32-card deck

The 32-card deck, or piquet deck, is the historical basis of French cartomancy: in each suit it contains the ace, king, queen, jack, ten, nine, eight and seven. As early as 1770, Etteilla published a method for reading the future with it, and popular tradition settled a meaning for each card. It is laid out in a line, in a cross or in a tableau of several rows. Easy to come by, it remains the foundation of so-called classic cartomancy.