Tarot Thrones | The Court Card Blog

Tag: Cups

  • Tarot Knights | Musketeers

    For the past 6 weeks, Friday nights have been dominated by my obsessive need to watch the swash-buckling gorgeousness that is The Musketeers on BBC1.  Who better to illustrate the fast-moving antics of the Tarot’s Knights?

    Athos, Porthos, D'Artagnan, Aramis - the Tarot's court card knights

    The incredibly handsome cast of Muskys have been a delight to watch as they struggled with the evil Rochefort as he plays the spineless French King against his Queen like the consummate player (and Spanish spy!) that he is.

    The second series drew to a close on Friday (what do you mean, you haven’t watched Series 1?!) and I await news of a third series with bated breath.

    So, let’s take a look at just which Musky equates to which Tarot Knight!

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    Porthos – The Knight of Pentacles

    Howard Charles | Porthos | BBC Musketeers | Tarot Court Card | Knight of Pentacles
    Porthos – The Knight of Pentacles

    The most physically strong of the Musketeers, Porthos is also the most exotic-looking.  Offspring of a North African servant mother and a French Aristo father, actor Howard Charles, is the embodiment of the dependable, powerful and resiliant Porthos.

    Poor Porthos doesn’t get much in the way of romantic story-lines, but he’s the strength and backbone of the Musketeers – carousing and punching his way through the series!

    What does the Knight of Pentacles mean? 

    The Knight of Pentacles is slow to rouse to passion, but when his blood is up, he is determined and focussed.  He will not be easily put off or distracted, but could, unfortunately, be mistaken for the most boring of the Musketeers.  Ladies, wise-up.

    Aramis – The Knight of Cups

    Aramis | Knight of Cups | Musketeers | BBC | Santiago Cabrera
    Aramis – The Knight of Cups

    Aramis is the romantic one.  After falling in love with the Queen and their eventual encounter in the Convent, Aramis becomes her Knight in Shining Armour.

    Aramis’s love for the Queen is very much an idealised romantic union – she is utterly unobtainable and he loves her from afar.  She is on a pedestal – would he be able to love her with such a pure heart if he had to visit the loo after her every morning?

    At the end of this series he devotes himself to God and goes off to become a Monk.  He IS our Knight of Cups.

    The BBC cast Santiago Cabrera as Lancelot in their Merlin series a few years back.  What can I say, the boy’s got IT?!

    What does the Knight of Cups mean?

    The Knight of Cups is a dreamer and a romantic.  He has a loving heart and the soul of a poet.  Prone to idealising the object of his affections, he is in love with the idea of love and might not have the cojones to knuckle down when things get tough.

    Athos – Knight of Swords

    Athos | Tarot Court Card | Knight of Swords | BBC | Musketeers | Tom Burke
    Athos – The Knight of Swords

    Let’s just pause here for a moment, shall we?

    *sighs wistfully at Tom Burke and wipes drool from mouth*

    Athos is our tortured Knight of Swords.  Wounded by the ‘betrayal’ of his wife, Athos keeps his heart to himself (because, his gloriously wicked wife, Milday De Winter actually still has it).  Thoughtful, brooding, stealing EVERY scene that he’s in, Athos is the righteously intense Knight of Swords.

    What does the Knight of Swords mean?

    This Knight in particular lives inside his head and can fall prey to whatever demons lurk inside his head.  Fast-moving and whip-sharp, the Knight of Swords relies on his brain-power to tell him what to do and doesn’t trust the truth of his emotions.

    D’Artagnan – The Knight of Wands

    D'Artagnan | Tarot Court Card | Knight of Wands
    D’Artagnan – The Knight of Wands

    Ah, and here he is – always the favourite Musketeer – D’Artagnan. Younger than his companions, he is impulsive and fiery.  In Series One, he constantly tries to become a Musketeer. Athos et al regard him as a younger brother who causes much tutting and head-shaking by the others, before he is bailed out and dusted down for his next exploit.  Keen as mustard, passionate and generous of spirit, D’Artagnan is played by Luke Pasquelino with glorious elan.

    What does the Knight of Wands mean?

    The fastest-moving of the Knights, The Knight of Wands burns brightly, but not for long!  His passions are quick to rise, but he lacks the resolve of the Pentacles, the emotions of the Cups, and the clarity of the Swords.  This is the guy who will promise you the moon to get what he wants and as soon as you have surrendered and been thoroughly ”explored’, he will move on to the next challenge.

    When called upon to describe what the Tarot knights are like as people, you could do a lot worse than remember the Four Musketeers!

    …I DID mention that the were a GREAT-looking cast, didn’t I? Well the women in the cast are equally unforgettable.  Constance, Milady De Winter and The Queen – they will be in a later post!

    Now, saddle me up your finest stallion, we have a war to wage against Spain!

    “All for one ……”

  • Meet the Courts | Alexander Daniloff Tarot

    Come on in to the wonderful Italianate, medieval-inspired world of Alexander Daniloff! *throws open the door*.  This glorious Tarot is still very new to me, but I wanted to share his Court Cards with you so that you can see why I am so enamoured of this man’s work!

    There is no accompanying book with this deck, but I don’t think that this detracts from the cards as a working deck at all. It’s very RWS-based in its imagery.

    Without further ado, TADAAAAH! Here they are!

    The Swords Courts

    As you can see, the common colour to the Swords Courts is black – quite in tune with the suits associations with grief and loss.  But black is powerful, threatening… also, makes you look slimmer 🙂  There are lovely pops of colour in these cards too – and love the raven perched above the queen! I already spoke to Alexander Daniloff about the Page, with is artfully hidden HEWGE sword here.

    They’re all looking the same way, to our left.  They have the sort of dark expressions that one might associate with the suit – although the Queen looks downright sneaky lol!

    The Cups Courts

    Check out the delightful aqua and blue hues of the Cups, less obvious in the King perhaps.  Unlike the Swords, this family all face to the right.  I adore the big clumsy-looking Knight and love how the Queen of Cups slides her gaze to him!

    The common colour for the Wands is green – reflecting the liveliness of the living Wand.  The Wands Knight looks like a character from The Far Pavilions (not read it? read it. I luffed it.) The Wands look predominantly out to the left other, like the Swords.  Apart from the pesky Page who looks to the right! Look at the sad-looking lion skin belonging to the King of Wands.  He’s skinned the Cowardly Lion from the Wizard of Oz.  And the Queen – with her golden ripe harvest and fiery ram’s fleece……. The Wands are scrumptious!

    The Pentacles Courts

    I think that this might be my favourite family in this deck because, if you look closely, the Pentacle in each card is different.  The Page has a game, the Knight has a coin, the Queen has a globe-like sphere and the King’s Pentacle is part of the trappings of his wealth, his robes.  I love the Elephant and Castle on the escutcheon that makes up the King’s torso.  This is where the lack of a LWB can be a little maddening lol! Mind you, I’ve seen fairly significant symbols go unmentioned in lots of LWBs, so there’s no guarantee that I would be any the wiser if Alexander had included one.

    From a bit of an internet trawl, the elephant is associated with strength.  And castles with defence – so strength and defence might be their motto?  And yes, I’m also aware that it’s the name of a significant junction in London 😀
    All the Pages are depicted as youths with banners representing their suits, standing on boards.  They have a small area of influence.
    The Knights are depicted behind helmets and shields (in the Germanic style).
    The Queens are depicted in a similar shield shape and have playing card suit references
    The Kings have their coat of arms as their torso.
    Each card has its associated astrological symbol prominently placed to the foot of the card, which makes these cards lovely to use as Significators based on astrological references. The poor Pages have, of course, no astral real-estate and so have no astrological symbols. Don’t blame Alexander, blame the Golden Dawn 😉
    Knights, who are traditionally mutable, have frilly moveable fronds around them
    The Queens who are cardinal are in a human-heart shaped vignette and are before a swagged entrance.  Cardinal signs are the entrance signs (first signs) encountered when looking at astrology of Courts 🙂  Look, I’m trying to help pin the associations here lol!
    The Kings are fixed, as denoted by the cityscapes in their thrones.
    Oh there is so much else that I want to add about these characters, but I shall save it for another day!
    So what do you think of them? Love them? Loathe them?!
    *whispers* it had better be love or you and I may have to break off our engagement 😀

  • 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

  • And it’s Good Knight from him!

    There are lots of spreads that you can do to mark the passing stages of the moon.  Last night was a full moon, so I thought about whose personality energies would be now lessening their grip on me from here to the Dark Moon.

    Of course, when it’s the Dark Moon, I’ll be looking to see whose energies are going to become more powerful as we draw towards the next Full Moon.  There are lots of variations on this reading theme, but that’s the two that we’ll initially be looking at.

    The card drawn was The Knight of Cups.  And here he is;

    Copyright info:  Published by US Games
    Words/Art – A E Waite/Pamela Colman-Smith
    You can buy it here:   
                                                                                         
    This is one of two Knights in the Rider Waite Smith deck that I’d quite like to give a damn good shake. Look at him, trotting around totally absorbed by the Cup in his grasp.  I could smack him.
    His character is similar to the river that runs through the card: it slowly twists and turns through the countryside.  It meanders.  The Knight of Cups meanders.  This is a Knight who is in grave danger of disappearing up his own ass if he doesn’t rouse himself from the adoration of his Cup to some kind of action.  
    He’s a Knight – the Knights are not supposed to demonstrate the maturity of their Kings and Queens.  It’s their job to QUEST and to seek for that elusive THING and he’s seeking something in that Cups of his.  
    Frankly, I’m tired of looking for The Knight of Cups Thing.  You know The Thing.  The Thing that will Make You Emotionally Fulfilled.  If you’re lucky, you won’t know what I’m talking about – but if you’re at the Knight stage of anything, you’ll know just what I mean 🙂
    As a member of the Cups family, you would think that this chap is all about those Watery traits (the fish on his tabard, the waves on his horse’s bridle) such as love, compassion, warmth….but as a Knight, he also has a lot of intellectual, logical Airy energy blowing around too (check out those wings on his helmet and spurs) and for me, this Watery/Airy combination manifests in a character who is more interested in examining  his own experience of emotions than anyone else’s.  Looking again at the river in the card, I can confirm that point of view by the almost arid landscape that is clearly not much nourished by the water that runs through it.
    This is a guy who will lovingly compose a ballad for you, but only really for the pleasure of hearing himself sing!  He will sweep you off for a weekend to Paris, but forget to buy Euros….. Oh don’t get me wrong – he will declare his undying love and genuinely mean it.  Until he doesn’t and you’re dumped unceremoniously from a great height.  And he’s off again on his Great Quest…. do you recognise him?!
    So from now until the moon becomes dark, the disengaged emotional pleasures of the Knight of Cups ebbs from my life as does his dilly-dallying abstractedness.  Thank goodness!
    I wonder whose energies will take his place?!