Tarot Thrones | The Court Card Blog

Year: 2015

  • Deck Review | Le Tarot Noir | Ternel & Hackiere

    So, someone waved this deck in front of me on Facebook and, of course, I had to buy it.  I must learn some restraint.  But not right now …


    I quickly sent Matthieu an e-mail and we organised a sale to the UK.  It arrived promptly and well wrapped (in fact, it took me a knife and a pair of scissors to prise my way into the package!).

    The box is – unsurprisingly – black.  Also sturdy, which makes a nice change from the wobbly cardboard that I usually flatten out and squirrel away at the back of a drawer.

    The cards are MASSIVE (10.5cm wide by 14cm tall) and have a stylised flower on the card-back (not reversible) bounded in a golden square and oval.

    Le Tarot Noir – bigger than your average card…

    I was very keen to get my paws on the accompanying book for this deck and for some INEXPLICABLE reason I was surprised that it was in French.  I mean I only bought the French-named deck from a French man, on his French website…what was I thinking?!

    Anyway, turns out that the book isn’t hugely important from a divinatory point of view becuase it contains no divinatory information about the cards.  This was designed as a proper deck of playing cards.

    As you can tell from the main image – we have unillustrated pips in this deck, but to describe them as ‘unillustrated’ is not to do justice to the beautiful workmanship of the Minor Arcana.

    The colours throughout the deck are muted and sophisticated.  There is no suit/colour identification – which ties in perfectly with pre-Golden Dawn Tarot deck ethos.  The deck is edged in gold which looks beautiful against the black of the rest of the cards.  Black does, however, show up greasy fingerprints – so sorry about the smears on the various card images!

    Gold Edging.  It IS there, I promise you!

    The expressions on everyone’s face are somewhat lugubrious and gives the deck a puff of Deputy Dawg charm that offsets the strange pale and slanted eyes of many of the creatures in the cards (see the Knights in the video)

    There are interesting touches to some of the Majors – the Hierophant card has initiates who have the head of sheep (a reference to being led like sheep? Or the Pope as the leader of a flock?) and the horses of the Chariot have sleek white skull-like heads which I find somewhat unnerving!

    The courts are, as you can see, traditional representations of the usual Valet, Knight, Queen and King.  Neither the Kings of Cups nor Pentacles hold weapons – their power is, according to my dodgy French translations – in commerce (Pentacles) and the threat of the Hereafter (Cups).

    Now, a word about the book.  I am ULTRA careful with books and was even taught how to open new books properly by Mr Scobbie, my old English Teacher.  This one still cracked and began to fall apart within a couple of days.  BUT don’t let that put you off.  I solved the problem by going into my local printer and having him cut off the spine and replace it with a plastic comb.   All for the princely sum of £3.00.

    And now my book is safe from further damage AND lies flat when I am hovering over it with my school French dictionary…

    So, what’s the verdict?  It’s big and it’s beautiful.  Will I be using it for readings? Not until I am more proficient at reading with unillustrated pips.   Do I like the artwork? Yes, I do – it’s traditional and contemporary all at the same time!

    Am I selling it on? Not on your Nelly!

  • TADAAAAAAH! A new look!

    What do you think of the new blogger header image?!

    I am rather partial to the artwork of Caroline Blackler and I asked her to create an image for Tarot Thrones and what she came up with completely blew me away.

    The blog’s full Sunday title is:  This Game of Thrones, but I mostly refer to it as Tarot Thrones.  Clever Caroline used the full title of the blog to recreate the Iron Throne from THE Game of Thrones …. but it is built entirely of court card images!

    Honestly, it is STUPENDOUS!  And it perfectly captures the whole blog ethos for me.  It’s going to be used on EVERYTHING Tarot Thrones!

    Take a good look at the various court card images that Caroline has used – which ones do you recognise?!

    I’m still pootering about with the backgrounds and fonts and what not, but I couldn’t wait a moment longer to share the main image with you!

    So there you have it – Caroline Blackler is available for commissions and I hope that you can tell by the smile on my face as I type, that I am more than delighted with the end result!

    You can check out Caroline’s artwork and written work here:

  • Sola Busca | Mantegna | Triumphs of Caesar

    In an earlier post, Heroes Warriors and Worthies, we took a look at the naming of the Court Cards in French playing card decks and how these have been incorporated into Dame Fortune’s Tarot Wheel.

    Another deck that incorporates named court cards is the Sola Busca Tarot.

    This deck originated in Italy during the late 15th Century and is quite different from other Tarocchi decks in that it is entirely populated by warriors (with exception of the Court Queens).  The Majors are all named.  The Fool remains Il Mato (the Fool) but all else are whirled into a vortex of classical names ….Nerone (Nero), Catulo (Cattulus), Catone (Cato… no, not the Pink Panther one) and so on.

    The images in this deck are richly coloured and brooding in their mood.

    This deck is very important indeed, in that it has clearly formed the basis for the Rider Waite Smith deck.

    Look familiar? The Sola Busca’s 10 of Swords.

    As was the habit, the little Pages are not named – because in gaming decks there were only 3 court cards.

    We have:

    King of Swords – Alexandro M
    Queen of Swords – Olimpia
    Knight of Swords – Amone

    King of Staves – L Evio Plauto R
    Queen of Staves – Pallas
    Knight of Staves – Apolino

    King of Cups – Lucio Cecilio R
    Queen of Cups – Polisena
    Knight of Cups – Natanabo

    King of Coins – R Filipio
    Queen of Coins – Elena
    Knight of Coins – Sarafino

    The names have some affinity with the Heroes, Warriors and Worthies, as previously looked at here on m’blog.

    This is where my blog goes a bit off piste and veers utterly away from further discussion of the Courts, because I was very struck by the style of the vibrancy of colours, the all-male procession and the scale of the ‘booty’ and the similarity to the canvases of Andrea Mantegna’s Triumphs of Caesar which are housed at Hampton Court Palace in London.

    The nine paintings depict Caesar’s triumphant return from his campaign against the Gauls in a cavalcade of soldiers and booty.

    In his book ‘Lives of the Artists’ Vasari says: ‘The best thing Mantegna ever painted’ and the enormous canvases became extremely famous throughout Europe.

    The scale of the vases?  
    The artfully arranged trophy ‘Cups’?

    Look at the stuck-on breasts of Pallas. Do you think they resemble the bare breasts of the captive above?  The cloudy skies? 
    The only children depicted in the Triumph are captives.
    What about this child in the ‘Nerone’ (Justice) card of the Sola Busca?
    Perhaps the resemblances are pure fancy on my part, but if Mantegna’s paintings were famous throughout Europe, why wouldn’t a wealthy Italian Lord not want his own version?
    It has been suggestested that the creation of the Tarot’s Trumps IS based on Roman Triumph parades.  What if it was THIS one in particular, painted between 1484 – 1492?  The Sola Busca Tarot is estimated, by its Tarot historian champion, Giordano Berti, to be around 1490-91.
    So the two dates dovetail together nicely.
    What do you think? Is the link allllllll in my head?!

    *** edit: since I’m not a huge fan of very lengthy blog posts, I’ll just say here that I plan to write this up in greater detail and will work towards either showign a link or showing that there is no link.  And you will be able to have it as a pdf to read.  But it will take me a while, so don’t hold your breath! 😀

  • Full Moon in Cancer | Queen of Cups

    Gold backgrounds don’t
    scan very well!

    The Full Moon takes place on 5 January 2015 and appears in Cancer. This means that our world of Tarot Court cards, the corresponding Card character is The Queen of Cups.

    This character is caring, empathetic and often with a psychic streak a mile wide.

    A healthy Queen of Cups understands the power of emotional hooks can help YOU understand – and even dispel – those that are hooked into you!

    She cares how people FEEL and revels in cultivating great relationships and making genuine connections with people. Tom Cruise is a Cancerian and he is as well-known for his abilities to remember, for example, a wardrobe department assistant’s name AND all her family details as he is for his toothsome grin and Scientology beliefs.   Oh yeah, and his ACTING, of course.

    In your deck, does your Queen of Cups have the lid on or off her chalice? If she has the lid on – does this mean that she contains her emotions and avails herself of them when she WANTS to? If the lid is off, does it indicate that her emotions swill around and over the sides whenever idle fancy takes her?  What’s your opinion on the lid on/off interpretation?

    With so much watery energy flowing in and around her, the Queen of Cups is someone who can change direction with grace and fluidity (think: oceanic tides)

    The watchwords for the Queen of Cups are: ‘sensitivity’ and ‘relationship’

    So far so wonderful, but an UNHEALTHY Queen of Cups will be an arch manipulator of your emotions – a moody emotional vampire who leaves you an exhausted wrung-out rag!

    In arguments, an unhealthy Queen of Cups will trump whatever statements of fact you might have with some over-blown (usually!) statement about her health and thus completely wrong-foot you.

    *cough* not that I’m speaking from personal experience AT ALL.

  • Your Tarot Court Card Theme for 2015

    Just a bit of Tarot Court Card fun to kick us off into the New Year!

    Lots of tarot buzz on Social Media about THEMES for the year, as inspired by the Major Arcana card that your personal year correlates to.

    To find our what your personal year card is, take your day and month of birth and add to 35 (ie 20+15, the current year).

    Here’s an example: mine!

       13
    +  8
      35
      56


    Since there is no Major Arcana card numbered 56 (hey, we’re not using Minchiates here, people!), these digits need to be further reduced by adding them together, giving us a total of 11.

    My theme for the year will be inspired by Justice (or Strength, depending what sort of deck you are using).  I’m going for Justice 🙂

    But since my blog focuses on the Court Cards, I thought we’d have a little fun and extend the exercise further:

    Instead of adding up your digits, above, until they total 22 or under (ie the number of Major Arcana cards we have), total them up until they are 17 or less.

    I numbered the Page of Pentacles, the lowliest of the lowly, as 1.  But your numbers will not reduce to one, so I’ve also accorded him 17 (because he’s also VERY special, as well as being the lowliest of the lowly).

    So, if you add up to 17, then you are having a Page of Pents year 🙂

    Taking my example again, this means that my 11 – Justice year – becomes further compounded by Court Card 11…. wouldn’t you believe it?! The Queen of Swords!

    Have a try yourself and tell me who you end up with as your Court Card theme for the year!

    Page of Pents (1) or 17
    Page of Cups 2
    Page of Swords 3
    Page of Wands 4

    Knight of Pents 5
    Knight of Cups 6
    Knight of Swords 7
    Knight of Wands 8

    Queen of Pents 9
    Queen of Cups 10
    Queen of Swords 11
    Queen of Wands 12

    King of Pentacles 13
    King of Cups 14
    King of Swords 15
    King on Wands 16