Courts in the OOTK

I just come from reading the Super tarot site and I have several doubts. I did the spread, the four piles bla bla bla..... in the pile where the significator was there were other court cards too, several as a matter of fact.

The knight of c was next to the king of s and the king was my significator so is the knight a caracteristic of the king???? also I got a page, is this a message from some person? And finally I got another King the K of W which I think is a change in attitute from the K of S...... and not another person in this picture.

So bottom line not all the courts have to be persons right?? then how do you know when they are or when they are circumstances or events or other aspects of the querant?

Do we have to do the card counting from every court card? or just the significator?


HELP!!!!

You would generally do card counting from the significator, and you could follow supertarot by also counting from any other court cards that you think represent relevant people. Keep in mind that you are reading the cards in triplets as well -- each card is modified by its two neighbors.

In the Golden Dawn's original description of OOTK, Kings and Queens are people; Knights are coming or going of a matter; and Pages are opinions of others. Although I want to say that in one of the examples, Pages (aka Princesses) were used as young women of interest to the querent.

So I take it the knight is a caracteristic of the king, due to the fact that it is sitting at the right of the king. And even in the counting both of them have almost identicas cards.

On the other hand what if you get a queen, minor queen ????? would this mean these two woman have to do with eachother in a very important way????

Calm down the OOTK is a very daunting spread, yes, and it's easy to find yourself all tangled up like you've got yourself in a big ball of barbed wire (this from someone who has actually found herself in a big ball of barbed wire ).

I would be disinclined to consider all the courts in a pile as people, unless the question was about a situation that involved a lot of people - a party, say. When two courts appeared together, my first instinct would be (*psychic* flashes aside) to think that the non-sig would be suggesting a modifying influence or attitude upon the sig. If neither were the sig, then one would represent another person and the other the attitude/influence.

I get the feeling that Paul Hughes-Barlow is a very approachable fellow - maybe you could email him with your string and specific questions? I'm happy for you to PM me, but I'm sure I couldn't be as much help as PHB

\m/ Kat

casia said:

So I take it the knight is a caracteristic of the king, due to the fact that it is sitting at the right of the king. And even in the counting both of them have almost identicas cards.

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If you follow the Golden Dawn to a "T" (haha) then the Knight by itself is the coming or going of a matter.

Otherwise, the Knight's element contributes to modifying the King's dignity, and maybe a little bit of the Knight will show up, but not necessarily I suppose.

Thankyou, I have the whole reading written down to see how things begin to develop. And the attitude/influence feels about right in this reading because it onlyl talks about 2 people.

As for the knight coming or going I guess it depends on the cards and the elements that surround it.

Thanks again

casia said:

As for the knight coming or going I guess it depends on the cards and the elements that surround it.

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The coming or going is dependent on the direction the knight faces, relative to how you're counting.

In contrast, a pro reader I know who uses this spread would treat the Knight and King as two people. The cards and elements would determine their interaction.

So it depends on whether you favor the original Golden Dawn approach or want to be more flexible and modern.

Yeah, but I think it also has to do with which deck you are using. I use the medievel scappini in which the K of S faces forward and the Kn of C faces to my right.....

casia said:

Yeah, but I think it also has to do with which deck you are using. I use the medievel scappini in which the K of S faces forward and the Kn of C faces to my right.....

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Right, and if you're counting left or right, one will be same direction you're counting, and the other will face the direction opposite you're counting.

Using reversals also means the court could face in either direction.

I don't see anything incompatible with the Golden Dawn teachings there. The GD would have used a Marseille or similar deck.