Tarot Thrones | The Court Card Blog

Tag: Mythic Tarot

  • Tarot Court Cards: Nature or Nurture?

    Tarot Court Cards: Nature or Nurture?

    boy with parent
    Photo by Ba Phi from Pexels | What makes us who we are – nature or nurure?

    It’s a hotly contested subject in real life – do external forces such as environment and education fashion who you are or are you born with a predisposition to act/be a particular type of person? While the argument goes on, it is currently accepted that much of who we are, mentally and physically, and what we do as adults is a combination of our nature and our nurture.

    So, how do these factors manifest in our Court Cards?

    Our cards come with only two pieces of information, the rank and the suit. Which of these represents our card’s nature and which represents our nurture?

    The RANK (Page, Knight, Queen, King etc) shows us the NATURE of the card while the SUIT (Swords, Cups, Pentacles, Wands etc) gives us the NURTURE, the environment that the character must function within.

    Consider the Queen of Wands – she is a Queen by nature, but she must function in a Wands environment. How does someone who is by nature caring and empathetic function in an environment where assertion/aggression, adventure, courage and ambition are ways of life?

    The answer is: with difficulty.

    Here’s an example to consider:

    Picture the scene *does the wavy hands thing* we’re in a play park: A group of parents is sitting on benches chatting amongst themselves while their children explore all the exciting features – they are on swings, they are sliding down chutes, they are climbing over the frames, they are chasing each other.

    Suddenly a wail rises through the conversations and laughter and the parents turn to see who is crying. A small child stands in tears, with knees scraped and bloodied after tumbling off the slide.

    This child’s parent is a Queen of Wands type.

    The challenge that the parent faces is – do I kiss the knee and make sympathetic noises, give cuddles and dab away the tears (which would be Queenly) or do I encourage the child to shirk off the minor upset and run back to join in with the game again (Wands)?

    A healthy Queen of Wands knows when to kiss the knee and when to chivvy the child along.

    In my forthcoming book, Genetics of the Tarot Court (yeah, it’s not catchy, still working on a title), the Queen of Wands lies on the same axis as another three court cards who face equally challenging integrations of their nature and nurture.

    I hope that you’ll enjoy finding out who they are and the challenges that they face.

    Out in November!

  • Tarot Challenge | Day 9

    She’s the gal for me!

    Question: What card do I pull the most often? Why do I think that is the case?

    I had a look back through the Tarot cards that I have pulled when I was selecting a Court Card’s energies to guide me from a) the dark moon to the full moon or b) the full moon to the dark moon.  The card most drawn is the Queen of Wands.

    I’m quite pleased about this as I am working towards being a bit more Queen of Wandsy.

    Naturally, I think I tend to live in my interior landscape, mainly inside my head, as per the suit of Swords.  I admit that I am more comfortable relying on my thought processes than, say, on my emotions.  I find my emotions unreliable and easily influenced by things like music, art and hormones. 

    I went to an art exhibition in Glasgow a couple of years ago that featured the work of the Glasgow Boys. I got all weepy over a painting of poppies, their gorgeous petals scattered around their vase. I burst into tears.  Which was quite unexpected.  And hugely embarrassing.  I put it down to being Hormonal.  So, emotions are, for me, fickle things that can be influenced by a poorly-timed listen to a Leonard Cohen CD.


    That said, I am quite happy to change my thoughts about things if the facts call for it!

    The Queen of Wands is a Goal character for me, so maybe that’s why she appears so often?

    Have you ever played the game ‘What would Jesus/Madonna/Amanda Palmer do?’  Well, I play that game with the Tarot Court.  So when I find myself sinking into a Knight of Swords moaning session, I often try the ‘What would The Queen of Wands do?’ approach and, even if I really don’t feel like it (hey, those unreliable emotions again!) I can still take the action that SHE would advocate…..  when I can bring a bit of her can-do attitude to my day, I mostly feel myself climbing up out of the Slough of Despond.  Not that I think the fine town of Slough is a place of Despond, you understand; it’s from Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.   *waits for the Slough fans to boycott the blog*

    So, I’d love to know – what card tends to crop up in your Tarot work, for yourself?  What does its repeated appearance mean, for you?