The Tarot court, Part I

Many people--and I include myself among them--find the court cards to be the most difficult to interpret.  What makes these little stinkers so tricksy?

They don't fit into the story arc of their suit.  They don't exactly correspond to any of the Major Arcana.  They are people, characters, while most of the time I think we ask the Tarot questions about what to do in certain situations, or what's beneath the surface--how do people fit in there?  Are they referring to qualities in yourself, or some other person?  And if another person, who?  Depending on who is interpreting, you may read that the Pentacles court are dark haired, or light haired (and so on with other suits).  In short, they are just not as abstract as the other tarot symbols, so they are not as easy to apply generally.

But in fact they are based on archetypes, and they can be generally applied if we just think outside the box a little.  I do this by renaming the royal roles according to their archetypal qualities:

• Pages (or Princesses in the Thoth tarot) I call Students/Heralds.
• Knights (or Princes in the Thoth) I call Champions.
• Queens I call Nurturers.
• Kings (or Knights in the Thoth) I call Masters.

The first thing to notice here is that there are definite gender stereotypes/archetypes here (which I'll discuss more in a later post).  It's important to remember that each of us has all of these qualities, and plays all of these roles, at different times in our lives.  Therefore, it can help to think of the court cards according to their actions--a man can act according to the pattern symbolized by the queen, a woman can act according to the pattern symbolized by the king, etc.  If you pull a court card in response to a question about what you (or the querent) should do, then act as the card's character would act.

Let's look at those actions now.

Students/Heralds (Pages)

Princess of Cups, Thoth Tarot

The Pages are, for me, the most difficult to interpret in context because they have a double nature:  On one hand, they are students or learners, often still uncertain of themselves.  On the other hand, they are heralds, announcing the first stirrings of whatever is indicated by their suit.  For example, the Page of Cups is an Investigator of love, of emotions, of what brings pleasure, beauty, satisfaction, contentment, and fulfillment.  She is concerned not only with specific manifestations of these things, but with their ideal forms as well.  You could say she is happy to flirt, but not interested in a long-term commitment yet.  As a herald, she can show up to announce that information is coming to us along the Cups' main line of communication--intuition--to which we need to pay attention.  The only way to determine what the Page indicates is through the context of the question and surrounding cards.

Champions (Knights)

Knight of Wands, Golden Tarot

Champions are intent upon bringing their cherished ideas and activities to your (and the whole world's) attention.  Imagine these champions up on a soap box, preaching their gospel (determined by the suit), ready to defend it to the death.  Knights aren't just talkers though, they are also doers, so they are less interested in the abstract manifestations of their suit than in putting them into action.  They practice what they preach, but they can also be slaves to it.  Sometimes, they just get a little carried away.  For example, the Knight of Wands is passionate about passion!  He is every inch the chivalrous knight errant, following a well-defined code of ethics.  But like a fire (wands are associated with the fire element), once his fuel is burned up he has to move on or his enthusiasm will die. 

Nurturers (Queens)

Queen of Swords, Shadowscapes Tarot

Queens are the archetypal mothers of the court, and they further the activities of their suit through gentle support.  They provide an environment conducive to the expansion and growth of their suit's themes.  These nurturers have a softness to them that can buoy you up when you're down.  However, if their nurturing is rejected or taken for granted, it can turn to hurt, resentment and passive aggression.  Let's consider the Queen of Swords as an example.  The gentleness of a queen might initially seem at odds with the sharpness of swords, and she is, admittedly, the least gentle of the queens.  From this character's point of view, sugar-coating a situation wouldn't do you any good in the long run, so she tells it like it is.  She nurtures the growth and development of swords matters such as analysis, reason, logic, education--the "life of the mind."  No card better symbolizes universities and libraries. 

Masters (Kings)

King of Pents, Druidcraft Tarot

The kings have fully mastered the themes of their suit.  They embody those themes fully, and they can also direct them to their own, and others', benefit.  (We take for granted that these are benevolent rulers.)  Masters represent the pinnacle of achievement in relation to their suit's qualities.  (And yes, I know there is a gender bias here.  Take it with a grain of salt.)  Whenever I think of the King of Pentacles, for example, I am reminded of this dialogue from 30 Rock:

Liz Lemon:  Why are you wearing a tux?
Jack Donaghy:  It's after six.  What am I, a farmer?

Donaghy sums up the King of Pentacles' attitude as the master of money, luxury, comfort, status, and material goods.  He's no slave to these things, but he worked hard to earn them and by gum, he's going to enjoy them.  In fact, it just comes naturally to him, and there is no vanity in him (the king, that is, not Jack Donaghy!).  And he is equally generous with others.  This king is not too proud to get his hands dirty because he knows work has its rewards, but he is no workaholic.  He expresses a healthy balance of the qualities of his suit.

So in conclusion, by combining the action specific to the court card's role--investigation/heralding, championship, nurturing, mastery--with the topics of the suit, you can get a snapshot of the character that lets you better apply the card to the question, even when the character does not represent an actual person in the querent's life.  In the next part, I will look at some ways these cards might be interpreted in specific situations.