The court cards

[Guest]

On 8/27/2023 at 12:22 PM, zadey said:

Thanks for commenting!😊
I agree with you, even I felt that! Since the card keeps appearing, they must be very important. I also feel that a person cannot be represented by just one suit (like King/Knight/Page of swords or wands only), they can have characteristics of king of wands as well as king of swords, for example. It is also possible that in a particular situation their King of swords qualities are more prominent. 

I'm glad someone else said this because I feel the same way. Like for myself I have been represented by every Queen. I think it really matters about what energy the person who is being depicted by the card is in and it can depend on the situation.  In most cases readings I do about others usually show two different courts. Sometimes also I think spirit is showing me their astrological correspondence along with their personality and that's why King of cups can come with someone like the emperor when they're a Cancer sign but have the personality of emperor...

[zadey]

18 hours ago, Witchy_Witchress said:

Sometimes also I think spirit is showing me their astrological correspondence along with their personality and that's why King of cups can come with someone like the emperor when they're a Cancer sign

I felt the same in some of the previous readings. King of swords (Swords - Air signs) came up for someone who is a Gemini Sun as well as ascendent!   

[Chariot]

Of late, I've been simplifying my approach to Court Cards.  I was finding that focusing on the card's personality or gender was often not very helpful to me. So I've tried a different tack.

For me now (at least while trying this experiment) the Court Cards are genderless and represent an aspect of that particular suit.

For me, the suits, in general deal with :
 

Wands: enthusiasm, inspiration
Cups: outward emotions, inner feelings
Swords: application of logic, actions
Pentacles/Coins: the material world, nature

So, the Court Cards deal with these aspects of those suits:

Page - Learning and / or communication

Knight - Taking action

Queen - Nurturing and/or encouraging

King - Organisation and/or administration

Instead of thinking 'people' first, when doing an interpretation, I now think about the suit itself and the aspect of the suit that the card represents.  (I use reversals, so the reversed card will usually mean the opposite or lack of the upright card's qualities.)

Example: a Page of Wands turned up in my daily reading today, upright.  I thought, "Oh, this is about the material world (or nature) and the Page represents learning and communication.  I'm not planning anything nature-related today, so this probably means I will hear some news about material circumstances. Or I will be planning to communicate something about material circumstances.   The upright card means this news or communication will be positive."  This encouraging interpretation makes sense, as I am planning to phone at a distance for an important order today.  As the card was accompanied by the 8 of Wands and the 3 of Wands, this should go fairly smoothly.

 

[Lyneria]

I've also been struggling with the court cards. Lots of sources associate them with people, but I've found in my own readings that the cards better represent certain characteristics/traits that I need to embody or that may be hindering me. So far, I have had one instance where I pulled a court card and instinctively knew it represented someone. I haven't had that happen since. 

 

Chariot's response above also really resonates with me. I haven't thought of the court cards that way, but those representations make sense to me and I think still fit with the way the cards have pulled me thus far.  

[lyredragon]

I agree. Character traits more than actual people. But definitely always someone in your life. I don't like the idea of "immature" energy for pages in favor of trickster energy. pages were also called Jacks or Knaves at some point, just like in the anglo-French decks. 

 

Since these are personages, we can look to their element's temperament, their humors: Choleric (Rods), Sanguine (swords), Phlegmatic (Cups), and Melancholic (coins). That will tell you the dispositions and attitudes surrounding the query.  

 

The court positions relate directly to the first four Major Arcana as they govern over their respective elements. Pages=magician (will and power), Knights=High Priestess (duty and responsibility), Queen=Empress (reputation and stewardship), King=Emperor (Grace and Authority). What the difference is, is with the minor arcana you are dealing with universal concepts and the Majors are personal concepts. Which is why I don't really take the Court cards personally. If anything, it's the energies and opinions of others about the querant or the query that are being internalized if it feels personal.  

 

For me, this is why i do not like to call pages "immature" they're more like trickster energy, as is what happens when you have something with will and power and no constraints but the physical limitations of their bodies and their suit.