Tarot Thrones | The Court Card Blog

Month: April 2012

  • One Singer | One Song | Which Significator?

    So, I’ve gone right back to the 1960s again – sorry!

    Cannot believe that this is the first track on her first album! What an absolute BELTER!

    So, imagine that the girl in this song is sitting in front of you looking for a Tarot reading –  Court Card would you select to represent her and why?  What method did you use?!

    If you have any suggestions as to what you would like seen covered here on the blog, please drop me a line.  I’ll be happy to help!

    Have a wonderful weekend!  No post on Monday, but Tuesday will see the publication of the Beltane Tarot Blog hop contribution.  I hope that you enjoy it!

  • Hello to The Page of Coins

    Page of Coins: Touchstone Tarot
    Kat Black

    On Friday the moon slipped into darkness before beginning to glow and grow in strength again.  That’s my cue to pull a card to show me what energies will be useful to me until the full moon next month.

    Say hello to Kat Black’s Page of Pentacles from the Touchstone Tarot.

    This is the second time that I’ve employed Kat’s sumptuous deck for this exercise and it’s the first time I had a good look at the Page of Coins.

    Coins equate, of course, to Pentacles and his appearance here lets me know that I will be focusing on the physical for the coming period.  Which suits me fine!

    My nose is streaming and my eyes are watering – I am most definitely coming down with a cold.  Unless it’s hay fever *looks hopefully out of the window at the lashing rain*.  Unlikely.

    I’m also trying to increase the amount that I run.  Well, when I say ‘run’, I really mean ‘jog.’  And when I say ‘jog,’ I’m really talking about the speed that an arthritic labrador can overtake me with ease.  But still, it’s a START.

    And the Page is all about the starting….

    Kat takes elements of many beautiful paintings (for example – Holbein’s Hans The Younger provides the Page, the table and book; Fra Angelico for the gold coin hanging on the wall) and seamlessly melds them together into a stunning new image.

    In the accompanying book, Kat has this guy pegged as a scholar, someone who is prepared to get his head down and work through all the data.  She actually writes ‘slow and steady wins the race,’ well, my jogging is certainly slow and steady.  Not sure about it winning any races.  Unless that arthritic dog is up for the challenge.

    For me, the Page of Pentcles is keen to try new things and is very hands on – so he’s more like an apprentice to me than a student (I’d associate that more with the Page of Swords).  However, I’ve just started attending an art class that will, God willing, at the end of 10 weeks see me producing a couple of Major Arcana Tarot card paintings/drawings.  Play your cards right and I might show them to you.  Maybe not.  You’d need to promise to be gentle with me.  We Pages are only little souls who are just sending forth little tendrils for exploration – we are easily crushed.

    What does the Page of Coins mean to you?

    Good Golly Miss Molly – check out that Amazon price!!!

  • St George’s Day | Spread

    ‘Get a dragon’ you said…
    ‘It will be fun!’ you said…

    Today is St George’s Day and, in honour of my cousins of the red cross on white who live Darn Sarf, here’s a Tarot spread for you to try today.

    This spread was originally on my FB page as a Note last year, but I thought we could add a little court card spin to it here.

    Think of the issue that you wish to address through the reading…

    Flick through your Court Cards and choose one that best represents:  The Maiden – this card represents your goal  and one to represent St George – this card represents YOU in relationship to The Maiden.

    Then randomly select three further court cards.  These represent

    The Dragon – what holds you back from achieving your goal

    The Sword – the energies of this court card will help drive you forwards

    The Shield – the energies of this card indicates something you would do well to protect against

    Your final card in the spread (selected from anywhere in the remained of the deck) represents what might happen if you CAN slay the dragon using the Sword and Shield info and obtain The Maiden. The Likely Outcome card.

    Would love to know how you get on with this variation on the original FB spread!

  • Significators | The easy way!

        Welcome back, little Pages!                    
          From: Anna K Tarot

    I admit, I’ve been a little unfair to you, dearest reader:  I hit you with the Golden Dawn Astrology/Court Card associations and I can see that you’re a little woozy as a result.  I honestly TRIED to make it engaging. I even drew you TREES.  I don’t even draw my SON trees.

    Today I am kinder and outlining three easy ways to select an appropriate Significator.

    The first is simplicity itself – simply hand over your court cards to your client and allow your client to select a card to represent himself in the reading!  It doesn’t get any easier than that, does it?

    Huzzah – you don’t need to do anything tricky with decans or astrology AND it allows you to see how your client sees themselves.  Which can be enlightening.

    Of course, they don’t have to explain why they chose a card, but if they are willing to share their thought processes, it will add to your store of Court Card knowledge.  I would suggest that you ask at the end of the reading, after all the work is done, so that it doesn’t look like you are fishing for information from them to enhance the reading.

    The second method is equally simple:

    A Page will represent someone young (probably too young to have a Tarot reading lol!)
    A Knight will  represent someone younger than you (male or female)
    A Queen will represent a mature Yin energy (ie could be a man)
    A King will represent a mature Yang energy  (ie could be a woman)

    And you chose the suit depending upon the subject matter for the reading (see below for some ideas)

    The third method is to chat with your client about the issue and establish how THEY see themselves with regard to it. Listen to how they talk about the issue they want to ask you about. Do they feel hurt? Do they have a decision to make? Is it about money or work? Are people not talking? etc.

    Then you flick through your lovely bundle of court cards until you find the card that best represents your sitter with relation to the question at hand.

    Pages – represent beginnings of things
    Knights – represent that questing spirit and dilemma
    Queens – represent a mature nurturing, supportive, teaching role
    Kings – represent a mature outward display of mastery

    Cups – romantic or relationship – emotionalised issues
    Swords – grief, poor communication – intellectualised issues
    Wands – work, travel, active, intuitive – issues that involve doing something
    Pentacles – wealth, health, hearth – issues about ‘being’

    Just as some of the blog posts here on ‘Thrones’ have prodded you to make decisions about chosing court cards for various characters in songs etc, using this method, you will pull focus down onto one aspect of your sitter and their issue and select the court accordingly.

    And don’t be shy, tell your sitter why you have chosen this card.  They may disagree, thereby helping to clarify the reading that is required.

    These three methods are very flexible, allowing your sitter to be represented within the reading by a different card every time.  The methods from Wednesday’s blog post (which depend upon Astrology) will mean that the same card represents the same person every time – whether you think that’s a good thing or a bad thing is entirely up to you! 🙂

    Personally, I prefertoday’s methods because, while Astrology undoubtedly adds to the layers of interpretation available to you when reading, I believe that Tarot is a strong enough system to work on its own.

    Which method of chosing a significator do you prefer?

    This is the Page of Pentacles from the Anna K Tarot.  Click on the link, or on the image,  to visit Anna’s site and see this lovely deck!

  • Significators | Astrology | The need for a lie down….

    So now we roll on to the Golden Dawn’s allocation of Court Cards to the zodiac.

    Reader, I wrote this post about half a dozen times, every time it ended up utterly turgid and soooo boring I thought I might have to post you out a couple of match-sticks to prop your eyelids open and assault you with this *brandishes hat pin* just to make sure you are awake.

    First of all, it’s bad news again for the Pages; there’s still no room at the Astrological Inn for them with this system either.

    BUT – you will be pleased to know that I’ve abandoned all that earnest writing in favour of a drawing!  OK, it’s not the BEST drawing, but it does show the Golden Dawn’s zodiac choices.  I even added some seasonal trees to tart it up a bit for you.  You’re welcome.

    TADAAAAH!!!!
    (*sssh* ignore the fact that I almost spelled my blog’s name wrong)

    First of all, let’s look at the outer wheel which is marked by lots of tiny strokes. like the teeth on a wheel There’s 360 of them to be exact.  Degrees.  They’re called degrees. This works out quite nicely to 30 degrees per astrological sign.  I marked the outer ring accordingly.

    The next ring shows the 12 zodiac signs – well, my hand-drawn glyphs.  Apologies – they are tricker to doodle than you might think.

    The inner ring has the Kings, Queens and Knights of the Tarot Court.  The Wands are written in a nice fiery orange, the Swords in truthful black, the Cups in watery blue and the Pentacles in green.  I *know* – SO organised.

    You will see that each card does not line up exactly with each zodiac sign.  Irritating.  AND what is stranger is that they aren’t matched up like the previous system AT ALL (ie Wands = Fire Signs).

    Why is this?

    Well, the long and the short of it is that the Golden Dawners recognised that people are not quite the exact fit for each traditional astrological definition. So in a huge elemental mash-up, they offset each court card, preventing it from ‘owning’ a zodiac sign by 10 degrees.  This is called a decan. I think this overlap gives the whole thing a sort of strength of structure, like the bricks in a wall.  Just me?

    Those Golden Dawn smarty-pants DID allocate Major Arcana cards to each zodiac sign; I guess it prevents any direct equation between a Court and a Major.  I left them off this diagram – just to keep the confusion down to a dull roar 😉

    How did they arrive at these card/sign allocations?

    The easy answer would be to say that I have no idea, shrug my shoulders and just move swiftly onwards, but the truth is, they did it using the concept of Cardinal, Fixed and Mutable signs.  *flourishes the hat pin* Do I need to use this yet?

    Astrological signs with Cardinal attributes were allocated largely to the Queens.  The word itself derives from the Latin word for hinge, and, as you can see by the red dotted axis (axes, axii?!)  the Queen straddles the months that mark the changing of the seasons (The Solstices and the Equinox)

    Mutable signs were allocated to the Kings.  They fall at the end of the season, diminishing in strength.  Very Golden Dawn.  Honestly 😉

    In the middle are the Fixed signs, the attributes were allocated to the Knights.  They are reckoned to be the strongest, purest forms because the Knight is the child of the King and Queen. 

    Around the edge of the inner circle, I have marked the Cardinals in red, the Mutables in yellow and the Fixed in day-glo orange ( a mixture of red and yellow, just like the Knight is a mixture of his Mother and Father!)  It’s almost like I planned it 🙂

    And THAT is how the Golden Dawn allocate their Court Cards astrologically.

    And now I am off for a lie down in a darkened room.

  • Significators | How to choose ’em | Part 1

    I don’t care how nice your hat is, there’s
    nothing for you here, Sonny.
    Keep walking….

    One of the most popular ways to establish a Significator for your sitter is to ask them what their Birth Sign is (or Sun Sign) because, heck, even the Blackest Doubter knows their Sun Sign.

    Back in the day, the 12 astrological signs were allocated by the Great and The Good (or at least the Heavily Robed) to the Court Cards.

    What’s that I hear you say? There are 16 Court Cards and only 12 Astrological signs (13 if you count the ‘new’ sign of Ophiuchus).  Well, it was decided (probably by Committee – and you know how THAT tends to turn out) that you could get around this anomally by leaving the Pages out of the equation all together.


    The reasons for this are complicated and, dare I say, contrived? Basically, the Pages don’t get any astrological real-estate because they are too young and immature. Now, I don’t know about you, but that all sounds to me like trying to ram a square peg into a round hole by being clever enough to cut the corners off using lots of Esoteric fancy footwork.

    Or maybe I’m just not smart enough to ‘get’ it yet.  Tarot is, after all, a never-ending learning process and I know I’ve still got a very long way to go. *hopes that the Golden Dawners don’t take out a Fatwah against me face*

    Aaaaanyway, just take my word for it – the Pages aren’t included in the Astrology/Tarot system.

    So what does that leave us with? Four types of sign – Earth, Air, Fire and Water… and four Tarot suits. And three astrological signs in each category to accord with the three *cough* Court Cards in each suit!

    Just a quick reminder:

    Wands = Fire
    Swords = Air
    Cups = Water
    Pentacles = Earth

    Some people switch Swords and Wands associations around though. And just to confuse matters, the Astrological signs are allocated in different ways according to different decks.  Here is a handy set for you to refer to:

    King of Wands – Aries
    Queen of Wands – Leo
    Knight of Wands – Sagittarius

    King of Swords – Gemini
    Queen of Swords – Libra
    Knight of Swords – Aquarius

    King of Cups – Cancer
    Queen of Cups – Scorpio
    Knight of Cups – Pisces

    King of Pentacles – Taurus
    Queen of Pentacles – Virgo
    Knight of Pentacles – Capricorn

    You might not agree with these associations –  Maybe you think that The King of Wands is Sagittarius and the Knight is Aries? I’d love to hear how you allocate them.

    The key thing is – find something that works FOR YOU and stick with it!

    I’d love to know what advantages or disadvantages you can see with this particular method of selecting a Significator.

    And just WAIT till you see how the Golden Dawn allocates them…. 🙂

  • Significators: Why bother?

    Queen of Cups
    Morgan Greer Tarot
    published by US GAmes Systems Inc

    Court Cards can perform a specific function within a Tarot reading; the role of Significator.

    A Significator is a card that is deliberately chosen to represent the sitter.  There many different ways to select a Significator, so I’ve decided to break down the various methods of selection into next week’s blog postings.

    Note that I say ‘CAN’ have a specific function: Not everyone bothers with a Significator card these days.  Regardless of your method of choice, if you deliberately select a card to act as the sitter, then you immediately preclude that card from turning up within the reading itself.  That grates on the sensibilities of many Tarotists who would prefer to have ALL the cards at their disposal.


    It’s a perfectly valid reason not to bother with a Significator, but it’s simple to get round that particular bugbear – just use a different set of Court Cards to those in the deck you are working with.  This will ensure you have ALL court cards at your disposal for the reading itself – as well as allowing you to work with your favourite courts.

    It could even give new purpose to a damaged deck that is currently lying unused and unloved in a drawer – use the courts solely for significator selection?  It’s an idea, what do you think?

    There are some fantastic spreads that depend upon the use of a Significator, namely the Golden Dawn’s Opening Of The Key spread, which we will look at in a subsequent blog posting too.  Jeez, we’re going to be busy!

    Other people simply don’t bother with a significator because they regard it as just a pile of old-fashioned toot.  Well, that’s fine too.  It’s what I used to think 🙂

    But now I have seen the light, dear reader *pauses for a couple of ‘Hallelujahs’ and ‘Amens’*

    I’ve found that using a Court Card as a significator really helps me get in The Zone for the reading.  With a court chosen to represent my sitter, we jump through the looking glass from this world and enter the world of the Tarot cards: The sitter, as Significator, becomes part of the reading.

    I know.  VERRRRRRRY hippy-trippy 🙂

    So, tell me – do YOU use a Significator or not?  I’ve put up a little poll over there on the right hand side of m’blog.  Vote if you’ve got the inclination and time!

  • Toodle pip to the Page of Cups

    I spent most of last week in Edinburgh, being dragged like a sulky teenager from exhibition to exhibition as my partner and son dabbled excitedly in the Black Arts of science: It was all dancing robots, LEGO mindstorms computer-assisted robots and, frankly, a lot of red wine and convenience foods.

    Science exhibitions are FINE, but add horizontal sleet that numbed your cheekbones and made your eyeballs stop turning in their sockets and gale-force winds that actually blows your bedroom window open, I have to confess, I’ve been happier visiting the dentist.

    This character was greatly in evidence as I used every bit of my imaginative willpower to pep-talk myself in the bathroom mirror in the morning so that I appeared jolly and up-for-it for ANOTHER science themed day.  By the time Friday’s full moon came around, I was finding it all a bit wearing and was desperate to get home to my normal routine.

    It is with relief that I note the influence of the Page of Cups is now ebbing until the dark moon.  This particular porcelain-faced and rather androgenous Page is set against a featureless white background and comes from the Aquarian Tarot, published by US Games Systems and created by David Palladini.

    This deck positively oozes the Biba-esque Art Deco design  that was so popular in the early 70s (first published in 1970 and subsequently reprinted).  The image consists of a Page in an over-the-top hat that would be well-suited to Ladies Day at Ascot, a fish in a Cup and a couple of red tulips.

    Red tulips are associated with declarations of love, like roses are.  Only less expensive. And less thorny.

    The Page of Cups is Earth (because he’s a Page) and Water (Cups) and indicates a fertile mix of creative juices.  A fish in a cup?! That’s entirely normal to the imaginative Page of Cups.

    Sadly, he’s on the way out now – butI really did make use of him in Edinburgh!

    I am quite sorry to see him go – even though it was quite exhausting dreaming up new things to do as a family every day, putting a smiley face on when the ceilings in the flat we had rented started leaking in every room,  gamely recreating the Edinburgh street map in my head because hubby had left it lying on the table at home….

    His creative powers will be missed; his ability to find something marvellous in just about everything is enviable.  BUT, by Jingo, it is TIRING being the Page of Cups when all you want to do is lie on the sofa snacking on a Crunchie whilst leafing through a magazine….listening to the bad weather howling at the windows….

    What do YOU think the Page of Cups might mean for YOU over the next week or so?

    Hey – don’t forget about The Giveaway!!!

  • Competition Time!!!

    Well, not really a competition, more of a give-away to be honest!

    I’ve got a copy of the perennially popular Robin Wood Tarot to give away!

    Although the box has been opened, the deck inside is still shrink-wrapped.  It is a duplicate of a deck that I already own (the curse of browsing Amazon’s Tarot stock with a glass of red wine in one hand and the mouse in the other lol!).

    I’m happy to post it to a new home, anywhere in the world!

    To stand a chance of winning, all you have to do is click to become a follower (yes, existing followers will be included in the draw!) and also to comment on one of the blog posts that I’ve made here.

    Any comment made on any blog post from Wednesday 4 April will count towards winning.

    Give away closes on 30 April.

    So – if you like the blog, comment on a blog post – The Robin Wood Tarot could be yours!

  • Game of Thrones. The OTHER one.

    Tyrion Lannister.  Yes, I would.

    Tonight wild horses will not be able to tear me away from the telly (nor will a naked Hugh Jackman reclining on a king-sized bed and brandishing a large jar of warmed honey).  No, nothing will be able to tempt me away from Sky Atlantic because TONIGHT, in the UK, A Game of Thrones returns to our screens!!!!

    I luffed the first series 11/10 and still mourn Ned Stark *waggles black armband*

    So, here’s my question for today…..Which family in A Game of Thrones equates to which Tarot family?


    I asked this on Facebook waaaaaaay back in Season 1 and I didn’t get a single reply  *dashes tears away on sleeve*…. so I’m hoping that throwing down the gautlet (leather, trimmed with gold, lined in some rare animal skin – very Lannister :-)) will yield some kind of result *hopeful face*

    Do the Starks in the North equate to Pentacles (north, winter, midnight, earth)? Do the golden-haired Lannisters equate to the worst excesses Cups (incest, power struggles, nice clothes), and the Dragon-charming Targaryan queen who survives fire unharmed does she represent the Wands?

    What about the Watch who live in the frozen north, guarding the whole realm with their austere fur-clad existence? Are they the Swords? Or are they all Knights?

    One thing is for sure.  I am delighted that it has returned.

    Now excuse me, I must go and check to see whether Hugh is prepared to warm up the honey again in the microwave after the show has finished…..

    ***UPDATE – We are in Edinburgh for a few days and the flat turned out NOT to have Sky Atlantic. I am currently sitting in a corner, weeping and gently banging my head off the wall. No Sky Atlantic = No Game of Thrones.  Will have to watch on Catch Up service. I am grumpier than Tyrion Lannister denied access to a brothel ***