Color Yellow in the Pentacle Court Cards

Laurelle

The 9 of Pentacles plus the page, knight, queen, and king all have yellow backgrounds.

None of the other court cards have this color to them.

Given that the yellow is only in these court cards, I feel like there is a definite message to this.

My interpretation is that yellow is the color of the sun, which nourishes life. Yellow is also associated with intellect and the pentacles tend towards intelligence. I have also read that yellow relates to the head not the heart.

Yellow is also a color that signals attention. The yellow light at the stop light and the yellow lines on the road are all guides to keep us alert. This seems like a very pentacle trait as well.

Does anyone else see anything else in the color yellow as associated with these court cards. (I've included the 9 of pentacles as well even though it's not a court card, but for some reason it stuck out. I've often thought the woman in the 9 of pentacles is the younger version of the Queen of pentacles or her younger sister.)
 

rwcarter

Hi Laurelle,

Are you speaking specifically about the Rider Waite Smith cards or from another deck?

Rodney
 

Laurelle

Yes, the RWS.
 

ravenest

The 9 of Pentacles plus the page, knight, queen, and king all have yellow backgrounds.

None of the other court cards have this color to them.

Given that the yellow is only in these court cards, I feel like there is a definite message to this.

My interpretation is that yellow is the color of the sun, which nourishes life. Yellow is also associated with intellect and the pentacles tend towards intelligence. I have also read that yellow relates to the head not the heart.

leaving Golden dawn colour correspondences aside ( and the issue of whether they were followed or not in the RW deck ) - Lets look at some basics; 4 suits, 4 elements 4 natural primary colours; red blue yellow green.

Red is hot and blue is cool : fire and water : Sun and Moon : Man and Woman : Mars and Venus - the 'mediator' is yellow : air : Mercury. Earth is green (or in older usage black or even 4 colours). So I would agree that yellow is intelligence, it does 'nourish life' (in that it brings the balance of Air to fire and Water and creates 'Earth' and hence the head.

But I dont relate pentacles to this, I relate swords to it.

There is a confusion between air as Pneuma (πνεῦμα) - as a primary originating element and Air as the 3rd element , but this would put swords / air as the first suit ( a mistake IMO) and should effect any association with Earth / pentacles.

So, it's probably some obscure point of colour correspondence / or other reason of Waite's ... or it was just the artistic effect.
Yellow is also a color that signals attention. The yellow light at the stop light and the yellow lines on the road are all guides to keep us alert.
yes , 'yellow' and 'Air' is the mediator and divider.
This seems like a very pentacle trait as well.

I dont get that bit ??? Pentacle earth is the ... 'fixer' ... I suppose one could say that the physical realm keeps us alert.
Does anyone else see anything else in the color yellow as associated with these court cards. (I've included the 9 of pentacles as well even though it's not a court card, but for some reason it stuck out. I've often thought the woman in the 9 of pentacles is the younger version of the Queen of pentacles or her younger sister.)
 

Richard

If Waite is using the GD Knave scale for Pentacles, the colors for Paths 2, 3, 6, and 10 (the Sephirot for Knight, Queen, King, and Page, respectively) have yellow in them. Maybe they were simplified to plain yellow to cut printing cost. P. F. Case specified blue-violet for the Pentacle Court skies, and this is used in the Albano-Waite.
 

ravenest

Does he say why?

I can see blue of mazloth : sky : 'elevated' : royal / imperial / ecclesiastical : violet (purple) connected via a GD type correspondence but why specifically in pentacles?
 

Richard

He doesn't say why. The Courts in the other suits have blue skies. Maybe he's relating Pentacles Courts to Malkuth ~ Kingdom ~ Royalty ~ Purple.
 

Zephyros

I can't find any discernible rule, though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minor_Arcana

Unless it's something astrological, in which case I would have to check, I don't why those specific cards would have a special affinity to Air. I'm guessing it's Air because of the Fool's yellow, but right now that's all I have to go on without more extensive research. The Nine of Cups is Yesod, Jupiter in Pisces, but the Seven of Swords, also predominantly yellow is Netzach, Luna in Aquarius. There's only a fleeting connection there, Jupiter and Aquarius being connected to Air, but that's grasping as straws a bit. Yellow also sticks out in the Four of Wands, but that's Venus in Aries in Chesed, no obvious connection there, although the Fours are influenced by Jupiter.
 

santasser

Pentacles > coins > gold coins
 

Richard

It may not be feasible to look for a consistent pattern of color symbolism in the Rider-Waite.