Need help to understand the court cards....

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 22 Feb 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

jeank74	22 Feb 2003
Hello all, First of all, just want to briefly introduce myself to the board since it is my first time posting. I just received my first-ever tarot kit a few days ago. The kit has both a Thoth and RWS deck. In comparison to Thoth, I just love RWS because of its pictures, although I still cannot quite figure out the actual meaning of these pictures. I don't know whether this is the right place to ask my questions. I have looked at other boards. Because I am a very new beginner on tarot, information posted on other boards is just too overwhelming for me. My question is that I have trouble understanding the meaning of court cards--the King, Queen, Knight and Page. My book says that when court card appears, the figure of each court card depicts the personality of the person in the situation. For example, King represents the male sign while and Queen represents the feminine side. How about Knight and Page??? The book also mentions about the motion of Knight, who is moving in the wands but motionless in pentacles. More, sometimes, these figures also represent people other than the person who asks the question. The more I read these explaination, the more I am confused.... So please help me out. Thank you very much!!!!

Trogon	22 Feb 2003
Howdy jeank! First off... welcome to Aeclectic Tarot forums and welcome to the Tarot itself. The court cards seem to give lots of us problems to one extent or another. However, it does sound to me like you're already beginning to come to grips with these very important cards. You've already found that while the cards can sometimes indicate a specific person, many times they represent a set of character traits. Sometimes these traits may be displayed by other people in the querrent's life, sometimes they may be referring to traits of the querrent themselves. Also sometimes, they may indicate that some of these traits are, or will be needed by the querrent. Also, I wouldn't get too hung up on the maleness or femaleness of a given card when you're speaking of these personality traits. Just last night I did a reading for a coworker and she had the King of Wands come up. I got the distinct feeling that it was referring, not to some male person, but rather to a need for her to employ those traits in the near future. I have found that I really have to rely on my intuition in determining whether a particular court card is relating to a specific other person, or relating to the querrent themselves. This comes about through a combination of factors though; the nature of the querrent's question, the position of the card in the spread, surrounding cards and your own feeling on it. As far as expanding your knowledge of the card "meanings", I recommend expanding the base you're working from. I found that as soon as I started picking up different books from the first one I was working with, I started learning a lot more. I would recommend "The Complete Book of Tarot Reversals" by Mary Greer and "78 Degrees of Wisdom" by Rachel Pollack. I also recommend continuing your explorations and study here at Aeclectic Tarot. Especially, Thirteen's Tarot Basics right here on A.T. Also, utilize the search feature (button at the top of the screen) to find discussions on the individual cards. Lastly... keep studying the cards... look at the card, look at the person's expression, his or her surroundings, what action they're taking or it appears that they're about to take. And above all, write down everything that occurs to you. Writing it down will help you to remember it. Oh yes... check out Dollchica's tarot notes at http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6777. She has put together some excellent notes on the suits that should help you in understanding the Tarot in general. Hope this helps...

jeank74	24 Feb 2003
Thank you very much for the suggestions and links. The information really helps me to digest these court cards!

cheekyminx	24 Feb 2003
hello jeank74 I wouldn't worry too much about the court cards & minor arcana. First become familiar with the major arcana. Get to know the cards one by one. Look at a card & tell yourself what you think it means & then look up the meaning. You could surprise yourself & do very good (like a friend of mine on her first day) Everyone has different views on this matter, but its up to you how you wish to learn the Tarot. I'm very familiar with the major & I am slowly learning the minor. I only use Major when I do readings, & i get good readings, but I feel its time I learn the minor. Good luck & I hope you enjoy learning the Tarot.

Richard	13 Mar 2003
One of the difficulties with the court cards that it took me a while to get my head around is the relationships in each "family." Each one has a Father, Mother, Son, and Daughter, but in the Waite-Smith (like all pre-Golden Dawn decks) the "daughter" is represented as a Page. Also, technically, the Knight is the father and the King is the son, but most people don't read them like that...I have to say that I think the Thoth deck is a little clearer here than the W-S or clones of it by having a Prince instead of a King, and a Princess instead of a Page.

The Need help to understand the court cards.... thread was originally posted on 22 Feb 2003 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.