviving accounts of his bold escapades are mostly of dubious factual content — but they agree on his unorthodox, fear-provoking battle tactics and his untrustworthy nature.
In broader cartomancy tradition the Jack of Hearts is the romantic young man of the deck: a lover, an admirer, the object or bearer of affection. The old nursery rhyme keeps his other reputation alive — the Jack of Hearts, after all, is the one who stole the tarts.
The Jack of Hearts usually represents a young lover, boyfriend, or admirer. In the Playing Card Oracles he is La Hire — charming but sly, secretive, and unpredictable. As a one-eyed card, he is understood to be hiding something.
La Hire was a real figure of fifteenth-century France whose name appeared on the Jack of Hearts in French decks for over three hundred years, famed for bold, unorthodox exploits and an untrustworthy nature. The Playing Card Oracles reads the card through that character: the lover with a hidden side.
The deck’s two one-eyed Jacks are the Jack of Hearts (La Hire) and the Jack of Spades (Pampero). In the Playing Card Oracles they are mirror opposites — one hides his other side, the other is missing his — and viewed together they complete each other, as C.J. Freeman’s poem "The One-Eyed Jacks" describes.
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.