Courts Looking Over their Shoulder

[53rdspirit]

I recently purchased on old Dondorf Whist deck because of the charming fancy characters of the Courts and particularly the odd looking-over-the-shoulder look of the Queen of Diamonds, King of Spades and Knave of Clubs. I am familiar with directions in reading cards, left, right, full-on, half-face, full face, up, down, one-eyed, past, present, future, and even the Mitelli tarocchi deck with the Knights on Horses facing the four compass directions (I've always found the hind-end of a horse in that deck amusing 😄 ) , but this is something different for me --this over-the-shoulder glance. Is it interpreted as one being cautious, dishonest, sneaky, becoming caught, or surprised? Perhaps their name was called or they are being interrupted? I thought I'd present this here to read the observances of others as to what an over-the-shoulder look, appearing to be directly at the reader, not another card, could represent.

 

[Guest]

Looks like she's trying to get the boys attention and they're trying their darnedest to look at anything but her haha.  Avoidance?  Feigning ignorance?  Nonchalance?  Either that or they're all look-outs at a Victorian-era bank robbery, so ya, sneaky for sure. 🙂 

[Decan]

Very nice playing cards!

Regarding the court cards and directions concerning them I'm not sure if we really need to take care about details from the images on the cards. From what I know a little bit (not much actually) -in Russian cartomancy for example- directions are a secondary consideration, and apart if a court card appears really frontal we just have to consider if the figure is looking to the right or to the left, mainly to judge what looks like a relationship between 2 court cards/people, or what a court card is interested in (the card where the figure/person is looking at).

I think Kapherus deals with that aspect the same way, but I'm unsure.

Edited August 13, 2020 by Decan

[FindYourSovereignty]

These are beautiful cards. 
 

 

[53rdspirit]

On 8/13/2020 at 1:29 AM, barkingdeer said:

Looks like she's trying to get the boys attention and they're trying their darnedest to look at anything but her haha.  Avoidance?  Feigning ignorance?  Nonchalance?  Either that or they're all look-outs at a Victorian-era bank robbery, so ya, sneaky for sure. 🙂 

@barkingdeer  LOL! 

 

@Decan and @FindYourSovereignty Thank you, both. They are old German chromolithography from around the turn of the 20th century. Seems adults with doll-like/child features were popular around that time