The Tarot Court Cards
The Court cards can cause confusion when someone begins to interpret the Tarot. Many years ago I abandoned the little white books that come with Tarot decks & decided to rely on intuition to decipher the message my deck was showing me. I list the accepted meanings of the court or ‘people’ cards here. As I have progressed through designing my Tarot deck I have met inspirational people who embody the essence of the card for me. They now represent the court card & as you can see there are still some blanks waiting to be filled !. When a ‘person’ card lands in a questioners spread there are certain standards that apply, like the Pages always represent messengers, though as I said I like to open up my intuition & try & describe the person that my Tarot deck is trying to refer to.
Today I would like to introduce the court cards of the suit of Wands
The Wands
If you are interested in a more detailed explanation of each card please click their name to visit the page on my site.
A young creative person has a message of great importance. He is unfamiliar but trustworthy and his knowledge will surprise.
Divinatory Meanings: Dark young man, faithful, a lover, an envoy, a postman. Beside a man, he will bear favorable testimony concerning him. Not to be crossed, especially if followed by the Page of Cups. Has the primary qualities of his suit shown by the flaming wand. He may signify family concerns that need to be dealt with.
Reversed: Anecdotal information, announcements, unsettling news. Possibly indecision and the instability which accompanies it.
Enigmatic & conscious that life is a journey, with a sprouting wand, is not on heading in to battle. He is passing through a desert like landscape. The energy of his horse is symbolic of his energy, and suggests that the questioner is embarking on an exciting phase, with life-changing consequences.
Divinatory Meanings: Departure from the norm, an exciting encounter, flight, movement. A dark young man, friendly & gregarious. Change of residence.
Reversed: Instability, division, interruption, discord.
The Wands throughout this suit are always budding, representing potential, as it is a suit of creativity and action. Emotionally and in interpretation, the Queen’s personality corresponds to that of the King, but is more diplomatic & alluring.
Divinatory Meanings: An intuitive woman, a channel, sociable, respectable, loving, honorable. If the card beside her signifies a man, a romantic connection is possible; if a woman, she is of great importance in the life of the questioner. Focused, & extremely powerful in capturing creativity & applying it to a business environment.
Reversed: Economical social interaction, too obliging. Can represent unfounded opposition, jealousy, & gossip or underhand behaviour.
The physical and emotional nature to which this card is attributed is intelligent, enigmatic, respected, aarticulate, impassioned & noble. The King wields a flowering wand, and exhibits a scroll beside his crown. He connects with the symbol of the lion, Leo which blazes in glory between the salamander messengers .
Divinatory Meanings: Erudite man, personable, educated, honest, conscientious. The card always signifies honesty, and involves unexpected information revealed before very long. Reversed: Good prospects, but challenging; a time of honest reviewal of prospects.
Court Cards a general overview
People tend to fall into particular personality types whether they be introvert or extrovert, optimist or pessimist, philanthrope or misanthrope and so on. There are a number of psychological and behavioral tests that exist to determine these personality types. The same principle applies to the reading of tarot cards. The court cards in tarot, represented by Queens, Kings, Pages and Knights, are generally considered to be the most difficult to read. The reason for this is because what the cards represent depending on the querent is somewhat ambiguous. However when understood properly they are one of the most useful cards to signify people in a querent’s life.
The trick to fully understanding court cards is to know what they signify in the context of a given spread. Court cards usually refer to people, whether it be the querent themselves of someone in their life. In general Queens and Kings refer to adults, Knights to youths and Pages to young children. Though the court cards usually refer to people this does not have to be the case. They can also carry symbolic meaning. For example a Knight could represent a ‘trip’ or ‘journey’ given that they ride on horseback. A King may refer to personality traits involving leadership and command.
Another helpful way to put the court cards into context is by using Zodiac signs. If you are uncertain of the meaning of a particular court card then you can look to it’s Zodiac sign. What Zodiac signs the court cards are aligned with will depend on the deck you are using. Using Zodiac signs shouldn’t be a hard and fast rule however, they are merely there to guide you if you are otherwise unsure. If you have a string inclination that the King/Fire is a Taurus but the pack has aligned it with Capricorn then you should go with your own intuition.
