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Understanding Court Cards


© Elizabeth Bissette





The Ship of Fools Tarot by Brian Williams

For many readers, court cards are the most difficult cards in their Tarot deck to understand. In most decks, they lack the convenient titles e Major Arcana and the helpful pictures of the Minor. So how to interpret them by sight?

Assigning court cards to people involved in the issue(s) at handcharacteristics harectaristics of the card is one shortcut. They can be used in this s significator cards or in a reading. What are the main characteristics of the Court Cards? Qualities differ from deck to deck. This quick guide can be useful as a general reference for most of them. Physical r> Physicl Traits As a gener le, Cups relte to light-haired, blue eyed people. Pentacles represent dark complexioned people or people of color. Wands relate to red-headed people. Swords relate light haired people and Asian people.

Ages The Court Cards represent the 3 stages of life. Kings and Queens usually represent people over 30, Knights usually represent people 15-30. Pages represent children.

Interactive Meanings

If two or more court cards face one another in a reading, two or more people are talking about the situation.

If two or more court cards are facing away from one another, two or more people are arguing.

The presence of more than 2 Court cards in a reading indicates that people are talking about you or the situation.

interaction ard interction tip is to pay attention to what figures on the cards appear to be looking at. This can be a symbol on the card or something on the cards on either side of it. By doing this you can gain valuable insight into the reading. For example, Knights indicate messages. What the message is about may be represented by the card beside the Knight.

Personality Traits

Cups

Court cards in the suit of Cups represent people who are romantic, dreamy, emotional and laid back. Astrologically, Cups represent Water Signs.

King of Cups: A kind, loving man who tends to go with the flow

Queen of Cups: An empathetic, helpful woman; someone who can be a little wishy-washy

Knight of Cups: A hopeless romantic; a physically attractive man who is often in love with love itself

Page of Cups An idealistic young person, sometimes dreamy to a fault; a little lazy

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The copyright of the article Understanding Court Cards in Tarot is owned by J. Rebecca Cougill. Permission to republish Understanding Court Cards in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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Here's the follow-up discussion on this article: View all related messages

8.   Nov 12, 2002 4:16 PM
In response to message posted by Amberwest:

Amber, if you're still around... lately I've been looking closely at Crowley again and doing ...


-- posted by ecarterb


7.   Oct 1, 2002 12:37 AM
Hi, Yes I really did appreciate your write up on the Court cards but the Thoth deck is a little different in some interpretations and their Courts are thus:
R.W.- Kings = Thoth - Knights
Quee ...

-- posted by Seva6


6.   Sep 30, 2002 10:17 PM
In response to message posted by Seva6:

Hi Susan,

I was hoping that what I outlined could help eliminate deck differences a little. I t ...


-- posted by ecarterb


5.   Sep 28, 2002 8:46 PM
Hi,Really enjoyed the article you wrote on the court cards, however I now find I have to "relearn" the meanings as I learnt the Tarot on the Crowly Thoth deck and its interp.is quite different from th ...

-- posted by Seva6


4.   Sep 3, 2002 7:47 PM
I don't think it's right to ignore Crowley (as the current trend seems to be). The way I see him is as someone who had the right idea but took it in the completely wrong direction. He did, however, ...

-- posted by ecarterb





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