Hi everyone!

A question for those of you who use playing cards, regardless of the method or system that you use: do you consider the people/court cards to represent only individuals? Or have they, in your experience, also represented situations?

I ask this because recently I did a reading involving the K♦️ and the J♦️, and I couldn’t really recognise them as people in the events that followed. However, there were situations involving money that could have been represented by them… news about unexpected money (which made me think about the J♦️) and then help from a man through the donation a larger sum (making me think of the K♦️).

The K♦️, of course, could represent the man who helped, but the J♦️ never really connected to any individual.

Does this make any sense?

Thanks!

The Jack, when not a younger person (I say person, because they are not 100% male or 100% female to me), can represent some form of news, a message. In your case, that was a message of money, which is a valid meaning of the Knave of Diamonds. When a Jack falls next to a King or Queen of its own suit, if it's a person, it would be a child in a family unit or a subordinate to the King or Queen if not related. If it's not a person but still next to these Court cards, then it's often read as the thoughts of the King or Queen.

For me, the King is always a man, and the Queen a woman. However, the method I mainly follow (Hedgewytchery) stated that Kings can also represent power (financial power in the case of the King of Diamonds), and Queens are the emblems of truth. However, I have more often seen the Court cards (especially the King and Queen) come through as literal people, so that's what I always read them as (it's like having the Lord or Lady cards in Lenormand appear in the spread; they are nothing but literal people. Same with playing cards; the Courts are the actors, and I have the pips to describe the situation to me). If I can't identify them, maybe I haven't met them yet or they are exerting an indirect influence over the situation at hand. In a tableau using all the 52 cards, for example, you are more directly connected with the Court cards that fall on the same horizontal or vertical line of your Significator, or connect to it through methods such as counting; so you would have an easier time identifying them in real life. I think of those falling in the diagonal lines (in relation to your Significator) as "individuals just around the corner"; you can't see them directly, may not even bump into them. But if they fall near your Significator, then they are a significant influence.

Thank you so much for sharing your insights, @Moon-Hermit !

In my own reading, it does seem to me that the Jack represented the news, while the King represented an actual man WITH financial power! I love the idea of the Jack near the king representing his thoughts... but I am curious: the Jack himself is the content of the thought, or is the card adjacent to the Jack that helps you know what the thought is about?

31 minutes ago, Marina said:

but I am curious: the Jack himself is the content of the thought, or is the card adjacent to the Jack that helps you know what the thought is about?

The adjacent card helps me know the content of the thoughts, not the Knave itself (or otherwise it would get repetitive. The rule only holds if the Jack is next to the King or Queen of the same suit. They only respond to the rulers of their own suit). If they represent subordinates to their respective King/Queen when functioning as a literal person, they work the same way when read as thoughts: that is, the King/Queen's intentions. The Knaves do the King/Queen's bidding, so they can be what the King/Queen is sending out, if that makes sense. It wouldn't be helpful to take the Jack itself as the content whenever they end up next to one of these cards; the King of Diamonds doesn't always think about money (Jack of Diamonds). Let's say that, for instance, we had these cards together some place in the tableau (or whatever spread you're using): King of Diamonds + Knave of Diamonds + Two of Spades + Ten of Spades. In this example, I read the Jack as "intends to..." (think of it as a connector between the King and the rest of the cards). A man, maybe someone important that you work with, intends to break things off, which will lead to sever upset. See how that worked? Still, this isn't the primary meaning for me; I note it scarcely in certain contexts and depending on the first impression I get.

So, based on what I do (reading the court cards as people almost all the time), if a Knave of a different suit ends up next to a King/Queen, it's a person, and rarely news either intended for or about that person (not their thoughts).

However, there are no hard and fast rules as every reading is different; you have to trust yourself and allow some room for flow while still following the logic of your system. It gets more complicated when, for example, the person you're reading for is under a certain age (21 in my practice) and so they have to be represented by a Jack. What would you read as news? If you're reading for a dark haired lady and she indeed has a son (Jack of Spades), what would signify bad news? (This Jack when read as messages is malefic, if we strictly think of it in terms of the suit's function). Of course, you can read one card in different ways and thus take the Jack as both a person and messages in another line or combo, but I tend to look at what is around the Ace of Diamonds instead (=news, intentions, what is sent out). It's another reason why I interpret the Court cards as people: for the ease.

Edited July 19Jul 19 by Moon-Hermit

On 7/19/2026 at 3:10 PM, Moon-Hermit said:

The adjacent card helps me know the content of the thoughts, not the Knave itself (or otherwise it would get repetitive. The rule only holds if the Jack is next to the King or Queen of the same suit. They only respond to the rulers of their own suit). If they represent subordinates to their respective King/Queen when functioning as a literal person, they work the same way when read as thoughts: that is, the King/Queen's intentions. The Knaves do the King/Queen's bidding, so they can be what the King/Queen is sending out, if that makes sense.

Thank you so much for clarifying that, and it makes so much sense! I'll pay attention to my own readings from now, when the Jack and King of the same suit appear near each other, to see if the thoughts/intentions theory works for me. I like it, I feel like it adds another possible layer for interpretation, especially in smaller readings that have too many 'people' cards.