Tarot Thrones | The Court Card Blog

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  • Tarot and Self Care

    Tarot and Self Care

    Sometimes in a reading, the subject of self care can come up. This might be as straightforward as a positional value within the spread called ‘self care suggestions’ or it might be when you are summing up the reading and giving your client some suggestions on what might be useful for them, given their situation.

    You might look at the card image to pull some suggestions from whatever activities are taking place amongst the characters of the card. Which is great. But not every card image will yield something useful in that respect. In such cases, you might want to consider information about the SUIT that has arisen in this positional value, rather than the card itself?

    If this is something that might prove useful to you, I spotted this self-care meme on facebook this afternoon and have amended it to reflect the four suits and suggested self-care options.

    You may not agree with how I have allocated them – that’s totally fine. Select a couple for each suit and you will have some useful information in your back pocket, should you need it.

    I’d love to hear about any self-care ideas that you employ in your Tarot work.

  • Pamela Colman Smith | Family History

    Pamela Colman Smith | Family History

    This idea that PCS was bi-racial does the rounds from time to time and it’s something I’ve always wondered about myself. Time to do a spot of detective work on the ol’ intertubes.

    What do we know? From Pamela Colman-Smith’s wiki page, we think that her mother was from Jamaica and her father was an American. The idea that Pixie was bi-racial seems to stem from her mother’s side of the family and that Jamaica connection. But, what’s the evidence?

    Her mother was a Colman and her father was a Smith. Let’s break it back from there. Let’s look at the grand parents first.

    Pixie’s grandfather – Cyrus Porter Smith

    Cyrus P Smith was Mayor of Brooklyn for two years and went on to become a senator. When he died, the New York Times described him as ‘one of Brooklyn’s most prominent and respected citizens’.

    He had seven children, one of whom was Charles Edward Smith, who became Pixie’s father. Here he is in all his glory.

    Charles Edward Smith – Pixie’s father
    from this tripod site

    This is a sketch of Pixie’s maternal grandmother, Pamela Chandler Colman from the frontispiece of a book that she wrote for her daughter, Corinne. Corinne went on to become Pixie’s mother.

    Corinne Colman had a famous brother, the water-colourist Samuel Colman. And here HE is in all his glory too.

    Samuel Colman

    The sepia photograph above shows Corrine’s younger sister celebrating her 50th wedding anniversary.

    From this entry in Wiki tree for the birth and death details of Corrine Colman (Smith), it looks as though Corrine was born in Boston, not Jamaica. Note that the publishers of the book are Colman of Boston.

    It does seem that Pixie’s mother died in St Andrews, Jamaica in 1896.

    This sketch shows Corrine Colman as a child, the mother of Pamela Colman Smith, again from a sketch in a book that her mother wrote for her.

    The maternal side of the family tree (Colman, and further back to Chandler) has been traced back to the earliest settlers in the US HERE. in this fabulous ancestry database.

    All the imagery leads me to conclude that although Pixie had strong links to Jamaica in her early life when her parents moved the family to Kingston in 1889 (because of her father’s job with the West India Improvement Company) and that her mother died there in 1896, her mother’s family were not FROM Jamaica, but instead from Massachusetts/New Hampshire, specifically Boston and Maine.

  • Fake v Genuine Wildwood Tarots

    Fake v Genuine Wildwood Tarots

    So, I’m an admin for The Wildwood Tarot’s fb page and website. There are a lot of counterfeit decks out there. I made a video (8 mins?) to help you sift the fakes from the genuines.

    I hope it helps.

  • Making your 2020 Court Card work for You Part 2

    Making your 2020 Court Card work for You Part 2

    I find that one of the trickiest things in working with a card of the day, month, year etc is that I often forget all about it. Maybe it’s my age. I went into the fridge to look for tea bags the other day…

    The best way to remember things that I’ve found are visual reminders that prompt me every time I see them.

    First of all, study your court card and find something in it that you can recognise as a symbol of it: For example, crescent moon, rearing horse, black cat.

    Nothing in your card that springs out?

    Have a think about the keywords that you chose the other day, to help you manifest that card’s energies in everything that you do… what springs to mind as a symbol for that?

    Still nothing coming to mind?

    No problem! Pick a symbol that you really enjoy and perform a ritual to create an association between the symbol and your court card. Although that symbol might not be present, a strong ritual will forge that link between the card and the

    Here are 3 ways to employ prompts to help with your 2020 court card:

    Tarot Court Cards on Your Gadgets: We all seem to be welded to our phones these days – use the image of your Court Card as your phone or tablet lock screen, or your screensaver or background on your laptop or desktop.

    Court Cards on Your Keys: Whether you live in rented or owned accommodation, you’ve got house keys. You might even have car keys. How about splashing out on a personaliseable (My God, is that even a word?!) key ring? You can get this kind of thing from Amazon for £3.50

    Snap in a print-out of your court card and you’re off! Even better, check out the Tarot’s creator site and see what they have created to go along with their deck – you might find they have key rings etc already made!

    Tarot Court Cards on Your handbag: For most of my life, I existed without owning a handbag. I used plastic bags from supermarkets or simply stuffed everything I needed into my pockets. A few months into my first job, my appalled colleague pulled me aside and gifted me one of her hand bags. And thus started my downfall dependence on a handbag.

    If you use one every day, why not look for some kind of charm that you associate with the card or your chosen symbol that you can clip to a zip on your hand bag.

    Other ideas:

    Jewellery – google is your friend and your worst nightmare for this one!
    Bookmark – you read, right? Think … pendants? bracelet charms?
    Mug – you’ve got to drink your coffee, right?
    Bag – makeup bag, pencil case etc
    Framed Print (sounds grand – but could be £2.00 IKEA print and image from magazine!)

    None of them appeal? Go to Google and type in some of those keywords that you created the other day to associate with your card’s energies. Then hit ‘images’ and see what wildness pops up. You might find something outrageous and magical that will be a delight to use every day! Also – might net some results that are NSFW!

    … and get ready for next year – see who your card is for 2021 and keep your eyes open in 2020 for marvellous visual triggers!

  • 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 Spirit Keeper’s Tarot | Benbell Wen

    The Seeker’s card
    Spirit Keeper’s Tarot

    This is the first edition of Benbell’s Spirit Keeper’s Tarot deck and it’s not so much a Tarot deck as an entire Tarot universe, presented in a set of cards.

    But, let’s start with the basics: the box is super-sturdy with a lift off top, in black with white detail – very striking. Inside you get a copy of the deck and a substantial Little White Book (80 pages).

    (more…)

  • The Relative Tarot | Carrie Paris | Kickstarter

    Carrie Paris is a creative powerhouse, no question!

    Her latest creation is The Relative Tarot and it’s her first time raising funds via Kickstarter. When I saw the project it was 98% funded with a month still to run. We are now a couple of days further down the line and the Relative Tarot is now 100% funded!

    Carrie Paris

    I’m a fan of crowd-funding. It allows people to quickly produce something for a ready market without any artistic compromise being necessary. Not always the case if you opt for the traditional publishing route.

    I was extremely interested in the deck because the impetus for this deck originated in a Majors and Court Cards only deck. I had so many questions about the deck, its genesis, the super-packed benefits package for backers, what else could I do but ask Carrie if she might be willing to answer some questions for Tarot Thrones.

    Ever gracious, she agreed!

    But before we dive in to the questions, here’s a brief video that I made of the Court Cards. You can see all of the cards in the deck over at the project, of course.

    The Relative Tarot, by Carrie Paris
    Me: First of all – congratulations – you still have 30 days to go on your kickstarter project and are already at 99% funded!

    CP: Thank you! As of today the Relative Tarot is fully funded and I am blown away by the support. As our colleague and friend James Wells has pointed out, the ancestors must want this deck to be made.

    Me: I have some questions about the deck : D

    This was originally a Majors and Court Card deck – what prompted you to push ahead to a full Tarot deck? 

    CP: I came into the world of divination through tarot, yet most of my products are charm casting kits and Lenormand decks. Creating a full deck always seemed daunting so I made every excuse to not make one. But then something switched in me— call it age, inspiration or a combination of the two, one day I just woke up wanting to make the full version and away I went. Once the decision was made, all doors opened right down to the campaigns fast funding. I think there’s a lot of truth to what James said. This deck wanted to be made.

    Me: In fact, it’s more than a full Tarot deck, The Relative Tarot has 84 cards! Tell me briefly about the additional cards and why you created them.

    CP: I have thousands of cabinet cards, which serve as key models in the Relative Tarot. This is both a challenge and blessing. I love that I have so many great options to choose from but have found it challenging to limit certain cards to one image and for this reason you will find an additional, High Priestess and Wheel of Fortune as well as two cards titled World and Universe. There are also 3 options for the Lovers card and since this deck gives focus to the Birth and Annual cards I’ve made twin versions of the Strength and Justice cards so that both are assigned the number 8 and 11. I for one follow the Marseille number system though I know most follow the RWS.

    Me: If the deck is successfully funded, the project will expand to include a 36-card oracle – can you tell me briefly about the Oracle?

    CP: We have surpassed our funding goal so all roads lead to the printing of this deck. The 36 card oracle, which is called the Spirt Card oracle is something that evolved through a privateRelative Tarot Facebook group. I started this group as a way for our community to get involved in the making of the Relative Tarot’s LWB.

    Everyday I would post a card and members would share their hits or offer a card description which will go into the LWB. It’s a really supportive group. In 2015, when I made the first edition of the Relative Tarot, people started sending me images of their relatives and I just loved the idea of including them in the deck.

    Fast forward to today where a similar event has repeated itself. Members of the Relative Tarot FB group started sending images of their relatives asking if they could be part of the deck. But I wanted to really honor these contributions by giving them a language that wasn’t tarot specific. I wanted this group of images to remain familiar and ancestral and so this is why we have the 36 Spirt Cards. They act as the deck’s ancestral influences and advisors.

    Me: All things considered – the Relative Tarot Kickstarter project really offers Tarot fans an enormous amount of Bang for their buck – what else is included in the bundle?

    CP: I was going for that! While the Relative Tarot can be used straight out of the box as a tarot deck, I also wanted to create an opportunity for people to use it for ancestral communication. I believe we are greatly influenced by an ancestral agenda, and that agenda can be located in our birth cards.

    For those not familiar with the term, the Birth Cards describe a person’s personal cards which are assigned to them at birth and add an accurate layer of insight to their tarot profile. Readers determine a sitter’s personal cards by calculating the numbers from their birthday with the sum total giving a precise and insightful tarot blueprint. Both Angeles Arrien and Mary K. Greer have written extensively on the topic and I can recommend their work enough.

    Over the years I’ve noticed that more often than not, weaving itself through a sitter’s tarot blueprint are family members, both living and dead, who share the sitter’s exact numbers. When we give focus to this synchronicity, we can often determine the reason behind family patterns or what I refer to as the ancestral agenda. So added to the deck’s titles are not only traditional numbers, but also the numbers found in the Birth Card combinations. 

    To maintain this ancestral work, I wanted to include a reading cloth that would bring together the symbolism of a family tree. So in the center of the cloth, and taking the place of a traditional family tree, is a DNA double Helix weaved into tree branches. To me this nods to the old and new coming together. Surrounding the four corners are cherubs representing the family of the four elements as found in the tarot’s minor arcana.    

    Starting in late October, there will actually be a 5 week course available to all backers on how you can calculate your Birth and Annual cards.   

    Me: How did you get Mary K Greer and James Wells on board? (akshully, I’m betting they didn’t need much persuading to get on board with this project, but thought I’d ask anyway lol!)

    CP: Oh both James and Mary have inspired a lot of my work and it is an honor to have them on board. Both were kind enough to agree to teaching a session in the course and I believe this perk is one of the reasons the campaign reached funding so quickly. I love Mary’s work on the Birth and Annual cards and James has a wonderful approach for bringing people to the heart of their lives also through the Birth Cards. I’m really looking forward to learning from these masters.

    Me: So, looking at the Court Cards specifically now, you have retained the traditional ranks – were you tempted to deviate?

    CP: I was very tempted, but took into account the many diviners who find the Court Cards confusing. I didn’t want to add mayhem to this royal challenge.

    Me: Courts tend to be the trickiest cards for Tarotists to get to grips with, how important is it that users of The Relative Tarot know and understand WHO features in each Court Card and WHY you chose them for that particular image? 

    CP: Agreed! And I feel that tricky dilemma is a sign of the times. A lot of us don’t live in countries where there is a royal family so relating to a specific court just isn’t in our psyche. Still, I maintained the court vibe in the Relative Tarot due to the era most of its imagery borrows from. I used a lot of cabinet cards featuring stage actors because most just fit the bill, yet I was also happy to use known people in history like Harriet Tubman and Sitting Bull for the Queen and King of Pentacles.

    Me: I’d love to know more about the Knight images – are they horse-rider related characters?

    CO: You know I had originally set aside a set of four cabinet cards with four women with horses, but the more I worked with them the more it felt like I was forcing them in the deck for the simple fact that they had horses. They were just too etherial and not very action oriented. Once I nixed that idea all of the Knights came for a visit. Each looked ready to stand up for what they believe in.

    Me: The imagery in the Pentacles especially includes people of colour, and interestingly too, people not from the stage – was that important for you? 

    CP: Because this deck is ancestral focused it was important that it included all people. I wanted the deck to be relatable and useful.

    Me: I love how PCS and her theatrical background and her tendency to make use of the stage as a card feature translates into your deck with the use of actors/actresses as well as actual symbols from the Rider Waite Smith deck.  Was that intentional?

    CP: Yes and I’m so glad you noticed. You’re the first! Now whether or not diviners apply the stage card aspect to their readings is another story. I’ll be interested in discovering how people use this deck, especially now with a new generation of diviners discovering tarot, many of whom have no idea what the RWS deck even is! I’m hoping the Relative Tarot will inspire them to look into PCS’s work and life.

    Me: What else do you need to tell me about the deck, especially the Court Cards?!

    CP: In the 5 week course we will learn a technique for divining with the Relative Tarot’s Court Cards as a way of calculating a sitter’s significator and also what might be ruling them. I feel the 16 Court cards often reveal a families karmic lesson and so I will give a class on how we can glean this information directly from the Courts.

    Me: Thank you for taking the time to answer all these questions. The deck is lovely and it is sure to be a success!

    CP: This has been such a wild ride and I can’t thank you enough for this opportunity to share my process.

    Explore Carrie’s work HERE
    Explore James Well’s work HERE
    Explore Mary K Greer’s work HERE

  • Personality Quiz | 16 Court Cards?

    Another day, another personality quiz hits the internet and I am, of course, obsessed with how these things reflect on the Court Cards – especially if we’re talking about 16 personalities!

    I took the test (it’s on an agree/disagree scale) and ended up with the Advocate personality type. This is INFJ-T with a strategy for constant improvement. Which sounds like me lol!

    I once asked Mary Greer whether the Myers Briggs personality types were a good fit for the Tarot’s court cards and you can see what she said about that HERE.

    Take the test!

    The 16 types are:

    The Analysts (the Swords)

    Architect
    Logician
    Commander
    Debater

    The Diplomats (The Cups)

    Advocate
    Mediator –
    Protagonist
    Campaigner

    The Sentinels (The Pentacles)

    Logistician
    Defender
    Executive
    Consul

    The Explorers (the Wands)

    Virtuoso
    Adventurer
    Entrepreneur
    Entertainer

    So, which personality type are you?! Does it relate to any of the court card ‘types’ that you work with?

  • Game of Thrones Tarot | HBO

    Oh AT LAST!!!

    Available to pre-order from THAT store!

    Available from November! 
    *swooshes off to practise her dragon-calling and sword-work* 

  • The Mirrors Tarot

    So, there is a new kickstarter getting underway today and it gives YOU a chance to be immortalised as a Tarot Major!

    It’s a Majors Only project, so 22 cards looking to have real life people featured – could one of them be you?!

    The Mirrors Tarot is the brainchild of Kyle Jacobs AKA Root and this really interesting young man wants the community to explore their own personal relationships with a Tarot archetype and share it by taking a photo of yourself as you would want the card to appear and use the #modelamajor when you post it across all the social network platforms.

    Just think – total creative freedom! Create the Major Arcana card that you love the most the way that you believe it should really be illustrated! The internet filled with glorious personal interpretations of the Archetypes!

    When posting your picture, Root wants you to state which tribe you are part of.  Well, if this was going to be a full 78 card deck, I would, of course want you to be declaring your interest in a court card as part of MY tribe lol! But as it’s a 22-card majors deck, you could declare as part of the @TABItarot tribe? What do you say?!

    When @TABItarot selects the winner for their tribe, Root will paint the photo up for inclusion in the deck.

    If you want to play – check out the kickstarter page today for all the details and remember that your declaration will be:

    • “Hi, I’m (Name) and this is (Tarot Major Archetype). I’m part of the @TABItarot Tribe. Here’s my #ModelAMajor.” [photo uploaded.]