Court Cards as People

Preeminently, Court Cards signify people, but what people?

When a Court Card appears, the reader will first consider the possibility that a person is significant to the reading. Afterall, if one is using the Minor Arcana, there are plenty of Minor pip cards to signify events and phenomena.

But, how do we recognize people in a reading, relative to the querent’s life and question? The use of the Tarot Suits Attributes and the Title of the Courts provide clues.

• Les Roys (Kings) signify men.

• Les Reynes (Queens) signify women.

• Les Cavaliers (Knights) signify young adults, who incidentally may be young men or women by virtue of the fact that, as pictured in the cards, the Knights seem androgynous.

• Les Valets (Pages) represent youths and therein subject to the same visual androgyny of the Knights.

The Suits provide us with the nature of the person or the realm within which the person enters our purview. The nature of the suit may signify:

• A Person’s Personality
• A Person’s Occupation
• A Person’s Coloring (less common)

Typically, the Court Cards will signify the most salient feature of the person, given the context of the reading. Consequently, if the most salient aspect of the person is, in fact, his or her coloring of skin or hair, then this might be signified. We note that in our experience, this is uncommon unless such an attribute of a person sets him or her apart in the reading.

When it comes to classic attributions of human “coloring” given by some Tarot authors of old, they are decidedly Euro-centric in nature, and the modern world is far more diverse.

We will let the reader decide on appropriate complexion, racial, or ethnic schemes for each suit. The point of the Tarot is not to mystify, but to point out a person with the simple eyes of a child.

For the general meaning of the Tarot Suits, click here.

The Tarot Suits offer particular attributes to both the Court Cards and the Minors.

Les Bâtons (Wands):

Personality: Fire. Passionate, creative, socialable personalities; or, a person associated with work and projects and the social milieu.

Occupation: Fiery occupations may be occupations that require more fiery energy; they focus on creativity, social worlds, presentations, sales, sexuality.

Les Coupes (Cups):

Personality: Water. Intuitive, thoughtful, relational personalities, or a person associated with deeper relationships, spirituality, and ceremony.

Occupation: Watery occupations may be occupations that require more watery energy; they focus on relationships, emotions, family, spirituality.

Les Épées (Swords):

Personality: Air. Intellectual, problem-solving, rational personalities; logistics, politics, negotiations, debate, paperwork (our modern battles usually take place with words and paper).

Occupation: Airy occupations may be occupations that require more Airy energy; they focus on problem-solving, intellect, studies, legal matters, logistics, security, military, politics, and paperwork.

Les Deniers (Coins):

Personality: Earth. Practical, methodological, grounded, businesslike personalities; materiality, money, assets, property, body conscious.

Occupation: Earthy occupations may be occupations that require more Earthy energy; they focus on material things, money, methodology, property, the body and health.

The Tarot reader combines various Attributes of the Court Card in order to arrive at the nature of the person signified. In the Court Cards as People Method, we combine the meanings of the Rank of the Court, with the Attributes of the Suit, with the Context of the Question. This produces a final meaning that cannot be predetermined by any Tarot manual, but can only be discovered in the moment of the reading.

Final Card Meaning combines:

For example, let's say that a querent asks about the outcome of whether the real estate deal will finalize. The Reyne de Bâtons is drawn for the Outcome position (we typically recommend using multiple cards for readings in order to discern relationships, but for the sake of simple illustration, we use a 1 card example). Here, we take the Queen as signifying a Woman:

Answer:

If the real estate deal is with a woman who fits this description, either by personality/coloring/occupation, then indeed the deal will transpire because the card is upright, and we consider upright cards as fundamentally positive.
Otherwise, a woman of this characteristic will figure into the final deal. This answer interprets the Queen as a flesh-and-blood person.