Just for fun: Comparing World Leaders to The Court Cards

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This is another hobby of mine. I like to take the Kings, Queens, and Jacks/Knaves of an ordinary deck of poker cards and try to match them up to famous world leaders throughout history based on their hair color and complexion plus their personalities.

It generally helps to remember these rules I learned a long time ago about the cards:

Red Cards = People with a fair complexion
Black Cards: People with a dark complexion

♡ Hearts = The Clergy
◇ Diamonds = The Merchants
♧ Clubs = The Peasants
♤ Spades = The Military

Kings = Older Men
Queens = Women
Jacks = Young men

There's even certain names assigned to each court card based on figures of history and mythology which when you think about the context of who these people were it also helps in divination.

King of Hearts: Charlegmane
"A fair man of good-natured dispostion but hasty and rash"

Queen of Hearts: Judith
"A fair woman, faithful, prudent, and affectionate.

Jack of Hearts: La Hire
"The dearest friend of the consulting party. Also a fair person's thoughts."

King of Diamonds: Julius Caesar
"A fair man, hot-tempered, obstinate, and revengeful."

Queen of Diamonds: Rachel
"A fair woman, fond of company and a coquette."

Jack of Diamonds: Hector
"A near relation who only considers his own interests. Also a fair man's thoughts."

King Clubs: Alexander the Great
"A dark man, upright, faithful, and affectionate in disposition."

Queen of Clubs: Argine (Regina)
"A dark woman, gentle and pleasing."

Jack of Clubs: Sir Lancelot
"A sincere bit hasty friend. Also a dark man's thoughts."

King of Spades: King David
"A dark, ambitous man."

Queen of Spades: Athena
"A malicious dark woman, generally a widow."

Jack of Spades: Ogier the Dane
"An indolent, envious person. Also a dark man's thoughts."


So using this I will make comparisons to some of my fav world leaders to read about.


Starting with the man everyone loves to hate (for good reason): Donald Trump

He's certainly the King of Diamonds with his quick temper and desire to get revenge on everybody even if it means burning the whole world down go do so. He also fits the "greedy" aspect of The Merchants. The worst aspects of pure Capitalism etc.






Joe Biden on the other hand I believe fits The King of Hearts. I believe his heart is in the right place but I frankly wonder about his thinking process. The King of Hearts is often drawn with a sword penatrating his head which I view as symbolic of a man who leads more with his heart than with his mind. I also sense great depression and sadness in him.





I also feel that this card applies perfectly to Abraham Lincoln...

Now for some other world leaders.

Female rulers who inherited great power by becoming widows after their husbands died all fit perfectly under the Queen of Spades (my personal favorite card lol).



My top 5 fav examples of this kind of "Queen" would be Empress Wu Zetian of China, Catherine the Great of Russia, Kim Jung Un's crazy sister Kim Yo Jong of North Korea (I think she will definetly be next in power after her brother dies), Cleopatra of Egypt, and for my own Hawaiian heritage I'm fond of Queen Ka'ahumanu.

Queen Elizabeth II I would allude to being the Queen of Clubs.





Also speaking of Trump and Biden, another thing I learned about divination with cards is that if a woman is married she takes on the same pip as the "King" she is married to.

So First Lady Jill Biden would be the Queen of Hearts.





Former First Lady Melania Trump would be the Queen of Diamonds.





And for Vladmir Putin. The Russian dictactor who seems hell-bent on World War 3. He's definetly the King of Spades. I also would compare this card to Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu. And China's president Xi Jinping. All three are dark men have something about them in their desire for more territory and power at any cost.

Here's another way of doing it looking at famous celebrities (rather than strictly politicians).

I'll use some of my personal favorites, starting with the cast from The Golden Girls (my all-time fav TV show ).




Betty White as Rose Nylund: The Queen of Hearts

Rue McClanahan as Blanche Devereaux: The Queen of Diamonds

Estelle Ghetty as Sophia Petrillo: The Queen of Clubs.

Beatrice Arthur as Dorothy Zbornak: The Queen of Spades.


Now actor Johnny Depp. I would rank him as the Jack of Clubs.





Helena Bonham Carter strikes me as a Queen of Clubs (and she used to be married to Tim Burton while working with Johnny Depp)





Tim Burton I believe to be the King of Clubs.

that is a scholarly examination of the court cards IMHO.

Glad you thibk so.


I'll think of others to make these comparisons to too.

Some more examples.

Marie Antoinette I see as the Queen of Diamonds. A flirtatious woman who liked to party...





I also see King Henry the VIII as a King of Diamonds. Much like Donald Trump he was a self-serving man with a quick temper who discarded his wives like tissue paper.

Here's some more famous and historic people I thought of.

Princess Diana as the Queen of Hearts (which was also her nickname).






Marylin Monroe & Mae West both as the Queen of Diamonds.

Boudica would be another excellent representation of the Queen of Spades.





General Douglas MacArthur as the Jack of Diamonds.





Fidel Castro as the Jack of Clubs.

very interesting

Here's another one.

Convicted WW1 spy Mata Hari as the Queen of Spades.

All the ladies I picked represented by the Queen of Spades I find so intriguing.

The card itself implies a woman who is either widowed, divorced, or an "old maid" who never marries (like suspected American axe murderer Lizzie Borden for example).

But there's more to being the Queen of Spades than simply being a woman who loses her husband (or never gains ones or wants one).

The Queen of Spades is often a "dark" woman, meaning she has dark hair and a dark complexion. She is a highly intelligent woman who is a skilled taction and comes into her own power at the loss of her king.

For example these ladies I listed here:

Wu Zetian started as a lowly concubine who schemed her way to power in the Chinese Court by marrying the Emperor becoming his Empress, then when her husband died she actually plotted against her own children to dethrone them and seize ultimate power as female Emperor of China. She was the first and only woman in Chinese Society to achieve this.

Catherine the Great, the ruler of the Russian Empire who is credited with bringing Russia into the Renaissance, actually gained power by overthrowing her own husband in a coup and he later died a mysterious death which his wife may or may not have had a part in.

Cleopatra the last Pharoah of Egypt had many of her own sibilings assassinated in order to hold onto power, including her own younger brother whom she was married to. Despite her ruthlessness she is regarded as one of Egypt's greatest rulers despite the fact that her kingdom fell to the Roman Empire. She was also known more for being educated, for being charming, and for her intellect rather than being a mere xotic beauty as they portray her in the media.

Queen Kaʻahumanu of Hawaii was a monarch who inhetited power after the death of her husband. She was also known as a skilled diplomat and effective leader, although somewhat controversial because she opened Hawaii's borders to the European and American missonaries after she converted to Christianity herself and ordered the destruction of much of Hawaii's sacred temples and even banned the hulu dance. But she did however make some very important reforms to Hawaii by improving the rights and status of Hawaiian women and even abolishing the rituals of human sacriface.

Boudica is another interesting example of a woman who comes into her own power following the death of her husband and the betrayel of the Romans who humilated her in front of her daughters by whipping her while she watched her daighters get brutally raped. After this tragedy she managed to raise an entire army of British Celts who sympathized with their queen and burned with a shared desire to drive the Romans out of their lands. Boudica road into battle along with her army and although they were ultimately crushed by the Roman Legion, she left her mark on history as a woman who wasn't to be triffled with.
(And she cruelly punished many of those unfortunate Roman citizens, cruelty and malicousness are a common trait of Queen of Spade types esp if you piss her off for any reason)

Mata Hari the exotic dancer who was convicted of spying and was executed by firing squad during World War 1. She may or may not have been an actual spy, but if she was she was certainly a dangerous dark woman who took on many lovers to gather infornation and leading many soldiers to their deaths. She was also considered the inspiration for many of the Bond Girl villains and was the archetypal femme fatale (a true femme fatale always has you guessing about her true motives and if she is guilty or innocent).

Edit: I also looked up if Mata Hari was ever married. Turns out she was indeed married to a man who abused her and cheated on her, giving her syphilis which she passed on to one of their two children who tragically died from thr mercury treatments for his illness. Her husband eventually divorced her and took their other child into full custody.

Yup... the Queen of Spades always suffers tragedy when it comes to her husband and children. So that card does indeed describe her!

And Kim Jong Un's crazy sister Kim Yo Jong. The most powerful woman in North Korea and second most powerful figure after her brother. Since she has obtained power and status through her brother and there are rumors she could take over as North Korea's next leader after his death, one could say she is symbolically "married" to her brother and like the Queen of Spades would gain ultimate power after he passes on.

Like every other court card the Queen of Spades is neither good or evil, but she's definetly not a woman you wanna mess with.

This was a very thorough and good reading of the court cards and their relation to world leaders.

It made me chuckle to see Donald Trump share the same card as Julius Caesar!

Thank you for your posts, RDF.

Glad you enjoyed it!

Yeah I can totally see Trump as Julius Caesar.

I bet the people he thinks are his allies would stab him in the back too just like what happened in Rome.

But yes each court card in a deck of playing cards has a given name. And each pip has a "class" associated with it. This website here explains it all.

https://vipspades.com/blog/the-meaning- ... s-symbols/

Although when I was learning about this the sources told me that The Diamonds represented "The Merchants", but I suppose "The Aristocracy" works too. Diamonds are all about money and power.

Here's three more I thought of just now. Mike Pence the former Vice President, Kamala Harris the current Vice President, and Nikki Haley the former GOP presidential canidate who dropped out of the race.

Mike Pence, the ultra Christian Conservative who was picked to be Donald Trump's VP last time, is actually pretty fitting for the King of Hearts. As I pointed out before Hearts = "The Clergy" and Pence, say whatever you will about him, truly believed in his religious beliefs. Pence also in the end realized the mistake he made in supporting Trump after Jan 6th and chose to uphold the rules for electing Joe Biden. So he "followed his heart" because he at least believed in the rule of law, and suffered dearly for it by having his political career ruined by the MAGA cult who saw his actions as treason against his former boss. That in itself is interesting as the King of Hearts is also nicknamed "The Suicide King" (because he is often drawn with a sword behind his head). One could say he commited "political suicide" because he actually put his country over Trump.





Kamala Harris, the first woman of color elected to Vice President by Joe Biden, I would mark as the Queen of Spades. She also served as a criminal prosecutor which links her perfectly to the Queen of Spades aka Queen of Swords (which is in itself an extension of the Justice card in the Tarot Major Arcana). Also just as Kim Yo Jong gained power through her brother Kim Jong Un and will likely gain even more power if her brother dies, the same could be said about Kamala Harris potentially becoming the first female president of the US should anything happen to her boss Joe Biden before the next election.






Finally Nikki Haley, the former Trump ally who ran against him for the Republican Nomination and despite going down in defeat over and over she put up one hell of a fight. The odds were always against her but she refused to give up until very recently when she had no choice but to announce defeat. I actually admire her and view her as a kind of fiery phoenix in spirit and character which makes her the perfect Queen of Clubs in my opinion.

interesting how the cards seem so well tied to certain personages.

Each court card embodies an archetype that anyone can be compared to.

Here's some more.

The 4 most prominant queens of House Tudor!





Catherine of Aragon: Queen of Clubs. The faithful Catholic wife who clung to her unfaithful husband's side right up until the very end.



Her daughter Mary I the Queen of Hearts. Earning the nickname "Bloody Mary" for having so many protestants burned at the stake while trying to restore the Catholic Faith in England. Possibly driven by intense anger against the Protestants for what her father Henry VIII and his mistress-turned-wife Anne Boleyn did to her mother.



Anne Boleyn the second wife of Henry the VIII and mother of Elizabeth I. As a master of mind games I would rank her as the Queen of Spades. Originally his mistress and later became his wife after convincing him to divorce his first wife Catherine of Aragon and promising to give him a male heir. She was only able to provide a surviving daughter (Elizabeth I) and it is widely believed that because of this Henry VIII divorced her abd had her unjustly executed for treason so he could be rid of her.



Finally their daughter Elizabeth I who managed to outlive all of them including her father and sister. I would rank her as the Queen of Diamonds in spite of her nickname as "The Virgin Queen" (because she never married). She was credited with pulling England out of the turmoil caused by her sister and father and helped usher in an age of peace and prosperity for her kingdom.

Two more examples who share some interesting things in common: Prince Harry and Princess Mako. Both being former royals who gave up their titles to marry someone they loved.

I see Prince Harry as the Jack of Hearts and Princess Mako as the Queen of Hearts. Because they both "followed their hearts" and sacrifaced their royal status for love.

Prince Harry





Princess Mako