Sovereignty in the Courts

Published by Alison Cross on

Rohrig – Princess of Cups

This is a very special day – the Leap Year Day where women can ask their beloved to marry them without having to go through the pantomime of sighing and dragging their feet as they go past every jeweller’s window on the High Street.

I myself open the door of wedding dress shops and shout ‘Don’t Do It!’  Cynical, moi?

Flamboyant playwright Oscar Wilde once said that it was the tragedy of every woman to turn into her mother and that it was the tragedy of every man that he didn’t.

Or something like that.

This got me thinking: How do you think that sovereignty is transferred in your Tarot deck? Do the Kings marry into the Queen’s suit or do the Queens marry in to the King’s suit?

That might all sound a bit confusing……I’ll try to clarify and hope that I don’t tie myself in knots as I do so!

Think of our own Dear Queen Elizabeth. OK, she was of the House of Windsor (or Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as they are REALLY called) and Prince Philip married IN to the Windsors from the equally confusing and non-Greek sounding House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-GlΓΌcksburg.

He became a Windsor, SHE didn’t become a Schleswig-Holstein-yada-yada.
So – if the suit traits descend through the Queen, then who do you think the Kings might have been as young men?  How does marriage into a different Court from the one they have been brought up change them?

Personally speaking – I married a Knight of Wands and ended up with a King of Pentacles. You can imagine how disappointing THAT turned out to be, seeing as how I’m not a Queen of Pentacles myself πŸ˜‰
If the suit traits descend through the King (like a traditional marriage where the wife takes the hubby’s details USUALLY), this means that the Queens were young girls brought up in different suit families.  Who might they be as young women?
Take a look at your Pages/Princesses and your Knights from your own favourite deck and see if you can work out who is likely to grow into which Queen or King πŸ™‚
Does the loving innocence of the Princess of Cups transform into the cynical Queen of Swords?
Does the intellectually fierce Knight of Swords morph into the King of Cups with the love of a good woman? Does the Knight of Wands burn through the business world like a forest fire to become the King of Pentacles?  
What do you think?

Alison Cross

The Tarot's Court Cards are my specialist area.Β  They talk to me. Not LITERALLY though ....

10 Comments

alisoncross · 1st March 2012 at 3:07 pm

But where did she come from in the deck, Carla?

Carla · 1st March 2012 at 8:11 am

I guess I'm simple-minded, but I think the Queen of Wands was always wandsy, the King of Pentacles was always pentacle-y, and so on. I see them as rising through the progession of Page to Queen and Knight to King, as far as the cards go. (I can see how a real person could start a Page of Cups and end up a Queen of Swords, depending on what happens to them in life.) But I think the Queen of Wands married the King of Wands because they were both wandsy all along, in the deck.

Tarot By Arwen · 1st March 2012 at 12:38 am

Ooooh. Speed dating with the court cards. I think I see a Meetup exercise. πŸ™‚

Tarot By Arwen · 29th February 2012 at 10:46 pm

HEY! Let's play a game. Get two decks. Draw the courts from both. Now draw one from the first deck. Then another from the second. Marry them off. What's their relationship like?

Joanne · 29th February 2012 at 4:31 pm

Oops! First part of that might be confusing. In the Shapeshifter deck, the courts begin with Pages and end with Goddesses (Queens), meaning the Goddesses are dominant.

Joanne · 29th February 2012 at 4:29 pm

Wow, yes! And the thing I noticed already is the difference some decks make with the feminine vs. masculine energies being dominant. My Shapeshifter deck, for example, orders the Gods (Kings) before the Goddesses (Queens). So we know for sure who's in charge there! Could get very complex, indeed. I really never thought of this Court business in this fascinating human story sort of way. Could be a real soap opera if we keep on with it. πŸ™‚ More seriously, though, I think that marriage does not necessarily erase the person's original self (we hope, although folks can lose much of their identity in relationship). We could also see it as a balancing and blending thing. What if the Queen of Cups was married to the King of Wands? Could be both would benefit from taking on some of the attributes of the other (Queen taking on more active and public leadership roles, King learning to "go with the flow" a little more). Or, she could drown his ambitions or he could evaporate her dreams. Hmm. Possible poem there. Might work on that one…

Inner Whispers · 29th February 2012 at 2:45 pm

Hi Ali,

What a thought-provoking way of considering the Courts! This one should keep us busy for days, at least πŸ™‚
Cx

    alisoncross · 1st March 2012 at 9:20 am

    I hope that it provides hours and hours of court card induced entertainment lol!

Anton · 29th February 2012 at 12:20 pm

I think it would depends on many factors. Firstly the deck, secondly what the Fool's journey has brought to that particular Court. For example a Page of Cups might turn into Queen of Swords IF a previous marriage with a Wand Court left her heartbroken. Or a cynical Page of Swords turning into King of Cups once he has ound the right person (which he always swore he would never find). I can go on forever, hope it makes sense πŸ™‚

    alisoncross · 1st March 2012 at 9:20 am

    Yes, it does depend on many factors πŸ™‚

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