Using Court Cards to identify Natural Gifts, Talents and Resources

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 16 Oct 2002, and now archived in the Forum Library.

MystiqueMoonlight	16 Oct 2002
I got this information from Angeles Arrien's book "The Tarot Handbook" ISBN 0-87477-895-6 and thought it would be great to share it with you. Basically by using your court cards you can identify your inner resources or natural inherent quality of you inner teacher. According to Angeles Arrien "Royalty symbols indicate inherent states of mastery, natural gifts, talents and resources." To do this you must add up all the letters of you full birth name (the name you were given when you were born). If the total number is higher than 16 reduce the number by adding the two numbers together. Then match it to the the number corresponding a follows:- Disks (physical) K=1 Q=5 P or Kn=9 P or Pr=13 Swords (mental) K=2 Q=6 P or Kn=10 P or Pr=14 Cups (emotional) K=3 Q=7 P or Kn=11 P or Pr=15 Wands (spiritual) K= 4 Q=8 P or Kn=12 P or Pr=16 - King of Swords: mastery of focus, will, intention, concentration, passionate thinking - Queen of Swords: mastery of rational, objective thinking - Prince/Knight of Swords: mastery of creative, intuitive thinking - Page/Princess of Swords: mastery of practical, tangible thinking - King of Cups: mastery of emotional loyalty & commitment - Queen of Cups: mastery of emotional integrity; self reflection - Prince/Knight of Cups: mastery of emotional desire - Page/Princess of Cups: mastery of emotional objectivity & detachment - King of Wands: mastery of inspired direction, vision & intuition - Queen of Wands: mastery of self knowledge and transformation - Prince/Knight of Wands: mastery of inspired creativity - Page/Princess of Wands: mastery of self liberation & the capacity to release fear - King of Disks: mastery of prosperity, harvest & abundance - Queen of Disks: mastery of diet & nutrition; builder of fruitful words - Prince/Knight of Disks: mastery of exercise & the body; designer & builder of new words - Page/Princess of Disks: matery of giving birth to new forms; mastery of one's creativity According to Arrien "name changes indicate recognition of new talents, gifts & resources being mastered and utilised" Do the same exercise as above but using your full changed name for a new prospective. I thought this was really interesting and adds (well for me at least) a whole new dimension to the Court cards or "Royalty symbols" as they are referred.

Sinta	16 Oct 2002
What a wonderful little excercise! Thanks for sharing. I just did it. When you say add up the letters in your full name, you do mean count how many letters there are right? Like my full name has technically 30 letters. Because it's more than 16 I add up 3 + 0 = 3. Well that would make me then King of cups! King of Cups: mastery of emotional loyalty & commitment LOL interesting ;) I'm actually engaged right now so I think I'll see what that would make me. Hrm... there would then be 31 letters (of course I'm not sure if I'll keep my maiden name, seeing as it's sooooo loooooooooooooooong). If I do keep it I'd be: King of Wands: mastery of inspired direction, vision & intuition If I didn't: (17 letters = 8) Queen of Wands: mastery of self knowledge and transformation LOL woo, both seem to suit me already. Maybe because I don't consider Jobriath (my man) a boyfriend or fiancee.. more already like a husband, lover, friend. Thanks a lot for this excercise. I'll be placing it in my journal.

evangelion	16 Oct 2002
Interesting, I'm a Queen of Disks = master of diet and nutrition; builder of fruitful words. Interestingly enough, it's true! Although I think my friends would have to dissagree, there's just some things about me that the cards know better than anyone else! Coll idea, and I'll definitely think a little more about the court cards when they come up in a spread. Thanks MystiqueMoonlight :)

Zhritza	16 Oct 2002
I've got the same as Sinta's married name -- this is a trip because I am more seeking of self-knowledge than anyone I know (except for you guys, of course :* ) and I am always trying to focus less on it. Maybe I should go ahead and delve deeper, I don't know... and on top of that, I'm realizing that all my self-knowledge digging is about wanting to transform, to progress past things that hold me back. thank you for this, mystique!!

Kitty	16 Oct 2002
Well I worked out to by the Prince of Swords - mastery of intuitive and creative thinking - yeah I can relate to that....

Jobriath	18 Oct 2002
Hehe.. just given this method a try. I ended up with 21 => 3, which means I am as my Mistress; a master of emotional loyalty and commitment. I think that's very useful, what with us being engaged, and all ^_~

Kyrie Blue	18 Oct 2002
Thanks for posting this...interesting results..hmmm I got the King of Wands: mastery of inspired direction, vision & intuition

Shanna	19 Oct 2002
I got the Page/Princess of Swords: mastery of practical, tangible thinking. I think that's right . . . :TPS

temperlyne	20 Oct 2002
Thnx! I loved it very much. I got the queen of wands: Queen of Wands: mastery of self knowledge and transformation those are major issues at this moment in my life and this exercise gave me the confidence that I have the inner strenght to get trough thie stage in my life.

Trogon	20 Oct 2002
Like the others have said... interesting excercise. ;) I got 18 = 9 Prince of disks. Mastery of excercise? Hmmm.... not really. Designer & builder of new words? I don't see that either... I tend to prefer my words ready-made. ;) Maybe I was given the wrong name?

wavebreaker	20 Oct 2002
Mine is 27 = 9: Prince/Knight of Disks: mastery of exercise & the body; designer & builder of new words Well, the "mastery of exercise & the body" is something I don't exactly recognise (this is the understatement of the year... ;) ). "Designer & builder of new words": yep, I'm a language person, so that fits.

MystiqueMoonlight	20 Oct 2002
Quote: Originally posted by Trogon Like the others have said... interesting excercise. ;) I got 18 = 9 Prince of disks. Mastery of excercise? Hmmm.... not really. Designer & builder of new words? I don't see that either... I tend to prefer my words ready-made. ;) Maybe I was given the wrong name? Perhaps it may serve useful to interpret mastery of body and exercise as more than merely physical exercise. The phrase is ."....mastery of body.....and exercise......". Look beyond when using the archetypical source :) "Designer and builder of new words" does this necessarily mean becoming a thesaurus? I think not...

firemaiden	07 Jun 2003
I found this fascinating. Thought it deserved a bump :D

NeXoRiouS	07 Jun 2003
I wonder if I am right, i have 11 letters in my name and it's Knight of Cups - Mastery of emotional desires. How to further explain this?

catti	07 Jun 2003
is that we all have different names... i mean how many people use there full birth names? we all have nicknames, screennames that are our online personalities...so my birth name: 24=6 Q of swords/ mastery of rational objective thinking name i use: 10 Kn of swords/ mastery of creative, intuitive thinking aeclectic sn: 5 Qof Disks/ mastery of diet and nutrition, builder of fruitful words ( id like to think my posts add to the forum ;-) ) and i think this may just help me with those pesky court cards

Shesawolf	15 Mar 2004
How interesting, I thought it could use another bump... especially because I wanted to share my experience with it... When using my birth name I come up as: - Queen of Cups: mastery of emotional integrity; self reflection And that's not really me... HOWEVER... Quote: According to Arrien "name changes indicate recognition of new talents, gifts & resources being mastered and utilised" Do the same exercise as above but using your full changed name for a new prospective. When I was a pre-teen, I moved in permanently with my father. I went from living in one house and a stable environment to becoming a 'military brat' and following my father around (had over 50 addresses in my lifetime - this life time ;-) ) Well anyway, for some strange reason I chose to change the spelling of my middle-name, and now I'm: - Queen of Wands: mastery of self knowledge and transformation And boy-howdy... have I mastered the skill of 'transformation', I'm like a chamilion when I get into a new situation... And someday, I will achieve my dream of being an interior designer (very much a master of transformation!). Very interesting, thanks for posting!

casia	15 Mar 2004
My name´s got 23 letters 2+3 5 Queen of Disks. I can relate to the builder of fruitful words, I´m good at knowing what to say and how to say it and when to say it, if I´m paying enough attention. I don´t know how to interpret the diet and nutrition part....

Phoenyx*	15 Mar 2004
I came up with 26, so ended up as an 8, with the - Queen of Wands: mastery of self knowledge and transformation... alright, I can see that! :)

Kath	15 Mar 2004
I’m the Queen of Wands. I changed my first name when I was in high school, but it’s got the same number of letters as my original name. When I got married and (briefly) changed my name, I still had the same number of letters. So it seems that no matter what I do, I end up the Queen of Wands :D

CompassRose	18 Mar 2004
At first I misunderstood -- so I added up the letters of my name numerologically (a=1, b=2, etc.). Which got me the Queen of Wands: mastery of self-knowledge and transformation. Well, I can swing with that; I'm a lifelong chameleon, and know myself sometimes far too well. Then I read some more thread, and did it right -- and wound up with the Queen of Swords. Mastery of rational, objective thinking? Bwah-ha-ha-ho-ho-heee-hee-hoo! I'm a triple Pisces. I'm a master of the "intuitive wacky jump from nowhere."

Chronata	19 Mar 2004
Ah What fun! Thanks for the bump up! My regular name(s) all become the Knight of Swords. Yep. I can see that.... My name here on AT is a King of Wands! Don't know about me...but that certainly fits the name of the Goddess who inspires me!

lunakasha	19 Mar 2004
That was FUN! I came up with 12, which= Knight of Wands=master of inspired creativity Sounds good to me! :D :) Luna

Summerdream	19 Mar 2004
My name I was born with comes up to 13: Page/Princess of Disks: matery of giving birth to new forms; mastery of one's creativity My married name comes up to 16: Page/Princess of Wands: mastery of self liberation & the capacity to release fear And my name here at Aeclectic comes up to 11: Prince/Knight of Cups: mastery of emotional desire Momof3girls:)

CreativeFire	19 Mar 2004
Fun concept - My name that I was born with and still have (kept my maiden name when married) has 17 therefore becomes 8. Queen of Wands - Mastery of Self Knowledge & Transformation Can relate to this and also the Queen of Wands is one of my favourite cards in a deck :) My online name, CreativeFire - comes up as 12 Knight of Wands - Mastery of Inspired Creativity - which really fits the name :) CreativeFire

The Using Court Cards to identify Natural Gifts, Talents and Resources thread was originally posted on 16 Oct 2002 in the Using Tarot Cards board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Using Tarot Cards, or read more archived threads.