Tarot Thrones | The Court Card Blog

Year: 2016

  • Your Tarot Court Card for 2017

    Tarot Thrones | King of Pentacles | Druidcraft Tarot
    Happy 2017!

    Your Tarot Court Card Theme for 2017

    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 and add to 37 (ie 20+17, the incoming year).

    Here’s an example: mine!
       13
    +  8
      37
      58

    Since there is no Major Arcana card numbered 58 (hey, we’re not using Minchiates here, people!), these digits need to be further reduced by adding them together, giving us a total of 13.
    My theme for the year will be inspired by Death *pauses dramatically and sweeps cloak over shoulder*
    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 13 – Death year – becomes further compounded by Court Card 13…. which is The King of Pentacles.  Hopefully, but doing a lot of judicious pruning and scything down of things that are no longer good for me, I will maybe start to become more productive and earn a bit more in the way of shekels.
    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 of Wands 16                                               ←400 words

  • Top 10 Tarot Court Card blog posts | Tarot Thrones

    4 Musketeers | BBC | Tarot Knights
    Four chaps in leather.  You’re welcome.

    As the year draws to a shuddering ( and mostly welcome) end, I thought I’d close the year with a quick run down on the Top 10 most visited posts on my blog.

    So, here they are:

    10 – Slipping in at number 10 is a very tongue in cheek look at the four Musketeers from the recent BBC series and their relation to the Tarot’s Knights – ooh it’s all about the dashing chaps and believe me, they were very dashing indeed on the Beeb.  Not an excuse to put up pictures of handsome men in leather.  No, not at all.

    9 – Making his presence felt for the first time in the list of top posts here in Tarot Thrones is the Page of Swords.  This is a series that I do where I quiz a deck’s author or artist about their deck, their courts in particular and specifically the Page of Swords.  Here’s the equivalent card from the Lost Tarot of Nostradamus by John Matthews and Wil Kinghan.

    8 – Working out your court card theme for the coming year – the year in the blog post is 2015, but you can absolutely do this for every year.  In fact, I’ll pop the 2017 court card for me up here in a couple of days time 🙂

    7 – The DruidCraft Tarot continues to delight us, long after it was published and here we meet the deck’s King and Queen of Cups, published by Connections.  Have you read it?

    6 – Holly Sierra’s Chrysalis Tarot is one of the most gorgeously coloured and illustrated decks that I own – here is Holly talking about her courts and the Page of Swords in particular.

    5 – The halfway point and our last look at a post dedicated to the Page of Swords.  Here it is Giordano Berti talking about Sola Busca Tarot’s Page of Swords.  How I love the Sola Busca … I actually met it in the, erm, flesh at the Brera in Milan. Oh yes, I do get about 😀

    4 – Now that we are in the top five, we come to a really lovely Marseille type tarot, the Ancient Italian Tarot by Lo Scarabeo – check out the Page with a booty like Beyoncé 😀

    3 – Now we’re in the top three and this one was actually created over on my other blog, Hestia’s Larder, where I decided to live like Elizabeth Taylor for a week.  Never has so much eyeliner been used by one person … but it was a lot of fun.  I decided to record her marriages as a series of court card scenarios – hope that you enjoy them!

    2 – Almost at the top, but not quite, the expressive courts that are the King and Queen of Pentacles from the Druidcraft Tarot by Philip and Stephanie Carr-Gomm, artwork by the incomparable Will Worthington.

    1 – The most popular item on m’blog in 2016 was the Robin Wood Tarot review – resplendent with little video.  A gorgeous deck with delightful courts – give it some house room!


    <500 words

  • Wizard’s Tarot | Rumi Quotes

    So, over on Facebook I try to do Interesting Things with court cards that help fellow readers become more confident with their court card work.

    My most recent week was spent in the company of The Wizards’ Tarot (Llewellyn) by Corrine Kenner which is a really pretty deck.  In fact, I must do a review of its courts for you one day soon.
    Anyhoo, I decided to pair up court cards with cards from the rest of the deck and match them up with some lovely quotes by Rumi.  The exercise for all of the cards is ‘Card A helps with Card B’:

    Here we have the King of Wands paired with the 8 of Cups:


    ‘Set yourself on fire and seek those who fan your flames’ – Rumi
    The Lovers paired with the Queen of Cups
    ‘Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray’.     Rumi

    8 of Pentacles paired with Queen of Pentacles

    ‘Everyone has been made for some particular work (8 Pents), and the desire for that work has been put in every heart (Queen Pents).” – Rumi (well, not the bits in brackets!)

    7 of Cups paired with Knight of Pentacles
    There are many ways (7 Cups) to kneel and kiss the earth (Knight of Pentacles), just pick one of them and make a start! – Mostly Rumi <3

    If you like this kind of thing, I would love it if you could like @tarot.thrones over on the book of the face.

    If you’ve not encountered Rumi or The Wizards’ Tarot before, here are a couple of links.

    What do you think of the exercise – Card A helps with Card B? What do you think of the pairings – do they work?  

      

  • Deck Review | Pagan Otherworlds Tarot

    Sometimes I sign up for Kickstarter Tarot campaigns and forget all about them until a little package plops onto the doormat many months later. No such casual forgetfulness with the Pagan Otherworlds Tarot by Uusi in the US.

    TABI backed this particular deck and I thought that it was worth a personal punt too, so my deck arrived and gosh – is it love at first sight or what?!

    The tuck box is beautiful, using the same pattern that is found on the rear of the cards.  Whereas the box has subtle glinting gold highlights, the card back is glint-free.  That’s probably a cost thing and anyway, who really looks at the back of cards when the front is so pretty?

    This is not a 78-card deck, we have ADDITIONAL cards, namely a Seeker card and five phases of the moon.  Since the deck doesn’t come with a LWB, one can put whatever emphasis you like on the use of these cards!

    Waxing lyrical

    The Seeker card makes a natural significator card – sparing you the dilemma of whether to filch a court card out and thereby taking it out of circulation for the reading.

    The moon phase cards DO have slightly glittery highlights which adds to their specialness.  These cards could be removed for general 78-card deck work and included when some sort of time element was required? Or perhaps to add clarification as to what phase the client’s situation might be:

    new moon = just beginning
    waxing moon = gathering strength
    full moon = at its strongest
    waning moon = losing strength
    dark moon = completed

    Suits are Wands, Cups, Swords and Pentacles and the courts are Page, Knight, Queen and King – as you can see in the video below.

    There is no particular colour associated with any suit and the overall palette is warm in tone and muted in shade, with all the characters presented against a barely-there blue sky.

    There are animals associated with some of the suits – lions for Wands for example.  I do query why the King of Pentacles wears a ram head-dress when he’s associated with Taurus, whilst the Queen wears her Capricorn horns a-ok …. and doesn’t the Knight of Pentacles look like a painting of Napoleon?!

    It is a really lovely set of Minor Arcana cards.  There are no human figures in any of the Minors, but that is not to suggest that this is a set of ‘Marseille’ unillustrated pips!  Here we have elements of the Rider Waite Smith crafted into the card along with the requisite number of suit symbols.  It’s a kind of hybrid and I think that it works beautifully.

    My scanner is not managing to capture the creamy off-white tones of the card stock, I’m afraid.

    As far as the Majors go, everything is titled as you would expect and has Justice at XI and Strength at VIII.

    The card stock is beautifully slippy with a linen finish and it’s a joy to use.

    Is it perfect? Almost!  The only thing that I have a quibble with are the one or two of the heads and faces.  I find there is an occasional awkwardness about one or two of them – for example, the Page of Cups (see video).

    I’ve been using them the past week for my daily draws on the Tarot Thrones facebook page.  You’re not ‘liking’ me there yet?! Come on over and see what’s there!

    That said, it does not detract from my enjoyment of the Pagan Otherworlds Tarot one jot.  I adore the classical otherworldly illustrations. Are they medieval-inspired? Renaissance inspired?  It doesn’t matter, get yourself a copy and get ready to join the fan club.

    To buy your own copy:  Visit Uusi
    Follow them on Facebook

  • The King of Wands | The Tarot’s Bridge Card

    The King of Wands | Rider Waite Smith | Tarot Thrones
    Last week I shared A E Waite’s thoughts on the King of Wands being the card that bridges the Major Arcana to the Minor Arcana.  I could almost hear Waite’s derisive snort as he lowered himself to talk about the Minors.  Well, his loss is our gain!
    I thought today we could take a look and see just how powerful the King of Wands can be as a bridge card and came up with a little spread purely for his use.
    First, procure your  deck’s King of Wands card.

    (more…)

  • The Tarot Court | The Bridge card

    If I were to ask you to lay out the your favourite tarot deck in order, how would you do it?

    Would you lay out the Major Arcana from The Fool to The World and then dive into the Minor Arcana via an Ace from one of the suits? And work up to the 10 and then head over to the Page and end at the King before beginning at the next suit’s Ace?

    I reckon I’d begin with The Fool and work through them until I culminated with the King of Pentacles as the 78th card.

    But that’s not how A E Waite saw it.


    I’ve been revisiting Waite’s The Pictorial Key To The Tarot, one of the Tarot books that you can freely enjoy on www.sacred-texts.com or buy on Amazon for a couple of shekels.

    Admittedly, Waite’s style of writing is convoluted and a bit disdainful of anyone who isn’t himself (like many of his ilk). Frankly, if he was any more up himself, would be able to see the back of his own teeth.  BUT, on the other hand, he did give us The Rider Waite Smith Tarot deck that we all know and love, so I figure that he is worth another look.

    Waite says:

    “In respect of their usual presentation, the bridge between the Greater and Lesser Arcana is supplied by the court cards ..”

    He then goes on to say that there is no special idea connected on the surface with the ordinary court cards, that they are merely ‘a bridge of conventions’ that lead to the ‘simple pretexts’ of the Minor Arcana.

    He concludes, no doubt from a melancholic slump on his red velvet divan:  ‘We seem to have passed away utterly from the region of higher meanings illustrated by living pictures.’

    Waite’s occult snobbery about the value of the Minor Arcana aside, what he’s saying is that the COURT CARDS are the link between the Majors and the Minors.

    But which one, Mr Waite? Who’s the lucky guy/gal?

    *clears throat and stands up to relay the important news*

    The reclining court card that reaches upwards, Adam-like, from the earthly Minor Arcana to brush fingertips with the celestial glories of the Majors is……. *pauses to build tension*….  THE KING OF WANDS.

    For me, the King of Wands is magnetically attractive, potentially dangerous and, just like the Fire he represents, can be all-devouring. However, in addition to the traits that we would normally bestow upon him, it is time to add one other.  For it would seem that The King of Wands is a spiritual lighthouse.

    Yes, yes, this is all well and good, I hear you thinking, but SO WHAT?

    Well, what it could mean is that when The King of Wands arises in your work, we readers can be aware that THIS court card – more than any other – has a link with the archetypal energies of the Majors.

    Not only can we interpret the King of Wands as perhaps a person (the querent or someone known to the querant) or reflecting the energies around the situation being discussed, he may also act as a signal that some BIG Archetypal Type Changes are a-coming because HE is the Bifrost.

    Yes, the King of Wands can be the flaming rainbow bridge that links the world of the archetypes with our own humble abode.

    That makes me think of Thor.  And by default, Loki.  I know that you’re not really surprised to see this:

    … and sorry, this post has nothing whatsoever to do with the Danish TV series and Saga Noren either.  NOTHING.

    Or Simon and Garfunkle.

    Or dental work.

    So, do you think that the King of Wands is a very special sort of a guy, being The Bridge?

  • Beautiful Creatures Tarot | J R Rivera & Jasmine Becket-Griffith

    Let’s just get something sorted, right away: If you like large liquid eyes and cupid’s-bow mouths, you are going to love this deck.  If you don’t, well, loving it is going to be a big ask. Think ‘The Crying Boy’ painting meets Crowley 🙂

    Published by Schiffer, the author of this deck is J R Rivera and the artist is Jasmine Becket-Griffith.

    So let’s look at the size of these cards.

    They are quite chunky in the hand – I couldn’t fit four of them abreast on the scanner (just under 13cm tall and under 9cm wide).

    They come in a really lovely quality Schiffer presentation box along with the 151-page accompanying book.

    All the cards – including the Majors – are in the same darkly kitsch style that you see here in the Court Arcana.

    Let’s look at the Fires court cards first of all.  All the cards are renamed : The Fires’ ranks are Nymph, Archer, Ram and Lion.  If you are familiar with astrological associations in tarot, you will know that the Archer, Ram and Lion are descriptors for Sagittarius, Aries and Leo, AKA the Fire Signs.  This motif continues through all the courts and each suit’s court cards helpfully contains its astrological glyph.  For example, you can see in the Fires courts above the arm tattoos and the blue ‘brand’ on the haunch of the Archer.


    The Nymphs (aka Pages) are regarded in the same vein as the Rider Waite Smith – they are the purest elements of the suits and aren’t accorded an astrological sign.   
    A comment made about the standard Rank hierarchy in Tarot is that the King sits at the top with the Queen second in command, as it were.  In The Beautiful Creatures Tarot this is not the case.  There are only TWO recognisably male figures – on The Lovers and the 2 of Waters (which takes its inspiration from the Wedding of the Arnolfinis).

    Remember: the sex of the character in the courts of ANY deck does not prevent their energies from being applied to other sexes. And neither does the colour of the characters in the cards limit them to one particular ethnicity 🙂

    In the book by Rivera, each card is depicted as a full page B&W illustration, with a page devoted to interpreting the card in question.  Each card has an opening statement of selfhood.  For example, the Virgin of Earths says: ‘I have analyzed that going forward will help you cross the finish line.’

    Her Keyword, Endurance, is provided followed by a paragraph description of what you can see in the card.  Rivera then outlines the traditional tarot archetype of the card and what she might mean if she pertains to a situation.

    The Minor Arcana are fully illustrated, but they are not RWS clones by any means – if you deborder the cards, you might struggle to know which image represents which card.

    The cardback design lends itself to reversals and Rivera includes reversed insights in the accompanying book.

    Many of the Majors are renamed, but none so differently as you wouldn’t know from the title who it was.  For example, The Swinging One, is clearly this deck’s version of The Hanged Man and shows a Fragonard-inspired girl on a swing… Death is Transformation…. The Tower becomes The Unexpected.

    Rivera and Becket-Griffiths have included two additional cards.  The first, intended to be used as the sitter’s significator is – You Are One.  The second ‘The Supernatural’, intended to be used for the sitter’s situation.

    The book also has a handful of spreads ranging from a single card reading to the 7-card Family and Hereditary spread.

    What do I think of the deck?  The width of the cards might be tricky for small hands and the style might turn some people off, thinking it too cutesy.  If this deck was a cake, it would be a Hallowe’en cake – a dark chocolate with a sweet centre 😀

    I think that the court cards are great – all the visual clues you need to remember which astrological sign is associated with which card (as long as you can remember which card name is associated with the traditional one!) and ideal for someone who is starting work using astrology with their court cards.

    Do you use it?  Tell me what you think of it?

  • Tarot | Noa Ikeda | One To Watch

    Sometimes my friend Gav is the worst enabler in the world.  And by that I mean that he is the BEST enabler in the world.  It was Gav that alerted me to this deck by illustrator Noa Ikeda.  And now I want it.  More than oxygen.  Or Biscuits.

    I love the colours and the Japanese styling of this jewel-bright deck.  So I zapped off a missive to Noa with some questions and to obtain permission to share the images of her deck’s Queens.  PLEASE visit her website to check out the Major Arcana images – they are glorious.

    The Queen of Swords

    Here we have the Queen of Swords, who is veiled – which I really love!  We have several elements that Swords are associated with Air – wings and clouds abound!

    Here we have the Queen of Cups who is simply gorgeous, decked out in her elegant white gown surrounded by watery imagery – seated in a shell with the ocean at her feet.

     This is the Queen of Pentacles, who is seated in a woodland grove with a tree as a throne. She is surrounded by earthy symbols, flowers greenery and a white rabbit.

    The Queen of Wands is the epitome of a fiery Queen.  She is the only one not to wear a dress.  As in the RWS she holds a sunflower as well as her Wand of power  and a great black panther (a tad bigger than the black cat of the RWS!) dozes by her side.  She is seated in a desert-like environment.

    I sent off some questions to Neo about the forthcoming deck and her court cards but she was off to an event.  Never fear, I will get the answers soon and share them here!

    You can keep up with the development of Noa’s deck
    WEBSITE
    FACEBOOK
    INSTAGRAM 

  • The King of Wands | The Power of Tarot’s Bridge Card

    Last week I wrote about the King of Wands and how A E Waite saw this card as the stepping stone from the glory of the Major Arcana to the mundanity of the Minor Arcana.  
    Today I thought I’d expand on this and show you how I am using The King of Wands card as a result of reading Waite’s insight.
    Let’s see how powerful he really is!
    First, procure your
    deck’s King of Wands card.

    Split your deck into
    two bundles – one for the Major Arcana and the other for the Minor
    Arcana and shuffle each bundle well.
    Ask your King of Wands
    card to guide you to the most significant Major that you need in
    order to make progress (in your issue, towards your goal, whatever it
    is that you are looking for help with).
    Place your King in the
    Major Arcana bundle and shuffle, all the while keeping your question
    for him at the forefront of your mind. 
    When you are content to stop
    shuffling, take your Major Arcana bundle, face down, and lay down
    each card in turn, as if you were playing snap or something. When
    you turn the King of Wands, you are paying attention to the NEXT card
    that you turn over – this is the Major that will help you.
    Do the same with the
    Minor bundle and your King of Wands card. Again, you are looking for
    the card that follows the King of Wands as you turn over each card in
    the bundle.
    You now have two cards
    – a Major and a Minor. These have been linked by the King of
    Wands.
    How can reading these
    two cards together help you with your issue?
    Here’s a worked
    example:
    The question concerns a
    stale relationship and a need for break-through:
    The Lady (Empress equivalent) and the 9 of Pentacles.
    I am struck by how sad
    The Lady looks, despite being surrounded by such luxury and
    fecundity. The harvest necessitates the cutting of the wheat, the picking of the fruit; the
    arrival of the baby heralds the end of her pregnancy. She is brooding
    the losses that come with creation.
    The 9 of Pentacles
    woman wears the same pensive expression and she too looks materially
    comfortable. Her hawk is held on the glove. In order for it to fly
    free, she has to let it go.
    The two cards that the
    King of Wands has chosen to act as a bridge tell me that in order to
    effect a break through, the sitter has to work on two things to make
    the necessary break through.
    • If comfort is
      paramount, then the sitter must be prepared to accept the necessary losses and
      restrictions in order to keep comfortable.
    • If, however, the sitter
      wishes the bird to fly freely, then some discomfort and uncertainty
      must be endured in order to create something new and better.  

  • TABI Tarot Conference | The Day!

    As one of the organisers, you need to be up bright and early to make sure that all is going according to plan.  Witness the breakfast table at 8am:

    Late night in bar = this breakfast table

    Yes, that’s my lonesome plate of food 😀

    Anyway, Caroline materialised soon afterwards and we started to get the show on the road.  Caroline manned the check-in desk and I manned the Conference room.

    Every year we are supported by various publishers in our goody bags for attendees.  This year we had help from PGUK, Eddison Books, Schiffer and Carrie Paris (although Carrie’s Siren’s Song Lenormand is still getting printed!)

    We had lots of lovely attendees this year.  In fact we sold out of places! We were joined by Kim Arnold (London) and Kirsten Buchholzer (Verbandes Tarot e V – Germany)… Barbie Davidson and Linda Marson (Australia) and Rashunda Tramble (Switzerland) …. along with the many other well-travelled TABI members!

    Goody bags – with TABI branding on the front.
    I *know* super posh

    Our first speaker was Karen Mahony from Baba Studio and she began with a presentation about their move to Kerry from Prague and the work of the studio.  She then moved on to talking about working with the Majors and the Minors and gave us a couple of spreads to demonstrate:

    Karen Mahony | Baba Studio
    ps – see that li’l white adapter on the table ….
    that was the source of ALL my worries the previous day
    God bless the lad at the Apple Store 😀 

    It was then the turn of long-time TABI member and creator of the Celtic Lenormand Oracle, Chloe McCracken.  She took us on a journey through working with a pendulum and the chakras… and the Tarot!

    Chloe McCracken | Pendulum work

    Now it was lunch time and everyone piled back into the dining room for a self-service that let you stock up on whatever you wanted with as many revisits to the food bar as you needed!  And dessert!!

    After lunch it was over to Emily Carding to explore the use of Tarot and Sigils.  Drawing from the ability to create compound images with her Transparent Tarot and Oracle, we set out to explore making sigils using standard tarot cards.  With an amazing ritual at the end of the workshop, we had a blast!

    Emily Carding | Tarot and Sigils

    At afternoon coffee break we drew the raffle – with the top prizes being our kickstarter copy of Andrea Aste’s Book of Shadows Tarot and a silk scarf kindly donated by Karen, from Baba Studio.  I, of course, won absolutely nothing.  I never win ANYTHING in raffles 😀

    Then it was the turn of our last speaker, Julia Jeffrey who had accompanied me down from Glasgow.  Julia is the creator of The Tarot of the Hidden Realm and we had the opportunity to work with her beautiful deck, exploring various Hidden Realm spreads.

    Julia Jeffrey | Tarot of the Hidden Realm

    And suddenly it was allllll over!  I presented Caroline with a well-deserved art voucher for all her work – double-deserved given that all the things I had volunteered to do to take some of the weight off her, I ended up leaving back at home in my computer bag.  And Caroline, bless her cotton socks, on behalf of TABI gave me a lovely voucher for Bute School of Art – which I will very much look forward to using!!

    For almost everyone it was over, but for us travelling back to Glasgow, we had one more night in Aston and then home.  And what a lovely evening that turned out to be – both our Australian attendees, Linda and Barbie, were there, as was Rashunda our attendee who was flying back to Switzerland on the Sunday.  We had a lovely …. and slightly irreverent … bar meal and glass or two of wine to unwind.

    And then on Sunday, it was the long (and not uneventful) drive back up the M6, the M74, the M8, the ferry …….. and home 🙂

    See you next year!