If the idea of memorizing a deck of cards has scared you off in the past, I encourage you to read on, because this system will get you there! No prior experience with memory techniques required!
If you’re a veteran mnemonicist, I hope you’ll keep reading too and share your thoughts!
A little backstory first:
There was a really great collaborative discussion on the forum recently between @ink @SherlockBourne @fred2 @erikfromholland and myself that involved developing a system that combined the shaper system and a category system to arrive at easy to recognize substitute images to represent numbers. As the discussion went along, the idea of using this approach to encode playing cards came up. A system was developed and seemed pretty promising.
I tested it out with a “layman” who doesn’t use memory techniques and it was an amazing success. I think that it can be a very powerful way to introduce the ideas of visual memory techniques to folks regardless of age, language, reading ability, or prior experience or exposure to mnemonics. Memorizing a whole deck of cards is something that can be incredibly impressive and almost magical to be able to learn do, which can be a great way to hook someone into this fascinating world of memory!
I’m not sure if this particular system has been thought of before, but it seemed new to me and it worked so well that I wanted to try sharing it more broadly with the community.
So here’s how the system works:
Each suit represents a category of objects. The category is based on the shape of the suit icon, as follows:
- a SPADE looks a bit like an arrowhead or spear point. Spades will represent weapons or war.
- a HEART is a heart, which is a bodily organ. Hearts will represent anatomical features.
- a CLUB looks like a tree, so Clubs will represent nature and outdoorsy items.
- a DIAMOND is an item that represents wealth, extravagance, and luxury.
With these categories in mind, we can now start to assign imagery for every card, and let the suit category inform the actual item visualized. The following images are the ones that I mapped out, but the best way to learn any system is to try to come up with as many of the images as you can on your own, using the first thing that pops into your head when looking at them.
A - Spades means weapons/war. To me the A is shaped like the tip of a missile.
2 - For me, the shape of the 2 looks like a sickle or scythe wielded by Death on the battlefield.
3 - The 3 shape makes for a good crossbow.
4 - a 4 is a sharp blade like a combat knife.
5 - the top horizontal line of the 5 is the barrel of an old battlefield cannon, sitting on a big wooden wheel.
6 - the 6 reminds me of a submarine poking its periscope above the surface to look for targets.
7 - the 7 is a pair of nunchucks, mid-swing.
8 - the 8 is a shiny pair of brass knuckles.
9 - the 9 is a flail, a medieval weapon that has a ball and chain attached to a stick.
10 - for 10’s, we only need to focus on the 0, which in this case represents a grenade.
J the shape of a J is like a flintlock pistol like pirates used.
Q - Q looks like a bomb with a fuse coming out.
K - if you turn the K on its side, with the flat line on top, it looks like a sniper rifle on a stand. Leave it as is, it could be siege tower ready to roll against the castle walls.
A - Hearts is anatomy… The legs of the A look like long legs below a skirt.
2 - 2 resembles a lower leg, ankle and foot, almost like the leg of cartoon cat or dog.
3 - the 3 looks like a pair of buttcheeks.
4 - this one was a bit tricky but it looks like the torso of a stickfigure with an arm bent at the elbow, hand on head like a facepalm. So, bent arm.
5 - the round bulge at the bottom of the 5 looks like a big belly in profile view.
6 - the 6 reminds me of a fist giving a thumbs-up.
7 - the 7 is the sharp point of a knee, or maybe a pointy canine tooth.
8 - there are a few things the 8 could be… The most family friendly is probably a thin waisted person, hourglass figure.
9 - 9 looks like a ear to me.
10 - the 0 here looks like an eye.
J - the J shape reminds me of a bare human femur, the longest bone in the body.
Q - a Q looks like a belly button with the umbilical cord attatched.
K - the K is a yawning open mouth.
A - Clubs is nature and outdoorsiness… The A looks like a camping tent.
2 - that 2 looks like a snake reared up and ready to strike.
3 - the 3 reminds me of a bird with wings spread, flapping away
4 - the 4 reminded me of the blade of a quaint countryside windmill.
5 - the 5 is a cute little seahorse
6 - the 6 is a curled up snail shell.
7 - the 7 reminded me of a ledge overlooking a canyon or a jagged cliff edge
8 - the 8 is two stones balanced on each other, very zen.
9 - the 9 looks like the head of an elephant, big round ear, dangling trunk.
10 - the 0 could be a large boulder or maybe a bird egg.
J - the J reminds me of a caterpillar or inchworm dangling from a branch
Q - Q looks a lot like a turtle, round shell with the head curiously poking out.
K - turn the K on its side for a nice picnic table to sit at and observe all of this nature.
A - Diamonds represent extravagance and wealth. The A is an expensive private jet.
2 - the 2 is a totally extravagant swan shaped inflatable boat!
3 - the puffy 3 reminds me of some artificially inflated lips, as some wealthy influencers are known to get.
4 - a sleek sailboat, perfect for high society yachting events.
5 - the 5 is a revolutionary form of transportation, the Segway. Why walk, if you can afford a segway?
6 the 6 is a luscious shrimp about to be dipped in cocktail sauce. (To remember if the shrimp is the 6 or the 9, think of how you would a hold a shrimp by the tail and dunk the body… A natural 6 shape.)
7 - the 7 reminds me of a jet-ski in mid jump, like in the classic N64 game of my youth “Waverace.”
8 - the 8 is an outrageously expensive ring with a diamond on top as big as the ring itself.
9 - a golf club high in the air after a sweet drive on an expensive country club course.
10 - the 0 here could be a gold coin, or maybe a swimming pool, or maybe a swimming pool filled with gold coins.
J - the J looks like a fancy pipe that an aristocratic person might smoke. Or maybe a shiny gold sink faucet if you spin it upside down.
Q - the Q is a lovely necklace with a sparkling gem dangling from it.
K - turn the K on its side so the flat line is at the bottom and you’ve got a crown or tiara, fit for royalty.
So, there you have some starting images. To put it all together in practice you can use any technique you’d like!
For those brand new to memory techniques I like to have them try a simple linking sequence where for example the Necklace gem falls of and plugs the barrel of the Tommy Gun which explodes and sends shrapnel ripping through the Windmill blade cloth, the windmill keeps turning and the blade slaps into a guy’s Fat Belly, causing him to puke all over a Snail who crawls frantically away, leaving a slime trail across the Missile Warhead, which launches and demolishes a Camping Tent… Etc. With a little creativity and good interaction, you’ll be able to follow your crazy cause and effect story all the way through the deck.
You can also use this list alongside introducing the idea of a memory palace journey and create mini scenes of 2 or 3 interactions at each loci.
I tested this system out with a friend who is not a memory technician and has never considered being able to memorize a whole deck of cards. He tried a baseline test of just trying brute force memorization with no techniques. He was able to remember 5 out of the first 6 cards and missed the suit of another. He couldn’t get any farther than that. After I walked him through this system, he easily knocked out every card and was able to recall them perfectly with almost no hesitation. He’s not gonna break any speed records, but he was flabbergasted at how great the system worked and how fun it was to create the absurd story with the card images.
If you made it all the way to the end here, thanks for checking this system out! I hope you try it or try teaching it to someone. If you do, please leave a reply and share how it went. Also, if you see different images in these number shapes, please share them! It would be great to have a library of useful images for these categories and numbers to be able to pull from and suggest when sharing the technique!
