Tarot Tip #9

What do I do if all the cards in my spread are Court, or People cards?  How can I read that?

Here’s what to do if you pick some cards for a client or lay out your favorite spread to read for someone, and all, or nearly all, of the cards are Court cards. 

     Firstly, the Court cards are cards that represent people.  These would be the Jack, Queen and King in a regular playing card deck.  In the Tarot they are the Page, the Night, the Queen and the King. A few decks call the Nights ‘Princes”, and some call the Pages ‘Princesses so if you are reading the meanings from a book don’t let that confuse you.

     Many people have difficulty learning the meanings of the Court cards.  If you are one of them, please read or watch my Tarot Tip #10.  That will make it very easy for you to learn and remember them.
     So back to your reading.  You’ve turned up a card, or a spread, that has mostly, or only, Court cards.  What do you do?  How can you read that?

     Firstly, if the prospect of reading them is too much for you right now, there is nothing wrong with your picking up the cards, giving them a quick shuffle yourself with the whole deck, and the laying out a brand-new spread.

     But if you decide to try your hand at reading them, here’s how you can do a top-notch reading.

     There are things a card will tell you just from its suit, it’s orientation (right side up or inverted), and it’s position in the spread.  Let’s talk about those things first.

     The card’s suit tells you all about the energy.  If it is a Wand the card is talking about physical, energetic, and sometimes dynamic things.  If it’s a Pentacle it’s either talking about something involving finances or material things, or conversely about something spiritual.  If it’s a Sword the card is all about thinking and planning and communicating ideas and interacting socially with others.  If it’s a Cup it’s usually about emotional things, but can also talk about intuition.

     The card’s orientation is also important, and that’s especially true of the Court cards.  In general, if it’s right side up the person and the situation are positive.  Upside down, and the reverse is true.  But since the Court cards also represent people, the orientation of the card reflects on the person too.  If it’s inverted it could mean they are emotionally or even physically ill, or that bad things are happening to them.

     Finally, you if you are working with a Tarot spread, you should look at the cards position in the spread.  For example, if it’s inverted in a position normally talking about the future, it could be inverted because your client hasn’t met them yet.  In different spreads the various placements that you lay the cards down in all have different meanings.  So be familiar with those meanings and apply the card’s suit, and its orientation to that placement, and you will already be giving a reading, before you even mention that the card is a woman, for example.  As a matter of fact, most of the time, when I do a reading myself, I am already talking to my client about these things before I look at the card as a person.

     Before you look at the card as a person there is something else to consider.  Some of the Court cards act as ‘adjectives’ to describe the attributes of another Court card in the spread near them.  So, a Court card might be both a person the client knows, and also an ‘adjective’ card helping to describe another card.  Court cards frequently used as ‘adjectives’ are as follows:

• The Knight of Swords who describes a nearby male Court card as being someone who either acts
  without thinking (upright) or who’s actions often bring harm to himself and others (inverted).
• The Page of Pentacles who talks about your client’s Inner Guidance at work.
• The Page of Swords who talks about gossip. Upright it’s good, inverted bad.
• The Queen of Wands when inverted talks about a woman who is cheating or has questionable values. It could be referring to the card itself, or any ‘woman’ card nearby.
• All Pages are information and messages relative to their suit’s meaning. Upright, it’s good, inverted, it’s bad news.

     So, as you can see, you can have already done a whole, and good and accurate reading, without ever having talked about a single Court card as a person.  I usually do all of these things before I talk about the specific people in a spread.  That gives a much more well-rounded and interesting reading.  Then, when I begin to talk about the Court cards as the people involved, I’ve already set the stage and the reading makes much more sense to my client. 

     One last thought – remember that if your client is a man, all of the male cards in the reading represent a different aspect of him.  If the client’s a woman, the same is true that all the female cards in the reading represent a different aspect of her.  As you read the cards, read them first as your client, then go back and re-read them (yes, you can do that!) as a person that has significance in your client’s life.

       My next Tarot Tip talks about the Court cards themselves in more detail.  I think you’re going to enjoy it!