Interpreting Court Cards in Tarot
Your tarot deck comprises two parts: the Major Arcana and the Minor Arcana. Part of the Minor Arcana are the court cards in tarot that comprises sixteen cards. Each suit (Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles) contains four court cards: the Page, the Knight, the Queen, and the King.
Although men and women are shown on these cards, it is not necessarily about their gender. Court cards are about people with their personality. This means that all court cards can be any gender.
Also, the court cards say nothing about age or maturity. Even an older person can easily pass for a young Page. This tells us something about how they think, feel, or behave. It also shows what their motivation is to do or not do certain things.
- Page of Wands
- Knight of Wands
- Queen of Wands
- King of Wands
- Page of Cups
- Knight of Cup
- Queen of Cups
- King of Cups
- Page of Swords
- Knight of Swords
- Queen of Swords
- King of Swords
- Page of Pentacles
- Knight of Pentacles
- Queen of Pentacles
- King of Pentacles
Myer-Briggs Personality Indicators
Around 1940, Isabel Briggs Myers and her mother Kathrine Briggs developed a model for a personality test. They based this on the ideas of the then very popular Carl Jung. Carl Jung already used tarot cards in his treatments. Whether it is a coincidence that there are sixteen court cards and sixteen personality types, I do not know.
Court cards in your reading
The court cards you receive in your reading tell you everything about the personality type of yourself or that of the person you are reading for. That doesn’t always have to be the authentic type of who you really are. You can also (unconsciously) choose an ego reaction that is far from who you really are. And sometimes you can read advice in the card about the way you could behave.
But you can go even further. A court card does not come alone and is surrounded by other cards. Therefore, look at the surrounding cards to find out more about the situation. Especially look at the card that the court cards looks at.
Interpreting court cards well
First, let’s go back to the time when the court cards appeared on the tarot deck. There were kingdoms with a very clear hierarchy for everyone in that kingdom.
All kinds of courtiers who all had their own task surrounded the king and queen played a role in many medieval stories. The Pages served the Knights and were often in training to become knights themselves, eventually. The Knights served their Queen and ‘defended’ her during the games. Although the Queen was married to the King, she had her own very special influence on the politics in the country that the King decided upon. The final responsibility lay entirely with the King.
The Page was often young (a child) and had a lot to learn. The Knight was a young adult action-oriented person who really wanted to get something done (he wanted to be seen). The Queen was mature and connected to herself and could be both caring and strict. The King was the most mature at court and was supposed to know all the rules and be in complete control of his feelings, emotions, thoughts, and actions.
Links
- Go to the page of the Pages
- Go to the page about the Knights
- Visit to the page about the Queens
- Go to the page about the Kings
- Go to the page about the Minor Arcana