Tarot Thrones | The Court Card Blog

Month: December 2014

  • Yule Blog Hop | The Joy of Gifting

    Welcome to the Yule Tarot Blog hop!  Before we go any further, this is your navigation link to the blogs that flank me for this hop *waves to Mary and Stella*



    Our blog wrangler is the lovely Arwen Lynch and she set us the following questions which we are to answer through a Tarot spread:

    • Card 1:  What gift would you give the world if you could?
    • Card 2: What gift would you want from the world?
    • Card 3: What gift have you gotten that has brought you joy?
    • Card 4: What gift have you given that has brought you joy?
    • Card 5: What is one last thing you would like to share about this season?

    Because Tarot-thones.com is all about the court cards, I decided that my answers would have to come from the Court Cards.
    Since I have not managed to sneak in another blog post using Alexander Daniloff’s amazing Tarot for aaaaaages, let me take this last blog hop of 2014 to use them one final time!
    I have removed the 16 Court Cards from the deck and will now shuffle the Courts only, asking each question and drawing a card as an answer to that question.
    No fancy layout required for this one!
    Card 1:  What gift would you give the world if you could?

    The King of Swords

    As a blend of Fire and Air, this guy’s actions and thoughts must be consistent in order for him to be healthy.  He likes to know everything about what he’s involved in so that there are no nasty surprises.  Clarity and honesty are watchwords with him.

    This King will organise everything, from the multi-million pound company take-over strategy right down to the family picnic, to the finest detail. All this thinking (he’s a person of lists – pros and cons) can slowly paralyse him and that’s when the King of Swords starts to become unhealthy.

    He also has high personal standards and expects other people to live up to them. When people fall short, he can be scathing in his criticism. However he is equally tough on himself when he too fails to live up to his own standards.  And since none of us are perfect, he often makes himself unnecessarily miserable.

    But in a week where we have experienced the horror of the school massacre in Pakistan and the Sydney Lindt Cafe seige, the gift that I would give the world, if I possibly could, is the discernment and wisdom of the King of Swords.


    Card 2: What gift would you want from the world?


    The Page of Pentacles

    This is the first of THREE of the four Pages in my spread! The Page of Pentacles is Earth of Earth.  This Page begins new experiences.  This could be in health, in wealth or in the home.


    What would I like him to bring me healthwise? I’m too heavy for my height and a nice gift would be to start taking better care of my health.


    Wealthwise? I could do with bringing in more money in 2015 and am hoping that my Year in The Wildwood Tarot e-book will still be able to go ahead, despite the changes to tax on digital products in Europe.


    Homewise? Perhaps I could do with being more present at home, rather than living most of my life virtually?  I could start focussing more on the modelling that I’m doing for my son (stuck in front of a computer, messy desk, lack of interest in keeping home nice.  I am not overly keen on house-work, what can I say?)

    Card 3:  What gift have you gotten that has brought you joy?


    Page of Wands

    Ah this can only be my own little Page of Wands!  Fourteen years old and obsessed with Minecraft and Kerbal Space Program (don’t ask) he is a ray of sunshine in my life.  He is sunny-natured, always walks with a bounce in his step (as a child he skipped everywhere!), developing a nicely warped sense of humour, creative (you should see the space ships in Kerbal and the palaces in Minecraft!) and keen as mustard to grow up!

    Please don’t be sick, but the gift that the world has given me that has brought me the greatest joy is my son 🙂

    Card 4:  What gift have you given that has brought you joy?


    The King of Pentacles

    I try to give people practical gifts and (typical Leo) I am prone to spending too much money!  Money and generosity – King of Pentacles!

    For example, this year, my mum is getting a water floss (like a toothbrush, but for flossing).  Hubby is getting a cover for his Kindle…. and, no doubt, brake pads or a suspension-enhancing kit for the car.  Not mentioning anything about my son.  Just in case he reads this…

    The gift that I have given that has brought me greatest joy, ever?  The actual wrapped-up-you-shouldn’t-have pressie? I honestly can’t think of anything specific.

    But, want the schmaltzy answer? Giving my old racing greyhound a home and the gift of life to Sonshine were pretty unbeatable as far as bringing myself joy!

    Card 5:  What is one last thing you would share about this season?

    Page of Cups

    Gentle and affectionate, the Page of Cups comes up to show us the last thing that I would share about the season.  He is as open-hearted as his Cup.

    This Page, whose tender feelings and flights of imagination are so easily bruised and battered by cynicism, ridicule and downright cruelty deserves to be the standard bearer for the season, just as much as his suit.

    Ignore the Scrooges, says the Page of Cups!  Wear your Christmas sweater with pride!  Kiss beneath the mistletoe! Call out ‘Merry Christmas’ to strangers in the rain!

    His message is the title of the biography of one of my favourite comics, Bill Hicks:  Love all the people.

    Have a lovely time!

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  • The Knight of Cups | Movie | Terrence Malick

    Well, it’s not every day that someone takes their inspiration for a film title from a Tarot card – especially a Court  Card.  And obviously, as a Tarot blog that focuses on court cards, I couldn’t let it pass.
    What do I think of the trailer?
    I have to say, the trailer contents look a bit more Knight of Wands – Someone who doesn’t like to hang around in the same old relationship. He’s constantly questing looking for New Stuff – new sexual experiences, new conquests.  
    Who is the Knight of Cups?
    The Knight of Cups is someone who is into romance and the idea of love, not the blood-and-guts hard work of a real relationship.  He’s on a quest to find the Holy Grail – in the case of this film – his Grail is the man that he should have been. 
    He stands and sings love songs (self-composed) beneath your window at 2am and then taps you for cash because he’s forgotten to fill his car up with fuel.
    He’s Orpheus who theatrically turns back to look at Euridice at the last moment, consigning her to Hades for eternity, but getting himself a ton of great material for songs in the process.  It’s all about him and how HE feels, not about you.
    But trailers can be misleading and so the main Christian Bale character might be a perfect Knight of Cups.
    I’m sure that I’ll watch it on Netflix.
    One of the review sites, Inquistr, illustrates their review with this guy:
    Whom we all know and love.
    US Games could do pretty well out of this movie if this guy becomes the image associated with the title!   
    What do you think of the Knight of Cups as a person?

  • One singer but which court?

    Just before we get started, there is a parental advisory lyrics thing on this one.  But Paolo Nutini is Scottish, so you might not necessarily pick it up. I’m Scottish and I don’t know where they are either…..
    So here we have National Treasure Joanna Lumley playing a fading star, who has needs that only her side-kick can fill.  The whole thing is vaguely Let The Right One In.
    Which Court Card could represent the Cabaret Singer and which Court card does her bidding? 
    There’s no right answer, so don’t be afraid to chip in!
    AND BY THE WAY….
    … did I tell you that I MET the divine Paulo Nutini? One of the UK’s most eligible bachelors apparently!
    Yeah, that’s NEVER going to get old for me, NEVER 😀

  • Tarot of Delphi | J D Hildegard Hinkel | Review

    Another beautiful Tarot birth, midwifed through the process by the astute backing of many Kickstarter supporters!  The tag line for this project was ‘Know Thyself’ which is inscribed in the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, but it could just as easily be ‘Know thy Neo-classical artworks’!

    This is a 79-card deck (with an additional card permitting a choice between two Empress card styles) based on the sensuous and sumptuous classical visions of Victorian and Edwardian artists.  The card-stock (and lift-top box!) is of excellent sturdy quality and the glossy cards slip over each other beautifully.  The deck measures 3.07″w x 5.04″h and comes with a small accompanying book 66 pages long.

    Looking first at the 22 Major Arcana cards, we mostly have the traditionally titles with five exceptions:

    X (Wheel of Fortune) is renamed Threads of Fate
    XII (Hanged Man) is now The One Torn Asunder
    XV (The Devil) becomes The Siren
    XVI (Tower) transforms into Shipwreck
    XXI (The World) is renamed Garden

    Keywords for these renamed cards are familiar to those who work with RWS decks.  So, no hardship there!

    The Minor Arcana suits are as expected: Wands, Cups, Swords, Coins and the cards are fully illustrated throughout.

    The Court Cards are completely restyled as Devotee, Artisan, Hero and Enchantress.  These titles perfectly lend themselves to the style of artwork used but don’t translate directly across to traditional ranks (Page, Knight, Queen, King).

    Let’s look at the Courts in their ranks:

    The Devotees

    These characters are the courts ‘most devoted to what the suit represents’.
    Each of the card descriptions comes with details of the painting/artist and Hinkel’s observations about the card, rounded off with some useful key words.

    As an example, the keywords for the Devotee of Wands (The Priestess – J W Godward) are: “a guardian, protector, privacy…. gestation of creative ideas…. secretive”.

    The Artisans


    The Artisans are those characters ‘most able to use their suit’s qualities in productive ways’.

    Looking at the Artisan of Cups (The Roman Wine Tasters by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema) the keywords are include ‘appraising, discernment, cultivated, objectivity’ etc which can easily be linked to the qualities in the painting used, but again, like the other ranks of the Tarot of Delphi, doesn’t obviously translate to any particular traditional rank.

    The Heroes 



    These characters are ‘the energetic, living expressions of the suit’.  What would these be – Knights or Kings? Kings are those who walk the talk, but the Knights are more energetic about their business, so again, a very individual take on a court card rank, not a straightforward rank exchange.

    Let’s look at the Hero of Coins (Hercules wrestling with Death for the body of Alcestis – Lord Frederick Leighton).  The keywords here include ‘bold, adventurous, vigour and vitality’ which can be easily applied to the character in this image and won’t be a chore to commit to memory.

    The Enchantresses


    Meet the ‘conscious application of the suit for desired ends’.  This level of mastery sounds almost Kingly, but I would be doing Hinkel a disservice if I said that the Enchantresses equated to Kings.  They are, in fact, very much their own women and our final look at the Delphi courts dips into the keywords for the Enchantress of Swords.

    This is Sybil by Lord Frederick Leighton and in the accompanying book, Hinkel explains the Sybil’s role and importance in the ancient world. Keywords here include: Sagacious, Piercing, Erudite, Prescient.

    So, what do I think of the deck?

    I think that the paintings chosen are beautiful and the eye devours each card greedily.

    The accompanying book illustrates the suitability of the painting and it is easy to see the connection between the RWS interpretations and those offered by Hinkel. It also contains a couple of spreads and many pages of image credits.

    I do, however, find the courts slightly tricky because of their unique structure. This is an issue that will lessen over time as one become more familiar with the Devotees and their compatriots.  Beautiful deck for readers experienced with the RWS, tricky (in the courts) for a beginner.

    Do you have this deck, what do you think of it? I’d love to hear your opinions.

    You can buy the deck here:  www.tarotofdelphi.com 

    *** Due to copyright restrictions, this deck is not for sale in the UK ***

    *whispers* but you COULD get it delivered to a lovely US friend who will then post it to you ;-D

  • The Kings of Shoes

    Let it not be said that I stooped to sexist lows and only gave you the shoes that the Tarot Queens might wear.  Let’s take a look at the shoes that the Kings might wear.  This blog post has the potential to save you from many insufferable dates….*

    Since all the Kings are Active in the world – walking their talk – I felt that they would all wear fairly stand-out shoes. Stand-out shoes do exactly that – make you stand out and so people will NOTICE the Kings and that’s what ALL the Kings (yeah, even the sympathetic and helpful King of Cups wants to be spotted in a crowd)

    The King of Swords

    This guy is a sharp dresser, so I picked these.  Brogues are trustworthy and sensible shoes and so are Swords.  However, the pointed toe adds an additional little Swordsy frisson, yes?  And the monochrome colour-scheme? What other suit likes to see things in black and white?

    King of Swords – sharp and sees things in black and white!

    The King of Wands

    If anyone wants to stand out from the crowd it’s the blazing King of Wands with his expansive, passionate approach to life.

    Gucci, darling

    Appearance is important to the King of Wands – after all, when he bursts into a room he’s pretty magnetic.  So I figured that he would want everyone to SEE that he is the top dog and thus picked Gucci shoes with the iconic Gucci colour bar that will make him instantly stand out from the rest of the room.

    It’s got the look of a driving shoe with that pebble sole, automatically making me think that he’s got a red Italian soft-top taking pride of place out front of the hotel!  Exactly what the King of Wands would want you to see 🙂

    And it’s a slip on shoe – something that he can kick off or pull on quickly, if his passionate nature results in a hurried rendez-vous in a cupboard somewhere (Boris Becker, I’m looking at you).

    Ladies – if you meet a man wearing these shoes, be wary – you’ll never be as important to him as he is.  And if he’s not wearing socks  either just….. RUN!

    The King of Cups

    Watery and empathetic, the King of Cups needs something that shoes he’s connected to his emotions, but knows how to manage them – what better than a deck shoe?!  Worn on all the finest yachts, dontcha know?  Need to control your craft on the water – get deck shoes!

    I would have picked a flipper, but thought that it was toooooo obvious!  I thought that this was a ‘friendly’ looking shoe.  THIS one can be worn without socks without you needing to be worried – he’ll need to be out and in the surf with these and you don’t want a water-logged white M&S sports sock to ruin the image, do you?

    The King of Pentacles

    Mr Practical is also Mr Money and I was torn as to whether we would see him in a Birkenstock or a power shoe….. and went with the Birkenstock as you can see.

    comfy and right on, man

    These are comfortable, practical shoes – but also VERY identifiable too – and fairly ‘spensive.  So you should get a fair idea of this guy’s earthy connections and also perhaps that he likes his comfort and has got the cash to spare for the best footwear.

    Of course, he would wear a welly – but the BOOTS of the courts are for another blog post.

    What sort of shoes would you have the Kings wearing?

    *a guy wearing a slip on shoe without a sock is to be avoided at all costs. Unless he’s got a yacht.  Avoid any man not wearing a sock with his shoes.  Just take my word for it.

    But a man that can handle a lace-up can handle putting up shelves.  This is my ‘suitable boy’ advice to you. You are welcome 🙂

  • Full Moon | Gemini | Knight of Swords

    The sun has swung into Sagittarius, so the silverly light of December’s full moon falls on the glinting armoured outline of the Knight of Swords, Gemini.

    I haz serious hat envy for this Knight of Swords.

    That’s peacock feathers by my reckoning and just the thing to be seen in around town this Christmas.  Also, you won’t need an umbrella with a hat brim that wide.

    One high wind, however, and you will end up in the next county…

    This golden-haired beauty is actually the Knight of Swords from the Visconti Tarot (Lo Scarabeo).

    I see that our Knight is breaking the first rule of superherodom – no capes.

    I would humbly suggest that the first rule of Knighthood should be ‘no peacock feathered picture hats’. It’s not a look that will strike fear into the heart of your opponent, bro.  Unless your opponent is wearing a fascinator.

    Would he look better in this?

    But other than the suggestion of a fancy hat and a cape for Christmas attire, what IS the Knight of Swords bringing to the table this fine full moon?

    As someone who is dominated by the element of Air, the Knight of Swords is very much a head-dweller and values the intellect over everything else.  Whatever story his head is telling him will be his truth – even if that’s at odds with his actual experiences. Neither is he entirely comfortable trusting his emotions either, preferring to go with his head over his heart any day.

    A Knight of Swords person has a lot of wind about them.  And I don’t mean ‘too many beans’ either.  They will be blustery, blowy and capricious.  Possessed of a rapier wit, he loves the ol’ verbal spar and parry.

    He (or she – the sex of the knight is neither here nor there)  makes a marvellous student – especially of mentally taxing subjects.  I can imagine him leading the university debating team and thinking deeply about such weighty issues as Ethics and Morality; working out what he believes, trying to scale his own mental Everest and work out what he stands for.

    A chat with a Knight of Swords will be fast and intelligent. You will need to be mentally agile to keep up with her train of thought, because it rattles along like an intercity express!

    On the downside, the Knight’s mercurial nature means that his point of view changes (depending on what else he has learned) and therefore isn’t the most reliable of opinions to lean on.

    But he’s fabulous if you need picture hats and capes….

    So, while the Full Moon is in the Knight of Swords:

    * Be prepared to challenge what you believe in.
    * Forgive people for changing their minds!
    * Get a cape and a hat for the coming season 🙂