Tarot Thrones | The Court Card Blog

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  • Misha Huntting | American Obscura Tarot | Page of Swords

    I came across this deck via Stephanie Arwen Lynch’s blog (which you can find down there on the right hand side amongst the other great Tarot blogs on m’blog roll).

    Intrigued by the dark imagery in the deck, I thought I’d get the deck’s creator, Misha Huntting, to tell us alllllll about how the deck came to be.

    Sooooooo, first of all, tell me a little about your Tarot background 😉


    Well a lot of it has to do with family influence to begin with. My great grandmother was an automatic writer and an influential member of the spiritualist community a long time ago. My aunt Yana attended a metaphysical school in San Francisco in the 70s and began to read tarot and give astrological readings professionally. My mother is also a wonderful tarot reader too. I became interested and starting reading tarot around the age of 12 for other kids at school and myself.

    Tarot’s clearly in your DNA!

    What inspired you to create this particular deck?

    Well the theme of my multi-media artwork had been, for quite a while, Americana-themed with disturbing and familiar themes and while I was at a vending event, vending my art, a friend who owns a local shop had said in passing that I should make a tarot deck and it just sparked off so many ideas. It seemed incredibly appropriate for me considering my background and every time I thought of a card I could think of a theme that all fit along a dark Americana theme and it got me really excited. 
    I love underbelly American history and off beat Americana folk lore and thought the theme was just begging to be introduced into tarot. I love tarot, but I have trouble relating to the themes and artwork of most decks and wanted a gritty, more cut and dry and honest interpretation. I also feel that it could ensnare a lot of new comers to tarot that might have not liked tarot when there was so much emphasis on themes they didn’t find particularly easy to relate to.
    Note from Alison:  In a previous chat with Barbara Moore about her forthcoming Steampunk Tarot, I asked her about her Page of Swords.  I thought that I’d keep that theme going with Misha too, demonstrating how looking at different Tarot decks can add depth and timbre to your existing interpretations of particular Tarot courts.
    This particular court card, the Page of Swords, is blindfolded and a knife-thrower’s small assistant! Tell me how you arrived at this image for her.

    I got the idea from an old newsreels. I had certain themes before I started that I really wanted to touch on in the deck such as, the circus. I think the traveling circus is an important part of American Culture. So basically the process begins with the spark of an idea and then a lot of research into the idea until it begins to either click for the card meaning and theme or it doesn’t and I move onto another idea. After a lot of research for this piece and even buying a set of tossing knives, (which I intend to learn how to use someday! once I have time), I thought it was a theme that fit well with the swords and pages. 

    Why did you decide to go for unillustrated pip cards?


    To be honest I started to and then figured out how long each piece takes me and I knew that it wouldn’t be possible to complete in under 10 years. I completed the deck in 3 years, quit my job the last year and did nothing but. It started out of necessity but to be honest, after bouncing it off of some other people and seeing how my designer, Christa Harden, put together the pips. I like it better, it’s more classic and old fashioned to me. It can be harder to memorize the meaning with them that way but I think it’s been a healthy challenge for me because I need to really concentrate on the meaning of the suit and number. 


    Tell me a bit about your court cards – the Pages are all girls – why did you make them all female?

    Well it wasn’t really about being female as much as young. As I said, the Page of Swords was inspired by a newsreel I had seen with someone tossing knives at their little daughter for a circus act. I had already created 2 pieces that fit perfectly into the Page of Coins and the Page of Cups and they were both little girls, so for the last piece I made the page of wands an 11 year old girl. I knew that I wanted the point to be that they were young and new to the world but I think I also wanted to capture that youthful excitement and loneliness that comes with being a kid and how many things you learn on your own, on runs to the store or a rickedy playground. It was just kind of a subconscious action that I realized later was probably me, relating to being a kid as well as relating to what the Pages mean to me. If you look at pictures of me as a little kid they look a lot like the pages haha! Not sure I meant to do that. 


    Did that change impinge upon the general structure of your court?


    Not really. When I was deciding what my spin was going to be along my theme I had envisioned, innocents as the pages and it just made sense to me. It also felt more balanced with the Knights and Kings also being men. 
    How do you describe your Page of Swords in your LWB?
    The art of knife throwing was introduced in the American Circus around 1870 and was featured in Buffalo Bill’s wild west show among others. Competition was fierce with performers always trying to out do one another. One innovation was called “The Spinning Wheel of Death” where a person was strapped to the middle of a spinning wheel while knives were tossed at them, others used children to stand in the target to increase audience tension.

    The Page of Swords has a resourceful and detached personality. To allow someone to throw knives at you while barely breaking a sweat takes focus and determination. Keep cool under pressure and trust in your courageous personality. Reversed, this card means that you may be lacking focus and not ready for what is coming your way. 

    You can find out more about Misha and her art at: http://theartofmishahuntting.weebly.com/american-obscuratarot-deck.html

  • Ostara: Paint a journey with new life

    If you have just hopped over from Andrew’s blog for the Tarot Blog Hop – welcome! I’m really pleased to see you here!  *dusts down a chair and offers to the reader*

    If you’ve not been here before, my blog focuses entirely on the Court Cards of the Tarot, so guess what? It’s going to be some members of the Court that help us puzzle out how to ‘Paint a journey with new life’.

    All 16 Court members crowded into a huddle wehn I asked for four volunteers who might be willing to take on the challenge.  Four little hands were thrust skywards, so ladies and gentlemen, let the Pages of the Hello! Tarot show you how their energies can help brighten the journey of life a little!

    In most areas of our lives, if we’re honest, we like to be considered good at what we do. Whether that’s redecorating the back bedroom, running a marathon, getting that contract sealed or just baking a successful sponge cake!

    Oh yeah, we like to be the King or Queen of something!

    But sometimes we’re so busy getting on in life and gaining mastery and maturity that we forget about these little guys and the colour and joy they can bring to our own lives.

    The Pages often represent news from somewhere else in Tarot readings (and we can see birds arriving with messages in these cards), but, it needn’t be news from Australia, it could be from your own inner Page, struggling to be heard under the suffocating grey weight of our everyday lives.

    Take it away kids!

    The suit of Wands is all about DOING stuff and all those forward-looking qualities such as courage, optimism, action, dynamism. Wands are fiery and add splashes of scarlet and orange to our lives – if we let them!

    The fearless little mouse in the Page of Wands waves hello to three kittens (who may or may not have lost their mittens) as he waves his fiery banner.  Kittens and Mice have a fairly well-defined relationship.  For Kittens, Mice = toothsome snack! For Mice, Kittens = One Way Ticket To Mouse Heaven.  But here’s the mouse, waving a cheery hello to the kittens nonetheless!

    The Page of Wands says:  Do something NEW – and heck, maybe it IS risky, but you could make new friends!  Do something left-field today, see what happens!

    Please note: No mice were hurt in the creation of this Tarot card.

    Cups are all about the emotions, right? They are about dreaming and imagining and love and all that heart-felt jazz. They bring shades of blue to our lives – from the blinding azure of the Indian Ocean, to the seaweedy bottle-green of the River Clyde outside my window. 

    So the Page of Cups wants you to look at everything – your partner, your kids, the dog, the work that you love… and other people and things that you don’t really like very much at all (like stinky blue cheese)….in a new light.  Give your full attention! Those relationships that you take for granted or think can’t be improved upon, could they benefit from a little dash of wonder and imagination? A dollop of compassion? Tabasco?

    A cup with a fish in it? Hey, why not? It’s all there for the person with the Page of Cups’ ability to focus wholeheartedly on what’s in front of him.

    Swords always get the fuzzy end of the lollipop in Tarot. Associated with grief and loss, I think that they’re really just the people who are brave enough to comminicate it like it is.  But sometimes (*snorts* MOST times) we don’t want to hear that, we’re just happy rolling along in our own groove – thinking our well-established thoughts, ignoring anything that might challenge the status quo (not THE Status Quo – they’re a band.  They’re excellent. They must remain unchallenged).

    Swords are associated with Air – which is not renowned for it’s colour – but can be yellow and gold, or even the colours of the sky – pink sunsets, gin-clear Spring afternoons, the lemon-grey of a coming storm….

    Well here’s a new IDEA, says the Page of Swords – why not trying thinking about something in a new way? Today’s the day to get that intriging book out of the libraryor from the book store! You could think about other political systems, other people’s points of view, LEARN some new stuff today. 

    What’s an envelope for? For stuffing with letters? REALLY? That’s the BEST you can come up with?! PUSH IT says the little Page. Look, he’s got a pointy sword, don’t argue.

    Here’s your starter:  Sign up for factoids on Twitter from Radio 2 and never be stuck for a conversation opener at a party again! http://twitter.com/#!/bigshowfactoids.  It’s ok, you can thank me later.

    The suit of Pentacles is all about our physical life – it’s the health, wealth and hearth suit.  The Pentacles add all shades of green and brown (yeah, even BEIGE is good!)

    Well Hello Kitty!  The cute Page of Pentacles offers up her suit symbol like a frisbee or a ball.  Jeez – when was the last time you and your body had a bit of fun together?  Have you spent so long in front of lolcats and funny facebook pages that you’ve forgotten the sheer exhuberance of being ALIVE?  The Page of Pentacles offers us a way to paint our journey through life by enjoying the physicality of life.  Want to really TASTE your food? Slip on a blindfold and eat an apple. You might feel like a dork, but who really gives a rat’s ass?! Get your shoes off and feel the grass between your toes (ok – maybe wait until Summer sticks her head around the door for that one),  sink your face into your dog’s coat and breathe in the warmth of him.  But not if you’ve got asthma. Obviously.

    Together the Pages urge us to have more fun with life – who says that it’s all to be sober dark suits and common sense?  It can be red dungarees and high heels the colour of laduree macaroons. When was the last time you skipped instead of walked? The last time you played a practical joke? The last time you sang? The last time you painted a picture? Planted a seed?  Did a handstand? Licked an ice-cream cone?  Sent a postcard? Told someone that you loved them? Smiled at a stranger? Wore a flower?

    Until we find out otherwise, we only have THIS one life. So come on, let’s paint it as beautifully and joyfully as we possibly can.  Now, hop over to Viv’s blog.

    All images from the Hello! Tarot by Joe Rosales (coloured in by me – but using coloured pixels courtesy of the Page of Wands, of course)

  • War Horse

    I went to see this film a couple of weeks ago (brief review: it’s a two paper hankie job) and I wondered which Knight’s horse best represented Joey, the thoroughbred who learns to plough.

    Do we consider the attitude of the Knights’ steeds when we consider the Knights?

    What does the horse represent in the Tarot Court? The speed at which the Knight travels in his element?  An extension of the Knight himself?

    The Knight of Wands thunders joyously over the turf, followed by the slightly spooked looking Knight of Swords.  The Knight of Cups, on the other hand, proceeds at a leisurely pace and the Knight of Pentacles? He’s stopped for a sandwich and a bit of a gaze at the countryside.

    I recall someone in the TABI Training course saying that the Knight of Wands would be the first into battle, but the Knight of Pentacles would be the last out.  That’s pretty much about the size of it!

    Wands and Swords both have their weapons drawn and are clearly in attack mode – how does that affect how you interpret them in a reading?

    Poor Joey spends most of the film in either Wands or Swords mode, but he begins the film (I won’t talk about the end in case you haven’t seen it) in the Cups and Pentacle-tastic delights of pre war Devon – a sepia-coloured vision of picturesque villages, cobbled streets, the patriotic cheering of people who have no idea about the horror about to befall the young men who march off, waving gaily behind them.

    It’s an adventure.  And we’ll be home by Christmas.

    For the Knights life is an adventure and they are associated with that questing, knightly spirit when they appear in a reading.

    Their poor warhorses have to go wherever their masters spur them.

    In pre Rider Waite decks, this idea of the horse reflecting the ‘speed’ of the suit is not usually present 🙂

    In your own favourite deck, does the Knight’s horse reflect the Knight’s personality? Does the horse’s livery reflect the suit’s qualities?  Not all Knights are on horses – other creatures are used – do the other animals chosen reflect the Knight’s suit, or has it been chosen arbitrarily?

  • Become who you choose to be…..

    Mary El

    Here’s an exercise that you can do, using only your court cards – or your court cards and the rest of your deck (but hold your court cards separately).

    We all want to improve some area of our lives – perhaps we want to improve something about ourselves such as break a habit, get a job, improve a relationship etc.

    While it’s not healthy to be unhappy with the EVERYTHING you actually are, a desire to improve in one or two areas is no bad thing.

    So here’s a little exercise

    1  Think of a single area of your life that you’d like to work on.

    2  Flick through your Court Cards until you find an image that best reflects how you are right now with regard to that area you’d like to develop or improve upon.  It might just be a symbol in the card, an expression on a face, a gesture… a certain confidence a Court exudes?

    3  Flick through the remaining Court Cards until you find an image that best reflects your future self; how you’d like to be, with regard to that area you’re going to work on.

    4  Now set them out with the Court representing where you are now on the left – a gap for two cards – and the Court that represents you in the future.

    You have deliberately chosen these two cards and they represent you now and in the future.

    5  Shuffle your remaining court cards while you think about both of the cards you have chosen.

    6  Select randomly one Court whose energies will HELP you make the transition.

    7 Select randomly one Court whose energies will HINDER you from making the transition

    Set them between your first two cards – what do you see?  Can you see things that will help you move forwards?

    BTW, if you want to use the rest of your deck for those last two cards, by all means do so.

    Have a think about it and tell me, how did you get on?

    night of Cups image from Mary-El Tarot 🙂

  • One Singer | one song | which Court?

    I know, I must seem like a really sad git as far as music is concerned, but COME ON, DOLLY PARTON?!  She’s EPIC!

    It’s a simple enough tale, the flaming-tressed temptress that is Jolene receives a visit from a woman who begs her to leave her man alone.  I can just imagine a heart-broken Dolly on the doorstep, absent-mindedly brandishing a gun as she urges Joleen to reconsider!  I know, it’s not IN the song, but that’s how I see it Inside My Head……

    How do you think Jolene reacts once this song is over? If she was the Queen of Wands she would just take the guy anyway, but what if the woman’s impassioned plea prompts her to react like one of the other Queens?

    What reactions might Jolene give, depending on which Queen’s energy she works?
    And what of the brave woman who decides to face down her rival? Who is she?
    Have a good weekend!

  • Goodbye…..Queen of Wands!

    Today, technically, the full moon for March is this morning!  I shuffled my Court Cards from Ciro Marchetti’s Tarot of Dreams to see whose energies will be leaving me over the next couple of weeks…. and drew The Queen of Wands.

    Shame.  I really liked her – she was my Incoming Energies card from the last New Moon.  She has many fine points that I was finding useful – such as that can-do attitude.  This manifested as a properly cleaned out greenhouse AND a damn fine lemon and almond cake (that has taken me four attempts to get right!).

    Maybe I could keep her best bits and get rid of her less desirable attributes in the time running up to the New Moon?

    Let’s see, what ARE her less desirable attributes?!

    Well, for a start I could be more understanding about her relentlessly upbeat approach – it really does get on people’s nerves.  To be honest, sometimes I even get on my own nerves 🙂

    She verges towards the aggressive – in the Minchiate – she’s a total stirrer.  I don’t think that I AM a stirrer (stirrers deliberately and sneakily incite trouble for people) in real life…but I will really TRY to curb my desire to lapse into moaning about other people.  That will be tricky if I’m honest.  See, when you’re working The Queen of Wands, EVERYONE else is just an also-ran 😀

    The sexual energy of the Queen of Wands – which would by all accounts be a positive in most people’s lives – is less so in my own.  It won’t be hard to give up trying to engineer steamy romps and now I can return to reading in bed with my cardigan on.  Those silky slips – so alluring – but soooooo damned cold – can be banished to the bottom of the wardrobe *high fives the reader*

    Looking at this Queen in particular, she is masked.  Maybe I can stop pretending to be something that I’m not in an area of my life?  Yes, I would be happy to give THAT particular aspect of the Queen up!

    She’s also wearing a very lovely frock with quite a lot of bling.  And to give up the desire for Nice Things….acquiring just for the sake of acquiring….might be sensible given that it’s Miserly Miserable March.

    What other energies of this Queen of Wands could I work on relinquishing?

    Copyright:  All art copyright to Ciro Marchetti.

    If you’d like to buy this deck, please check out Ciro’s website – there’s only a couple of dozen of this deck left!  And there’s even a Tarot of Dreams app you can buy for your ipads!

  • Rank and File in the Courts

    I’ve already touched on the elemental components of the Tarot Court here.

    You are probably familiar with a system that allocates each of the Minor Arcana suits an element – either earth, air, fire or water.  The system that I use is:

    Wands – Fire
    Swords – Air
    Cups – Water
    Pentacles – Earth

    But there are other systems out there.  Some decks include a 5th suit and therefore a 5th element (usually associated with ether or spirit) – so find one that looks like it agrees with the imagery on your deck and stick with it! 🙂


    Something else, worth bearing in mind, is that each of the court card RANKS also has an element associated with it:

    Pages – Earth
    Knights – Air
    Queens – Water
    Kings – Fire

    Even here, there are other options – with Knights sometimes being regarded as fiery and the Kings as Airy.  Take your pick!

    What this means is that each of our Court Cards has two elements at work.  In some cases these elements will be complementary and in other cases downright conflicting.

    When talking about the two elemental components of your Court Card, it’s the Rank element first, followed by the Suit element (a bit like a first name and a second name….so the Page of Wands is Earth of Fire)

    Using this elemental pairing information can add further depth to your Court Card interpretations:

    Fire and Air are complementary/friendly
    Water and Earth are complementary/friendly

    Fire and Water conflict/unfriendly
    Air and Earth conflict/unfriendly

    Fire and Earth are neutral
    Air and Water are neutral

    You can actually apply these principles to your Tarot reading generally – it’s a whole discipline called Elemental Dignity and the power of cards can be increased or diminished, depending on the surrounding cards.

    When I are use the suit element and the rank element, I’m not always using the Elemental Dignity method of reading whereby the surrounding cards play a role.  Mainly I just look at the elements at play in the single Court card in front of me and apply them to the situation in question.

    Four Court Cards are, literally, in their element – the Page of Pentacles (Earth of Earth), the Knight of Swords (Air of Air), the Queen of Cups (Water of Water) and the King of Wands (Fire of Fire).

    If you only have one element operating, how might this affect these four cards?  Might they be overwhelmed by their element? Do they lack balance? Something to think about when a double element Court card arises in your reading.

    As well as four people being in their element, four of them suffer real conflict between their Rank and Suit elements:

    The little Page of Swords – Earth of Air
    The Knight of Pentacles – Air of Earth
    The Queen of Wands – Water of Fire
    The King of Cups – Fire of Water

    The King of Cups, for example, may struggle to assert his Kingly energies when his compassion is roused?  Likewise, the Queen of Wands actions might belie her caring streak? When two conflicting elements vie for supremacy in a Court, what might the results be? Are they unpredictable people? People seeming to say one thing and do another?

    What about the Knight of Pentacles or the Page of Swords – what might their conflicts be?

    Technically, the neutral elements of Water/Air and Fire/Earth don’t strengthen or weaken….but when reading individually, why not consider how useful these elements can be together?  For example – air can really give water a bit of pizazz (think of carbonated water!) how else can air affect water? Can this be brought in to your interpretation of the Court card?  Are these people more even balanced? Less likely to experience utter meltdown because they have non-conflicting elements nor double elements?

    What about Fire and Earth? Think of the useful ceramics that can be made….and how that process can go wrong! Can that add depth to your interpretation of this card?

    There are lots of great resources out there to help you find out more about Elemental Dignities.  Pay a visit to Paul Hughes-Barlow’s site, supertarot. Also, Liz Hazel’s book, Tarot Decoded has  excellent information on Elemental Dignities 🙂  Please feel free to add your own recommendations for sites or books in the comments section.

    Card illustration:  Knight of Disks – Thoth Tarot – Aleister Crowley and Lady Frieda Harris, published by US Games.

    You can buy the deck here:


    You can buy Liz Hazel’s book here:

  • One Singer | One Song | Which Courts?

    I know, it must seem to any regular reader of this meme that I am lodged somewhere east of 1969 as far as music is concerned, but really, some really good story songs were written in the 60s!
    So here’s the story of a widow whose daughter attends Harper Valley Junior High and lays into the PTA in unforgettable style.
    Can you identify any of the characters in the song? Either the mother, the daughter, or the unfortunate members of the Harper Valley PTA?
    Have a good weekend!

  • Sovereignty in the Courts

    Rohrig – Princess of Cups

    This is a very special day – the Leap Year Day where women can ask their beloved to marry them without having to go through the pantomime of sighing and dragging their feet as they go past every jeweller’s window on the High Street.

    I myself open the door of wedding dress shops and shout ‘Don’t Do It!’  Cynical, moi?

    Flamboyant playwright Oscar Wilde once said that it was the tragedy of every woman to turn into her mother and that it was the tragedy of every man that he didn’t.

    Or something like that.

    This got me thinking: How do you think that sovereignty is transferred in your Tarot deck? Do the Kings marry into the Queen’s suit or do the Queens marry in to the King’s suit?

    That might all sound a bit confusing……I’ll try to clarify and hope that I don’t tie myself in knots as I do so!

    Think of our own Dear Queen Elizabeth. OK, she was of the House of Windsor (or Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as they are REALLY called) and Prince Philip married IN to the Windsors from the equally confusing and non-Greek sounding House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg.

    He became a Windsor, SHE didn’t become a Schleswig-Holstein-yada-yada.
    So – if the suit traits descend through the Queen, then who do you think the Kings might have been as young men?  How does marriage into a different Court from the one they have been brought up change them?

    Personally speaking – I married a Knight of Wands and ended up with a King of Pentacles. You can imagine how disappointing THAT turned out to be, seeing as how I’m not a Queen of Pentacles myself 😉
    If the suit traits descend through the King (like a traditional marriage where the wife takes the hubby’s details USUALLY), this means that the Queens were young girls brought up in different suit families.  Who might they be as young women?
    Take a look at your Pages/Princesses and your Knights from your own favourite deck and see if you can work out who is likely to grow into which Queen or King 🙂
    Does the loving innocence of the Princess of Cups transform into the cynical Queen of Swords?
    Does the intellectually fierce Knight of Swords morph into the King of Cups with the love of a good woman? Does the Knight of Wands burn through the business world like a forest fire to become the King of Pentacles?  
    What do you think?

  • To boldly go… The Tarot Kings | Star Trek

    Yes, the most famous split infinitive in the world and possibly the four greatest examples of pure Tarot Kings  😉  Who’s who?!

    First Officer Spock – Logic is his keyword and, literally, his mantra.  Cool and unflappable because of his lack of emotional response, Spock makes a fine King of Swords.  However, when the emotional, half-human side of him surfaces …. that’s when things really start to get interesting around Spock.

    Captain James T Kirk – I. Am. Resisting. The. Desire. To Type. Like. Kirk. Talks.  Passionate, charming, a hit with the ladies, usually shot in soft focus, Kirk is a brave and magnetic leader.  He leads from the front and would do anything to save his ship and his crew.  Except for those guys in the red sweaters that died every episode.  Kirk has got that Wands drive to ‘explore, seek out new civilisations’ and all that.  He’s not so bothered about the fine detail.  He issues the commands and other people ‘to make it so’.  He is our King of Wands.

    Doctor McCoy is the Healer on the starship Enterprise.  Often caught in the middle of the impassioned Kirk and the calculating Spock, McCoy is usually found remonstrating with both of them – diplomatic and caring, McCoy and his amazing toolkit of healing things that make peeping noises is our King of Cups.

    Chief Engineer ‘Scotty’ is the only guy in a red sweater not to die.  Also the only one who is brave enough to try a Scottish accent for all the episodes.  He’s the Enterprise’s mechanical genius.  Despite protestations that ‘she canny take it’, Scotty always ensures that she can and the Enterprise (and her team) live to fight another day.  Practical and resiliant, he is our King of Pentacles.

    And I could not resist this….. I think the Queen of Wands would want me to adopt this as a mantra!

    All credit for the subject of this blogpost to Vivianne Kacal!