people

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 19 Jul 2004, and now archived in the Forum Library.

ros	19 Jul 2004
In readings I usually use that courts as people in the clients life or how the courts personality could help them in their situation. What I would like to ask here ... Do you see the client in every card and use the courts as people in their life? When you have a card like the 7 of Wands is that the client & in the 3 of Cups is the client one of these people also? (used RWS) Thanks for input.

Luminessence	19 Jul 2004
I see the cards as situations in the querent's life - whether they're inner situations or outer situations depends on the question, the card position, and the surrounding cards. With court cards, I sometimes see them as people in the querent's life, but I also sometimes see them as aspects of the querent - ways that the querent has been acting, or characteristics that he/she needs to adopt.

Umbrae	20 Jul 2004
Depends on context. That said, I usually see them both as situational, the sitter may be the person in the 7 of Wnds, and all three in the 3 of Cps.

cartarum	21 Jul 2004
its absolutely possible for a pip to represent a person, usually that person is a large part of the querents psyche. the way it happens, is that the tarot is using a single card to identify who someone is, within the presence of the court card that is also them. you could actually theoreticly, meet a page of cups in seattle, find out that person has insomnia, then lo and behold, his pip card becomes the nine of swords. "sleepless in seattle" the cards may also use other courts in other positions specifically to identify certain characteristics. she may have the attitude of a queen of cups reversed, but she has the body of the queen of pentacles. if you have three women in the same room, then tarot will use this to seperate a specific person from the croud. exactly like we do. as in a room with three women, yet if tarot would have you concentrate on what is happening to one, it would say "the chubby one" the sexy one" or "the stuck up one" to identify one from the other. the chubby one, represented as a queen of pentacles, may actually be a queen of cups, but since the tarot is trying only to identify someone, physical characteristics are being addressed. you cant find someone you dont know by being told about personal character, unless that person is very obvious. most people can identify a queen of cups reversed, for example. the page of cups will in the area of some other cards notify you that there is a new person, usually the other court in the reading is the real deal. you will be notified in the vicinity of the ten of pentacles whether or not they are as they seem. shortly later, you will witness the proof yourself. ~A~

Aun	22 Jul 2004
Quote: Originally posted by Luminessence I see the cards as situations in the querent's life - whether they're inner situations or outer situations depends on the question, the card position, and the surrounding cards. With court cards, I sometimes see them as people in the querent's life, but I also sometimes see them as aspects of the querent - ways that the querent has been acting, or characteristics that he/she needs to adopt. I totally agree!

Eco74	22 Jul 2004
Firstly I feel that the courtcards are just not varied enough in themselves to properly cover every kind of person that comes for a reading. For me a person can be represented by any card from the fool, to the aces or indeed one of the court cards. It partly depends on the position, but also on the surrounding cards and what story they are all telling.. There is just no right or wrong in this, just more or less common. Since the courtcards have been used for a long time as significator cards, that is a common enough practice to have some relevance, but I think that there may well be a risk of loosing an aspect in the reading if the needed card is not available or misplaced since the querent may well be better represented by.. say 4 of Pentacles than the King of Pentacles... As always, I choose to trust the cards in this matter (like in so many others).

casia	25 Jul 2004
I always get lost with the court cards. In the readings I never know precisely if the court card is an aspect of the querrent or a person that has to do with him in that specific situation. Help...

closrapexa	29 Jul 2004
I usually use the Courts as something more elemental, especially with the Thoth, who's Court's are very elementaly-oriented. For instance something like the "airy side of fire" and so forth. but then, I nevr use a significator. One card never means one person to me, only several, or the whole reading.

Satori	05 Aug 2004
Quote: Originally posted by ros In readings I usually use that courts as people in the clients life or how the courts personality could help them in their situation. What I would like to ask here ... Do you see the client in every card and use the courts as people in their life? When you have a card like the 7 of Wands is that the client & in the 3 of Cups is the client one of these people also? (used RWS) Thanks for input. Ah Ros, you tug at me with this question. I just did readings for my best friend, her two sons and 2 days later her husband called me for a reading. Both husband and wife work at a local college, he as an audio/visual tech and she as a teacher in the Computer Art Dept. for my friend and her husband I used Osho Zen and the 2 boys got the World Spirit deck. Funny thing about the husband/wife readings. The same cards came up in relation to the work environment, but it was quite a challenge understanding that it was work related at the time of the readings. I kept thinking, this is work, this work, not the people, because I knew that these cards weren't about my friend or when later reading her hubby about him, but it was so weird because i got some of the really weird Osho cards that i usually look at and go, Omigosh what the hek does this mean??? LOL. Anyway,after I do the reading for my friend's husband it crystallizes that the school itself is going thru major turmoil and being looked at from budgetary viewpoint etc. and now the cards made sense. But they came up in these personal readings about my friends, but really referred back to the organization/structure, and that threw me. I caught it, because I knew them, but worried later if i would catch it for a Q. I didn't know..... That said I did a reading a week ago for a woman who had just lost her husband. I don't know her, and it was way too soon to have read for her, he has literally just died 2 days before, but she wanted the reading. And don't you know, I get this bunch of cards and sit there looking blankly at them, with nothing coming to me, and just waiting for the story...and nothing. (Osho aganin) So, heavens above forgive me, I just start talking and I am talking about the cards, but I'm thinking this is the worst reading, and she starts to cry. I was talking to her about how things look good for the immediate future, that she will have to learn to accept help from others and not do everything herself....and the floodgates open. It wasn't until she asked me to read for her daughter, different deck, (World Spirit) that things started to heat up. And again, it was courts and Majors and me sitting there thinking, this kid is gonna go WILD without the male father influence, and the kid is sitting there like, who me? But again, true to your question, I'm wondering, is this the kid or her...and damned if I know to this day...it was a very weird couple of readings. Later, my sister tells me she loved the readings, they were great, right on, and I'm standing there shocked, because to me, they were just awful. you never know, right?

juju	05 Aug 2004
I always saw the court cards as people - except for the pages. But at the same time I often come across cards, say the eight of wands, that represents the person and their specific situation so you never know. I think it really depends on the reading and the person but personally the court cards are there as people, and the tarot cards can choose anything to else to represent a situation so I can't see how court cards can be anything else.

cartarum	05 Aug 2004
sometimes, when an event has a life or a mind of its own, tarot may use a court to identify a specific behavior that identifies the situation. queen of swords? life is a bitch. king of swords may be a situation where, in the vicinity of other cards that signify oppression, this is the effect. this is most likely when your actions are being controlled by what you read from the cards. a sort of tarot feed back. and a usefull way to tell if your client is too impressionable. ~A~

casia	18 Aug 2004
I heard somewhere that the court cards represent jobs or professions of people. For example the coins represent people who are merchants or bussiness men, the cups people who are into arts or religion, wands people who are into enterprises, and swords upper class executives. What do you think?

cartarum	19 Aug 2004
yes, they do. people with a gruff, commanding presence are usually suited to jobs in a managerial capacity. statisticly, you will probably find a king of swords in a leadership position because he is a down to business person. since people who are rich and smart are usually the owners of a business, they are the king of pentacles. you will usually find a king of wands saving the rainforest or something. and most dealers, negotiators, and communicators are the king of cups. it all comes to statistics where occupations are concerned. pages are usually unemployed, knights are usually employed, in various positions. you will probably not find a page of wands working in a mortuary, and you will probably not find a king of swords working with people who are suffering clinical depression. werever there is power, there is a court of swords. werever there is adventure, there is a court of wands. werever there is mystery, there is a court of cups. and werever there is money, there is a pentacle. ~A~

Original Destiny	20 Aug 2004
court cards are usually people for me, if i cannot see clearly how they fit in to the reading I just describe the characteristics to the client and ask them if they recognise the person. I leave it up to them to interpret the meaning, often this is enough. if they require more information on why this person has been highlited i use the cards around the court card to bring more clarity

The 78th Fool	22 Aug 2004
For me, the cards in a reading represent my querent's circumstances, while the Court Cards represent either people affecting their life or aspects of their own personality that are of relevance to their situation. chris. xx

The people thread was originally posted on 19 Jul 2004 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.