Lee said:
This is one method of reading with playing cards. There are plenty of people, now and in the past, who read with the whole deck.
I use the whole deck. I practiced using playing cards for several weeks during the past year, and it worked great. The only thing was, I missed the artwork. Just an aesthetic thing, really. But now that I know I can do this, I'll feel that I can read nearly anywhere there's a deck of cards, rather than thinking I can't because I don't have a Tarot deck with me.
It's also a good way to read for someone who has a hangup about Tarot (fears that it's evil?) but not about playing cards, or when you don't know what deck to use.
It's a little more objective, for me, for personal readings. I'm not sure how to explain that. (BTW I love my 1864 reproduction poker deck recommended by Umbrae.) I don't feel the attachment that I sometimes feel to a particular Tarot deck or card. It's a bit like clearing my head outdoors after gazing at artwork in a museum for too long.
But I really prefer the artwork.
Oops--your question was about method. I studied
Choice Centered Tarot by Gail Fairfield when I started out reading playing cards. I like her numerological system. I combined her meanings for Page and Knight to fit the Knave or Jack in playing cards.
But I sometimes found myself giving playing cards a more "pictorial" interpretation, or going by what was missing, or what predominated in the spread. (If there were a lot of fours, I'd see Emperor influence, and so forth.) Sometimes I even used the corresponding Rider-Waite meanings (even though that's
not my primary Tarot reading system).
You just have to play around with them and see how your intuition works with them. I do recommend getting a nice deck that you use just for divination (at least to start out).
The thread with Umbrae's recommendation is here:
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=19464
I printed out and studied some of the more traditional playing card systems that were recommended online, but most didn't click for me. That's why I adapted the Fairfield method to reading them.
I developed a spread for playing cards, based on Solitaire [the traditional solitaire game commonly known as Klondike], which I can use when all I have is a digital Solitaire game on my PC or PDA. I then developed that spread into an organic Tarot spread. I used that spread every day for about 3 months, for my personal readings. I learned a lot in that time. As with most things, practice helps.
Nevada