The Love Solitaire is a single-focus reading. You bring a question about your romantic life - an existing relationship, someone new, the absence of someone, whatever is actually occupying your heart right now - and the deck reads it through the behavior of the hearts.
The Role of Hearts in This Solitaire
Every card in the deck participates in the deal, but the hearts carry different weight than the other suits. In the love solitaire tradition, hearts are the suit of emotional truth - not emotions in general, but the specific current of feeling between people. Where hearts fall in the deal, how they pair, whether they survive or get swept away by other suits - all of it speaks to the state of the romantic question you brought.
Bring your question to mind clearly before you begin. "Does he love me" is not specific enough to anchor the reading. Something more precise works better: what is the actual state of connection between us right now, what is she feeling toward me that she has not said, is this new person someone I should take seriously.
How the Deal Works
Cards are dealt and the solitaire runs through its natural elimination process, with pairs by rank being removed as they become accessible. Hearts that pair with other hearts are a particularly strong signal - mutual feeling, matched energy, something real running in both directions. A heart that pairs with a spade reads differently: real feeling tangled up with friction or difficulty.
When the deal concludes, count the hearts that remain unpaired. This is the love forecast.
The Heart Count
No hearts remaining: the emotional field has cleared. Either this situation has run its natural course, or the emotional question you brought is less pressing than it seemed. The reading is pointing you somewhere else.
One heart remaining: a focused, singular feeling. Something clear and specific is present in this romantic situation - one real thread, not an entanglement.
Two hearts remaining: a genuinely mutual dynamic. Two hearts left standing together suggest that the connection has a counterpart - this is not one-sided.
Three or more hearts: the emotional dimension of this situation is dominant and complex. Multiple feelings, possibly from multiple directions. The more hearts, the more the romantic question is interwoven with everything else happening in your life right now.
Hearts surrounded by spades in the final layout signal that the feeling is real but the circumstances are difficult. Hearts among diamonds suggest the romantic situation has a practical dimension that needs addressing - living situations, money, real-world logistics that are affecting the connection.
Open the Love Solitaire with your actual question and read what the hearts keep.
