Tarot Thrones | The Court Card Blog

Category: Uncategorised

  • Tarot in Art | The Tarot Card Reader | Artist Unknown

    We find ourselves in a kitchen where a young woman stretches out on a chair as the Tarot card reader explores her fortune.  It’s funny, isn’t it? No matter how many centuries separate us, the pose for expansive day-dreaming remains unchanged!

    This particular illustration of Tarot in art is by an unknown artist (well, there is a very indistinct signature down in the right corner, apparently).  It dates back to the 1800s and was sold at Christies in New York for £1,500.

    I wonder what the Tarotist is telling her – perhaps how strong and handsome will be her husband? How happy they will be – will he bring her lots of money and fine things? Or lots of glorious children to hug and kiss?   Is that an empty bread basked lying on the floor behind her? A pot boiling un-watched on the stove? Is she neglecting her household chores in favour of a day dream?!

    And what of her card-reading friend?  They do say that one of the signs of lying is fiddling with your ears – what is she doing with that right hand as she points to the cards with her left?

    I think of Cinderella dreaming in the kitchen when I see this image, what about you?

    I can’t zoom in on any of the detail of the painting (and, of course, I am typing without my specs on – oh vanity, you are a terrible mistress!) but if YOU can, I’d love to know what else we can see in the painting?

  • How to Read Reversed Tarot Court Cards

    If a court card coming up in a Tarot reading can present a reader with a tummy-flipping moment of panic, then interpreting a reversed court card can engender a fully-fledged head-between-the-knees (your own, silly!) brace position.
    But it needn’t be so!

    Any card coming up as a reversal is basically calling your name and telling you to pay special attention to it.  Why does it need your attention? Well, because it means that the interpretation of the card won’t be straightforward.

    The most common ways to interpret any reversed card are:

    1  The information is the exact opposite of what you would usually say
         (perfectly reasonable place for a beginner to start from, I think – but a bit like using a sledgehammer
         to crack a nut as far as sophistication goes!)
    2  The message from the card is unbalanced – too much of the energy or not enough.
    3  The card’s information is delayed or blocked.
    4  The card’s energies are somehow perverted or twisted out of shape.

    And there are LOTS of other ways to interpret a reversed card (for the last Glasgow Tarot Meetup group I thought I’d provide ’10 Ways to interpret a reversed card’ and came up with 11 for the hand-out. So I had to make one of them 10a and the last one 10b.  I am inventive.  I am the Queen of Wands :-D)

    With a court card you get another two options – which I think are REALLY useful.

    Let’s think about the elements that we tend to use in Western Tarot: Earth, Air, Fire and Water.

    Fire and Air are 🙂
    Water and Earth are 🙂               (friendly)

    Fire and Water are 🙁
    Earth and Air are 🙁                   (not friendly)

    Fire and Earth are 😐
    Water and Air are 😐                  (neutral)

    Got that?  OK, Let’s take the King of Pentacles:

    Elementally, he is Fire of Earth.  The Kingly fire partners up with the practicality of Earth and we have someone who is incredibly level-headed,  got lots of practical skills, materially successful, knows what to do to Get Nice Things in life etc.

    Now, here’s the first thing that you can do with a reversed court card:


    SWAP THE EXISTING ELEMENTS AROUND

    Instead of Fire of Earth, he is now Earth of Fire. Gone is the maturity of the King and in its place is the Beginner Mind of the Page of Wands.  So the King of Pentacles, when reversed, can mean what the Page of Wands means rightsides up.  You follow?

    The second thing that you can do with a reversed court card is:

    EXCHANGE FOR THE EXACT OPPOSITE ELEMENTS

    Sticking with our King of Pentacles example, we have Fire and Earth.

    The exact opposite element of Fire is Water and the exact opposite element for Earth is Air.  So you can interpret the reversed King of Pentacles just as you would the Queen of Swords!

    What do you think?

    BTW – There’s PLENTY more of this stuff in my forthcoming e-book on working with the court cards. Excited? Are you? ARE YOU?!

  • Paolo Nutini and I!

    So, I’m out having a totally 3 of Cups moment with two girlfriends – celebrating my friend’s 60th birthday and having a jolly nice time at a discreet and ‘spensive restaurant.  We are just perusing the extensive menu when I happen to glance over the balcony (that’s how posh it was, it has a BALCONY) into another part of the restaurant below.

    Oh. My. God.

    REALLY – OH. MY. GOD!!!!!

    Paolo Nutini was standing chatting to some friends, well within hormone-affecting distance.  PAOLO NUTINI!!!!! Don’t know who he is?

    Not bad for a wee lad from Paisley!

    And now, three albums later, the boy is well into his stride:

    To cut a very long story short (and that’s a LONG story that I will NEVER get fed up of repeating to my long-suffering friends, I can ASSURE you!) he looked up at us on our balcony and I just blurted out  “can I take your photo, please?’
    “Wouldn’t you prefer to come down here and have your photo taken with me?’ he smiled up at me.  Cue melting heart and middle-aged lady googley-eyed adoration.

    WOULD I?!  Is the Pope a Catholic?!  Does a bear shit in the woods?! With my knees knocking and my heart pounding I ran down the stairs two at a time.  Dignity.  Always dignity.

    And lo! Out he unlocked the private dining room door and emerged into the restaurant hallway, slender, floppy haired and cute as anything! He kissed me on the cheek, shook my hand, snaked his arm around my waist (I sucked my tummy in for dear life!) and my friend snapped us on her camera phone.

    As per all situations that make me nervous, I began to get the ol’ verbal diarrhoea: ‘I bet you hear lots of people saying this,” I wittered, ‘but I AM a big fan and I was really disappointed not to get tickets for your Glasgow gig before they sold out.’

    Then he said these immortal words: “Want me to put you down on the guest list for the Edinburgh gig?”

    Reader, I might actually have let out an involuntary little ‘squee’ at that point!  And so it was that he took my name and scribbled it on a sheet of A4 from the goggle-eyed receptionists and stuffed it into his suit pocket.

    But now, here’s the challenge – can I turn this into a lejit court card blog post?!  Let me try!!

    Court Card insights:

    On that Saturday I would say that he was a Cup or a Pentacle:  Family relationships are clearly important to him – he flew in from Germany for the party and would be flying back out there directly afterwards to continue with his tour.  


    He was also exhibiting Queenly behaviour Cup or Pentacle – it was his idea to get together for the photo and to offer the tickets – caring about his fans and nurturing them too.  


    But he was also very Wandsy.  Sex on legs if truth be told.  But of course, HE didn’t see himself that way in this situation; he was just being very sweet to a fan.  The Wandy thing was simply this poor old Queen of Wands getting stirred up!   So that was entirely my projection onto the situation.  A woman can dream, can she not?!

    Update:  I didn’t go (I was going to see Wicked in Glasgow the following night and it was going to be a logistical nightmare, plus I didn’t think that the bit of paper would make it out of his suit pocket).  On one hand, I feel sad about missing out on the gig, but yanno what? It doesn’t really matter for “I too had my hour, one far fierce hour and sweet, there was a Nutini by my side and shaking knees above my feet.”

    *apologies to G K Chesterton’s The Donkey for bastardising its lines 😀

  • Two Singers One Song | Which court cards? | The Beautiful South – A Little Time

    Not done one of these for a while and thought that this one by The Beautiful South would be a great tune to jump-start things again.
    Having a think about the behaviour of characters in books and films can help flesh out your court cards – so why not songs too?!
    Back to the days of bubble perms and big earrings for this one!
    Which court card do you think best represents the man in this song? He’s clearly getting cold feet and wants a little time to think things over……
    And which court represents the woman in the relationship who, instead of hanging around waiting for him to make up his mind whether he wants to be with her or not, does her own thing and makes her own decision ……
    If you’ve got a favourite story song (regardless of decade or genre!) please let me know and I’ll happily include it here 😀

  • Meet The Families! | Golden Tarot of Renaissance | Estensi Tarot

    Another Renaissance deck for you to drool over!

    The majority of cards in this deck have been lost and the surviving cards – 16 Major Arcana cards and a Page of Swords – can be found in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris.  There they are attributed to Jacquemin Gringonneur as ‘The Charles VI Tarot’, which would make them an exceptionally early deck indeed (late 1300s).

    However, as with so much in Tarot, the origins of the cards are less clear cut! Tarot Historian, Giordano Berti, who was commissioned to design a complete 78-card deck by Lo Scarabeo, attests that they are more likely to be from the mid to late 15th century and from either Venice (Tarot Encyclopedia Vol 1) or the nearby city of Ferrara (deck’s LWB also suggests 1470).

    I asked Giordano which city was more likely to be correct and he said: ‘A lot of scholars have demonstred that the dress of the characters of the so-called Charles VI Tarot, that inspired the Major Arcana of my deck, is the same of the nobleman at the Estense court of Ferrara during the years 1470-1480.’

    Wherever they were created, this must have been a magnificent set of cards when it was originally painted.  The cards were hand-painted in tempera and decorated with a delicate gold-leaf filigree – the filigree being a feature carried over in the reproduction of the deck.

    Of the originally commissioned cards, only 16 Majors remained plus a tenacious Page of Swords.

    The original Page of Swords

    When Giordano Berti was commissioned to design a complete 78-card deck by Lo Scarabeo,  he decided to draw on existing Trionfi cards from Ferrara from the late 15th and early 16th century, to ensure that the style matched contemporary artwork from the deck’s region of origin.

    The courts warranted some inspiration and the existing blondie-bobbed Page of Swords was abandoned and a whole new set of courts was created, based on the magnificent frescos from Hall of The Months at the Palazzo Schifanoia, built for the Duke d’Este at Ferrara.  The frescoes were created between 1469 and 1471 – perfectly in synch with the original card paintings.

    The artist behind the orginal frescoes was Pellegrino Prisciani and Jo Dworkin is the contemporary artist behind the finished Lo Scarabeo Golden Tarot of the Renaissance deck.  The deck is a Justice VIII/Strength XI,  fully-illustrated pip deck, but be warned,  the images don’t always readily associate with the meaning of the card.

    Before we delve in, can I just point out that the ‘black’ background in the cards below IS actually gold foil.  My scanner can’t cope with gold foil!

    Let’s look at the Swords family first:

    Page: Message
    Knight: Alliance
    Queen: Widowhood
    King: Administration

    All the Pages from this deck carry some sort of sword or knife, except than the Page of Cups who prefers to go in for a full-on Barry White Walrus of Lurv experience. Here in the suit of Swords, our Page blows on a long horn (check out that ever so correct raised little pinkie!) and holds his sword aloft, wind catching at his tunic.  The Knight appears on a white horse (how Rider Waite!) along with some knightly cohorts (which strengthens this idea of ‘alliance’ as an interpretation for the Knight).  The poor Queen of Swords looks as though she needs a fortnight’s stay at a luxury spa somewhere and I allowed my self a wry snort when I read that she also stands for ‘divorced woman with emotional problems’.  That’s pretty much all of us then, right? Or is it just me? The King is very youthful (perhaps her son, seeing as how she is a widow?) and tugs his cloak somewhat suspiciously over his groin…. hmmmm let’s not go there.

    Let’s move onwards (hastily!) to the castle of the Wands family:

    Page: Open to new ideas
    Knight: Adventure
    Queen: Confidence
    King: Authority
    The Wands are a busy family. The Page is out in the garden, just about to chop down a branch to whittle into a Wand. The Adventurous Knight has a very excited horse (which we luff in a Knight of Wands, do we not?).  The King is a very youthful looking chap who holds his wand, entwined with a snake (thereby turning the Wand somewhat bafflingly into a Rod of Asclepius) and what can only be described as a ukelele.  I’m not fond of a ukelele.  *hideous memories of George Formby records*  However, clearly the Queen of Wands is – look at those little twins at her feet.  I don’t know where she finds the time to read that book!
    Let’s meet the Cups!

    Page: Young Seducer
    Knight: Preaching
    Queen: Ideal companion
    King:  Mature man who helps

    Aside from the Page grappling with a less-than-enthusiastic-looking lady-friend, the first thing that I notice about the Cups family is that the King is a pretty old looking dude to have such a lovely young wife.  And what’s that? The Queen is holding her cup aloft in the company of a young knight? Well, it could almost be a scene from a Jackie Collins novel: ‘Ye Olde Lucky Santiago’.

    Shall we pop round to the Pentacles’ place and see whether they’ll invite us in for tea?

    Page:  Lover of mysteries
    Knight: Consultancy (expert from far away)
    Queen: Entrepreneur or heiress
    King:  Unscrupulous business dealings

    Gosh, I’m not sure that I want to eat anything in there after looking at the Page energetically hauling a bone from a Knightly skeleton!  As a ‘Lover of Mysteries’ perhaps he’s working his inner Columbo here and working out Whodunnit.  Not so keen on the alternative titles for the Page of Pentacles – spy and thief.  Page of Swords perhaps, but not our earnest little Pentacle!

    I love the pose that the Queen strikes here, with her robe caught upon a breeze or carried by two invisible putti! I can see how she could be an heiress, that could almost be Tamara Ecclestone sitting there.  Minus the skyscraper heels.

    Again we have a very youthful King and one whose weapon of choice seems to be a long bow.  I usually see the King of Pentacles as a Gordon Gekko sort of a guy – prepared to do what it takes to get what material goodies he needs, even if a little on the shady side. But the alternative interpretation for the King feels slightly schizo as a ‘bold but honest dealer’.

    What do you think of these Courts? Not one of them hails from the surviving cards, but they do dove-tail nicely into the Major Arcana cards that still exist.

  • Salvador Dali | Tarot in Art | King and Queen of Swords

    I first fell under the spell of Salvador Dali via his magnificent Christ of St John which was bought (amidst great public hooha – petitions and irate letters to the newspapers) for Glasgow City Council’s Kelvingrove Museum in the 1950s.

    I regularly visit the museum to visit the quiet and contemplative little space they have created for the painting.

    From there I was entranced by soft watches that melted like plasticine on a radiator and spindly-legged creatures that roamed fantastical landscapes.  And amidst the hurricane of clever visuals that appealed to children and art collectors alike, he created a set of Tarot cards.

    And no, I don’t own a copy…… *weeps sadly into her morning coffee*

    ……YET *flicks gaze sideways to make sure hubby isn’t listening*

    The deck was published when the artist was 80 years old – a tribute to his wife and muse, Gala .

    I came across these two beauties which were sold at Christies in London back in 2008.  They had been bought from an anonymous seller five years earlier (also at Christies) and were now being sold by the Judith and Abraham Amar Foundation, in aid of charity.  

    Dali’s work is not always actually Dali’s work, but this King and Queen have been authenticated by the late Robert Descharnes and his son Nicolas, both internationally acclaimed experts in Dali’s work.
    The two images are about A4 sized and are gouache and collage on paper.  With their butterfly motifs, these were both intended to be the images for his Tarot deck’s King and Queen of Swords.  However, in the completed Tarot deck, the King has lost his butterfly motif and has been transformed into the King of Cups.
    And their sale price?
    Queen  £12,500
    King £10,625
    You’re going to need more than a paper-round to finance your Tarot in Art addiction 😀
    Ever purchased a bit of Tarot art from an artist that you love?

  • The King of Cups | Art | Visconti Sforza

    From the workshop of Benifacio Benbo, 
    Il Re di Coppe, 
    Visconti Sforza Tarot
    Yeah, there’s so much of the figure missing that when I looked at this image I thought the King was actually lying in a box with only his legs sticking out.  As if he had been SLIGHTLY overusing his Cups.
    And here’s what The King of Cups looks like when he’s not lying in a box.
    The top image was sold in 2008 at the Milan auction house for Christies for a jaw-dropping 19,500 Euros.
    So the next time your other half rolls his/her eyes at your frantic late-night, wine-fuelled ebay bidding to procure YET ANOTHER tarot deck, you can point out that it’s AN INVESTMENT.
    That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!
    What’s been the most expensive Tarot deck you’ve ever purchased?

  • The Queens of Shoes

    If a picture is worth a thousand words, why not use images to help secure the meanings of the court cards in your head? To this end, I thought we could KICK off today (see what I did there?!) with an exploration of the Tarot Queens through the medium of HIGH-HEELED SHOES!

    *very scholarly face on*

    The Queen of Swords

    Clever, sharp, possessed of a razor wit and allergic to all sorts of flattery or bullshit, the Queen of Swords needs something suitably spiky as her footwear.  I picked this because of the fantastic spiked heel, airy cut-out feel and butterfly motif!

    The Electra by Sophia Webster
    The Queen of Wands
    She helps us handle everything in our lives with passion – if you’re not going to do it REALLY WELL, why bother? says the Queen of Wands.  Mediocre isn’t a word in her vocabulary and she likes to see every challenge as an opportunity.  She can be relentlessly upbeat – very tiring for the rest of us! She is also passionate about passion, hence I chose something really stand-out-sexy for her – tadaaaaah!
    Leopard-print Louboutins, of course!
    The Queen of Cups
    This Queen is focussed on relationships and is very much in touch with her emotions – and helps you get in touch with yours too.  The power of emotions help us to create  – and experience – our inner world, regardless of whether we make love, make oil paintings, make music, make friends or make peace.
    I wanted to find something that was ‘of the sea’ so chose shoes with pearls!  And since she is all about relationships, what better than a pair of lacy wedding shoes?
    Yes, she would rather be wearing flip flops – but one needs to SUFFER for one’s high heel
    Queen of Pentacles

    This Queen’s power is related to home, health and wealth.  She appears if we need to ground ourselves  – a spot of gardening, meditation, physical activity, care of your health, redecorating the spare room etc. But if any Queen was going to extoll the virtues of a the wellington boot, it would the the Queen of Pentacles.  But since there’s no such thing as a practical high heel….. I had to do a powerful lot of googling. Googling shoes.  What hardship.  But the struggle was worth it, for I found this: 
    Grrrr – have lost the source link for this image, sorry!

    But shhhhhh, don’t tell the other Queens or they’ll want them too!

  • The Ancient Tarots of Lombardy | Meet the Families!

    I recently bought a handful of Marseilles-type Tarot decks and the Ancient Tarots of Lombardy is one of them.  This design dates from 1810, according to the box. It is published by Lo Scarabeo and comes with the LWB details (written by Giordano Berti) on cards, rather than a leaflet.  I find this a bit of a faff trying to find the English section amongst the cards.  But that probably says more about my untidy nature than anything else!

    Although I will be looking at the Court cards, I would just add (for review purposes) that the Tower is simply a tower – no flash of lightning or falling figures.  Strength is Major Arcana card XI and shows a powerful man pulling open the jaws of a lion (you wouldn’t put your fingers in his mouth if you were pulling it closed, imo!).  Minors are unillustrated pips.

    FoB – Young friend, messenger
    FoD – Study, reflection, news from a child
    FoS – Espionage, secrecy
    FoC – love messenger
    The Fante equates to the ‘Page’ in other decks.
    What do you think of the Danari and Coppe Fante cards being shown from a rear view (and what a pert little rear that Bastoni chap has, don’t you think?!)  And what’s with the swan neck on the Fante of Danari (Pents)?  Nice to see the Fante of Spade (Swords) marching like a little soldier and the dreamy Fante of Coppes (Cups) has decided to wander off somewhere……  
    CoB – Enterprising, fiery man
    CoD – Useful, obliging strange person
    CoS – Ability, hot temper, imprudence
    CoC – young lover, intimate friend
    The Cavale equates to the Knight card.
    Look at all these Cavale – or rather look at their horses’ asses, because that’s pretty much what we’re presented with here!  By presenting us with the back view of these cards, how do you feel? That you are witnessing action, unseen? 
    The Cavale of Wands and the Cavale of Spade are in almost identical poses (with the exception of the activity levels of their horses).  The Cavale of Coppe looks absolutely lost….but the Cavale of Danari looks like a young Alexander The Great, or Napoleon.
    Note that the Cavale of Danari and Cups don’t hold their symbols.  The Cups Knight isn’t even looking at his symbol….
    RoB – Friendship with mature woman
    RoD – Severe but generous woman
    RoS – Widowhood, sadness
    RoC – Woman friend, wife, fiancee
    No surprises here – Regina equates to the Queen cards.
    The Queens are, other than the symbol of their suit, quite personality-less. Queen of Swords has sceptre and sword and looks quite cheerful for a widow.
    Again, notice how Danari and Cups do not hold their symbols
    RoB – good relations with mature man
    RoD – Well-disposed speculator
    RoS – Legal actions
    RoC – Business or law man
    Re equates to the standard King card.
    The Kings are all mature, except King of Swords who looks substantially younger than the others.
    All sit in more or less same position.  Danari doesn’t hold his suit symbol, but does hold some kind of sceptre.  Take a good look at the King of Swords – he looks genuinely startled – see his left hand and expression.
    King of Cups has ram’s head on throne and the King of Pentacles has man’s head on throne, neither of which correlate to astrological associations currently used for these Courts.
    Summary
    I’ll be honest, I didn’t like this deck when I started examining it.  The long neck of the Fante of Cups was a bit freaky (and a couple of the head/necks in the Major arcana are similar) and the bog-standard representation of the Queens left me cold.  However, the style of the deck is growing on me and I must admit, the etchings are beautiful.
    If you like a lot of symbolism in your decks then this might not be for you, but if you are an experienced reader, looking for something classically-inspired to add to your collection, this might just be for you.
    Do you own this deck? What do you think of it?  

  • Meet The Family | Ancient Italian Tarot | Lo Scarabeo

    I don’t know about you, but I’m increasingly drawn to antique Tarot decks and this Ancient Italian Tarot from Lo Scarabeo is currently one of my favourites.

    I believe that the original engravings for this deck were made by a prominent Milanese engraver named Carlo Dellarocca.  This is the 1880 version of the deck, published by Lo Scarabeo (my copy dates from 2000).  As far as traditions go, this deck is a Marseilles-based deck (unillustrated pips, Justice VIII/Strength XI) with Majors and Court titles in Italian only.  These old decks are untrammelled by Golden Dawn influence and I find them extremely refreshing!

    One of my Tarot bug-bears is that the Court section of a deck can feel poorly thought out, with little or no consideration going in to the personalities of the 16 characters and the traits that each conveys. But in this deck, they are very distinct personalities – even if they are not quite what you expect!

     Let’s meet the Fantes, Cavales, Reginas and Res!

    Page (unexpected news) Knight (traveller) Queen (friend) King (entrepreneur)

    We have the Bastoni family, or Wands to you and me.  Notice how the club is quite different in each image.  The Fante (or Page) holds a large, rough-hewn club emphasising the unformed, beginning nature of the Page…the Cavale (Knight) holds something that seems to have a bit of a dent in it, the Queen’s club is very decorative and the King’s enormous  ……. club…..leaves us in no doubt that he’s the main man!

    Colour-wise – this family show a lot of green – the living, vital wand.  There is also red for the fire of Wands.  But heck – colour might not count for anything other than what the printers had available to them at the time – this is a pre-GD deck after all!

    Take a good look at the Pages in the Ancient Italian – they’re all considerably older than many modern decks portray them!

    Page (researcher) Knight (mercenary) Queen (widow) King (lawyer)

    The Spade (Swords) family look quite pleasant sorts, even though every last one of them is tooled up for a fight!  What do you make of the Queen’s robe, folded into an opening between her legs? One of the LWB meanings for her is ‘sterility’  Hmmm – maybe I’m reading too much into the folds of that robe, which looks to me like a ‘fachina’ (as my son used to call it).

    Colour-wise – one might say that a sky blue is the common denominator?  Suitable for Airy Swords! But look! Also a lot of red!

    Notice how all the swords are depicted at an angle, except the King’s – his sword is bolt upright and he is, of course, scrupulously fair in his dealings with people. The Fante’s sword is almost upright, but he also sports a little dagger at his waist – suggesting that duplicitous nature that we know and luff about the Page of Swords.

    Page (messenger of luff) Knight (passionate but unfaithful lover) Queen (lover/wife) King (Artist/mature person)

    Take a good look at the Cups or Coppe family – this is the only family group where there is not a single weapon on show (the King of Danari has a sword too).  This family’s power is founded in relationship – the love is mightier than the sword, if you will.

    The Coppe family memberes are decked out in blue – suitable for a suit associated with Water.  And red prevalent in this lot too!

    All the Knights in the deck approach their family from the right hand side (except Danari enters from the left!) and have horses moving at different speeds, but the slowest looking horse is given to the Knight of Wands.  In post-Golden-Dawn decks, this is the VERY boy you would expect to have the fastest horse!

    Page (student) Cavale (consultant/arrogance) Queen (Heiress, greed, marriage of convenience) King (business/rich man)

    Meet the Danari family AKA Pentacles.  Notice how in this family, the Cavale and King both have Swords in addition to their suit symbol.  For the Cavale the coin hangs in the air in front of him and he doesn’t look hugely interested in it as he canters along behind it with his unsheathed sword resting on his breast.  The King also has a sword, but it remains in its scabbard behind him.  He is the only King who LOOKS at his suit symbol and holds another one on his knee – the getting of material goodies is important to this guy!

    The meanings ascribed to the Page and Cavale are more what I would expect from the Swords characters….. the ‘mercenary’ nature of the Swords Knight I would probably associate with the Knight of Pentacles.  In this deck, the Knight of Danari is so clearly following the money!

    Colourwise? Nothing really jumps out at me – other than the Queen’s golden skirt! Lots of red, blue and green *sigh*

    So, what conclusions can I draw about the Courts of the Ancient Italian Tarot?

    They are very attractively portrayed and each one is a unique character.  There is no real colour-coding of the suit families, but then we are looking at a deck that predates this tendency.  The etchings are refined and the cards are beautifully coloured throughout the deck

    The meanings ascribed to the cards are, on the whole, as we generally understand them to be, with the exception of the Fante and Cavale of Danari who are described more like Swordy types.  And the Cavale of Swords is described more like the Danari chap should be.  Solution? I suggest just swapping around those descriptions so that they keep with your understanding of these courts.

    What do you think of the Ancient Italian Tarot families?  What’s your favourite Marseilles-type deck?