Tarot Thrones | The Court Card Blog

Tag: Touchstone Tarot

  • Lammas Blog Hop | From my table to the community

    Welcome to the Lammas blog, where the theme set by our Wrangler, Arwen, is: “What can I share from my table to enrich my community?”  If you’re hopping forward, you’ve come from the lovely Ania Marczyk’s blog and if you are hopping backwards (you TOTAL rebel, you!) you’ve come from the equally lovely Joanne Sprott’s blog. And if your cat has randomly strolled across your computer keyboard and the Tarot Thrones blog has popped up on your screen…. well, just be grateful that I’m not a porn site 😀

    So what can I share from my table to enrich the Tarot community?
    Since Tarot Thrones is a blog all about the Court Cards of the Tarot, I got into a huddle with my 16 courtly colleagues to thrash out a few ideas.  Reader, it got very heated.  The Queens wanted me to teach something, the Kings wanted me to DO something, the Knights wanted me to be daring and bold and the Pages? Well, the Pages just went outside to play.
    Then I had an idea.  I made my suggestion and the Kings and Queens murmured their agreement and happily headed off down the pub to give me peace and quiet to write.  So here’s my Lammas Blog Hop gift to you:
    When you are buying a new Tarot deck, how do you choose it?  Do you have a few favourite cards that you inspect? Do you run your hands expertly over The Star’s fetlocks to see if she shapes up to your perfect Star? Do you inspect the teeth of The Devil to make sure he’s someone that you can work with or do you take The Lovers for a quick canter around the paddock?
    Well, here’s a suggestion from ME to YOU:  Why not take a look at the Court Cards to see whether you can work with THEM?  After all, they tend to be the section of the Tarot that readers tend to frown  around – why not make sure that the Courts are guys that you are comfortable with?
    Radical, eh?
    So here are my Top 7 bits of advice for expertly checking out the Tarot Court in a new deck:

    1  The most important thing in the Courts, for me, is symbolism – what is there for you to work with? Plenty of symbols will give you plenty of pegs on which to pin your ideas about the Court Card and lots of things to talk about in your reading.  Check also for consistency – do all the Knights have some kind of steed, for example.  If not – why not? Can you see why the Knight of Pentacles might be left to labour along on foot….or does it show a lack of thought about what the Courts represent?  Are all the Queens wearing shoes, except one? Why might the Queen of Cups go barefoot and the Queen of Swords wear shoes that are tightly laced? Does it make sense to you?
    Tons of symbolism, nice setting, expressive character and suit colour-themed
    2  The next most important thing is Setting – are the Courts active in some kind of scene?  For me this is important because it helps with the story-telling aspect of your reading.  What direction are they heading? What are they DOING?  What are they looking at/turning their back on?

    It seems to me that people struggle with the courts because they seem to punch holes in the flow of your story-telling much more so than the Majors or Minors, so any setting that allows you to incorporate the Courts into your story is a Good Thing.

    3  Character – this covers a lot of ground – if the characters are expressive, clearly delineating a personality type by their expression or pose, then this helps you work with them.  Someone bent over and tired-looking has easily got a completely different message from a sprightly young Page. 
    4  Sex – is there an equal balance of male and female characters? Are they all women? All men? Are they animals/birds? Is that what you want?
    5  Rank – how are the Courts ranked?  Straightforward Page (Princess)/Knight/Queen/King ares traditional and, for me, easier to work with than an entirely new combination like Lightbringer/Demon/Sprite and Soul where it’s not clear which rank trumps the others and how progress is made – you have got some additional learning to do.  And does that learning conflict or support what you already know about Ranks in your other decks?

    A Princess to replace the Page, nice setting, symbolism, suit attributes 
    6  Colour – this could form part of symbolism – do the suits have colours? Are those colours pulled through into the Courts? If they are, it might make it easier for you to incorporate suit traits into your story?  Do those colours represent the elemental associations that you’d expect?  If not, will that affect your use of elements in this deck?
    7  Astrological information etc – some decks have information from other systems built in to their Courts which makes it a danged sight  easier to talk about, for example, astrological traits instead of having to memorise the associations!
    The black-clad Ninja with his sneaky expression and his heuuuuge hidden sword
    The other Courts have astrological associations clearly illustrated – result!
    Of course, this isn’t a complete list, and they don’t ALL have to be present in every deck’s court, but these are just some of the main prompts that will help you find easy to work with Courts.  
    Now, if you’ll excuse me,  I’m off to run my hands expertly over the haunches of the Knight of Wands ;-D

  • Hello again King of Coins!

    The moon has just hidden her light again and that’s the signal for me to pull another card for myself for the incoming energies from now until the full moon.

    And this particular slice of  divine Tarot gorgeousness comes, once again, from Kat Black’s Touchstone Tarot (see earlier cards here and here.  It’s the King of Coins. Again.

    This guy has been popping in and out of my life recently like a fiddler’s elbow!

    This King regards us with a steady gaze as he sits at table – his plate of oysters and glass of wine await his attentions.  But look at the toppled pitcher, you wouldn’t expect THAT at the King’s table.

    I wonder….what dining shenanigans we have just interrupted?!

    Kat says that this is a man who is enjoying the success that his affluence has brought. He’s no penny-pinching miser of a king – he’s a man who enjoys his luxuries in life.  Unlike our current crop of bankers, this is a rich man who is TRUSTWORTHY.  Prone to giving to worthy causes, he’s kind and approachable.

    The images that swirl together to make this composite King of Coins include Hans Holbein The Younger (for both face and body – from two different portraits).  And, most pleasingly to me, the feather in his hat is by Cecco de Caravaggio.

    I’ve just read Caravaggio by Andrew Graham-Dixon and Cecco was the dimple-faced youth who featured in many of Caravaggio’s paintings, including my absolute favourite ‘Amor Vincit Omnia’.  They may or may not have been lovers – but I like to think that somewhere, just out of sight – perhaps right behind the artist – are a couple of the King’s companions – happily squiffy and up to goodness knows WHAT – maybe sticking a couple of irreverent fingers up as rabbit ears behind the viewer’s head?  In fact, IS that King looking right at us or is he looking at someone just off to the viewer’s left?

    If only those companions had remembered to set the pitcher upright, we would have been none the wiser.

    This King indicates that it’s ok for me to enjoy myself a little.  Cut myself some slack and splash out on a few things that give me pleasure.  Maybe go out for dinner with some friends and not limit myself to a couple of polite glasses of vino….rewind to the good old pre-baby days!

    And maybe it’s time to bin-off the £9.99 skinny-leg jeans from The Factory Shop and splash out on something that isn’t worn through on the behind.  Although I blame this blog for wearing through the seat of my jeans.  And possibly facebook 😀

    What does the King of Pentacles bring to YOUR life?

  • Hello to The Page of Coins

    Page of Coins: Touchstone Tarot
    Kat Black

    On Friday the moon slipped into darkness before beginning to glow and grow in strength again.  That’s my cue to pull a card to show me what energies will be useful to me until the full moon next month.

    Say hello to Kat Black’s Page of Pentacles from the Touchstone Tarot.

    This is the second time that I’ve employed Kat’s sumptuous deck for this exercise and it’s the first time I had a good look at the Page of Coins.

    Coins equate, of course, to Pentacles and his appearance here lets me know that I will be focusing on the physical for the coming period.  Which suits me fine!

    My nose is streaming and my eyes are watering – I am most definitely coming down with a cold.  Unless it’s hay fever *looks hopefully out of the window at the lashing rain*.  Unlikely.

    I’m also trying to increase the amount that I run.  Well, when I say ‘run’, I really mean ‘jog.’  And when I say ‘jog,’ I’m really talking about the speed that an arthritic labrador can overtake me with ease.  But still, it’s a START.

    And the Page is all about the starting….

    Kat takes elements of many beautiful paintings (for example – Holbein’s Hans The Younger provides the Page, the table and book; Fra Angelico for the gold coin hanging on the wall) and seamlessly melds them together into a stunning new image.

    In the accompanying book, Kat has this guy pegged as a scholar, someone who is prepared to get his head down and work through all the data.  She actually writes ‘slow and steady wins the race,’ well, my jogging is certainly slow and steady.  Not sure about it winning any races.  Unless that arthritic dog is up for the challenge.

    For me, the Page of Pentcles is keen to try new things and is very hands on – so he’s more like an apprentice to me than a student (I’d associate that more with the Page of Swords).  However, I’ve just started attending an art class that will, God willing, at the end of 10 weeks see me producing a couple of Major Arcana Tarot card paintings/drawings.  Play your cards right and I might show them to you.  Maybe not.  You’d need to promise to be gentle with me.  We Pages are only little souls who are just sending forth little tendrils for exploration – we are easily crushed.

    What does the Page of Coins mean to you?

    Good Golly Miss Molly – check out that Amazon price!!!

  • Hello Dolly!

    Last night was technically the New Moon, although there was nothing to see in the sky.  At the Full Moon, I pulled a card to see whose energies would be leaving me and it was, thankfully, the slightly peevish Knight of Cups.

    But now that the moon is set to wax again, I want to know whose energies will grow within me until the moon is full once again.  And the card drawn is The Queen of Wands *high fives anyone passing by*

    I’m very fond of the Queen of Wands, and Kat Black’s young queen from the Touchstone Tarot is an absolute corker!

    Kat’s deck is a painstaking collage of artworks sourced from 16th and 17th century Europe and this particular Queen of Wands has the body of a young Princess Elizabeth I and that gloriously knowing face belongs Marchesa Brigida Spinola-Doria.  To me, the expression reminds me – a little – of our current Queen Elizabeth (Happy Diamond Jubilee if you are reading this, Your Maj) as a young woman – although she was not quite so……bold.

    The black cat of intuition and feline wiles sits patiently in her lap as the Queen of Wands gazes out at you with a come-hither expression.

    The Queen of Wands is associated with all those active, can-do attributes of the realm of Wands. As seen in the Minchiate post – this is not always positive and she can be a bit of a stirrer with that big stick of hers….clearly I’ll be trying to avoid THAT particular attribute!  However, on the whole, this is a woman who sees obstacles as opportunities and is confident in her own skills and skin.

    This is a woman who whistles before breakfast.

    Well, I could certainly do with a quick shot of the Queen of Wands through my sinews I can assure you!  I was supposed to go for a run today, but I took one look out at the wet, miserable morning and opted to write a blog post instead.  Clearly her energies are going to be sloooooow to materialise over the next  couple of weeks!

    What do you think of Kat Black’s Queen of Wands? What might she bring to your life?

    BTW – there is a copy of this deck for sale on amazon for over £400! WTF?! as the Queen of Wands might say!