Confession time: I’ve had this deck for years and never really used it. Why? I don’t know – too many new decks flashing their eyes saucily at me, if I’m honest. But I recently had cause to dig the Robin Wood Tarot out because my good friend Nancy Hendrickson wanted to use it for an exercise that we were doing together. What can I say? I fell in love with the damned thing!
I’ve made a li’l video to celebrate the fact that by changing my broadband supplier, it no longer takes me DAYS to load up a 1 minute long creation.
Take a lookie at the video and then see what you think of my observations – I’d love you to add your tuppenceworth in the comments at the end 🙂
There is a clear elemental colour palette for the suits. This always makes me very happy!
Wands are fiery/sunny in yellow/red
Cups are watery in blue/pink
Pentacles are earthy/land-orientated in brown/purple
Swords are Airy/cloudy in blue/white
First up, let’s look at the Pages.
To me these all look like girls, but you know what, it doesn’t matter a jot. If you read them as long-haired boys, that’s totally fine. Each Page holds a gleaming symbol of their suit and each sports a little clue to their personalities on their belts:
Page of Cups has an artist’s palette
Page of Swords has a spy glass
Page of Wands has fire-crackers
Page of Pentacles has a book
Onwards to the bold Knights! As you would expect, they are all mounted:
Knight of Swords – Pegasus
Knight of Cups – Seahorse
Knight of Wands – very fiery steed
Knight of Pentacles – a proper, solid-looking horse
The Knight of Cups is actually quite a foamy and active looking horse. Although he himself is not as dynamic as the Knights of Wands and Swords. The darling Knight of Pentacles is absolutely rooted in the ploughed fields that surround him.
The Queens are glorious creatures. The first thing that I noticed is that the two active/Yang suits of Swords and Wands have standing Queens while Cups and Pentacles are seated.
Each Queen (bar one) has a flower and an animal associated with them:
Queen of Swords – rose and butterfly
Queen of Pentacles – fruit and rabbits
Queen of Wands – sunflower and cat
The Queen of Cups doesn’t have anything obviously associated with her.
The Kings are worthy consorts for their Queens. They too stand and sit, to match their Queen.
I love how the King of Swords has a starry night-sky lining to his cloak. The King of Cups drinks from a cup with the Yin/Yang symbol.
The King of Wands continues his RWS reputation as the Lizard King.
The King of Pentacles looks comfortable, sitting with his slippers on!
The Robin Wood is so comforting in its similarities to the RWS, yet its different enough to warrant having both in your collection! It’s a joy to shuffle and so easy to read with.
*** Note*** There is also a companion book for this deck, but I don’t have it. Thanks to Nicole Diamond for the info <3
*** Note 2 *** There is an App (iOS and Android) – by The Fool’s Dog (who make great apps!) Thank you for the heads-up on that from Nancy Hendrickson <3
What do you think of it?
Stop being confused by court cards! Start being excited by the possibilities! Become a court card adventurer along with me 🙂 The Tarot’s Court Cards are my specialist area. They talk to me. Not LITERALLY though ….
