Tarot Thrones | The Court Card Blog

Tag: tarot court cards

  • Here’s looking at you, Court

    Honestly, I’m wearing a battered fedora and the smoke from a cigarette drifts nonchalantly from the corner of my mouth as I utter those words to you.  Look *points to Ingrid Bergman in the corner*.

    This post has got nothing to do with fedoras, fags or Casablanca.  It’s about the courts.  Of course.

    I find that working with the direction that a Court Card is facing can yield some interesting interpretative options to your Tarot readings.

    Here are a couple of random samples from the DruidCraft’s court:

    The Queen of Wands doesn’t seem in the least perturbed by the galloping of her Prince (the equivalent of the more usual Knight) towards her at a great rate of knots.  He is moving towards her – so for me he’s riding home.

    Maybe he’s having difficulty breaking the familial bonds with his mother?

    Swap ’em about and you still have the Queen not looking terribly bothered about her offspring, but now we have him riding off,  away from her.  The bonds are broken, he’s away to do his own thang – possibly helped by a swift point in his horse’s rump by his mother’s Wand?!

    In the second example, we have the dreamy Prince of Cups holding his golden chalice aloft, towards the Princess of Pentacles.  It looks as if he is raising his glass in a toast to her.  But the little Princess is completely focussed on her Pentacle.  She’s got no time for dreamy boys.  Yet.

    Switch them around, now they are standing back to back.  Is he her protector, her defender? Does his presence allow her the freedom to be a child a little longer?

    Mix the pairings up.  Now we have the Prince of Wands riding slap bang into the back of the little Princess.  This guy could seriously do her a damage – she’s no idea that he is bearing down.  Her Princely protector is gone….. it feels like there is going to be the most awful crash, and the innocence of the little Princess may be lost!

    In the other pairing, the Prince of Cups is now looking at our somewhat detached Queen of Wands.  He offers up his Chalice and she offers up her Wand.  Although she doesn’t look at him, I get the feeling that she won’t exactly send him off with his tail between his legs if he comes a knocking on her bedroom door at night!

    The Courts don’t even have to be looking at another Court for this technique to add a little more colour to your readings.  What do you think? Give it a try and let me know how you get along!

  • Just keep swimming……

    Paddling like mad?

    So, I haven’t fallen down some cunningly-disguised rabbit hole in the park.  I’m still here, but still not quite mastering the juggling act that is required for my life right now.

    Some people make it all look so seamlessly easy, but I wonder whether they are like swans – all glamour on the surface, but paddling like crazy beneath the water line:

    Or maybe they’ve got a nanny.  Or a woman that Comes In And Does.

    I can live without a nanny – Sonshine goes to secondary school now.  Although I admit there are some evenings when he sits plaintively next to the computer, willing me to drag myself away from the flickering blue screen and down to the kitchen to make some food.

    Hmmm – maybe I should still consider a nanny.

    A woman (or man!) who can clean and tidy? I would LOVE someone to come in and do the housework around me  Like my mother, but without the attitude.

    But here’s the thing.

    *whispers*  I don’t REALLY need one.  If I could just learn to handle things in the right order, I’m pretty confident that I would stop wakening up at 3am worrying about how far behind I am with….EVERYTHING.

    Y’see, I am very good at dealing with urgent things.  But not terribly good at avoiding the urgent and UNIMPORTANT things.  That’s why you’ll find me fiddling on Facebook while Rome metaphorically burns around me.  Well, that’s a bit dramatic – a stack of laundry with the dimensions of a small European country teeters precariously behind me.

    So, today it’s allllll about the time management.  And the Courts, of course.

    Using the DruidCraft Tarot deck:

    THE TIME MANAGEMENT SPREAD

    Dear Druidcraft I’ve got THREE questions for you:

    1  WHO can possibly help me improve my time management?
    2  HOW will this character help me improve my time management?
    3  WHAT does this character warn me against?

    Card 1 – who helps me?  (chosen from the 16 courts, randomly)

    This is good, I like the Queen of Wands.  But I’m feeling that she’s literally here to put a rocket up my ass. Which is less good.  Look at that Wand.  Pointy. You don’t want that anywhere near your ass. Look at that heavily-lidded expression.  She’s not about to take any of my limp-wristed excuses for continually fannying about, is she?

    The fire that burns behind her is where I need to put my rubbish.  And for ‘rubbish’ read ‘most of what I do every day’.  Do I REALLY need to read up every page posting to my time line on facebook? Do I REALLY need to read the conversations between magazine columnists on Twitter? No – I don’t.  Do I need to spend hours going over and over the Radio Bute Tarot Show? No, I don’t.  By all means get it done and get it sounding good, but don’t agonise over every mangled vowel or stumbled word.  Continue to edit out the frustrated profanity though 🙂

    The Queen of Wands is all about taking action, but she’s not rushing about like a mad thing is she? She’s seated on her throne.  This Queen knows how to get things done without getting caught up in BUSY.

    I could certainly do with a dose of that.

    Card 2: HOW does she help me?  (chosen from rest of cards)

    The Queen of Wands is going to help me by jabbing me with her Wand and reminding me of the importance of the Ace of Cups

    The Cups suit is all about emotions and relationship.  I think the key here is relationship.  What is my relationship to what is taking up my time?

     “Never allow someone to be your priority while allowing yourself to be their option.” 
                                                                                Mark Twain




    I think that I need to bear this in mind.  What are the relationships that count? Focus on THEM.

    Card 3: What does The Queen of Wands warn me against?

    She warns me against a trait of her own suit – 10 of Wands – failing to handle my various ‘Wands’ properly.  The guy in this card could easily carry that bundle – they’re hardly heavy-looking.  But he’s turning it into a real meal because he’s not sussed out how to handle them efficiently.  Be efficient.  I need to be efficient.

    So – in summary – my time management can be improved by The Queen of Wands.  Use her energies to discern what relationships are important to me AND matter to the other party too.  That’s where I should focus.  Get efficient – it’s not that I’m doing too much, I’m handling it badly.  Get my bundle sorted out and all will be well.

    Where are YOU not efficient in your life? Try the spread and see what comes up for you – I’d love to know whether it helps you!

    ……so a couple of hours have gone past since I did this reading and I’ve decided that my relationship HERE with YOU is important to me.  We’ll see what the Queen of Wands has got to say about that!

  • Who are you?

    Prince of Coins: Transformational Tarot
    Arnell Ando

    Before I get stuck in to this blog post there’s something I need to say:

    HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!  *blows party tooter and offers every reader a small glass of sherry*

    It’s a new year and we tend to commit ourselves to doing all manner of impractical things at New year.

    For example, I have a friend who has vowed to do one more sit up every day with a view to being able to do 365 sit ups at the end of the year.  And have a stomach like a washboard.  We’re not even into double digits in January and she has already fallen by the wayside.

    I myself have decided to throw myself into my Mid Life Crisis by asking for a Tarot Radio Show on my local community radio station (Radio Bute – Mondays 2pm GMT).  I have completed one show – pre-recorded to avoid huge chasms of dead airtime., the jangling of my bracelets and the odd inadvertent profanity.  It’s not easy, but it’s a huge amount of fun!

    So, to the exercise – who are you?!

    Get a sheet of paper and mark out an equal armed cross. Like this:

    I am a quality artist, right? 😀
    A4 size would be good, because you’ll be writing on it. Mark the top left quadrant Wands, the top right Swords, the bottom right Pentacles and the bottom left as Cups. Then draw a circle, centred over the crossing point of the cross’s arms the radius of which should be about half of the length of each cross arm. So basically you have got a cross with a circle in the middle 😀

    Inside this circle represents YOU and outside this circle represents NOT YOU.

    Now go and get your Court Cards – find a nice, expressive set for this exercise if you can.

    Go through your court cards and write the names of those that resonate with you (ie that you recognise their energies in your life) within the circle in the appropriate quadrant. Those that do not resonate with you, write outside of the circle in the appropriate quadrant.

    Once you have done this for all 16 Court Cards, take a look at the following:

    1 Is there one suit that dominates within the circle
    2 Is there one suit that seems to lie largely outside the circle
    3 How is the circle for Suit Yin/Yang dominance (Cups and Pents are Yin)
    4 Is there a rank (eg Page, King) that you notice a predominance/absence of in your circle?
    5 Is there rank Yin/Yang dominance within/outwith the circle?

    6  If Wands are (Yang/Yang), Swords (Yang/Yin), Pents (Ying/Yang) and Cups (Yin/Yin), so you have more cards within the circle on the left hand of the vertical axis (the Yang side) than on the left (Yin side)

    Take a close look at your answers – this is how you see yourself!

    Everything that lies outside of the circle are qualities that you don’t recognise in yourself
    Everything inside the circle is what you do recognise
    Are you selling yourself short?  
    Here’s what I believe (warning – this is not scientific!).  I believe that we are ALL of the Court Cards – but (crucially!) not all the time.  If you leave those courts outside of your field of influence (outside the circle) you could be doing yourself a huge disservice.  There are lots of wonderful qualities in all the Courts – why not have access to them all?!
    Tell me, what ideas do you have that could start integrating these ‘outcast’ personality traits to your circle?

  • Yule Blog Hop | 12 Oracles of Christmas

    Hello and welcome to my blog *plumps up the velvet cushion on best chair*  You may just have moseyed in here by chance or be studiously working your way through the 22 blogs taking part in this Yule hop.  Christiana Gaudet is the blog before me and Arwen Lynch is the blog after me.  Whichever way you reach me, I am really pleased to see you here!

    My blog focuses on the Tarot court and the theme of the Yule blog hop is ‘Christmas Presents’.  So I thought that my Christmas Present to YOU on this blog is a short slideshow (featuring the Courts – of course!) outlining 12 great Tarot and Oracle decks that you might want to PRESENT to yourself! Maybe as a little treat to yourself for just GETTING THROUGH THE SEASON WITHOUT RESORTING TO MURDERING A FAMILY MEMBER 😀

    Grab  coffee and enjoy the show!

     If you are interested in procuring one of these lovely decks for yourself, here are some places that you can buy them:

    12  The Camelot Oracle (John Matthews and Will Worthington)
    11  The Dreaming in Color Lumen deck (Mindy Somers)
    10  The Steele Wizard Tarot (Pamela Steele)
    9   The Mary-El (Marie White)
    8   The Ma’at Tarot (Julie Cuccia-Watts)
    7   The Gaian Tarot (Joanna Powell-Colbert)
    6   The Touchstone Tarot (Kat Black)
    5   The Margarete Petersen Tarot (Margarete Petersen)
    4   The Wildwood Tarot (Mark Ryan, John Matthews and Will Worthington)
    3   Le Petit Eclectique Lenormand (Helen Riding and various artists) ** possibly not available yet **
    2   The DruidCraft Tarot (Philip and Stephanie Carr-Gomm, Will Worthington)
    1   The Tarot of Alexander Daniloff (Alexander Daniloff)

    If you would like to learn more about working with Court Cards, please sign up for my newsletter and become a ‘follower’ of the blog!

    <—–You can ho! ho! hop backwards or…..

    Ho! Ho! Hop forwards!   —->

    I hope that you have a wonderful Christmas, Yule, Midwinter Festival…..whatever you want to call it…..have a wonderful one!

    Any breaks in the chain?  Check out the master list !

  • 30 Day Tarot Challenge | Day 2

    DAY 2:  What was your first deck and why/how did you get it?

    The first deck that I bought was back in the 1980s and it was a Marseilles Tarot.  I bought it, not because I was drawn to the artwork, but because it was the only Tarot deck that I could find in Glasgow.

    Why did I get it? I can’t remember what spurred me into buying it….probably a desire to be Solitaire in Live and Let Die …… or maybe an episode of Tales of the Unexpected?

    I do remember that I was pretty desperate to get my paws on a set!

    However, I wasn’t enamoured of the blocky, naive artwork of the Marseillesl, but hell, you have to just take things as you find them, right?

    I do remember feeling very wicked when I bought them – as if I’d just bought something very illicit!  I trundled back home on the train, walked the mile home and then sneaked the cards up into my bedroom.  Like most folks, I started doing readings for myself as soon as I could get the cardboard packet open!

    Of course, the LWB was a very necessary part of the equation – I had not a clue what any of the cards meant!  A couple of weeks later I found myself back in the bookshop and procuring Alfred Douglas’s book, The Tarot to help flesh out my readings.

    Even with the book, I was hardly knuckling down to learning the cards’ keywords – my inner Pages of Pentacles and Swords had not kicked in at that point! I was still having to refer to the LWB and Alfred Douglas’s book – but still coming up with interesting readings (but they took aaaaaaages to do!)

    And after I scared myself witless giving myself a reading that turned out to be too accurate to be comfortable, the cards were shut away in a sports’ hold-all and I turned my attention to nights out clubbing with my girlfriends and buying DREADFUL 1980s clothes 😀

    I think that I gave the cards and book to my sister in law in the end……

    If you want to take part in the Tarot Challenge, you can find the full list of questions here: http://78keys.tumblr.com/post/36652622634/30-day-tarot-challenge

  • 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?

  • 30 Day Tarot Challenge

    Beginner’s Tarot Mind!

    I found this over on Tumblr at the end of last week and thought that it might be fun to do.  However, I won’t be making blog posts about myself on a daily basis, but will take 30 days in total to do the challenge.

    The challenge originated here:

    http://78keys.tumblr.com/post/36652622634/30-day-tarot-challenge

    So the first question is:

    Q1:  What got you introduced/involved in Tarot


    Like lots of people, I had a dabble with the tarot when I was much younger.  I bought a Marseille Tarot deck from a lovely bookshop in Glasgow (John Smith & Sons) which sadly went defunct with the arrival of Borders and Waterstones in the city.

    I couldn’t read them without referring to the LWB!  It was a lot of fun, but I didn’t really gel with the images on the cards – but there was simply no choice around at the time.

    Everything was going swimmingly with my readings until I did one that indicated The Empress (ie my mother) was going to be the Incoming Influences and in the likely outcome Temperance Rx indicated that I might be unwell.  Well, who wants to be ill? I put the cards away and forgot about it.

    Within weeks, my appendix burst spectacularly and I was rushed into hospital.  On discharge from hospital, I was looked after by my mother.

    I know.

    SCARY.

    I was ill for 10 weeks after the operation – a swab had been left inside me.  I thought I’d never feel well again.

    So the cards were put away in a bag in a drawer and never looked at again until….

    I watched a TV programme with Jane Ross and Michelle Knight.  Michelle was teaching Jane to read Tarot cards and I just fell in love.

    Tefcat on the Children of Artemis website recommended that I join TABI to learn how to read properly.

    I joined.

    And TABI went on to form a core part of my Tarot development 🙂

    Now – YOU have a go!

  • 2013 | Getting Ready!

    The Dream Enchantress Tarot
    Lo Scarabeo

    Next year is 2013.  It’s less than 30 days away!! I *know*.  WHERE did 2012 go?!

    If you add up the digits in 2013, you can see that it’s a six year – the Lovers.  Which means, to me, that we’re all deciding what we REALLY want next year.

    Oh sure, we can have nice shoes and buy as many handbags and bottles of perfume as the bank manager will allow, but really, that hollow feeling inside you won’t be filled by a new lipstick.  Or even a packet of Kitkats.

    Looks like next year is going to be about making better decisions to help us fill that void and raise our spritual consciousness.  Man.  *waves hands about like a drug-addled hippy.  Or Keith Richards.  It’s sort of the same thing*

    But what of your personal odyssey in 2013?


    Take your birth day and month and add to 2013 to find your own personal slant on the year.

    For example:  I’m 13 August….so this equates to 13+8+2013 = 2034 = 9.

    The Hermit.

    Again!   I think that the Universe is metaphorically whacking me over the back of the head!

    What’s your personal 2013 card?

    And how does your own 2013 card look once you filter it through the lens of The Lovers, the card for 2013?

    For me, it would seem that in order to progress my own spiritual path, I will be lighting the way for others (and, as a result of that, myself too).

    It’s that or I’m buying a big Hermit-like cloak and totally working the  Margaret Lockwood ‘Wicked Lady’ look.  I already haz the hat 😀

    But of course, THIS blog is all about the court cards, so let’s add a little Court Card magic to the exercise!

    I’ve already established that I’ll be working The Hermit through The Lovers next year.

    So, what I need to know now is: Which Court card will assist me with this endeavour and which court card will hinder me?

    Here’s the card who’s not proving useful – the Page of Wands.

    Here’s the card who IS going to be useful – The Page of Swords
    Significant that they are both Pages, don’t you think? It seems that the mind of a beginner will be useful, but not the actions of one!
    So, tell me (I’m being nosy, in true Page of Swords style!) what comes up for you in this exercise?

  • SFX Challenge | Game of Thrones

    A while back I stumbled upon a site called SFX and a competition that they were running for people to design Tarot cards incorporating the characters from the Game of Thrones books (or TV show).

    Since MY Game of Thrones is a nod and a wink to the OTHER Game of Thrones I thought that I’d share the finalists’ images with you (with permission from SFX)

    There are a few here that I’d LOVE to see worked up into a Tarot deck, they have such nice technique!

    To see the other cards by S.A.M. visit the SFX website:

    What do you think of these efforts, aren’t they excellent?!

    If YOU were to allocate the various characters in the series (to date), who would you allocate to each Tarot Court role and why?

  • Lunar Elipse Spread | The Result

    There was nothing to see of the penumbral lunar eclipse up here in Scotland.  By the time the moon had risen over the hill behind the house, it had been over for a couple of hours. Pity!

    Undeterred, I carried out the Lunar Eclipse Spread from the other day, using my beloved DruidCraft.  Who was hidden in the shadow of the world?  The Hermit.

    I like this card, but it’s not something that comes up for me much in readings.  I don’t feel as though I’m much of a hermit!

    I love how his face is in shadow here and he holds his light up as much to show others the way as to light his own path.  Heck, his own eyes could be closed! In his lantern sits, I fancy, The Star. She offers us hope, guidance and ambitions…. how interesting!

    We also see the crescent of a waning moon – something is ending – perhaps the Hermit’s lonely sojourn up there in the mountains?

    The dawn breaks on the horizon, emphasising the start of something new, a new day – new opportunities.  Of course, it could just as easily be a sunset! Either way, we have the idea of something drawing to a close.

    The light gleams upon a distant river that twists like a lightening bolt through the landscape.  For me, water in the Tarot represents the subconscious and this is no still pool – this is moving water; Something Is Happening.  Yikes!

    The staff that he leans upon reminds me of The Fool,  HE stepped off the cliff to start his journey.  Our Hermit will wend his way back down into the bosom of humanity via the easier route, the path.  I wonder whether The Hermit created that path – cutting a path isn’t easy!  But then, when you’ve got the energy of the Wands at your disposal (as in his walking staff), anything is possible!

    And the Hermit’s four-legged companion, the wolf – what will become of him? Will he remain on the mountain – a shamanistic guide and teacher? Or will he descend the path to walk amongst us, warily, at The Hermit’s side?

    So WHAT does it all mean?!

    Well, I am really enjoying being a tutor on the TABI Training Course, so perhaps The Hermit heralds a little more in that direction? I also admin the Glasgow Tarot Meet Up Group and am really pleased with how the group is growing.  I have such plans for them! Day-long Tarot intensives! Visits from authors and artists!  My goals are limited by the funds we have…. but I’m a great believer in Things Turning Up when you need them 🙂

    And, just the other day,  I learned that I will be talking about Court Cards at the UK Tarot Conference next October – in the lunchtime slot – and a big thank you to Kim for being brave enough to give me my first chance as a Tarot speaker!

    There are other Tarot projects too, a couple of which have been sitting on the back burners, but with the news that The Hermit needs his light to shine, well, I might just think about giving them a stir!

    What about you? Did you try the spread?