meet me at midnight: lady spades

May 15, 2025

This was originally a members only bonus story for our Bloody Mary series that we’re reposting for everyone with additional content.

Is there something in life you really want, but know you’d never be able to obtain it without some supernatural intervention?

Well, then I’ve got a game for you.

It’s a game called Lady Spades. Similar to Bloody Mary, it’s a mirror-based conjuring game, but there’s a slight twist: if you play the game correctly and luck is on your side, Lady Spades will grant you a wish.

But, if you lose…well, you might lose your home or your head…

Now, the origin of this game is a bit dubious, but according to denizens of the internet, it popped up sometime in 2010 in the /threekings subreddit. The original post has since been deleted, but copies of the original rules have continued to make the rounds on social media.

Some argue it originates from a Russian urban legend known as Dama Pika, but that’s perhaps an oversimplification of how Lady Spades came to be.

The interesting thing about this game is that it seems to be a product of folklore, literature, and the internet.

The Queen of Spades was a character who popped up in Russian children’s stories in the 1970s. She wasn’t necessarily good or bad, and she wasn’t actually a lady (or creature that looked like one); she was a playing card that occasionally appeared to frighten or sometimes help children.

You see, drawing the Queen of Spades, in many cultures, is considered an ill omen.

Generally speaking, the Queen of Spades is similar to the Queen of Swords in tarot. She’s a card of cold intellect and logic, who can cut through deception to get to the truth.

But, consider that the ability to discern truths from lies is not one that necessarily can be mastered by scholarship; it’s akin to intuition or some sort of psychic ability. Though the Queen of Spades is a card of intellect, it is often considered a card reminiscent of something similar to Hecate, the Goddess of Witchcraft—a figure connected with death and the supernatural; an entity that can see the past, present, and future.

So, how did a card with a peculiar meaning go from a character in some children’s stories to an urban legend akin to Bloody Mary?

Well, as always, it’s complicated, but you can likely thank Alexander Pushkin.

In 1834, Alexander Pushkin published a novella titled The Queen of Spades (Pikovaya Dama), which tells the story of a man obsessed with discovering Count St. Germain’s secret card trick.

If you’re unfamiliar with St. Germain, he was a very real person who may still be walking among us today. Count St. Germain was a noted philosopher, alchemist, and musician, most often remembered for his time in the French Court as an advisor to King Louis XV.

The thing is, despite being in such a prominent political role, no one really knew where he came from, how he acquired his seemingly endless wealth, or his real age. The Count was supposedly a middle-aged man, but based on information from contemporaneous accounts, his appearance was unaltered for decades.

Some have speculated he was a vampire, others believe he may have discovered the Philosopher’s Stone and consumed the elixir of eternal life, and some are convinced the Count is a pseudonym akin to the Dread Pirate Roberts that con artists used throughout the ages.

But, whatever you believe about the Count, I think it’s safe to say, if there was a trick he purportedly used to win at cards, you’d probably want to learn it. After all, he might have been a fake vampire, but the money he was throwing down was quite real.

If you want to learn more about famed alchemist and possible vampire, Count St. Germain, check out bite sized hauntings: new orleans, la.

In Pushkin’s novella, our narrator, Hermann, overhears other officers in the Imperial Russian Army talking about a Countess who lost almost her entire fortune playing a card game called faro in France many years ago.

But the Countess’ luck changed forever when that same night she ran into the infamous Count St. Germain. Moved by her plight, the Count taught her his secret trick that involved three cards used in a specific order.

After hearing the story, Hermann becomes obsessed with obtaining the secret, and does what any rational person would do: he tracks down the Countess, starts sending love letters to her young ward so he can gain access to the house, and waves a gun in her face, demanding she tell him the secret.

Unfortunately, things don’t quite go as planned, and the Countess dies of a heart attack then and there.

Hermann is forced to flee, but all is not lost, because the Countess’ ghost appears to him in a dream and tells him she was commanded to share her secret from beyond the grave:

“The three, seven, and ace in succession are the magic cards. Twenty-four hours must elapse between the use of each card, and after the three have been used, you must never play again.”

For some reason, Hermann doesn’t think it’s suspicious that a woman he killed is giving him gambling tips or questions who “commanded” she tell him, but I guess greed makes people do some interesting mental gymnastics.

So, Hermann takes every penny to his name, heads to one of the fanciest high-stakes faro salons in town, and begins the ritual, betting on one card each night.

The first two nights are an amazing success, but when he returns for the final night to bet on the ace, he finds the Queen of Spades staring up at him instead. And as Hermann loses everything, he swears he sees the card, which strangely resembles the old Countess, wink at him.

Pushkin’s story ends, as many great Russian stories do, with our narrator going insane. We never find out if the card was truly haunted or if the ghost and the winking card were all in Hermann’s head, but Pushkin’s story does cement the idea of personifying the Queen of Spades in the Russian literary tradition.

Russian students typically read this specific Pushkin story sometime between 7th and 8th grade, which can potentially explain Pushkin’s influence on the evolution of the Queen of Spades.

Children who were familiar with stories where the Queen of Spades appeared as a symbol of misfortune would grow up to hear what is essentially a horror story where the Queen of Spades is a living entity who can destroy your life and drive you mad.

And, as children do, they embellish and share versions of this story with younger kids to scare them.

As the Queen of Spades became a more popular horror story amongst Russian children in the 80s and 90s, she started to permeate pop culture and appeared in books, movies, and the occasional comic book.

Now this is where things get a little murky, and we get into a chicken-and-egg situation.

In the late 80s / early 90s, the Queen of Spades began to become convoluted with divination games and Bloody Mary.

In many cultures, mirrors are used for divination, and we know there were many different practices dating back to the Middle Ages that involve young women peering into mirrors or sleeping on mirrors to get a glimpse of their future husband.

Typically, these games have an aspect of danger associated with them. For example, one popular Slavic version of the ritual involves gazing into a darkened mirror to see who approaches; however, one must be careful to cover the mirror quickly after glimpsing one’s future partner, as whatever appears on the other side will attempt to get out of the mirror and strangle you. (Fun game, right?)

I say “whatever” because while mirrors can potentially show us what has been or will be, they can also act as portals for entities that wish to enter this world.

Thanks to globalization, the American-based urban legend of Bloody Mary began to circulate more widely. Bloody Mary wasn’t necessarily a divination game, but children did notice some similarities between Bloody Mary scratching and strangling people, fortune-telling games, and the cutthroat way the Queen of Spades could help or harm you.

This is not to say that Lady Spades is a direct offshoot of Bloody Mary. Scholars have noted that, almost organically, Russian children began incorporating the Queen of Spades into these fortune-telling rituals. It’s unclear why exactly children began to blend the Queen of Spades with mirror rituals. Some scholars speculate there might have been some association with the Queen of Hearts and Alice in Wonderland, with the whole through the looking glass thing. Others have posited that it might be more subliminal, as face cards are two mirrored images.

I would argue that it’s perhaps a lot less complicated. If Pushkin started the idea that the Queen of Spades could potentially haunt or curse someone, and Russian media expanded on that idea, it seems reasonable that children would think of ways to summon her based on practices they were familiar with, especially ones with similar high-stakes outcomes like mirror fortune telling.

The introduction of the Bloody Mary mythos into Russian pop culture likely provided more structure for a mirror ritual.

But, for as popular as both the Queen of Spades and Bloody Mary were in the 90s, by the early 2000s, interest in these characters had dwindled.

So, while there is evidence that the Queen of Spades was once a popular staple of Russian folklore, we can’t necessarily form a concrete connection with the game Lady Spades. It seems, like many other things in this world, Lady Spade, though perhaps inspired by a Russian urban legend, is ultimately an invention of Reddit.

However, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work…

Now that we know the lore, I think it’s time to play a game.

How to Play Lady Spades:

What You Need To Play:

One incredibly dark room. You’ll want to make sure the room is pitch black, so close any curtains or blinds. And you’ll want to make sure the room is completely silent and any distractions are removed, Lady Spades demands your full attention.
A mirror you don’t mind having to smash should you lose.
A candle. No flashlights allowed with Lady Spades.
A small table or ledge in front of the mirror for you to rest the aforementioned candle.
A Queen of Spades card from a fresh deck.
Red lipstick.

How To Play:

At midnight, enter your dark room of choice and step in front of the mirror.
Light your candle and place it in front of the mirror.
Use the lipstick to write “Lady Spades” on the mirror, and hold up your Queen of Spades card so the face card is facing the mirror.
Take a deep breath and close your eyes. Try to relax (if you can).
Keeping your eyes closed, repeat the phrase “Lady Spades, appear” seven times. Be loud and clear with your words; this is, after all, a summoning.
If you hear the laughter of a woman or footsteps growing closer, you’re on the right track. If you hear nothing, jump down to How To Survive to try and make it out of this alive.
Open your eyes. If you were successful, a woman should be standing in front of you in the mirror. She should be completely still with her hands at her sides. This is VERY important.
1. If the woman is not still with her hands at her sides, you’ll need to jump to How To Survive.
Look her in the eyes and DO NOT break eye contact.
1. If you break eye contact, hurry to How To Survive.
Politely tell her your wish, and remember to word your wish carefully, leaving no room for misinterpretation.
If Lady Spades nods, smiles, or whispers “yes”, congrats—you’re wish is about to come true.
1. If she says “no”, frowns, or shakes her head, you’ll need to head to How To Survive.
Without breaking eye contact, end the game by saying “Lady Spades, disappear”, as you wipe the mirror clean and extinguish your candle. Turn on the lights and burn the card as quickly as possible.
1. Within the next few days, your wish should become reality.
2. You could attempt to play the game again with a fresh Queen of Spades card, but do you really want to tempt fate?

How To Survive:

If you completed Step 5 but hear no laughter or footsteps, there’s a chance the ritual didn’t work.
1. Open your eyes.
2. If you see only your reflection in the mirror, the ritual has failed. End the game by saying “Lady Spades, disappear”, as you wipe down the mirror and extinguish your candle. Turn on the lights, burn the card, and dispose of the ashes as quickly as possible. You can attempt to play again with the same mirror, but you’ll need a new Queen of Spades card from a fresh deck.
If you heard laughter or footsteps, but you open your eyes to find any of the following, gird your loins, because like Jean Claude Van Damme, we’re going to have to fight to survive:
1. If the candle has gone out:
  1. Relight the candle immediately. Even if you see Lady Spades in the mirror, you’ll need to end the game. End the game by saying “Lady Spades, disappear”, as you wipe the mirror down and extinguish your candle. Turn on the lights, burn the card, and dispose of the ashes as quickly as possible.
2. If the card is facing you instead of the mirror:
  1. Tear the card in half and end the game by saying “Lady Spades, disappear”, as you wipe the mirror clean and extinguish your candle. Turn on the lights, burn the card, and dispose of the ashes as quickly as possible.
3. If the card is no longer in your hands:
  1. Break the mirror, even if you see Lady Spades. Extinguish your candle and turn on the lights. Attempt to find the card and burn it, but don’t take too long. If you can’t find the card within a few minutes, I’m sorry to say you’re fucked, and you’re going to need to run out of that house and never go back.
4. If the woman in the mirror is pressed up against the glass, says “no”, frowns, shakes her head, or if you fail to maintain eye contact:
  1. This situation is bad news bears. As quickly as you can break the mirror, extinguish your candle, turn on the lights, and fucking RUN FOREST RUN out of that room and that building.
  2. As soon as you have vacated the premises, burn the Queen of Spades card and dispose of the ashes.
  3. Do not return to that building and never play the game again.

As you can see, Lady Spades is a fun-filled game for the whole family. While I can’t endorse attempting it, I will say, please remember if you do try this game, insurance does not cover having to abandon your home because you summoned a mirror demon. State Farm is dropping people from their insurance for simply living in California; they don’t care if a portal to another dimension has made your home uninhabitable.

So remember, kids, some things in life aren’t worth the risk.

If you want to play Lady Spades, go to your ex’s house or a Tesla dealership or some place you won’t mind never going again.

And that’s all she wrote…for now…

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Stay cursed, friends.

Resources:

Dangerous Games to Play in the Dark by Lucia Peters

Poetics of a Modern Children's "Scary" Story in Oral Tradition and the Internet by T.A. Mirvoda (in Russian)

Russian School Folklore: From "Summonings" of the Queen of Spades to Family Stories by A.F. Belousov (in Russian)

The Queen of Spades, Russian Sister of Bloody Mary by Alexander Derwinter

The Queen of Spades and Her “Sister” Bloody Mary in Russian Contemporary Legends by Marina Baiduzh