Renaissance Tarot - Jones / Lyle - The Wand Court

Sulis

As promised, I thought it may be a good idea to compare the court cards and see if we can see any progression through them
I've laid them out in a row and the first thing that I notice is that the Princess/Page and the Knight face each other yet the Queen and King face away from each other.
Looking at this another way, the two female courts, the Princess and the Queen look at each other and so do the two male courts, the Knight and the King.
I'm not sure of the significance of this or even if there is any significance but I did notice it straight away.

The female courts are decorated with sunflowers whilst the male courts have some bell shaped flowers, maybe fresias decorating them.

In my thinking the Princess becomes the Queen and so is a younger, less mature version of her and the Knight becomes the King so he has kingly qualities that maybe aren't yet apparent.
This depends of course on whether you see the first court card as a princess or as a page...If he were a page then he would grow into the knight and eventually the King.
Personally I prefer the gender balance of a Princess who grows into a queen.

The king and queen are both pictured with dragons, maybe to symbolise their maturity whilst the Princess and Knight are pictured with lions heads, linking them to the astrological sign on Leo.

I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on the similarities, differences and progression of these courts...
 

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willowfox

What deck is this supposed to be?

I don't really think there is any significance to which direction they are facing, as they can face different directions in different decks. If there was supposed to be some special meaning, then surely every artist would have them facing the same direction.
 

Sulis

Willowfox said:
What deck is this supposed to be?

Hi Willowfox,

Since it's in The Renaissance Tarot Study Group forum, it would be The Renaissance Tarot ;)
I've edited the title of the thread to include the deck.

And I'm asking the question as part of our study of this deck.
 

Debra

This is a deck where the courts don't distinguish themselves easily. Before I trimmed it, I looked carefully to be sure that I could tell the difference between the cards--all the "males" have longer, phallic-shaped decorations (flowers, shells); the page/princess and queens have open, cup-shaped decorations. I never get much from body language so I'm glad you pointed this out. Looks to me like the Queen is emphasizing her sexuality with hand on breast while King has some other project in mind--a mismatch--unless you lay them out in "trumps" order, in which case King, Queen, Knight, Little One gives a different picture!
 

Papageno

Here's a side-by-side line up. the file size constraints are limiting but this should help a little.
 

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Enchanted

The thing that struck me with the Wands courts in this deck is that none of them face forwards, looking directly at you from the card. In all the other suits at least one court looks face forward. I'm not sure what to make of it but I'm curious about it.

Whether you arrange them Page to King or King to Page, someone is always left out and looking the other way. Page to King, the King is left out pointing his finger forward, to which the others don't seem to be paying any attention. Laid out King to Page, the Page is left out and the whole King through to Knight configuration made me think of a bit of a Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot kind of thing.

The lions heads and dragons interest me also. I've only just noticed from Papageno's layout above that the dragon on the King looks like he is almost applauding, and the dragon on the Queen looks to be bowing at her (what would be) feet. The lions heads confuse me a little, the lion head on the Page is the only thing on all these courts that faces outward. The two heads on the knight, kind of makes me think about his changeability to go which ever way the wind blows, if it takes his fancy.