Diamonds
By Blake Walker
The diamond suit replaced the Italian suit of (Denari) Coins. The older Spanish suit was Coins (Oros) as well. In the tarot deck again Coins equals Diamonds, later Eliphas Levi used the term Pentacles, which is still widely used. Many experts believe a the 52 card deck predates the tarot 78 card deck, my own research makes me believe that the 22 major arcana were added to standard decks, so 56 or 52 count decks seem about right. I suspect an even smaller card deck predated them all. It wasn’t until the 15th century that the diamond was first used as a card suit by the French in Rouen and Lyon, the Diamond represented trade and merchants. Diamond, the word brings forth images of a rare and costly, stunningly appealing, gemstone that instantly gives the wearer a symbol of status. Due to the extreme monetary value packed into such a small physical space,{the diamond) the wearer can become a target for attack or theft.
Symbolism
When I give these symbolic meanings, remember the value is in the symbol and how you apply the symbol to your life. Don’t get caught up believing a bunch of hocus-pocus as true facts, the facts are irrelevant, only the lessons are of value. The connections that are made, by reflecting on the symbols that are given, and applying what you determined to your own life.
Coins correspond to the element earth and can be interpreted as, all of your resources, everything single thing you have at your disposal. All of the other tools can be thought of as a resource, so just as water, air and fire are all be obtained from earth, the Staves, Cups, and Swords can be bought with enough Coins. Coins and Diamonds represents resources including but not limited to, health, money, credit, career, possessions, employees and time.
The wheel in the sky keeps on turning.
Arguably the most precious resource any of us have is our time, some believe the playing cards represent the passing of time. A popular legend holds that a deck of cards has religious, metaphysical, and astronomical symbolic significance. The deck is divided in half, red and black representing day an night. The four suits represent the four seasons. There are 13 cards in each suit which represent the 13 phases of the lunar cycle, or 13 weeks per season. There are 52 cards in the deck representing the number of weeks in the year and if you add all the pips together you get 364. Then some will speculate if you add one joker to the 364 it is 365 the number of days in a year, and the second joker accounts for the leap year.
Every major society has their own version of astrology, man has watched the skies and noticed the majority of the lights in the sky rotated around a dark place in the sky, and then they seemed to anthropomorphize groups of the lights into symbols, naming the parts of the heavens that they could see. The astrology that many of these ancient peoples followed was much more in depth and detailed than the typical horoscope astrology of today. Egyptian and Mayan societies among others, completely revolved around the astrological signs in the sky.
Money
Money can buy you time to do other things, but the time you have on this earth, is the same as every one else. In other words I can build a house myself over a period of years or by hiring a crew of men build it in a matter of weeks. If it is my bliss to build a house myself the time and effort it takes will not bother me, but if house building is not my forte, then it may be better for me to get someone else to do it. My point is, find what is you like to do. Take on the jobs you can tolerate or find as a challenge spend your time doing those things, and find people to do the jobs that upset you. Yes, you still have to take out the trash. Using your resources wisely is important. Many people mis-judge the value of goods and services due to the habit of comparing it to the past or to what is on the shelf next to it. Money is like a bottle of energy, get the most energy out of every dollar.
Many times the decision is do I spend the time, or do I spend the money? How you spend your money very much effects how we are perceived by others, and how we perceive ourselves. A perception is just like truth to many. The things you spend your money on can become part of your idenity, such as the guy that drives that red convertable or that girl with the tatoos. In magic, ask any magician, with enough money any effect is possible. So my assumption is that large sums of money are spent to deceive people in a much more sinister way in the worlds of banking, government, and corporations. Your will (spade) controls your resources, how you spend your time and money. So the lesson found in the spade section on will, should be recalled and remember money itself is not evil it is a demonized tool. Money can buy positive change. Your time and money can be used with good intention or with ill will, for virtue or vice.
Art and technology
Art is illusion, now due to the advances in photo realistic computer generated images, its hard to determine if an event actually occurred just by seeing a photo. Movie special effects companies are producing realistic illusion on a grand scale. It is amazing to think that we can watch a movie, with sets and props even actors, that never existed outside a computer. The movie however can evoke real emotions and the symbols effect us exactly as it would if it were real. In other words if we are watching a movie and a see a computer generated object such as a table it effects us just as if it were a genuine table that was filmed. Of course the movie or photo is illusion as well. If these illusions can evoke a real emotional response, our emotions can make us believe the illusionary world of our reality tunnel, is the whole truth. Think how much of the information we take in comes from these video images.
Time truly does change everything so your ability to adapt is a key for success. What you spend your time doing, that is what you are. So I try to be mindful to enjoy my time. Life is too short to stay miserable for long. To be able to do something I enjoy for a living, for so long is a gift. Work and play are the same thing, they both are, you, expending your energy. So even in the hard parts of your work make a game of it and your work can become more like play. Working is preparing for the future. One way to do battle with a force that is stronger than you,(or less moral than you, as explained in the spade section)is to become more prepared than the opposition is aware. Preparation in the world of magic is practice and preset.
Preset
Preparing in advance, or the magicians preset is probably one of the most overlooked magical tools, even though it is necessary for most effects. Times when you are secretly preparing for an effect that will take place sometime in the future. When I performed the peacock act I would preset for 40 minutes and the act only lasted 8 minutes. Magicians should realize, the fact that they have to preset, is a give away that they are not really magic. After all if you could really perform miracles there is no need for preset, so it should be done in secret and not talked about with the layman. When you think of the effects of Robert Houdin from his memoirs, you should realize the care and attention to detail he put into his preparations you begin to realize this is almost a lost art for the modern illusionist. Max Malini was be invited to a gathering and after dinner was asked to perform, in an almost impromptu setting he produces a block of ice from beneath his hat. I believe detailed preset can translate to deceptive magic.
Think back about the mind reading game Black Magic I described in the Club section, one sentence of information shared between two people can have a party of people guessing for hours. If two people work together to deceive, like for instance in a two person telepathy act the results can be absolutely astounding. Think of how you could simply add a bit of preset time to increase the power of your magic.