Decks with suite of Princesses & female Pages?

Rose Lalonde said:

A lot have been mentioned, and add Robert Place's decks to those above -- or at least the Alchemical and Sevenfold Mystery.

The Spiral Tarot already listed above might do for what you're looking for. Many of the minor illustrations are clones of RWS.



I get what you mean as far as a militaristic hierarchy of power decreasing, and am certainly not offended. But in Thoth and Golden Dawn decks, the Princesses are extremely powerful, in large part because they are at the base of the Tree of Life at Malkuth, the culmination of everything that came before in their suits, and the 'throne of the Ace'. As above, so below. The sequence is often shown as Ace-10, Knight, Queen, Prince, and finally Princess.

Book T

from Zephyros' older post on the courts here on the forum

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Thank you Rose for this insight.
I have very little knoledge of the Thoth system, and none of the Tree of Life. It is good to know that in some systems the genders of the court are percieved differently.

My knowledge of Tarot comes mainly from the Marseille tradition of the game of cards, and later I have learned to read mostly according to the RWS system. I knew how to play the card game of tarot years before I started to approach tarot as a divination tool ; which is why is feel strongly the tradition of a hierarchy within the face cards.
This is why I like it when decks approach the court in a non gender-hierarchy manner, and why I prefer to read the court independantly of the traditionnaly assigned gender and age.

But I am glad to learn about a different approach, and I thank you for sharing !

Just to add some more from decks with at least 2 female courts.

Arthurian (Matthews)
Cary-Yale Visconti
Dream Time
Magic Manga
Modern Medieval
Robin Wood
Sacred Art
Silver Era
Stella
Stone
Sun and Moon
Transition

If Animal-themed Tarot decks would do for you since you may not know their sex at all, you may select from among these:

http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/animal.shtml

The Lo Scarabeo Tarot has females at that rank (Knaves) and is definitely RWS-y.

Tarot of the Spirit:

It has Father, Mother, Son and Daughter relating to Knight, Queen, Prince and Princess.

The Wild Unknown:

Uses Father, Mother, Son and Daughter relating to King/Prince, Queen, Knight and Page/Princess. The creator might have been unaware of the hidden symbols in the RWS that identify the Kings as Princes. Not to mention the obvious ones that show that the Knights are Knights. I mean... horses!? Anyone? I could rant about that forever.

Carojulie said:

This is why I like it when decks approach the court in a non gender-hierarchy manner, and why I prefer to read the court independantly of the traditionnaly assigned gender and age.

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Actually, I never read courts gender based. It really depends on the context. I had the King of Swords come up as my new, female colleague lately. Gender in Tarot is mostly a helpful symbol to me.

And even if they show up based on their gender, I wouldn't read them hierarchical in any way. The hierarchy is really more in society than in the cards, IMO. The Queens are not shown weaker than the Kings or Knights, I think. I rather wonder why you perceive them that way?

I see two levels of hierarchy, each with a male card and a female card.

Hi there! Strongly recommend Doreen Virtue Angel Or Fairy Tarot, uses princesses and has notes for meanings in each card. Cards a little large and hard to shuffle, follows RWS except that 2 majors are switched (I think it's strength and justice from memory, 8 and 11?) if you're learning this is your deck!

Farzon said:

The hierarchy is really more in society than in the cards, IMO. The Queens are not shown weaker than the Kings or Knights, I think. I rather wonder why you perceive them that way?

I see two levels of hierarchy, each with a male card and a female card.

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Hello,
Well, actually I do not perceive them that way, that is my point. And I agree entirely with not reading the cards that way.
But, my personal experience with the tarot deck is having learned to play the tarot game before I learned to read the cards for divination ; and the fact is that, in the deck of tarot taken as play cards, the face cards are hierarchised.
So that is why, for divination, I like more modern decks that do not represent the face cards as strictly as the tarot de Marseille for example.

Thank you everyone for the responses... I didn't realize there were so many options! I've added a few of these decks to my wish-list and will be researching many of the other suggestions.

Truthfully, I'm not really bothered that the Kings are represented as being at the top of the hierarchy simply because of the particular role that I personally prefer to be in as it relates to certain types of men. However, I certainly see the value in having different styles and depictions represented among various tarot decks and definitely plan on buying the Steampunk and Goddess Tarot, among others.

What I especially like about seeing male and female figures more evenly represented among the rank cards though, is that I think it better reflects modern society. Also, the Page of Cups card has been my strongest significator lately so I feel it resonates with me more if represented by a female image.

Check out Mucha Tarot; it uses women in some very creative ways.