I'm about to Rant about Court Cards

Tryska

I think this is the right forum for this, but this has been soemthing that has been bugging me for the last oh, 15 years?

Do a lot of people find interpreting Court Cards as people with specific features ( ie light hair, light eyes/ Dark hair, dark eyes) based on their Suit accurate?

I'm a minority, and frankly it irritates me. I know people of all different colors and cultures, and to have 3 flavors of "white" and 1 suit to represent all the other nationalities I know just strikes me as sort of...irrelevant to me. I know there's more inclusive decks, and I realize that tarot was founded in a time and a place where various different cultures were considered rarities, but can we let go of the Suit characteristics being physicial charecteristics, and more like temperment characteristics?

Or am i being too touchy-feely and all inclusive? Is it true to the cards to read them as physical charecteristics (since that was how they were originally created)?
 

Sophie

For the reasons you give above - as well as other reasons (like the inaccuracy of the method!) - I never use court cards to describe physical characteristics of people. I find them far more useful to describe psychological traits (permanent or temporary) and situations where such traits arise. In the same way I don't believe someone is all "King of Cups" or "Queen of Swords", but will show this or that trait according to circumstances.
 

calligirl

You know, eons ago, when I was a teen and first exposed to Tarot, I noted that the reader had to shuffle through to find the card that represented the person in front of them. I wasn't very interested then but I felt that just didn't make sense that just because I had brown eyes, I had to be that one card when I really liked the other card. Back then, I didn't know there was another way to do it. That person was an authority and it was a "serious" thing, this "occult" and nothing to question.

Now I know better and I never use a significator. We are all different and can't be summed up that way. I don't blame you a bit for resenting being shoved into a catagory like 'other'.

I understand your frustration!
 

Tryska

Helvetica - I totally agree. When I started reading the Court Cards as values or various aspects of a principle, it's become much easier to fit them into a reading.

Calligirl - Yeah - i mean the more traditional books I used to always read that. The ones that took Tarot as "very serious and very occult". Nowadays i jsut tend not to keep those reference material. it jsut seems so outmoded.
 

WalesWoman

I use courts to describe the inner qualities I think, much more than the physical ones. It might be if you were asking specifics, then maybe you could go with the physical attributes, but even then, I've seen some big differences between decks to describe physical attributes of the courts, so don't put a lot of weight on it.

But all that aside, I remember my first tarot reading I got and the reader used the courts, King Swords, to describe who would cause me some major emotional trauma... the description fit to a T and within a year, it came to be so.

Just shows, you have to keep an open mind all the time.
 

poivre

When I read, I use the courts to show how to deal with
an issue.

e.g. King of Cups- in the situation you need to control your
emotions etc.

At the end of the reading I will tell that this King may be
a male figure that has a water element to his personality,
could be a water zodiac sign and so on.

I feel the court people, when they appear in a spread, may
be showing us to mirror their personality which we may not
find within ourselves. These people bring us strength, if we
draw on their positives, to help us adapt to our issue and
face the facts of our reality.

Also, they can be people.
I just read how I feel the persons needs are.

Just 2 cents!
:)
 

sweet_intuition

I basically use the golden dawn's astrological correspondences while interpreting the court cards. I don't go into details about appearances nor do i stick to the gender, because the Queen of Swords could mean a man who is a libra... So hence, I use that as a way of describing people represented by court cards.

However, it's not necessary that the sign represented by the Court Card is the sun sign of that person. In my case, I would use Knight of Cups (pisces) as my natural signifactor, but I'm a capricorn... however, I have a lot of piscean tendencies and qualities, hence the card ressonates with me.

This is how I use court cards... it may not be the best way or even the right way... but hey.. works for me :)
 

Sakura Murasaki

I understand your frustration, Tryska. I could never use the Court cards for physical appearances. The significators that I draw are typically randomly drawn, or like sweet_intuition, use astrological correlations when I can remember them.

I'm a Taurus, and I'm supposed to be of the Pentacles suit. But I have blonde hair and blue eyes. So after a while, I just didn't bother. I feel connected to certain cards because of personality, not looks. :D
 

ClareS

That is a tough one and can see where your coming from. I think like a lot of people I use them to identify people through the traits and characteristics of the card rather than appearances.
 

Tryska

ros, sweet_intuition and sakura - I agree with and understand what all of you are saying.

I for instance - recently just changed significators from Queen of Pentacles to Queen of Wands. Queen of Pents of course does physically suit me, but i think it was more the internal nurturing and controlled aspect. I've started shining forth just lately, and now, the queen of wands pops up to represent me quite frequently.

The funny thing is i'ma scorpio - and this is a problem that I have with sun sign representations of the cards - it seems to vary from tradition to tradition, book to book as to which cards are what. For instance I just learned formt he latest book I'm reading that Knight of Cups is Scorpio ( i always thought it was Cancer an dhave seceral books that confirm.) then there are other books that read swords as Earth and Pents as Air (don't ask me how that makes sense).

I guess the easiest way to go about it is to figure what's the mutable, the fixed and the cardinal for each suit, and apply the signs that way.

I'd sya Knights are Mutable, Queens are fixed, and Kings are Cardinal. So with Water, that would make Cancers King of Cups, Scorpios Queen of Cups, and Pisces Knight of Cups.

which then doesn't fit with anything i've read so far. *lol*