MrsRen87 Posted October 4, 2021 Posted October 4, 2021 Hi everyone 👋 I'm still relatively new to Tarot, and I'm finding the court cards really difficult to understand . I cant seem to connect with them, iv tried to make stories up between all the court cards as I read this can help, but I'm still feeling clueless. Any helpful advice or tips would be very much welcomed .
Raggydoll Posted October 4, 2021 Posted October 4, 2021 15 minutes ago, MrsRen87 said: Hi everyone 👋 I'm still relatively new to Tarot, and I'm finding the court cards really difficult to understand . I cant seem to connect with them, iv tried to make stories up between all the court cards as I read this can help, but I'm still feeling clueless. Any helpful advice or tips would be very much welcomed . Welcome! It often takes a while to get a grip on the courts. They are a bit like people who live down the street from you; you don’t know them and in the beginning your understanding of them will be incomplete and based on superficial notions, like their appearance or their public behavior. With time and effort, you’ll get to the deeper layers and you’ll see more sides of them. It takes study and keen observation skills. There are specific books about the courts. I’ve heard that Ethonys book is great for beginners. Mary Greer also has a book that has become a classic. Plus there’s also free information at sites like learntarot.com. Most of all, it just takes time and practice.
DanielJUK Posted October 4, 2021 Posted October 4, 2021 Welcome to the forum @MrsRen87 glad you have found our community 🙂 you might want to start a discussion about this in the Tarot Talk & Technique section where you will get lots of people giving you advice about it 🙂 Not all the members read the introduction area so you might want to begin a thread on your query if you want to get more insight. But court cards are one of the hardest things when you are learning to read tarot, so don't worry too much, it will come to you! I found it useful to make a personality for each Court character, like Top Trump cards or something like that. What are their positive attributes? what are their negative? what do they like as a person? You have to go through each one and think of a personality or attributes for them and you can use ideas across the internet and books to help you form an opinion. Raggy suggested Learn Tarot which has really good ideas about each Court. The specific lesson about them from her course is here and she has an index for card meanings here. Her meanings page for each court card is very good and she lists about 5 characteristics of each Court.
MrsRen87 Posted October 4, 2021 Author Posted October 4, 2021 7 hours ago, Raggydoll said: Welcome! It often takes a while to get a grip on the courts. They are a bit like people who live down the street from you; you don’t know them and in the beginning your understanding of them will be incomplete and based on superficial notions, like their appearance or their public behavior. With time and effort, you’ll get to the deeper layers and you’ll see more sides of them. It takes study and keen observation skills. There are specific books about the courts. I’ve heard that Ethonys book is great for beginners. Mary Greer also has a book that has become a classic. Plus there’s also free information at sites like learntarot.com. Most of all, it just takes time and practice. Hi raggydoll Thank you for your reply iv not heard of those books so might give them a try and see if they help. I do look up on biddytarot.com from time to time to help with keywords for them , but they just dont seem to stick ,I think as you said they come across superficial . I know it will take time , I just get a little frustrated when they appear lol. Il also take a peek at learntarot.com as iv not come across that site before. Thank you again 🙂
MrsRen87 Posted October 4, 2021 Author Posted October 4, 2021 4 hours ago, DanielJUK said: Welcome to the forum @MrsRen87 glad you have found our community 🙂 you might want to start a discussion about this in the Tarot Talk & Technique section where you will get lots of people giving you advice about it 🙂 Not all the members read the introduction area so you might want to begin a thread on your query if you want to get more insight. But court cards are one of the hardest things when you are learning to read tarot, so don't worry too much, it will come to you! I found it useful to make a personality for each Court character, like Top Trump cards or something like that. What are their positive attributes? what are their negative? what do they like as a person? You have to go through each one and think of a personality or attributes for them and you can use ideas across the internet and books to help you form an opinion. Raggy suggested Learn Tarot which has really good ideas about each Court. The specific lesson about them from her course is here and she has an index for card meanings here. Her meanings page for each court card is very good and she lists about 5 characteristics of each Court. Hi @DanielJUK Oops My apologies ,I'm not quite sure how to navigate this site just yet🙈 but hopefully I will get the hang of it soon. I have read alot that court cards are the most difficult to understand and connect with. I will take a look at learntarot.com as it was recommended by raggydoll aswell ..I'm litrally clueless in where to look for tips and advice . Hoping to be able to learn from everyone here and to be able to talk tarot with like minded people . Thank you for a lovely welcome to this community.
MrsRen87 Posted October 4, 2021 Author Posted October 4, 2021 1 hour ago, joy said: Hello @MrsRen87 welcome to the TT&M Family Hello @joy 👋 Thank you ,for the lovely welcome
Marina Posted October 7, 2021 Posted October 7, 2021 On 10/4/2021 at 5:15 AM, MrsRen87 said: Hi everyone 👋 I'm still relatively new to Tarot, and I'm finding the court cards really difficult to understand . I cant seem to connect with them, iv tried to make stories up between all the court cards as I read this can help, but I'm still feeling clueless. Any helpful advice or tips would be very much welcomed . Hi @MrsRen87! Welcome and I hope you enjoy it here! I agree with @DanielJUK's advice to post your inquiry in the Tarot Talk & Technique section! It's the best place to discuss cards you do not understand well. Also, you may want to share readings containing these cards in the Personal Tarot Readings forum (it opens to you when you have more than 5 posts). You share your reading plus your interpretation of the cards (even if you are unsure, it's always important to share what you think) and others chime in to help you with your interpretation. It's always a great way to watch the cards "at work" and to see the many different ways people interpret them.
joy Posted October 7, 2021 Posted October 7, 2021 Hey @MrsRen87 as this topic is more a discussion about Court Cards and not an introduction of yourself, I will move it to 'Tarot Talk & Technique'.
Jewel Posted October 7, 2021 Posted October 7, 2021 @MrsRen87 I feel your pain, I really struggled with the Court cards when I was learning 😆. When I was mentoring here on TT&M I used the below with Tarot Partners accompanied by some exercises, but I hope the lesson plan part will help you out. It combines info from some of the books listed by others here. Hope this helps you 🤓 Many of us have struggled with understanding how to interpret these cards within a spread, as we typically associate them with a person. But these cards also are descriptions of characteristics of suits (Cups, Wands, Swords and Pentacles) as well carry the characteristics of a particular rank (King, Queen, Knight, Page). So yes, they can be a person, but can also be a combination of these characteristics in a particular situation. In Mary Greer’s book Understanding the Tarot Court she notes that the Court Cards in a spread can be: a person in your life, an aspect of your personality, a relationship between the querent and another person, a spiritual influence at work in your life, or an event or situation. So in sum, they do not always represent a person. Another source I like to share is the Lunar Café, there is really nice article called “Court Card Confusion: How to Determine Their True Meanings” located at this link: http://lunarcafe.com/court-card-confusion/. It includes personality traits of the court cards, the life stages they represent, court cards as actions, and court cards as energy. Here are a few tips in regards to the court cards and putting them into the context of the question and spread position: Qualities or characteristics of the Suit (From Mary Greer’s book, pages 7 - 9): o WANDS/FIRE: Projects, Energy, Spirit, Creativity, Desire, Action, Innovation, Taking action, Inspiration, Initiation, Passion, Movement, Risk, Self-growth, Thesis, Enthusiasm, Perception, Optimism. o CUPS/WATER: Feelings, Emotions, Imagination, Romance, Receptivity, Mirroring, Heart, Moods, Intuition, Dreams, Reflection, Containment, Relationships, Unconscious, Psychic powers, Visualization, Inner processes, Sink-or-swim feelings. o SWORDS/AIR: Conflict, Criticism, Strategy, Thinking, Analyzing, Planning, Law and order, Wit and cunning, Communication, Struggle, Decisions, Reason, Discriminating, Understanding, Problem solving, Discussion, Mental processes, Fight-or-flight mechanism. o PENTACLES/EARTH: Skills, Worth, Tradition, Sensation, Actualization, Manifestation, Value, Material, Security, Results, Fruits of labor, Craftmanship, Grounding, Health and fitness, Physical – the body, Money and economics, Rewards for accomplishment. Characteristics of the Rank of the Court Card (From Mary Greer’s book, pages 10-11): o KINGS: Prowess, Authority, Competence, Respect, Mastery and leadership, Decision making. o QUEENS: Understanding, Teaching, Creativity, Persuasion, Nurturance, Intuition, Communication, Emotional awareness, Leadership through concensus. o KNIGHTS: Energy, Passion, Motion towards a goal, Intention, Focus, Single-mindedness, Idealism, Vitality, Lust for Life. o PAGES: Curiosity, Opening, Novelty, Hope, Trust, Growth, Innocence, Beginnings, Study, apprenticeship. and my personal favorite - The elemental aspects of the Court Card. The elemental aspects of the Court Cards is what finally gave me my “AHA!” moment with them and helped me differentiate them from courts of the same rank: o Kings = Air o Queens = Water o Knights = Fire o Pages = Earth So you combine the rank element with the suit element and it can give you a nice picture of the energies of the card. It can also help you understand how they might interact or affect each other. Hope this is helpful to you.
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