Tarot Thrones | The Court Card Blog

Category: Uncategorised

  • Full Moon | Leo | February | King of Wands

    As the moon trundles around its orbit, we find her passing through Leo for February’s full moon tonight (3 February).

    This means that we shall find ourselves acquainted with the energies of that most magnetic of the Tarot court personalities, the King of Wands.

    Someone who is working their King of Wands energy is someone whose inner life and outer life are as one – there is no conflict between what’s going on in his head and heart and what he is called to do. And, by Jingo – they are called to be active in the world!

    His appearance in your life encourages you to take action in those matters that you feel passionately about.  And you don’t take action in a small, quiet way – my goodness no! The King of Wands is someone that you can see for miles off!  Let people see you walking your talk with confidence and enthusiasm!

    This character likes people to look at him! He’s fond of nice things and doesn’t mind showing them off.  That could make him a royal pain in the arse, but fortunately his show-off gene is accompanied by a generous gene too – so if you hang around with King of Wands people, there’s a good chance that you will benefit from their largesse!

    King of Wands people are very good at seeing the Big Picture in a situation.  They seem to be able to rise above the fray and see all the horizons with clarity.

    All the Wands Courts are forwards-looking energies and this King from the Kickstarter-funded Marseille Sophistique is pictured looking off to the right.  For me, the right is the direction of the future.

    It’s a good time, says the King of Wands, to take action and get moving towards your bright and beautiful future!

    Here in the King of Wands from the Tarot of Metamorphosis, we see clearly how he is associated with the strength and growth.  There are smokey grey and pink clouds behind this King – makes me think that there is a forest fire somewhere!

    That reinfoces the idea that when this King catches fire, you can see the results from quite a distance!

    Today the King of Wands asks:

    What do you feel passionately about? What BOLD steps can you take today that move you towards that passion?

    Are there any confusing situations that can be grasped with more clarity right now?

    The King of Wands says:  It’s time to look forward with confidence!

  • 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

  • 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!

    PREVIOUS BLOG | MASTER LIST | NEXT BLOG


  • 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