Tarot Thrones | The Court Card Blog

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  • 30 Day Tarot Challenge | Day 5

    Tarot, 30 Day Tarot challenge, Tarot Thrones
    My first Tarot client wore these!
    Any time I see red Dr Ms, I think of her 🙂

    Question:  When and where did you give your first reading?

    My first proper, paid reading was at Witchfest in Glasgow.  Can’t remember the year, but there were two other stalwarts from TABI who had travelled up from England to take part in this annual event.

    I was as nervous as a very nervous thing.  In fact, I’d say I was as nervous as the MOST nervous thing and as we set up our reading stations I realised that I was the most poorly prepared of the trio.

    Well, it was my first time!

    The tables were using as reading stations were pretty tatty and my colleagues produced the most wonderful reading cloths and swathes of silk to prettify their stalls.  I had nothing.  Well, I had a supermarket plastic bag and I contemplated turning it inside out and using that. Even I knew that would look even more rubbish than the chewing-gum bobbled tabletop. In the end I just went with the naked table. Brave.

    My colleagues had bowls of sweets, business cards and a myriad of different decks.  I had my Rider Waite Smith.  And was developing perspiration stains under my arms.

    Soon there were lots of people queuing up for readings, but such was my nervousness, I kept directing my potential sitters to the other two readers.

    Then the lovely Sharon announced that she and the other reader were going for a cup of tea.  Basically, to force me to read!  Well, I’m assuming it was that.  Maybe they were just fed up with me looking like a frightened puppy in the corner.

    And so it came to pass that a very sweet girl wearing purple feathery wings and red Doc Marten boots (and other clothes!) became my first paid reading.

    It was nerve-racking – but really good fun!

    She was very pleased with her reading – and that was it!  I’ve never looked back.

    So, you know what’s coming next…..tell me about YOUR first Tarot reading! Was it fun? Was it a disaster?

  • Imbolc Tarot Blog Hop | Fire in the belly

    Tarot Thrones blog: The Queen of Wands (Thoth Tarot)
    My inspiration!

     The theme for Imbolc’s Tarot bog hop is ‘what is in your belly’.

    If this is your first time to my blog, you are very welcome indeed.  This Game of Thrones (AKA Tarot Thrones) focuses on the Tarot court cards and aims to make them fun and accessible.  Come in and sit down *dusts down a comfy armchair and offers it*

    You may have hopped here from Chloe’s Celtic Lenormand or from Donna’s blog.

    So, what’s in my Tarot belly for 2013?

    So much!  Too much maybe!  Which Tarot Court has a lot of fire in her belly? The Queen of Wands!

    The Queen of Wands says:  It’s not enough to simply have fire in your belly, you must birth it too!  Set yourself – and the world! – on fire with your passions! She urges you to ignite, light and heat the world around you.  Will you do that?

    Here’s how I plan to!

    1  The Tarot Thrones blog!
    I started this blog in 2012 and really enjoy writing it – although writing solely about the Tarot Courts can be taxing! If you know anyone who would like a little help with how to use tarot cards (courts especially!), I’d love it if you could point them in my direction.  Also, if you have any questions that you would like me to tackle, just drop me a message and I’m happy to write something especially for you!

    2  The Glasgow Tarot Meet Up Group!
    I took over as Administrator for this group over a year ago and we have gone from an initial meeting of three people to 20+ regularly meeting up monthly to explore the wonderful world of Tarot.  I deliver all the 2 hour sessions at the moment, but it is part of the fire in my belly for 2013 to organise a whole weekend of Tarot for the membership – speakers, authors, the whole nine yards!   Now that we have found a spiritual home with the Glasgow Theosophical Society, I really feel that we can get something off the ground!  Is that something that you would like to be involved in? If so, I’d love to hear from you.

    3  Tarot website work
    I am very lucky to work with some wonderful Tarot authors and artists, running their websites and assisting with their on-line presence.  It would really stoke the creative fire in my belly to have some more Tarot or art orientated clients in 2013 as I love supporting their work and, of course, as a Tarotist I’m already in the zone as to what your requirements might be.

    4  Tarot work!
    I was the Chairman of the Tarot Association of The British Isles for over four years *twitches involuntarily* 🙂  Only joking, I loved it, of course, and always gave 110% effort – putting TABI’s needs above my own, as far as Tarot work (and heck, yes, even my family in some instances!).  In 2013 it’s time for me to focus on my own career.  Getting everything off the ground again isn’t easy, but the Queen of Wands is a useful woman for prodding me!

    I’m also booked to provide a session on Court Cards at Kim Arnold’s UK Tarot Conference in October – which will be very exciting! I’ve lectured in Business Studies at college before and run a few conferences for TABI, but never been asked to speak at Tarot Conference before – so I’m really looking forward to that!  Maybe even see you there?!

    5  Tarot e-books!
    Gone are the days when you had to have a publisher agree to take on your work – nowadays it’s all about e-commerce and self-publishing.  I’ve got lots of ideas for useful Tarot e-books, so that’s a fire in my belly for 2013 too!

    5  My own Oracle deck!
    This last point is what fires me up the most about 2013.  The greatest fire in my belly is to create my own Oracle deck.  I’ve been in the Tarot world for 10 years now – a great many of them have involved reviewing and writing about Tarot books and decks.  I’ve got pretty clear ideas about what makes a good working deck.  And so I’m creating my own.

    The research and writing part of the development is mostly done and I’m already blessed with an artist who is keen to be involved in the project – providing he can fit it in to his busy schedule! At the moment, the illustrations for the cards are just my own sketches, but a good artist will make it look a whole lot better!

    So, that’s the fire in my belly for Imbolc – what’s the fire in YOUR belly, this Spring?  Will you be able to do as the Queen of Wands commands?!

    Hop to the other blogs in the chain!

    Got lost? Here’s the master list: http://tarotwitchery.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/tarot-blog-hop-master-list.html

  • 30 Day Tarot Challenge | Day 4

    You’re going on a journey……
    and acquiring an expensive habit

    Question 4: How long have you been reading the Tarot?

     Bought my first Tarot deck yonks ago – but couldn’t read with it without referring to the Little White Book, which is no way to read Tarot cards!

     I joined TABI (The Tarot Association of The British Isles) in, I think, 2003 and undertook their training course. I could read the cards competently after that.

    However, it’s an ongoing process – you are always learning and discovering something new to add to your knowledge about the cards.
    That’s what I love about them. I hate using the expression ‘it’s a journey’ *rolls her eyes* but hey, yanno, it IS a journey!

     Hey, it’s just dawned on me that I’m 10 years THIS YEAR in the Tarot world!!!

     A DECADE!! <- yes, shouting 😀

    *suddenly feels august, sage and yes, Mary-Beard-like*  That is, now that I think about it, longer than my marriage lasted.  Mind you I have stuff in the fridge that lasted longer than my marriage 😀

    So it’s my 10th Tarot birthday – anybody bring a party tooter? Bottle of sherry?

    So – now YOU tell ME how long you’ve been reading the Tarot! I also have a question for you – Do you think that knowing someone has been reading for decades makes them a better Tarot reader than someone who has been reading for a shorter period of time, but who’s studied until their eyes bled and their credit card squeaked for mercy?

    *pops open the Pringles crisps, pours self a small sherry, twangs the elastic on her party hat under her chin and waits for pals to turn up*

  • Here’s looking at you, Court

    Honestly, I’m wearing a battered fedora and the smoke from a cigarette drifts nonchalantly from the corner of my mouth as I utter those words to you.  Look *points to Ingrid Bergman in the corner*.

    This post has got nothing to do with fedoras, fags or Casablanca.  It’s about the courts.  Of course.

    I find that working with the direction that a Court Card is facing can yield some interesting interpretative options to your Tarot readings.

    Here are a couple of random samples from the DruidCraft’s court:

    The Queen of Wands doesn’t seem in the least perturbed by the galloping of her Prince (the equivalent of the more usual Knight) towards her at a great rate of knots.  He is moving towards her – so for me he’s riding home.

    Maybe he’s having difficulty breaking the familial bonds with his mother?

    Swap ’em about and you still have the Queen not looking terribly bothered about her offspring, but now we have him riding off,  away from her.  The bonds are broken, he’s away to do his own thang – possibly helped by a swift point in his horse’s rump by his mother’s Wand?!

    In the second example, we have the dreamy Prince of Cups holding his golden chalice aloft, towards the Princess of Pentacles.  It looks as if he is raising his glass in a toast to her.  But the little Princess is completely focussed on her Pentacle.  She’s got no time for dreamy boys.  Yet.

    Switch them around, now they are standing back to back.  Is he her protector, her defender? Does his presence allow her the freedom to be a child a little longer?

    Mix the pairings up.  Now we have the Prince of Wands riding slap bang into the back of the little Princess.  This guy could seriously do her a damage – she’s no idea that he is bearing down.  Her Princely protector is gone….. it feels like there is going to be the most awful crash, and the innocence of the little Princess may be lost!

    In the other pairing, the Prince of Cups is now looking at our somewhat detached Queen of Wands.  He offers up his Chalice and she offers up her Wand.  Although she doesn’t look at him, I get the feeling that she won’t exactly send him off with his tail between his legs if he comes a knocking on her bedroom door at night!

    The Courts don’t even have to be looking at another Court for this technique to add a little more colour to your readings.  What do you think? Give it a try and let me know how you get along!

  • Tarot Podcast No: 3

    This is the podcast that I made from the Talk Tarot show that was broadcast by Radio Bute on Monday, 21 January.

    It lasts about 30 minutes – but you can download it and play it off-line.  I’d imagine that it’s excellently soporific!!

    I would love to hear from you if you’ve got any ideas or improvements that I can make.

    Or even just a moosical dedication that you’d like to hear 🙂

    https://soundcloud.com/alison-cross/tarotpodcast3

  • 30 Day Tarot Challenge | Day 3

    Question 3 in the Tarot Challenge:


    Do you have more than one deck that you use, and, if so, do you have a favorite? If not, why do you like the deck you have chosen?


    I think that most Tarotists develop the compulsion to add to their deck collections!  Sometimes it is just the amazing art that attracts you to a deck, sometimes it’s a system or mythology that you love to work with.  Sometimes it’s just the thrill of the new.  Yes, I am a Tarotholic.  I am only about 4 days ‘clean’ and not anticipating to run to many more.  I love, love, new decks!


    I do have a favourite.  Actually, a couple of favourites.


    My comfy-slippers deck is the Rider Waite Smith – either the Original or the Centenary Edition.  Yes, they’re pretty much identical, but the Queen of Swords looks a lot less po-faced in the Centenary Edition, I think!


    I have loved the DruidCraft Tarot since I first laid eyes on it and I can honestly say that I use it every single day.  I love the ethos behind it.  I love the art of Will Worthington beyond words.  


    I am his biggest fan.  *said in same tone of voice as Kathy Bates in Stephen King’s Misery* 😀


    I’ve used The Druidcraft in lots of posts on this blog – too numerous to list!


    My newest love is Alexander Daniloff’s Tarot which I love TO DEATH.  It’s one of those decks that just sings out to me – the colour, the style of the artwork, the humorous touches.  Right up my Tarot street! I’ve already written about his Court Cards – you can check them out here


    I’m also a teeny bit in love with the Lenormand Revolution Oracle by Roz Foster and Carrie Paris.  Again, I am absolutely loving Roz Foster’s artwork across the cards.  The overall effect is a consistent, clean and damned attractive deck.  Now all I need to do is learn how to read with it!


    A good Tarot deck is, for me, something that has plenty of symbolism in it to get the ol’ juices flowing as far as intuition goes.  


    I’m increasingly drawn to old decks – perhaps I’m searching for interpretations, lost over the years and hundreds of decks that have now been published.


    So – why don’t you tell me what YOUR favourite Tarot deck is – give me a link to it.  Help me feed my addiction 😀

  • Just keep swimming……

    Paddling like mad?

    So, I haven’t fallen down some cunningly-disguised rabbit hole in the park.  I’m still here, but still not quite mastering the juggling act that is required for my life right now.

    Some people make it all look so seamlessly easy, but I wonder whether they are like swans – all glamour on the surface, but paddling like crazy beneath the water line:

    Or maybe they’ve got a nanny.  Or a woman that Comes In And Does.

    I can live without a nanny – Sonshine goes to secondary school now.  Although I admit there are some evenings when he sits plaintively next to the computer, willing me to drag myself away from the flickering blue screen and down to the kitchen to make some food.

    Hmmm – maybe I should still consider a nanny.

    A woman (or man!) who can clean and tidy? I would LOVE someone to come in and do the housework around me  Like my mother, but without the attitude.

    But here’s the thing.

    *whispers*  I don’t REALLY need one.  If I could just learn to handle things in the right order, I’m pretty confident that I would stop wakening up at 3am worrying about how far behind I am with….EVERYTHING.

    Y’see, I am very good at dealing with urgent things.  But not terribly good at avoiding the urgent and UNIMPORTANT things.  That’s why you’ll find me fiddling on Facebook while Rome metaphorically burns around me.  Well, that’s a bit dramatic – a stack of laundry with the dimensions of a small European country teeters precariously behind me.

    So, today it’s allllll about the time management.  And the Courts, of course.

    Using the DruidCraft Tarot deck:

    THE TIME MANAGEMENT SPREAD

    Dear Druidcraft I’ve got THREE questions for you:

    1  WHO can possibly help me improve my time management?
    2  HOW will this character help me improve my time management?
    3  WHAT does this character warn me against?

    Card 1 – who helps me?  (chosen from the 16 courts, randomly)

    This is good, I like the Queen of Wands.  But I’m feeling that she’s literally here to put a rocket up my ass. Which is less good.  Look at that Wand.  Pointy. You don’t want that anywhere near your ass. Look at that heavily-lidded expression.  She’s not about to take any of my limp-wristed excuses for continually fannying about, is she?

    The fire that burns behind her is where I need to put my rubbish.  And for ‘rubbish’ read ‘most of what I do every day’.  Do I REALLY need to read up every page posting to my time line on facebook? Do I REALLY need to read the conversations between magazine columnists on Twitter? No – I don’t.  Do I need to spend hours going over and over the Radio Bute Tarot Show? No, I don’t.  By all means get it done and get it sounding good, but don’t agonise over every mangled vowel or stumbled word.  Continue to edit out the frustrated profanity though 🙂

    The Queen of Wands is all about taking action, but she’s not rushing about like a mad thing is she? She’s seated on her throne.  This Queen knows how to get things done without getting caught up in BUSY.

    I could certainly do with a dose of that.

    Card 2: HOW does she help me?  (chosen from rest of cards)

    The Queen of Wands is going to help me by jabbing me with her Wand and reminding me of the importance of the Ace of Cups

    The Cups suit is all about emotions and relationship.  I think the key here is relationship.  What is my relationship to what is taking up my time?

     “Never allow someone to be your priority while allowing yourself to be their option.” 
                                                                                Mark Twain




    I think that I need to bear this in mind.  What are the relationships that count? Focus on THEM.

    Card 3: What does The Queen of Wands warn me against?

    She warns me against a trait of her own suit – 10 of Wands – failing to handle my various ‘Wands’ properly.  The guy in this card could easily carry that bundle – they’re hardly heavy-looking.  But he’s turning it into a real meal because he’s not sussed out how to handle them efficiently.  Be efficient.  I need to be efficient.

    So – in summary – my time management can be improved by The Queen of Wands.  Use her energies to discern what relationships are important to me AND matter to the other party too.  That’s where I should focus.  Get efficient – it’s not that I’m doing too much, I’m handling it badly.  Get my bundle sorted out and all will be well.

    Where are YOU not efficient in your life? Try the spread and see what comes up for you – I’d love to know whether it helps you!

    ……so a couple of hours have gone past since I did this reading and I’ve decided that my relationship HERE with YOU is important to me.  We’ll see what the Queen of Wands has got to say about that!

  • Who are you?

    Prince of Coins: Transformational Tarot
    Arnell Ando

    Before I get stuck in to this blog post there’s something I need to say:

    HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!  *blows party tooter and offers every reader a small glass of sherry*

    It’s a new year and we tend to commit ourselves to doing all manner of impractical things at New year.

    For example, I have a friend who has vowed to do one more sit up every day with a view to being able to do 365 sit ups at the end of the year.  And have a stomach like a washboard.  We’re not even into double digits in January and she has already fallen by the wayside.

    I myself have decided to throw myself into my Mid Life Crisis by asking for a Tarot Radio Show on my local community radio station (Radio Bute – Mondays 2pm GMT).  I have completed one show – pre-recorded to avoid huge chasms of dead airtime., the jangling of my bracelets and the odd inadvertent profanity.  It’s not easy, but it’s a huge amount of fun!

    So, to the exercise – who are you?!

    Get a sheet of paper and mark out an equal armed cross. Like this:

    I am a quality artist, right? 😀
    A4 size would be good, because you’ll be writing on it. Mark the top left quadrant Wands, the top right Swords, the bottom right Pentacles and the bottom left as Cups. Then draw a circle, centred over the crossing point of the cross’s arms the radius of which should be about half of the length of each cross arm. So basically you have got a cross with a circle in the middle 😀

    Inside this circle represents YOU and outside this circle represents NOT YOU.

    Now go and get your Court Cards – find a nice, expressive set for this exercise if you can.

    Go through your court cards and write the names of those that resonate with you (ie that you recognise their energies in your life) within the circle in the appropriate quadrant. Those that do not resonate with you, write outside of the circle in the appropriate quadrant.

    Once you have done this for all 16 Court Cards, take a look at the following:

    1 Is there one suit that dominates within the circle
    2 Is there one suit that seems to lie largely outside the circle
    3 How is the circle for Suit Yin/Yang dominance (Cups and Pents are Yin)
    4 Is there a rank (eg Page, King) that you notice a predominance/absence of in your circle?
    5 Is there rank Yin/Yang dominance within/outwith the circle?

    6  If Wands are (Yang/Yang), Swords (Yang/Yin), Pents (Ying/Yang) and Cups (Yin/Yin), so you have more cards within the circle on the left hand of the vertical axis (the Yang side) than on the left (Yin side)

    Take a close look at your answers – this is how you see yourself!

    Everything that lies outside of the circle are qualities that you don’t recognise in yourself
    Everything inside the circle is what you do recognise
    Are you selling yourself short?  
    Here’s what I believe (warning – this is not scientific!).  I believe that we are ALL of the Court Cards – but (crucially!) not all the time.  If you leave those courts outside of your field of influence (outside the circle) you could be doing yourself a huge disservice.  There are lots of wonderful qualities in all the Courts – why not have access to them all?!
    Tell me, what ideas do you have that could start integrating these ‘outcast’ personality traits to your circle?

  • Yule Blog Hop | 12 Oracles of Christmas

    Hello and welcome to my blog *plumps up the velvet cushion on best chair*  You may just have moseyed in here by chance or be studiously working your way through the 22 blogs taking part in this Yule hop.  Christiana Gaudet is the blog before me and Arwen Lynch is the blog after me.  Whichever way you reach me, I am really pleased to see you here!

    My blog focuses on the Tarot court and the theme of the Yule blog hop is ‘Christmas Presents’.  So I thought that my Christmas Present to YOU on this blog is a short slideshow (featuring the Courts – of course!) outlining 12 great Tarot and Oracle decks that you might want to PRESENT to yourself! Maybe as a little treat to yourself for just GETTING THROUGH THE SEASON WITHOUT RESORTING TO MURDERING A FAMILY MEMBER 😀

    Grab  coffee and enjoy the show!

     If you are interested in procuring one of these lovely decks for yourself, here are some places that you can buy them:

    12  The Camelot Oracle (John Matthews and Will Worthington)
    11  The Dreaming in Color Lumen deck (Mindy Somers)
    10  The Steele Wizard Tarot (Pamela Steele)
    9   The Mary-El (Marie White)
    8   The Ma’at Tarot (Julie Cuccia-Watts)
    7   The Gaian Tarot (Joanna Powell-Colbert)
    6   The Touchstone Tarot (Kat Black)
    5   The Margarete Petersen Tarot (Margarete Petersen)
    4   The Wildwood Tarot (Mark Ryan, John Matthews and Will Worthington)
    3   Le Petit Eclectique Lenormand (Helen Riding and various artists) ** possibly not available yet **
    2   The DruidCraft Tarot (Philip and Stephanie Carr-Gomm, Will Worthington)
    1   The Tarot of Alexander Daniloff (Alexander Daniloff)

    If you would like to learn more about working with Court Cards, please sign up for my newsletter and become a ‘follower’ of the blog!

    <—–You can ho! ho! hop backwards or…..

    Ho! Ho! Hop forwards!   —->

    I hope that you have a wonderful Christmas, Yule, Midwinter Festival…..whatever you want to call it…..have a wonderful one!

    Any breaks in the chain?  Check out the master list !

  • 30 Day Tarot Challenge | Day 2

    DAY 2:  What was your first deck and why/how did you get it?

    The first deck that I bought was back in the 1980s and it was a Marseilles Tarot.  I bought it, not because I was drawn to the artwork, but because it was the only Tarot deck that I could find in Glasgow.

    Why did I get it? I can’t remember what spurred me into buying it….probably a desire to be Solitaire in Live and Let Die …… or maybe an episode of Tales of the Unexpected?

    I do remember that I was pretty desperate to get my paws on a set!

    However, I wasn’t enamoured of the blocky, naive artwork of the Marseillesl, but hell, you have to just take things as you find them, right?

    I do remember feeling very wicked when I bought them – as if I’d just bought something very illicit!  I trundled back home on the train, walked the mile home and then sneaked the cards up into my bedroom.  Like most folks, I started doing readings for myself as soon as I could get the cardboard packet open!

    Of course, the LWB was a very necessary part of the equation – I had not a clue what any of the cards meant!  A couple of weeks later I found myself back in the bookshop and procuring Alfred Douglas’s book, The Tarot to help flesh out my readings.

    Even with the book, I was hardly knuckling down to learning the cards’ keywords – my inner Pages of Pentacles and Swords had not kicked in at that point! I was still having to refer to the LWB and Alfred Douglas’s book – but still coming up with interesting readings (but they took aaaaaaages to do!)

    And after I scared myself witless giving myself a reading that turned out to be too accurate to be comfortable, the cards were shut away in a sports’ hold-all and I turned my attention to nights out clubbing with my girlfriends and buying DREADFUL 1980s clothes 😀

    I think that I gave the cards and book to my sister in law in the end……

    If you want to take part in the Tarot Challenge, you can find the full list of questions here: http://78keys.tumblr.com/post/36652622634/30-day-tarot-challenge