Tarot Thrones | The Court Card Blog

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  • Hello to the Queen of Swords

    I know that this post is a little late, but I didn’t want the Summer Solstice blog post and the Incoming influences card post to overlap too much, so I held the Incoming Influences card reading over until this week.

    I feel weird.  And sad.

    At the end of this week, my son will leave the innocent delights of Primary School behind him and set his face towards his secondary school education in August.   I should feel happy – we’re halfway through his formal education and we’re doing fine. Right?

    But I laid out his uniform for him this morning and waves of sadness washed over me as I hung up the little white shirt and tie.  ‘This is the last Monday that I’ll do this for him,’ I thought.

    I know.  I am totally working Queen of Cups reversed.

    He has mixed feelings about moving on too.  On one hand he is excited about the new challenge.  On the other, he is wary of being one of the Wee Ones again in a new school.  ‘We’re starting at the beginning again,’ he told me glumly as he straightened his tie.

    Yes, we are.  But it’s a whole new ball game.

    He’s growing his hair.

    His feet are nearly the same size as mine.

    He’s got the full eye-rolling, sotto voce cursing, audible sighing thing down to an art form.  And he’s not even 12 yet.

    Honestly? I miss the little boy that he was very much.  His small, hot hand readily snaking into mine to cross the road….. the guileless hugs and kisses.

    These days I’m too uncool to be seen with, so he walks a few steps ahead and I am only hugged and kissed when he wants to play with my ipad or seeking my agreement that he can play the Playstation for a while with his friends.

    The truth is that I feel increasingly redundant in his life.  I used to be his sun and now I’m just some cold little moon whizzing round Pluto, right on the edge of his universe.

    I wish that there was some way of helping parents cope with these strange feelings – the sense of loss, of time passing too quickly….. that we cannot keep him safe for ever.

    But it is also tempered with pride – he is turning into a lovely young man, he has a kind heart, he has friends, he should do ok academically…… unless he is beset by his hormones and side-tracked by girls and tempted by all manner of other stuff that he should Bloody Well Stay Away From.

    Was I surprised then, that the incoming card for this period was the Rider Waite Smith’s Queen of Swords?

    Not at all.

    I am going to depend upon her no nonsense energies to ensure that my sad thoughts are kicked into line and that I am less emotional about all this stuff.  She sets her face towards the future, her sword bolt upright and ready to cut out any overly-maudlin nonsense.  Her hand is raised to welcome the next phase.

    She tells me that while it’s ok for me to honour my feelings, it’s also good for me to recognise that they are not FACT and that I can change them. And indeed I MUST change them to make sure that Sonshine’s last week at school is memorable for all the right reasons.

    Wish her luck.  She’s going to need it!

  • Celebrate your Solstice!

    Welcome to This Game of Thrones, my blog about the Court Cards of the Tarot.  Chances are you have alighted here as a stop on the Tarot Blog Hop from either Donna Faber’s blog or Priestess Tarot’s blog.  Heck, perhaps you wafted in here from Twitter or Facebook links and haven’t a clue what the Tarot Blog Hop might be!

    The Tarot Blog hop is where a whole load of Tarotists (what is the collective name for a bunch of Tarotists anyway? a Fool of Tarotists? A World of Tarotists?!) blog on the same topic, relating it to Tarot or Oracles in whichever way the Muse moves them.  We all post at the same time (that’s the theory and the challenge lol!) and link together like a daisy chain. Today our subject is: Celebrate The Sunrise.

    Today, the Summer Solstice, is the longest day, and along with the Winter Solstice, these two tend to be the dawns that we consider significant amongst the other 363.  But surely EVERY dawn is worth celebrating?

    ‘Every day you waken up, you’re winning’ is a quote, from goodness knows where, which I hold very dear.

    So, my question today was, how can we best celebrate our sunrise, not just today, but every day?

    I selected a court card at random from the Gaian Tarot by Joanna Powell Colbert.  The card drawn was the charming Child of Earth. Standing in his verdant green woolly sweater beneath a great apple tree, the little fella is completely engrossed in the scarlet apple in his hands. 

    In this deck, the Child cards (equating to the traditional Page) all ask us to approach life with ‘Beginner’s Mind’.

    I like that, for me there is no better way to look at a sunrise as an opportunity to start afresh; for us to look at life with new and curious eyes. We can choose to drop our baggage of experience and refuse to let our previous encounters taint our enjoyment of the new day.

    And of course this works on other levels.

    We all have our own particular sunrises, those things that light up our lives with hope.  The could be our families, our faith, our career, our hobbies – the thing that makes your life worthwhile!  The Child looks at that apple as if he’s never seen it before, appreciating it for the miracle that it is.  And he urges us to do the same.

    Be honest, we tend not to do that.  Just think – I wrote this on a little box in Scotland and you are reading it on your own box somewhere else in the world.  We are linked together by cables, plugs and, frankly, magic!  We have SO much magic in our lives that we no longer see because we have grown complacent to it and accept it as ‘normal’.  We can fly like birds to every part of the world! We can switch on a box in the corner of the room and watch a football match being played live on another continent (obviously there is WAY too much Euro 2012 footie on the telly!)! We eat fresh vegetables from distant counties (and countries!)…. our lives are filled with the most amazing and wondrous things.  And we tend not to bother about them 🙂

    One of the things that lights up my life is my recently-found pleasure in learning to playing the keyboard.  Beethoven I’m not, but I really enjoy plinking away at Killing Me Softly or Danny Boy.  Mind you, I’m not sure whether my family enjoys it QUITE as much as me.  The Child of Earth prompts me to appreciate how far I’ve come, how much fun I have with it, and to take delight in the noise that I make!

    The Child card urges us to keep that personal sunrise fresh, unjaded, curious and fun. Approach your own sunrise as a miracle for your day, just as the sun rising over the horizon is a miracle to ALL our days!

    The Child’s companion animal, the rabbit, is often found at dawn and dusk ‘when it is easiest to slip between this world and the Otherworld,’ Joanna reminds us. 

    Most of the time we don’t give much thought to sunrise or sunset – we sleep through the former and the latter passes in a blur of TV shows. But dawn and dusk are very special times of the day, thresholds between this world and the Otherworld, as Joanna says.  We should honour them all, don’t you think?

    As far as our own personal sunrises are concerned, when you are doing something that you love, you tend to zone out or enter Flow – isn’t that a perfect way to experience the Otherworld?

    Through the Child of Earth, we can celebrate our sunrise (in whichever form we recognise it) by allowing ourselves to be delighted and amazed by its existence in our lives.  On a daily basis we can give thanks for all those things that light up our day.

    Can we look at an apple and see it for the first time?

    I hope that you have enjoyed your time here on This Game of Thrones and maybe you’ll come back and visit me again.  You might like to sign up for my Court Card newsletter so that we can keep in touch? 

    Next stop on the tarot blog hop trail…..

    Feel free to hop backwards though the list to the lovely Louise at Priestess Tarot too!


    http://www.priestesstarot.co.uk/tarot-blog-hop-litha
    And if any of the links are broken, please visit the Blog-Wrangler’s master list!
    http://innerwhisperscouk.blogspot.co.uk/p/litha-blog-hop-master-list.html

  • Away with the Birdies!

    Today I thought I’d introduce you to the Court Cards of the Secret Language of Birds Tarot by Adele Nozedar and Linda Sutton (artist).

    Before we talk about the Courts in this deck, you will see that this suit, Cups, is entitled Coppe. Adele pays tribute to the Italian 15th century origins of the Tarot (as we currently understand them!) and each suit and Major is named in Italian, but fret not, the accompanying book has it all in English too.

    Each suit is allocated a bird; for the Cups it is the Kingfisher, as you can see.

    The Court structure has been re-imagined by Nozedar and we see the Page/Princess role now taken by the Queen and the Knight/Prince role is now filled by The King.  I can see your eyelid starting to twitch – is that confusing the hell out of you, dear Thothites? 🙂

    The two high profile roles that had belonged to the King and Queen have now been transferred to the God and Goddess of the suit.

    The reason for the inclusion of a God and Goddess is that birds have always had associations with the divine because they can fly right up there to the highest heavens and commune with the Gods themselves.  They have also been associated with Divine messsages and interaction with us in mythology (eg Leda and the swan) and also in biblical stories – the Dove and the Raven in the Noah’s Ark story for example.

    By adding the God and Goddess elements, Adele reminds us of those divine links between the birds and us and the birds and the Gods, and us and the Gods.

    Adele and Linda have sneaked in the occasional famous face too – and here you can clearly see the young Elizabeth Taylor….and I’m pretty sure that I should know that other dude next to her – Is he Dylan Thomas? That’s who provides the quote that opens the section on the King of Cups, so that’s who I’m plumping for! *complete philistine face*

    To marry bird augury,  one of the most ancient forms of divination, with Tarot (the most popular!) is, I think, inspired!  In the accompanying book, Adele gives many interesting details of the mythology of the birds and how it’s an appropriate symbol for each card.

    The Kingfisher symbol transforms into the Feng Huang – the Chinese equivalent of the Phoenix as it enters the realms of the gods.  This transformation also takes place as the bird rises towards the Gods in the other suits too.

    And you will see that the Court structure doesn’t end with the God, but the Goddess! I like the idea of concluding the Courts with a Goddess and not a God – keeps it fresh!  *high fives anyone passing* 

    So – what do you think of Adele and Linda’s Coppe Court Cards? As ever, I’d love to hear your comments!

    Published by Schiffer. Words Adele Nozedar. Art Linda Sutton

    You can find our more about Adele’s work here and Linda’s work here

  • But what do you MEAN?!

    The Queen of Swords from
    Marie White’s Mary-El Tarot
    Published by Schiffer

    I once did a Tarot reading for a newly-engaged lady and in her Celtic Cross spread, there were NINE court cards.

    NINE!!!

    Once I had dragged myself up off the floor and wiped the tears from my panic-stricken eyes, I set about giving the reading, my voice thin and reedy with stress.

    ‘Are you finding a LOT of people trying to tell you how to organise the wedding?’ I asked gingerly.

    She nodded.

    …and so, dear Reader, we come to the first meaning of a Court Card when it pops up in a reading – the energies of people who are somehow involved in the scenario in question.

    It wasn’t too long into the reading until we had ascertained the other two traditional meanings of the Court Cards

    a) the energies of the sitter herself and
    b) the energies of the court card around the situation generally.

    The majority of the Court Cards that arose were Wands and Swords and I asked whether the input from a lot of people was getting on her nerves – albeit well-intentioned. 

    Yes, she replied.  Especially from the groom’s mother.

    She pointed to the Queen of Swords (I was using the Rider Waite Smith for this reading). ‘What is it about that card that makes you think she represents your future mother-in-law’?’

    The bride-to-be shrugged, reluctant to say anything.

    ‘I promise not to tell Evan,’ I said seriously, holding my hand up in an approximation of a court room oath.  And then she was off like a hare out of the traps…..there was almost no sin that this poor woman was not guilty of….from wanting her grandchildren at the wedding, to disputing the flower choices, the vegetarian menu choices and butting in on just who was sitting at what table.

    The thing is, I *knew* her future mother-in-law and although she was quite a powerful woman, she was not the shrewish manipulator that the bride was painting her out to be.  Indeed, the future mother-in-law had been upset and hurt by the bride’s reluctance to even sit still and listen to any ideas that she had for her son’s Big Day.

    ….and that brings me to the final point that I wanted to make about the Court Cards when they tip up in a reading.  The Court may just be a projection of how the querent sees someone’s energies, not how they actually ARE.

    When I pointed out the positive qualities of the Queen of Swords – her social adeptness, her dislike of spin and bullshit, her unflinching honesty – the bride reluctantly agreed that they WERE qualities that could prove useful when planning a wedding.

    We talked about this and the bride accepted that HER attitude to her family’s well-meaning input was spoiling the whole big run up to the day.  And, tadaaaah! – the wedding was a great success!

    So, to recap, in a reading, Court cards can mean one or more of three things:

    The energies of the sitter
    The energies of someone involved in the sitter’s scenario
    The energies generally around the scenario

    But perhapsthre is also a fourth interpretation….. the sitter projecting her own thoughts and fears onto other people and turning them into the Court Card.

    What do you think yourself? I’d love to know if you have alternative ways to interpret the Courts.

  • Farewell to the King of Swords!

    Did you miss me?  I took myself (and family) off to Blackpool for a few days so that my son had a better memory of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee than just a day off school.

    Ever diligent, I took my laptop with me, but when your hotel overlooks Blackpool Pleasure Beach and this is the view from your bedroom window, blogging kinda goes OUT the window!

    You’re probably thinking ‘Jeez, what a shit view!’ but, dear reader, I REQUESTED a bedroom with a view over the rollercoasters because I LOVE listening to their thunder and rattle (and the excited screaming!).  I feel happy when I hear it.  Odd?

    I did take my Tarot stuff with me because, like I say, I’m trying to be diligent! And as we walked back to the hotel from the Pleasure Beach after the Queen’s Jubilee Party late on Monday night, I saw the full moon glowing above the deserted streets and remembered that I had to select a card to show the energies that will recede as the moon wanes to darkness.  So, who appeared from the deck for me this time?

    The card drawn was the Mary El King of Swords.

    With his fingers thrumming the string of his bow and his other hand holding a white feather (check out that inky black tip!), the King of Swords looks beyond us.  He has no sword to wield – but his weapons are ink-dipped quills and his thoughts. He looks oriental with that beard and his bald head (and with that huge dragon tattoo that consumes his back!)   The sky, clouds and feathers remind me that Swords are airy, cerebral, truth-valuers.

    Around the outline of his body snakes script, almost echoing the curved dragon – I cannot read the script and there is no mention of it in his description in the LWB *note to self: You need stronger specs*  I choose to interpret these words as acting like a protective shield around him – words are his weapon and his defence.

    I am very fond of the King of Swords in any deck and I am loathe to part with his good qualities….so I hope that his negative qualities are on the wane over the coming weeks.  This will mean that I will no longer let my (or other people’s!) thoughts, doubts or fears harm me nor hold me back.

    *sharpens quill and unscrews top from ink bottle*

    I’m ready.  Are you?  What does this King of Swords mean to you? Do you like him?!

    If you like this image, and want to see more, check out Marie White’s website: www.mary-el.com.  The deck is published by Schiffer.

  • Significators | Finding The One

    I’ve already written at length (ad nauseum?!) about various methods of finding a Significator for your sitter (or yourself) and in one of the resulting blog post comments, Chloe McCracken mentioned a way to use them that I thought was GREAT and am going to share with you here.

    By the way, if you’re not familiar with Chloe’s work, please check out the @TABITarot blog where she tirelessly blogs for TABI and also manages to find the time to write her own blog, Inner Whispers.

    As with all the best things in life, it’s really simple to implement:  You chose your significator, insert it back into the deck, let your client shuffle and chat about their issue……then you carefully go through the well-shuffled deck and read the cards either side of the significator.

    Here’s a worked example:

    I chose the Queen of Wands for myself because of the lions on her throne and me being Leo *tosses mane imperiously, sits with knees apart*.  I slipped the card into the middle of the deck and started shuffling, thinking all the while about how I could Improve Things…..

    Once I was satisfied that I’d shuffled sufficiently, I inched through the cards until I found the one I was looking for, the Queen of Wands.  The card before her was the 2 of Pentacles and the card after her was the 8 of Swords.

    The first thing that struck me was that she seems to have turned her back on the dancing Pents dude and has turned her head towards the sword-hampered figure in the 8Swords.  She is inclined towards the Swords.

    Mind you, that guy’s hat is a bit strange…..

    Anyway, although she is inclined towards the Swords, she IS still looking out at us – and her cat is certainly not side-tracked by the show on either side of the cards.

    I see water in both of the cards either side of her.

    So, here’s how I interpret these cards for the query: How I can improve things:  I am naturally inclined towards the self-limiting behaviour of the 8 Swords.  Sometimes my emotions/hormones (I’m at a funny age!) DO whell up and I feel overwhelmed (see the puddles of sea-water around the Swords gal’s feet? – and let’s not forget that this queen embodies Water and Fire – not always comfortable bedfellows), but that feeling of restricction is ENIRELY avoidable (that Swords girl can easily shirk off those bonds and get off her blindfold – if she wants to.  And she’s not trapped by swords – the whole front of the card is sword free.  She just THINKS she’s stymied. *I* just think I’m stymied.  And that’s wrong-headed thinking.

    Instead the Queen would do well to take a better look at the juggling Pentacles chappie.  Strange hat notwithstanding, he’s managing to juggle his disks – and rides out the waves. He’s on one leg.  He’s got balance.  He is not subsumed by the waves/emotions/hormones.  Once I get a metaphorical boat, I’ll be fine.  I’ve maybe even already GOT the boat 🙂

    Have you tried Chloe’s idea? How did you get on with it?  What would you add to my interpretation?

    Deck: RWS Centenary Edition, published by US Games – words, A E Waite, artwork Pamela Colman-Smith

  • The Wild Ones!

    This week my blog posts have focussed on animal court cards – the Rabbit Tarot, the Ferret Tarot and now, the daddy of them all, the Wildwood Tarot Courts – every one of them a stunningly represented animal native to Northern Europe.

    The deck, created by Mark Ryan and John Matthews, is a reimagining of Ryan’s earlier and (these days!) hugely sought-after Greenwood Tarot, with Chesca Potter.  In this new deck, the artwork is by Will Worthington (Druidcraft Tarot, Greenman Tree Oracle, Druid Plant Oracle, Druid Animal Oracle).

    We have the standard ranks of Page, Knight, Queen and King – but the suits themselves have been renamed – Bows for Wands, Arrows for Swords, Vessels for Cups and Stones for Pentacles.  That ‘Bows’ association may stump you for a moment until you remember that bows are not just for firing arrows, but also used for making fire and turning wood.

    Having your entire court comprised of animals can be wonderfully freeing – you are not limited by those old associations for physical attributes, but, on the other hand, you need to do a certain amount of anthropomorphising to help you to apply them to living, breathing people.

    The entire Wildwood fits into a complex Wheel of The Year layout (which you can see in the accompanying LWB and the watermark image on the Wildwood Tarot website (www.thewildwoodtarot.com).  All we need to know about it here is that, unlike the Thoth family, even the little Pages have their place in the grand scheme of things.  Which is nice because they tend to miss out on all the fun, yet they’re allllll about the fun!

    Lets look at the Arrows (Swords) first – each of the courts is represented by a bird – which ties in nicely with the element of Air.  But don’t go fooling yourself that all birds = Arrows.  Birds appear in other suits too.  The accompanying book attributes these cards to the season of Spring

    As you can see, the Page is a tiny close-to-the-ground bird, the Hawk represents the fast-moving Knight, the regal Swan represents the Queen and the vibrant fisherman Kingfisher represents the King.

    Bows, or Wands as they are traditionally known, are represented by land creatures.  This suit is associated with Summer and the element of Fire. The Page is represented by the close-to-the-ground Stoat, the wily Fox as Knight, the fertile Hare for Queen and the fast-moving adder for King.

    Here we have the Vessels family and as you can see they are all associated with water – which is handy because that’s the element associated with them too!  We have the playful Otter as Page, the speedy, slippery Eel as Knight, the instinct-driven Salmon as Queen and the patient Heron as King.  The Vessels are associated with the mists and mellow fruitfulness of Autumn.

    Stones, representing Pentacles, has land creatures – and is associated with Earth and these characters occupy the Wheel of the Year around Winter.  The shy Lynx is our Page, the wild Horse is our Knight, the protective Bear is our Queen and the leader of the Stones pack is the Wolf.

    For some excellent information on how to work with the Court Cards of the Wildwood, please visit their Wildblog where Caitlin Matthews has created some unique exercises and insights to these fascinating, but tricky courts.

    You can keep up to date with what’s happening in the Wildwood by visiting their blog or their website – www.thewildwoodtarot.com .

    What do you think of the Wildwood Courts – like ’em? Love ’em? Loathe ’em?!

    This deck is published by Eddison Sadd (Connections publishing).  Created by Mark Ryan and John Matthews, artwork by Will Worthington

    ** EDIT** Eddison Sadd is now known as Eddison Books 20/4/17

  • Amplifiers | The Rabbit Tarot

    King of Tulips – sweeeeeet!

    Each of us has our own ideas about what kind of character a particular court card represents – whether it’s Pages representing tentative beginnings or whether they urge us to develop a lighter and more playful approach…well, it’s up to you.

    And sometimes, no matter how deft our character studies are, no matter that you explain that the Queen of Wands is really Jolene (as sung by Dolly P), your sitter cannot not acknowledge or recognise the person or those traits within themselves.

    Something that you can do that can jolt the matter into a different orbit is introduce a card from an Oracle to act as an amplifier for your Court Card.

    This week we are looking at Animal Courts and here we have the King of Tulips from the Rabbit Tarot by Nakisha VanderHoeven (Tulips equating to the suit of Cups in this deck).  While I love the artwork in Nakisha’s deck, it is not really terribly heavy on the symbolism to help us with this King’s characteristics.

    I really need to dig in to what I know about the King of Cups in other decks here – so the King of Tulips is someone who understands someone’s emotional make up, but he himself is not driven by his emotions – so he’s diplomatic. An unhealthy King of Tulips (ie in reversed position) may possibly even manipulate people’s emotions to get what he wants. 

    Of course, what you say in your actual reading will be affected by the surrounding cards.

    Now, if your Client hasn’t recognised the King of Tulips as being significant to the question under consideration, and everyone’s a little stumped as to what in the heck he’s doing in the reading, you can pull on your Big Girl Pants and add an amplifier card from another deck. I know, it’s risky!

    But when you’re at this point in a reading, with a client shaking their head in confusion, you have nothing to lose and simply surrender, giving yourself over to the cards and what they say. 

    One of my favourite non-Tarots for using as an amplifier card is the Dreaming in Colour deck by Mindy Summers – a luminous deck where the lush fractal images vibrate with colour.  Each card is allocated an concept – from Aggression through Family and Passion to Temptation and Withdrawal.

    By adding one of these cards to your Court Card in question, you can add an additional interpretative layer to your work.

    As you can see, the card drawn to act as amplifier for the King of Tulips is Withdrawal.

    To me it looks as if the image is sinking into the sea, like a sunset….

    Have failures in diplomacy led to this character trying to take a back seat.  Has it all become too much for him to handle? Whomever he is, he is withdrawing either into himself, or from the situation, or from the client. Maybe that’s why your client doesn’t recognise these energies? The King has pulled back or disengaged in some way?

    When I select an Oracle to work in this way, I’m looking at the qualities of both cards and figuring how they would interact with what I already know about the Court Card in question.  Is it typical behaviour? Is it unusual behaviour? What else is the amplifier adding to what I know?

    We know that the King of Tulips does have a significant emotional component, but is able to over-ride his watery Cuppy influences for the sake of being a successful (and fiery) King.  Is he withdrawing either his Cups energies (his caring, altruistic side) to allow his more dynamic Kingly energies to suffuse the situation to help move things along – or vice versa?

    And what of the idea of sunset – we know that the sun will rise again tomorrow, will the King of Tulips try again? Probably 😉

    Y’see – it brings another set of qualities to the table and stops Court Card interpretation from becoming stale and one-dimensional.

    Have you used an Oracle card as an amplifier? What do you think of the idea? What Oracles do you recommend for this approach?

  • Say hello to…..The Page of Pentacles | Ferret Tarot

    So the moon has just gone dark which is my regular cue to pick a Court Card that will represent the incoming energies, or energies that I would do well to embrace, until the moon becomes full in June.

    This week I’m devoting my blog to Court Cards that feature animals (I’ve already had a Page of Swords from the Baroque Bohemian Cats Tarot published by Magic Realist Press) and there are lots of lovely animal-orientated decks out there!

    The card drawn for the coming period is taken from the Ferret Tarot by Elaine Moertl (they do a Majors only Chat Du Marseille Tarot too.  Features cats.  Obviously.  I don’t have one *sigh* <- hint)

    Here we’ve got the Page of Pentacles.

    He stands with his text book open, looking quite pleased with himself.  Unlike the other two who wear the same panicked expression as myself myself on the day of the  Standard Arithmetic exam back in the day.  I thought that the exam was on the Monday, it turns out it was ALSO on the Friday before.  Oh yeah, sitting an exam without finishing your prep.  Scary stuff!

    The little ferret that is the Page of Pentacles has no such fears.  The cheat sheet that comes with this little self-published deck says: ‘ I studied for this, did you? I know a lot.’

    So this Page is a cocky little guy, thinks that he’s got all the answers.  I could do with a little of his chutzpah rubbing off on me for sure!

    I’m not greedy, I would settle for knowing just SOME of the answers!

    Generally though, I associated this Page with learning (that’s his Paginess) but in a more hands-on way (the practicality of Pentacles) so rather than having all the answers because he’s studied from a book, I would hope that he’s getting the answers because he’s getting some practical experience.

    Book learning would be more a Page of Swords thang, I think.

    He is also urging us to have a bit of fun – and I could do with a bit of that – physical fun!  Not the quippy wordplay that Facebook encourages…. but horse-play, practical jokes, having a LAFF.

    Oh yes, bring it on little Page, bring it ON!

  • Comparative Tarot | The Prince of Cups

    The first time I encountered the comparative method of looking at cards was via Valerie Sim’s deck, the Comparative Tarot.  The cards in this cleverly designed deck have not one image, but four different images of the same card.   It was one of the first decks that I bought and I still regard it fondly.

    Not familiar with the Comparative Method? Here’s the skinny:  You don’t just interpret ONE card, you interpret the others on the card too – each one adding depth and colour to the over all ‘character’. 

    So I thought we’d try it here with The Prince of Cups – just comparing three images – but you can do it with as many cards as takes your fancy.  Or you can fit onto your table top.  Or bedroom floor.

    I chose the Prince/Knight of Cups from the outrageously stunning Mary El deck by Marie White; the Prince of Cups from the Transformational Tarot by Arnell Ando and the Knight of Chalices from the Breugal Tarot by Guido Zibordi Marchesi.

    First of all, although one of these is a Prince, he DOES fill the Knight’s role in the deck.  He’s not a Thoth Knight

    click on image to enlarge.  I think.

    Arnell’s Prince (left hand card above) perfectly captures that romantic, self-absorbed feeling that comes with the Prince of Cups. It shows the youth Narcissus gazing ito his own reflection by the pool.  Poor old Narcissus was so wrapped up in himself that he drowned trying to embrace his own reflection.  I’ve had boyfriends like that.

    In the LWB Arnell explains that he represents the Artistic Idealist; someone who uses ‘creativity as a means to self-expression, but whose moods don’t always reflect his actions.’

    The Knight of the Mary El (central image) is also introspective, protectively clasping a grail that overflows with blood and from whose depths a lotus flower rises and blossoms.  This is the Grail Knight.  Marie White, creator of the Mary-El says: ‘Searching for matters of the heart; love, meaning in life. Compassion, experience and maturity is the key.’  If you don’t know the story of Percival, the Grail Knight here’s a 10 second summary:  In his naivity, Percival, a knight who is searching for the Holy Grail fails to recognise it the first time he encounters it and so he is compelled to set off on his quest again – older, wiser – and finds it.  And heals the Fisher King. The end.

    Our final Knight is the Breugal Knight (right hand image).  His horse steps confidently to the right of the card, but he is not looking in the same direction as his horse.  In fact, he looks as though he has a blindfold on.  Even with the blindfold, he is looking towards a distant village that lies beneath a fork of lightning.  He doesn’t hold a grail, but a tankard filled with flowers.

    Neither hand holds the horse’s reins. Either side of the horse we see a camp fire, crossed arrows and – bizzarely – an eye running to the left on a pair of little legs!

    We also have an eye in the armour of our Mary El Knight – in the centre of her chest.  And the Knight of the Transformational Tarot is gazing at his own reflection.  Sight is an important symbol of this card – one sees only himself, one sees only her Grail, one sees….nothing (with his eyes!)

    I think that the Breugal LWB perfectly encapsulates what’s going on here: ‘Where there is love, the eye follows’. 

    Using this Comparative Tarot method then, I would say that this Knight DOES have focus – but he doesn’t always focus it on what he SHOULD be focussed on, as far as the outside world is concerned.  As a result, he can seem dreamy and self-absorbed to other people and can display a level of cold-heartedness to that which is outwith his field of vision.

    For me he’s the guy who will spend weeks finely crafting you a love song, but never remembers to put the bins out at night.  Someone who will whisk you away for a romantic candle lit meal, but forget to organise his cash….or put fuel in the car 🙂

    What do YOU think of the Knight of Cups or the Comparative method?