Tarot Thrones | The Court Card Blog

Tag: Haindl Tarot

  • Dark Moon | Haindl Tarot | Pixie’s Astounding Lenormand

    So I thought that since it was the dark moon before Christmas it would be a good idea to see who is going to be helping me get through this stressful – but fun – time.

    I selected the court cards from the Haindl deck – the first proper deck that I bought myself, before I started learning the cards properly – and using a card from Pixie’s Astounding Mlle Lenormand as an amplifier.

    So what have we got?  White Buffalo Woman representing the Daughter of Stones in the West .  She does not look like a woman looking forward to the Festive Season, does she?!

    OK – let’s start at the beginning.  The Courts in the Haindl don’t follow the traditional Page, Knight, Queen, King format.  Instead they are Son, Daughter, Father, Mother.  The suit names differ from traditional associations in one suit only – Pentacles equates to Stones.

    Each suit is accorded a culture and here with Stones we have the Native Americans.

    Depicted as a shadowy portrait above buffalo, White Buffalo Woman.  The legend of White Buffalo Woman can be found here.  She is a goddess who gives a sacred pipe and its rituals to the Lakota tribe.  As she leaves the Lakota, she turns into various buffalo – the lower image in the card.

    The book that accompanies the Haindl (by Rachel Pollack) gives us options of regarding the Courts as Teachers and Helpers.

    White Buffalo Woman teaches me not to look at the world literally, but symbolically – and if that isn’t suitable for the coming season, I don’t know what is!  She’s all about working intuitively, not from books and to respect the visions of others.  She urges us to see sacredness in everyday life.

    Hmmm – wonder if that means that I should be more understanding of my mother’s idealistic ‘visions’ of happy family Christmas times?

    Perhaps.

    And what of Birds?  What do they add to my understanding?

    Birds can indicate a meeting or an interview.  Well, that’s interesting because I’m in the process of setting up a meeting with some local people with regard to my Tarot work.  They’re to do with communication, chatter, siblings,….and that’s entirely congruent with my family coming to visit before Christmas.

    I haven’t seen my brother in over a year!  I’m very excited about him coming to visit – even if it’s only for the day.

    What might these cards mean if they came up for you? How would you interpret them?

  • September | New Moon | The King of Cups

    Odin – just hanging around

    And so we are huddled once again in the darkness of a moonless night! A sliver of new moon will be upon us – and whose energies will guide me from now until the moon is full once again?

    The Father of Cups from the Haindl, that’s who.

    This deck is very special to me.  It was the first ‘fancy’ Tarot deck that I ever bought.  It was also the first purchase that I ever made on ebay!  I *know.*  I’m a veritable FONT of spiritual insight.

    The image in the card depicts Odin, the Head Honcho god of the Norse pantheon.  The suit of Cups represents the North and the Northern Gods.  Interestingly, the Queen of Cups is The Willdendorf goddess, which I mentioned earlier this month, here.

    We see Odin hanging upside down (exactly like the Hanged Man card) suspended on the World Tree, Yggdrasil.  He is reaching into the Underworld to find the Runes – you may just be able to pick them out, scattered on the ground beneath his outstretched hand.  He has been half-blinded (a payment he made to Mimir) in return for a drink from the giant’s well.  The name Mimir means memory, apparently.  I may have remembered that wrong. *boom tish – eyethankyoo*

    Odin was more than just the Leader of the Norse pack and a God of War, he is also closely associated with more ‘Cups’ orientated subjects such as poetry and magic.  I’m hoping that it’s his Cups associations rather than his warlike tendancies that are coming to the fore for me!

    I usually think of the King of Cups as a slightly laughable figure – kind and diplomatic of course, but always slightly mystified as to where he’s left his car keys.  A bit of a buffoon.  Which is terribly unkind of me and probably says more about the influence of Wands and Swords on me than the poor Father of Cups!

    Yet here he is, taking me by the hand to guide me through to the full moon.

    So – until the full moon, I am prepared to go with the flow, to surrender (Hanged Man stylee) to the Father of Cups and Life Itself (which is totally unlike me).  I will endeavour to be kind and considerate; to accept people at face value; to be diplomatic (let me tell you right now, your bum does NOT look big in that).

    And most importantly, now is the time for me to reach into my own underworld and emerge with knowledge and magic… slightly scary prospect! But if I am prepared to trust the King of Cups, this is the time to do it.

    I’ve taken to intermittent fasting (fast for 24 hours, twice a week) and have been considering a deeper fast with more spiritual endeavours….

    I wondered whether I was on the right track with my thoughts bout the King and drew another card to modify him (as I do with the amplifiers exercise).  I drew the 7 of Wands: Courage.  So I think I’m on the right track after all 😀

    What does the King of Cups mean in your life, right now?

  • OOTK | Part II | Hunt the (scary!) Lady!

    Kali: Do not go home to her
    with a burst pay-packet

    So, following on from the earlier post about the initial stage of the OOTK spread, we move on to the second procedure but remember, you need never move further through the spread than this section, if that’s what you’re comfortable with.

    Here I’ve used the Haindl Tarot, for the question:  So, what do I do next with my Tarot aspirations?

    For my significator card, I chose the Queen of Wands (because she is generally the character to whom I aspire!) and in the Haindl, she is the somewhat bum-clenchingly scary Kali. <- I usually pick the Queen of Wands for more, erm, WHOLESOME reasons 🙂

    Given that my question involves ‘work’ I would be expecting it on either the Fire pile or perhaps the Earth pile…. and lo! there she was right at the top of the Earth pile.


    Here are the four stacks:

    Looking at the photo, from left to right we have Mother of Wands, The Magician, Justice and the Daughter of Wands. If you click on the photo, it will enlarge.  I think.

    Hmmm – what do you think of that?

    Kali was right on the top of the bundle, but if you need to search for your Significator, don’t disturb the order of the cards as you edge through them.

    Once you locate your Significator, spread them out in a line or fan shape.  Run it onto two lines if you’re a bit short of space.  As I was.

    And now we count! My authority for counting is Crowley’s Book of Thoth:

    * Knights, Queens and Princes (Kings, Queens and Knights, depending on your deck) – count 4
    * Princesses (Pages) – count 7
    * Aces – count 11
    * Major Arcana – count 3 for Elemental Majors, count 9 for Planetary Majors, count 12 for Zodiac””
    * Minor Arcana – count the face value (ie 3 of Stones, count 3)

    When counting, include the card itself as your first count.

    And, basically, make up ‘a story’ <- direct quote from Crowley there!

    You stop counting once you have ended up back on a card that you have previously landed on.

    You may also count in the opposite direction, just to see which cards REALLY have relevance (cards that come up when counting both ways) and which cards are resolutely refusing to get involved (cards that you never alight on!)

    In some versions, you can even CHANGE the direction that you are counting on in mid-stream, depending on what way your Pages/Princesses are facing, if you fancy it – but I don’t recommend that or you just end up in the most awful guddle!  Or maybe that’s just me 🙂

    When creating your story, you can refer to the cards either side of the card that you land on, using elemental dignities or just straightfoward Tarot interps, to create meaning and structure.

    Here’s a little slideshow to show you how my cards turned out:

    I know.  Oliver Stone I am not 🙂
    I appreciate that it all goes a bit quickly, so here are the photos so that you can see the images a bit more clearly:
    9 Swords Cruely, flanked by 2 Wands Dominion and Hierophant

    5 Wands flanked by 8 Swords Interference and Ace of Wands

    8 Cups, flanked by Mother of Stones (QoP) and Father of Stones (KoP)

    The Hierophant, flanked by 9 Swords Cruelty and The Lovers

    “” Please sing out if you would like me to put up a list of which Trump is in each category.