The Court Cards make up a portion of the tarot that are quite different than the rest of the cards. The tarot is complex and nuanced enough, but the Court Cards come in and throw another element into the mix. They can make a person doubt every tarot skill and intuitive voice in their head….
What do they speak to in reading?
How do we read them honestly?
What do the different ranks mean?
These are all questions that can come up, and my goal with this post is to show you how to read them honestly, without bias or guesswork.
I also have a podcast episode on the Court Cards, specifically not reading them as other people, that you can listen to here. The framework for this post is going to be what the Court Cards speak to in a reading, why I don’t believe they speak to other people, and what to do in order to start reading them beautifully. I will also put some posts out that speak to the court rank in more detailing, give you my core understandings of the each rank and suit, in upcoming posts.
What the Court Cards Don't Speak to in a Reading
Sometimes it is easiest to understand what something is by first getting clear on what it isn’t. I think that logic applies here to the Court Cards.
Here is what the Court Cards are not:
A reference to someone else in the querent’s life, or defined by age, race, or gender.
Ok…..I may need a minute……
but I believe that if you are reading the Court Cards this way, you are greatly stunting your readings. Sorry. I am going to be honest.
Let’s first talk about how problematic it is read the courts with such narrow and shallow connections like age, race, or gender. These demographics cannot contain the breadth or magick of the Court Cards, or a person, and when reading them this way, it’s like trying to cage a wild animal.
Let’s start with age. We all have the youthful and innocent child within us as well as the Crone or Sage. Also, age does not equal maturity. Nor does gender. Some of the most immature, self-conscious, or diffident people I know are elderly men and women. Some of the most caring, compassionate, strong, and resolved people I have met have been youths, children, or barely into adulthood.
The same can be said for gender. Gender as a social construct means that each of us has connections to the feminine and the masculine. We have, and need both, to live a wholesome and authentic life, hopefully doing the work to strips some of that placed-upon-us identity away. I have always connected more to the Knights than I ever have to the Queens. Does that make me a man? Of course not.
The fact that we would even read Court Cards in connection to race is SO problematic. The color of someone’s skin should not preclude them from other court cards. I also feel it strays into racial passing, cultural history, and so on. I am not touching that with a 50 foot pole.
Now, tying the Court cards through these traits to someone may not always be someone absent. It may be used to as a signifier for the querent themselves. Signifiers act as an anchor or framework for the rest of the reading and how the cards relate to the querent. Sometimes readers will choose a signifier based on birthdate / astrological sign, or may even use a Major Arcana card. I don’t like to read with signifiers, so I can’t speak to this too much- it is something you will have to explore for yourself.
The other reason why I am an advocate for not reading the Court cards in relation to absent third parties is threefold. The first is consent. Consent is foundational for all relationships and their frameworks. If someone has not consented to a reading from me, yet I am still using my cards and my intuition to gain insight into this person, I am breeching an energetic boundary that should be sacred and respected.
It would be like if I went into couple’s counseling without Grizzly, told the counselor everything from my side of the story, and then wanted the counselor to give insight into Grizzly’s perspective and what he needs to work on, without Grizzly there himself to give his side of the story or context to the situation. The second reason is because even if I did read the cards this way, there is nowhere to go with it. We cannot change other people. We cannot make them do what we want them to do. They are sovereign to themselves, just like we are to our own spirit. So, reading the cards into someone not present is dead on arrival. What are my client’s going to do, go home and tell their partner, co-worker, boss, mother / father, “Oh yeah, well Ashlie said this about you in the reading, so you need to change, now!”
I always want my readings to give my clients a path forward, in connection to their wild spirit, and what their wants / needs are, and how to align into that truth. I can’t do that for someone not there. The third reason why I don’t read this way is because the Courts are soooo special. They are the least represented in a deck numerically speaking, with only sixteen cards. When they come forward, don’t throw that magick at the window to someone who cannot receive their blessings. That card came forward for you, or who you are reading for. Take that card and hold it and honor it. It is there as a part of your spirit coming forward for embodiment.
Which Brings Us to What the Court Cards Are
In a reading, or in a single daily pull, the Court cards speak to embodying their traits, maturity, skills, and aspects of their identities. We have all of these cards within each of us- every single one. When one or more of them come forward, we are being invited to bring those traits and subconscious part of ourselves out into the open, utilizing this part of our identity to align with the reading and with our individual lives.
The Courts are actually really special because the Major and the Minor Arcana are one side of the same coin- the coin being our lives. The Majors obviously speak to the big picture themes and the Minors make up our day-to-day. The Courts come in and say this is how we move between the two. Like an infinity symbol, the Courts help us embody the journey between the macro and microcosmic.
The Court Cards speak to:
- An invitation to embody their traits, actions, and aspects
- A subconscious part in each person
- A level of maturity without hierarchy
- A symbol or personification that we should open more to for us
Another example: You are doing a STOP, START, CONTINUE spread around a job you are trying to get, and in the continue position you get the King of Pentacles. The King of Pentacles is a card of rooted innovation and empowered wholeness (we will get into the elements of the rank / suit in another post). In the continue position, this card is asking you to continue feeding your innovation and foundational wholeness of your unique self to be the seller in applying for a job.
Final example: Let’s say I am doing a reading for a woman who really wants to find some healing after a divorce and a way forward in positivity, but she feels like she will never find someone again, and she pulls the Knight of Cups. Now, most readers would say, this is proof she will find someone soon. I would read this card as SHE is the Knight. She is the one who may need to be brave enough, like a Knight, to open her heart to new potentials and people, and to use her knowing of her past experiences as a way to fight for the love that she wants and deserves. She knows and is armed by her boundaries, and truth, but she is also moving towards a great beginning of a new love, and that should spark inspiration, as well as strategy. Do you see how that is so much more empowering for the woman than just “Knight of Cups, yep he is coming for you.”?
The Court Cards invite us to step into their skin, to don their wardrobe, to look through their eyes, and to walk through their shoes towards what we are moving through in our lives
We will leave it here for now, but I invite you to start reading the Courts this way, as an embodying force to create change, transformation, and alignment through the aspects of a deep part of yourself.
Now, if you read them in other ways I am not saying you are a terrible reader, and don’t know what you are doing. If this way is a part of your intuition and ritual with the tarot, I think that’s great.
We will start looking at the cards and their elementation system soon, but I do also have a podcast episode that explores this idea of how to read the Courts more, in greater detail. Click below to listen to it.
Listen to the episode
Ashlie McDiarmid
Hello there! I hope you liked this blog post. As a tarot and oracle reader, my goal with my blogs is to offer you content, resources, and access to the tools that have transformed my life.
I believe that your own intuition is the deepest form of knowing, but here in my little corner of the internet, I share insights based in intuition and instinct. I share my love for nature, witchcraft, and the wild spirit.
- If your spirit is at home in wild places
- If you feel the need to claim your autonomy as ritual
- If you want to more deeply trust your own intuition
- If you want resources or connections to tarot, oracle, witchcraft, and wild sovereignty, then welcome!
