Understanding Tarot Court Cards
Court cards are such tricky beasts. Generally they represent one of these three aspects:
- A person
- Aspects of a personality
- Aspects of a situation
All of these can be either yourself or somebody else, just to make things a bit more complicated.
Positional Spreads such as the Celtic Cross are no help at all in determining the meaning or circumstance of a Court Card since the cards are generally seen in splendid isolation. Like humans, the cards enjoy being touched, in contact with each other; the best example of such a spread is The Opening Of The Key spread (OOTK).
Having spent years learning the attributions of the cards, they can be a something of a millstone, I now view each Court card in an entirely simplistic manner, e.g. Older Man, Younger Woman, and take note of the element. Next, I look at the cards on either side of the Court card and use them to build up a picture of what that Person represents or is doing, using Elemental Dignities to determine relative strengths and weaknesses in relationship to what else is going on with the other cards. Looking at things another way, it is very difficult to determine the status of a strange naked person standing in front of you in a bare room! This is analogous to seeing a court card in isolation. We make decisions about an individual according to the time, place, actions of others, dress style, the action of an individual, and who is standing close by, their attitude to the person, etc. Sociologists and anthropologists have spent thousands of hours happily observing humans in various environments.
Will He Come Back?
Here are two versions of a hypothetical reading using the same cards. The Querent wants to know if she will meet the man of her dreams.
