Tarot Thrones | The Court Card Blog

Category: Knights

  • Archetype Cards by Caroline Myss

    Archetype Cards by Caroline Myss

    The Archetype Cards is a set of 78 cards, created by intuitive healer and the Archetype Empress herself, Caroline Myss.

    I’ve had these cards for years (OMG bought them in 2007!) and each time I have tried to work with them, it just all seemed too hard and too complex to not only figure out my active archetypes, but what to do with that information when I had worked it all out. And if I can’t use it? What’s the point.

    But in the past year I have watched so many of Caroline’s Youtube videos on spirituality and her new series on these very archetypes, so I thought I would dig in again.

    What do you need to know? There are loads of archetypes – many more than this deck can conceive, but there are 6 blank cards for you to add in your own, if you feel that some behaviour pattern in you isn’t represented by one of the existing cards.

    We all have four basic archetypes – the Victim, the Prostitute, the Saboteur and the Child. There are several variations on the Child archetype – Eternal, Wounded, Orphan, Nature, Magical, Divine and Dependent. There isn’t actually a card for the Dependent Child though, so that’s a bit of a shame – still, one can use a blank Archetype card to create one.

    Although I am working with the cards on a personal level, I thought that it would be fun to compare her King, Queen and Knight cards with our understanding of our tarot Kings, Queens and Knights. Myss doesn’t have a Page card in her deck and I didn’t want to appropriate one of the other cards to stand in for it; so it will have to remain a mystery for a little while longer.

    And if it works for you – it’s more information that you can add to bring an additional nuance to your Court Card interpretations.

    King Archetype card by Caroline Myss

    Light Attributes would equate to the tarot’s Kings rightsides up whereas Shadow Attributes could apply to reversed cards. I like the idea of each King showing ‘enlightened, benevolent leadership. Benefiting those in your charge.’ So for the King of Cups, that would be in the field of relationships, the King of Swords that would be in the field of thinking and logic, the King of Pentacles in the field of ownership and for the King of Wands it would be in the realm of passion.

    The Shadow side of ‘Excessive feelings of entitlement. Rulership without restraint.’ That’s nice information to tuck away for using with a King card.

    When we take a look at the Queen archetype, we have the description ‘Radiates the regal feminine.’ I’m not sure what that means – but it is an appearance, charisma attribute. She ‘uses her benevolent authority to protect others.’ So the King brings benefits to people, the Queen protects people. Her Shadow side is that she ‘Becomes arrogant when authority is challenged. Controlling and demanding.’

    The Knight in the Archetypes card is quite a different animal to that of the tarot, I think. Each of the four Knights holds something of this ‘loyalty, romance and chivalry’. The Knight of Pentacles is loyal, the Knight of Cups is romantic and the Knight of Wands or Swords would fit the Chivalric standard. As a reversed Knight, do the tarot’s Knights show ‘allegiance to a destructive ruler or principle? Does he have ‘romantic delusions’? Yes, the Pentacles Knight reversed could show misplaced loyalty rather than a lack of loyalty, the Knight of Cups could have romantic delusions and those Knights of Wands and Swords could have an allegiance/commitment to the wrong sort of action, the wrong sort of thinking. And when I say ‘wrong’ I mean that it is currently detrimental to the situation in hand, rather than ‘wrong’ altogether

    And as for the Pages … I think they might be derivatives of the various Child cards, but I’ll need to look into that more closely and probably give it a post of its own.

    Do you use the Archetype cards? I’d love to know how you use them! This is an affiliate link, if you want to buy them from Amazon.

    Buy Caroline Myss’ Archetype Cards on Amazon
  • Orient Tarot | Alexander Daniloff

    Orient Tarot | Alexander Daniloff

    I am an enormous fan of Alexander Daniloff’s work and I am thrilled to see that he has created a new tarot deck to mark 10 years since his first tarot, brought out in 2012. This new tarot is called the Orient Tarot and from the few cards posted online so far, it is gorgeous.

    Today’s card release into the wild of social networks are these two beauties :

    Aren’t these guys glorious? On the left we have the Knight of Swords and on the right we have the Knight of Cups. I am loving the colour choices for the suits as well as having astrological symbolism on their shields – Gemini for the Knight of Swords and Pisces for the Knight of Cups.

    The art styling is of the entire Orient and I am loving the Mughal-style of these warriors and their beautifully rendered horses with the sweeping landscapes behind them.

    Although the deck is completed, there is still some way to go before this self-published beauty is for sale. I’m hoping that I won’t have to wait too much longer! I’ll have a price for you just as soon as Alexander has one!

    You can see Alexander’s artwork here.

  • Our Court Card for 2021

    Our Court Card for 2021

    You may already be familiar with the technique of working out which Major Arcana card will apply to the incoming year, but if not, I’ll give you a quick resumé on how to calculate it:

    Take all the digits in the incoming year and add them together. If the answer comes to 22 or less (The Fool having the value of 22 because nothing will add up to zero), simply select the Major Arcana card with that number and you are good to go. If all the digits added together comes to a figure larger than 22, then you must add those digits together to arrive at a figure of 22 or less.

    This year we are adding 2 + 0 + 2+ 1 = 5 and therefore Major Arcana card V will be our guide for 2021 – a Hierophant year for us all next year! Goddess knows how that might manifest for us in the UK – Covid19 AND Brexit hitting us a double whammy. Can hardly wait … *rolls her eyes so far back in her head that she can see the nape of her neck*

    You can also do a similar thing with Court Cards!

    A few years ago, I came up with a fun way to work with the Court Cards by looking at one’s personal details and the incoming year, but this can be expanded upon to working out which court card will be everyone’s guide for 2021.

    Take a look HERE to see how to calculate your personal guide for 2021 – and to see who is EVERYBODY’S companion in 2021!

    Since our Major Arcana card is 5, our Court Card for the year is also card 5, and in the table of court card numbers that you will find in the link above, this means that we are entering a Knight of Pentacles year.

    Knight of Pentacles from the Druidcraft Tarot
    Knight of Pentacles from the Druidcraft Tarot

    This makes sense to me because the Knight of Pentacles is the one of the adventurous knights who is compelled to remain closer to home than his brethern. Although he shares their questing and adventurous spirit, he revolves around his home base – whether he likes it or not.

    What this means for us is that while we too may want to let rip and run amok in hot countries and get a bit of sun on our bones (a la Knight of Wands!), Covid restrictions (and maybe even Brexit restrictions?) will keep us more local than we might like.

    Knights are risk-takers, even the Knight of Pentacles, so be alert to risks around your health, your home and your finances. I’m not saying DON’T take risks, but maybe only gamble with what you can afford to lose?

    How do you interpret the Knight of Pentacles and how do you see his energies affecting us all in 2021?

    How does the Knight of Pentacles interact with your own personal court card guardian for 2021 card for 2021?

  • Your Circle of Influence | Tarot Court Cards

    Your Circle of Influence | Tarot Court Cards

    Lockdown has been extended for at least another three weeks in the UK. I’m exceptionally lucky – I have my partner and son at home with me at the moment and we have a lovely garden and (miraculously!) great weather in Scotland. Despite these blessings, like many others, I find a huge swell of fear rises up in me with our 24-hour news cycle that brings endless tides of things to be frightened about.

    I am reminded of the Circle of Influence and the Circle of Concern. I am not sure who originated the ideas, but I read it in Stephen Covey’s book ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People‘.

    If you draw a large circle on a sheet of A4 and fill it with everything that you are worried about, this is your Circle of Concern – that’s EVERYTHING: social isolation, your mother’s health, your finances, global warming …. not being able to buy toilet roll for a month … the PM developing Coronavirus and being hospitalised …. Trump lobbying to open up various States in the US …. you get the idea.

    Now draw another circle inside that circle. This one is much smaller. Inside this new circle write only the concerns that YOU can exert any kind of control over. So you can move your finances, your own social isolation … maybe even your mother’s health in some way … into this smaller circle.

    The small circle is what you can work on and influence. The other stuff? Not so much. But rest assured that it WILL fall into some other person’s Circle of Influence somewhere. All you can do is work on your own stuff.

    With sincere apologies to people who make infographics for a living.

    So far, so what? You might be asking yourself – you know this stuff already. If you do, great! If you don’t, please explore the idea further because it will help keep you from flipping out during this pandemic.

    The additional flavour that I would like to bring to the infographic is how to change the size of that little inner circle. The smaller this circle is, the fewer things in your life you feel that you have got control over. The larger it is, the closer in size to your area of concern, sure, you have more things to be concerned about …. but also with MUCH GREATER INFLUENCE in the world to effect changes.

    You might be reading this thinking that you don’t have very much influence. You’d be wrong. Not only can you influence those directly around you, but those that you come into contact with through the internet – your blog, your youtube channel, your facebook page etc.

    Look at me! I have not much reach nor much influence in the world, but here YOU are, lovely reader, reading this and – hopefully – gaining a little bit of encouragement or even insight into your own influential reach!

    How do the Court Cards help? These 16 cards represent character traits, personality styles, that we can try on and off like clothes in a T K Maxx changing room. Some will be a perfect fit and you can wear them naturally. Others might look hellish on the hanger and require a bit of a contortion to get them on, but once you see yourself in the changing room mirror … you look a million bucks! Who knew that yellow could look so GOOD next to white hair?! *I’m joking. It NEVER does*

    So, let’s pull your 16 courts from your deck and give them a good shuffle. Settle your mind as you shuffle. There are no wrong cards. When you feel your mind calming, ask your cards – who helps me increase my Circle of Influence?

    Pull a court card! Who did you get?

    What’s the first positive trait that springs to mind about this card? Be more THAT to increase your Circle of Influence this week.
    What’s the first negative trait that springs to mind about this card? Be LESS that this week to increase your Circle of Influence.

    Let’s take a worked example:

    I shuffle and the card I pull from my Court Card Arcana is the Knight of Wands:

    Knight of Wands Alexander Daniloff
    Knight of Wands,
    Alexander Daniloff’s 2012 Tarot

    First positive thing that comes to mind when I think of the Knight of Wands – being physically active. This week, get more physically involved in my Circle of Influence.

    Social Isolating – I’m allowed to exercise once a day – run every day, just a mile; can I physically assist a neighbour who is socially isolating by getting some basic shopping or picking up a prescription? Could I volunteer to help people?

    My Finances – Start getting the paperwork together for my next Tax Return. Yes. Really. Also, I am an Amazon Affiliate, but am increasingly disgusted by Jeff Bezos who is raking in $11,000 PER SECOND during the Covid19 pandemic AND looking for a government bail out to help his employees. CRAZY. The guy is worth BILLIONS. That’s why, as from today, I’m going to be working as a HIVE Affiliate instead of an Amazon Affiliate. Sure, it’s not got the reach of Amazon, but hey, we all have to do what we all have to do to feel better about ourselves.

    Look at my Circle of Concern – world hunger – is there ANYTHING that the Knight of Wands could help me with here? I could help support my local food bank – it’s not ending world hunger, but it’s WHAT I CAN PHYSICALLY INFLUENCE THIS WEEK.

    The first negative thing that comes to mind about the Knight of Wands is … he’s not much of a deep thinker. This week I can extend my Circle of Influence by thinking more deeply – maybe not flying off the handle at some crazy facebook posts. Maybe not getting myself so upset by them? Gosh, that will most certainly help my mental health if I could do that!

    So – there you have it. Using the court cards to help extend your Circle of Influence.

    Stay safe, stay sane.

  • Your 2020 Tarot Court Card | Amplifiers

    Your 2020 Tarot Court Card | Amplifiers

    My 2020 Court Card is the Knight of Swords; a very ‘airy’ character who is very nimble intellectually. This Knight is quick to grasp new ideas and concepts but doesn’t have a lot of ‘stick-with-it-ness’ and latches on to the next idea that takes his fancy.

    Knights (especially Swords and Wands) have a very low boredom threshold and when things start to feel a little stale, the Knight of Swords won’t hang about. He’ll gallop off to a more mentally stimulating environment, changing his mind … because that is his prerogative. Generally the Knight of Swords can be quite infuriating to be around, if I’m honest.

    In a previous blog post, I took a look at the qualities of the Knight of Swords and settled on a phrase to help me invoke his spirit throughout the year.

    But how might he appear in my life month to month?

    Try this: find your favourite Oracle deck – I’m using the brand new Spirit Card Oracle that comes with the Relative Tarot, by Carrie Paris.

    I drew 12 cards at random from her deck, one for each month of 2020. Each oracle card is read as an amplifier for the Court Card.

    When you work with the Court Card and the Oracle Card, you need to spend some time thinking or feeling how that courtly personality would handle the energy of the Oracle card.

    You can see THIS post for another example. And HERE too.

    Here’s the January example for the Knight of Swords:

    Knight of Swords and Coward

    Cowardice is defined as: An excessive fear that prevents an individual from taking a risk or facing danger.

    Well, other than this being a somewhat startling card to pull right at the beginning of the year, it’s an interesting combination – I don’t believe that the Knight of Swords has an atom of the Coward in his bones. I’ll be honest with you, I swithered about slipping Coward back into the deck. How cowardly would that have been?! *wink*

    So, let’s work with this …

    My gut feeling is that the Knight of Swords, so often depicted as active and chivalrous, would balk at the thought of being a coward. Swords, as a suit, are concerned with truth as much as logic and cowardice feels like a running away from am unpalatable truth.

    So how is the Coward active for The Knight of Swords in January?

    Perhaps this month, I need to be careful of my reactions to what *I* perceive as cowardice in others? Time to be less critical and more understanding: one gal’s ‘cowardice’ is another gal’s ‘live to fight another day’

    How would the Knight of Swords accept Cowardice?

    The only way that I can imagine the Knight of Swords accepting Cowardice or embracing it is if he has gone through the logic of a situation and finds that discretion is the better part of valour.

    Sometimes it’s NOT a good idea to tell someone that their bum looks big in those jeans. Even if it does.

    Find your 2020 Court Card companion HERE.

  • Making your 2020 Tarot Court Card work for YOU!

    Making your 2020 Tarot Court Card work for YOU!

    If you have worked out your Court Card companion for the year, now’s the time to begin to employ their services usefully!

    For those of you who used a deck that had a keyword on each card, this will be simplicity itself – find the keyword on your 2020 Court Card and make it your watchword for the coming 12 months.

    For the rest of us, it’s going to take a little work – 10 minutes or so, sequestered away from the rest of the world with just you, your court card and a pen and paper.

    Prop up the card so that you can see it comfortably, without straining your neck up or down. And just sit. Quietly. Leave your stresses and strains and duties and noise outside of your little space.

    Just sit.

    Let your breathing steady and lengthen naturally.

    Just sit.

    Look at the card.

    Look at the character in the court card – is it a person or an animal? Both?!

    What is the energy of the card – active? pensive?

    Look at the position of the character, the expression.

    How does this character make you feel?

    What colours are used in the card – which is your favourite?

    What else is in the card?

    As you tune more deeply into the card’s energies, ask the main character what it is they want to empower you with for the coming year?

    Here’s mine, using the Knight of Swords from The RWS Tarot.

    Learning into action
    Mental agility (oh my God, do I need this lol!)
    Air
    Speed
    Other points of view

    Taking these words are the essence of this card (and your card image might be quite different, for the same court card!) my talisman words for 2020 will be … LEARNING TO FLY.

    Hey – I’ve even got a ready-made theme tune! Stand by for spot of darling Dave and The Foo Fighters!

    What does your Court Card say to you?



  • Court Card for 2020

    Court Card for 2020

    Just a bit of Tarot Court Card fun to start us thinking about what we want for ourselves in 2020. I’ve done this for the past four years or so and it’s just a bit of fun, not rooted in any deep and meaningful ancient system. Just my own 🙂

    So, you might be working out your Major Arcana card for 2020 to give you a THEME for the coming year, as inspired by your personal year data. To find our what your personal year card is, take your day and month of birth and and add to 40 (ie 20+20, the incoming year). Here’s an example: mine!    13 +  8  + 40  = 61

    Since there is no Major Arcana card numbered 61 (hey, we’re not using Minchiates here, people!), these digits need to be further reduced by adding them together, giving us a total of 7. My theme for the year will be inspired by The Chariot *and I absolutely need to be better disciplined*

    The Chariot | Alexander Daniloff

    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 7 Chariot year – becomes further compounded by Court Card 7…. which is The Knight of Wands.  the Knight of Swords! (yeah, I screwed up – I can’t read without my glasses on … it’s the Knight of Swords, honestly!)

    The Knight of Swords – Card No 7

    This year is going to be my Airy Challenger year, and my challenge will be to control my Chariot’s horses sufficiently well to move forward and not laps into inaction. As is currently the case! 

    Try it for yourself – find your Major Arcana year card and your Court Card. How will they combine for 2020?

    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       

    Cards: Alexander Daniloff 2012 Tarot

  • The Guardians of the Autumn Equinox

    The Guardians of the Autumn Equinox

    Today is the Autumn Equinox and the ringing of this celestial alarm clock that tells us that the sun is heading south across the equator and that our nights will, once again, be drawing in.

    Interestingly, the period where the hours of almost equal light and darkness takes place (for me here in Scotland, anyway) on the 25th of September, but hey, what’s a couple of days between friends?

    At the end of July, I presented at TABI’s Tarot Conference in Birmingham, on working with court cards. Today I want to share with you a snippet of the work that we worked through at Conference: using the 16 courts as Guardians to the festivals on the Wheel of the Year.

    The Guardians of the Autumn Equinox are The Queen of Cups and the Knight of Cups. This abundance of watery energy means that this is a wonderful time of year for focussing on our relationships – with others and with ourselves. It is also a perfect time to pay attention to our dreams and our drive to create – art, books, music, children.

    The Queen of Cups offers us the gift of empathy, love (all aspects of it), and letting your emotional core influence all aspects of your life in a way that you might be reticent to do at other times of the year.

    Her challenge to us is to recognise when we turn that emotional connection with others into something that is selfish or manipulative.

    She asks:

    Where can you improve your relationships with family, friends and colleagues
    Consider your self-care – are you investing sufficient time and resources?
    Are you aware of areas where you may be pushing emotional buttons to get your own way?

    The Knight offers us a slightly different focus for the relationships in our orbit. His knightly nature is associated with the element of air, so he brings in a more cerebral note to his Guardianship and it can be used to support the Queen – if her emotionally orientated approach is not improving the connection with someone that you hope for, try flavouring your approach by adding a dash of Knightly logic, common sense or even double-check that you’re successfully communicating exactly what you mean!

    The Knight’s challenge to us is different from his Queen’s: The Knight cares about his journey sincerely and with his whole heart. He’s not some fly-by-night to take-off in a fit of pique or hubris. The Knight’s challenge to us is to ensure that our questing and challenging nature pursues a worthwhile goal. When he is an active card, we should not be pushed out of our adventure by our need to maintain strong relationships with people. For example, you are going off to college (your worthwhile goal, right?) and your excitement is overshadowed by concerns about relationships that will be strained by your new adventure. A little sadness is healthy, but deciding not to go or amending your choices because you don’t want to upset your boyfriend is not.

    He asks:

    Are you willing to introduce adventure to your relationships?
    Where are others proving challenging?
    How well are you communicating with those around you?

    If this kind of approach to working with the courts sounds like fun, why not sign up for my newsletter and get first notifications on when my court card e-book is going to be available? In it we look at the elemental DNA of the cards and how that helps us find other information that can be useful in interpreting court cards!