tarot of the week-queen of pentacles

Ask for Court Cards, and ye shall receive!

Queen of Pentacles sits on her throne surrounded by fertility--flowers and earth, water and greenery--holding in her lap a Pentacle. She governs earthly concerns--the home, the hearth, career, finances, family. On her throne the goat, symbol of the Capricorn, hangs at her arm and the Bull, sign of Taurus, adorns the side of her throne to remind us that she also governs the Astrological Earth signs--Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn. As I write this, I lit a candle given to me for my own Capricorn birthday a few weeks ago, and the room is overcome with the smell of roses. It is putting me squarely in the Queen's garden. 

This garden is lush, fertile, nurturing. It harkens to the garden of the Empress, and well it should, they are both the archetypes of the Earth Mother. Key words are nurturing, dependable, warm, generous. She is a web weaver, and not simply for her connection to all living beings, animals, children and even spiders, but because her vision sees the interconnectedness between people, the way personalities mesh and mutually rely on one another. I sometimes see this aspect of her in readings with people, and comment that they should be open to seeing connections between them and all colleagues or acquaintances for deepening their friends or lovers. Because part of this Queen's persona is stability and responsibility. She doesn't often let herself just enjoy. Her idea of enjoying the day is cooking for her family, nurturing them, creating a beautiful home, shopping...it can be the challenge facing her. To be present in the moment, not define her happiness on giving things or possessing things, but rather to just know her gift is her presence.

This Queen can be both a business woman and a mother, and seems to excel at both. In fact, she often needs both of these aspects of herself to feel whole. There are people who absolutely balance home and family with aplomb and grace, and others who struggle mightily with feeling pulled in both directions. This Queen is the former. Her groundedness manifests in a nurturing way, and financially, she craves security, but dislikes relying on others to fulfill those needs. She hates asking for help. And that is one of her greatest downfalls--she needs to accept and own her vulnerability. I see the Queen of Pentacles as someone who has different spheres of her life--social, work and home. She is fiercely protective of home. It is her sanctuary and the sanctuary for her people. So, she rarely allows work to intrude in that space. She is not the person who makes friends with work people. And conversely, her friends are her space away from her responsibilities, and so she rarely brings all these things together. She attends work functions for her career, not to make friends. Not that she isn't friendly, but she protects and guards her spheres as separate entities. Her identity can be wildly different in those different places--at work, she may appear no-nonsense, at home she may appear loyal and nurturing. And the people at work might be surprised at how sappy and maternal she is. 

This Queen is loyal, unpretentious, often serious, sensible. The fertility around her often calls to one's own fertility, so she comes for those wanting to have babies, or who are pregnant. Or in the other aspect of fertility, she comes with creative projects, and visioning. She is nurturing incarnate, so when the Queen of Pentacles appears, you are asked to nurture a business, hobby, your family, or a friend, but often, yourself. When she is reversed, you are asked if you are doing enough self-care.

The reversed aspects of this Queen are co-dependency. When her full expression is blocked, she may be paralyzed by too many choices, not sure of herself, unable to express herself fully (creating a tight-lipped repression that is palpable to behold.) Sometimes the Queen as a blockage can mean that not all aspects of this Queen are being expressed, and thusly, the other aspects are suffering as a result. If she is reliant on others for decision making, she can become bitter and resentful. It actually makes her quite unstable to be vulnerable, so she may be incredibly moody, swinging from pleasant to downright mean and vindictive. She can be a person who relies on the adage, "The ends justifies the means." Or who is materialistically focused, and thus someone who is materialistically competitive. When she is not being fully expressed, she may be creatively blocked, and let things go. You know a Queen of Pentacles is suffering when she just doesn't give a crap about her home's appearance. Or she is buying buying buying obsessively filling the hole within her. This addiction to spending is something to look at in the reversed or challenge position of this card. (The Page of Pentacles often indicates this as well.)

I have been looking at this aspect in myself this year, as I made it part of my goals/visioning this year to examine the way I use material things as a soul sedative. When I feel bad about my weight, or self-esteem, I would buy clothes that I felt made me look beautiful, or nicer, or thinner. But the truth is I need to be comfortable with my body, if this is how it is to be, and so I decided to stop buying clothes for this year to see how I react to learning to love my body in whatever clothes I already own. It has been less than a month, and already I am challenged by it, and in that way, I know it is good for me to do. 

Of course, as always, the Court Cards represent either people in our lives or aspects of ourselves. I don't often talk about reversed cards, because in the reversed position, the card often just lessens its powerful meaning, or comes to represent the opposite (though for that reason, perhaps I should be discussing them more), but with the Court Cards, the reversed often describe the challenging aspects of the people in our life. And these aspects, both of the positive and negative aspects of a person, often come together. We are human, and not all bad or good. Like loyal and stubborn might describe your boss (stubborn is another attribute of the Queen of Pentacles, or rather stuck in her ways, somewhat old-fashioned as she can be, conservative, risk-averse.) Materialistic and nurturing might be another combination. When you are reading for yourself or someone else, ask yourself if this describes you or another person. If it is crossing you, ask if you are being challenged by an aspect of her persona. You might get the Queen of Pentacles crossed if you are having trouble conceiving a child, for example, because  of the elusive identity of Mother is fully expressed. Or you may get it if your Virgo sister-in-law is spreading rumors about you within the family. 

Hopefully this makes sense. Please post any comments or questions in the comment section. I love talking about Tarot and crave doing another Tarot class. I think I need to put that on my Vision board.

the court cards

Since I have been randomly selecting cards since I started this blog, I always go back to check the ones I've written. Today, I selected Two of Swords, but since I already posted about it, I pulled another card. It is incredibly powerful to pull the Two of Swords for me, though, because this week in my newsletter, I am writing about dreamwork, and some tools to help you begin receiving and interpreting messages in your dreams. May be a multi-week series...who knows? But the pull today made me wish I had started from the beginning, then worked my way through the deck. But alas, this seemed more intuitive. (Too much information from my head, eh?) Today's card, the King of Cups surprised me, because it is the first King I have discussed. There is a massive dearth of Court Cards on this blog.  So, I feel like I need to go into a bit of an explanation of the Court Cards before I even start talking about the energy of the King of Cups. So, I have decided to post this piece about the Court Cards, then go into the King of Cups in another post tomorrow as the Tarot of the Week. Hope everyone is cool with that. In this post, I use the word Reader to represent the Tarot Reader, and Seeker, the one seeking answers through Tarot. If you are reading for yourself, then you are both.

The Minor Arcana of the Tarot is set up similarly to a deck of cards--numbered cards one through ten, which correspond traditionally with aspects of numerology in their archetypal meanings. Then what are called the court cards come into play--the page, the knight, the queen and the king. These sixteen court cards come to represent personality types and the people in and around your life. Court Cards are the "Royal" cards of the Minor Arcana suits (Wands, Cups, Swords and Pentacles) and hold the energy of their elemental correspondence--fire, water, air and earth respectively. So, the Court Cards are the human representations of their suit. When we talk about personality archetypes, most of us identify those kind of things by psychological tests, like Myers-Briggs, for example. And I would be surprised if there wasn't someone out there who didn't already correspond the Court Cards to the Myers-Briggs personality types. Certainly, the Major Arcana has come to represent Archetypes as well, but these Court Cards, like all things in the Minor Arcana, are more about the conditions and circumstances of daily life, so you may have a soul path of the Strength card, but be projecting Queen of Cups.

So, one of the roles of the court cards is to help readers identify people in the life of the Seeker. These people that affect our life, and whose lives we affect. They are all around our lives--our co-workers, neighbors, family, bosses, friends. The court cards are often these markers in your reading, helping the Reader validate the present situation. People are often looking for tarot readers or psychics to help validate what they are saying is true for them. So, if I say to someone, there is a dark-haired man in your life, he is mature, stable, financially secure, this helps the person know that the cards are accurate. Court cards are great tools for that, because they can be so literal in that way.  These Court Cards represent the attributes of each suit. Each have both negative and positive qualities. Traditionally, these suits also had physical markers as well. They are ethnocentric and have fallen out of favor by most Tarot readers, but I find them interesting nonetheless. I created this little cheat chart for you, if you are curious about that physical attribute thing.

The other way Court Cards function in a reading is to address a personality the Seeker embodies. And they can help you identify the energy you are bringing to the situation. At work, for example, a Capricorn woman at work may embody the Queen of Wands--dynamic, charismatic, creative, independent; while at home, she may embody her true nature--the Queen of Pentacles energy. We often do that in aspects of our life--shapeshift for survival or to thrivival, so to speak. That shapeshifting is not meant as a criticism; it is what all humans do to grow--adapt to their situation. 

So, in readings, the Court Cards either represent someone in the life, or coming into the life, of the Seeker. OR they represent some aspect of the Seeker. Talking about the latter first, Spirit will bring this aspect of the Seeker to the surface if it is important to 1. validate that personality trait for the Seeker, or 2. to point out a way in which they are acting out and not being true to their nature, or 3. help guide the Seeker to bring a certain energy into the situation at hand. You also may pull two or more of a type of Court Card in a reading. When that happens, reflect on the attributes of the Court card rather than the exact suit of the Court Card. For example, if a woman going for a new job pulls three Knights in a reading, I might tell her that she is being courageous, action-oriented, really "putting herself out there" to get the job, and it will come to fruition. Or if she pulled three Pages, I might ask her if she feels frightened or like a neophyte or apprentice, rather than embodying the King energy of owning her own space. 

So, how do you know if it is another person, or the Seeker? It is the question I get most often with Court Cards. This is where your psychic abilities are very important. Always. Every. Time. I pull a Court Card in either the Approaching or the Outcome position (Future positions), I pull a clarifying card, because in this position, it often means someone else is influencing the situation. Not always, but often. So, I pull a clarifying card by shuffling and saying, "Is this card about the Seeker or someone else? Please give me a clear card." Cards that validate it is about the Seeker tend to resonate with the question, or have a one in it, a solitary figure or someone resonate as the person. You will come to understand your own spiritual validation language. 

Let's talk about the specific cards. The Pages tend to represent someone young, like the Seeker's children or niece/nephews, or for a teacher, her students (of any age). The energy can be immature, so can often embody the negative aspects of the suit. It also means it can represent someone old who is simply immature. So using Wands here, the opposite side of the dynamic, creative, charismatic person is that they can be quick to anger, be passionate to the point of being off-putting, use their sexuality as a means of manipulation. Or it can be the young energy of that suit, meaning a new beginning, starting a new job and still apprenticing. And even more traditional, the pages were the messengers of the Tarot, so they can come when the Seeker has gotten or will get a message regarding the suit in their life, so if they pulled the Page of Wands, they may hear news of a creative project. You can look at the cards around the Page to get a deeper sense of whether this message is positive or negative. I pulled this card the day before hearing my poems had been selected in a new anthology coming out this Spring. So, as you can tell, it can be very subjective how to interpret a court card. You must tap into your intuitive feelings about the Seeker's question.

The Knights have the power of the suit. In the same way that the Ace of the most powerful card of the Minor Arcana suit. Aces hold all the potential, they match the universal energy behind the Seeker with their will. It is like aligning Divine and personal will. The Knights have the most dynamic, powerful energy of the Court Cards. That energy is one of movement and action. The knight, after all, isn't sitting on a throne, or lounging about the castle, his duty in the kingdom is one of protector, warrior, and messenger. He is in defense of the kingdom, or riding off to battle, or off to rescue the princess. He does the hard work of the suit and embodies bravery. So, the knight energy carries with it extremes of each suit from its best attributes to its worse. Only the Reader and Seeker can really figure out whether this extreme can be positive or negative in your life. Often, when you read about knights, there are pair of words to describe the knight energy--reckless/fearless. They are pairs of words that have the energy, but different outcomes. When representing people, they tend to represent men or women between the ages of 18-35. This energy is incredibly dynamic and courageous. It moves. It challenges the status quo of the Seeker's own thoughts, or the status quo of society. And it defends.

The Queen energy tends to represent women over the age of 18, but more likely over 35. Her energy is one of feminine stability, self-knowledge, goddess energy. There is a nurturing element of the Queen that is lacking in the King, so men or women can pull this card when special care to nurture and love is needed in the situation. Often, women get this card about themselves when they have come to embody their power. They are living honestly with themselves. The King energy tends to represent men over the age of 35. This energy is VERY stable. One of achievement, a settled, calm, precise energy. Planning is involved here too, and some high regard. Women will pull this card when they are becoming the boss in their company. Or are independently raising their family. As I said, these court cards can come to represent aspects of our own self, even if we are women and pull male cards. All people have both male and female aspects of their self, and tap into those aspects at different times of their lives. 

I hope this incredibly long post was helpful to you. Please share your experience of the Court cards, and how you use them in your readings, or if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer in the comments of this post.

tarot of the week--knight of cups

The minor arcana of the Tarot is set up similarly to a deck of cards--numbered cards one through ten, which correspond traditionally with aspects of numerology in their archetypal meanings. Then what are called the court cards come into play--the page, the knight, the queen and the king. These sixteen court cards come to represent personality types and the people in and around your life. When we talk about personality types, most of us identify those kind of things by psychological tests, like Myers-Briggs, for example. These personalities are ones you know, they surround you constantly. And if I were to describe the personality of any court card, you would more than likely be able to think of someone in your life who has those personality traits. Some people even read the cards with physical features. Pentacles, for example, might represent a dark haired people, or it can represent someone who is grounded, a financially responsible (or irresponsible, depending on the card) person, or even the age (pages are young adults, kings and queens tend to be mature people.) So, the court cards help card readers identify people in the life of the questioner.

 The court cards are often these markers in your reading, helping the reader validate the present situation. People are often looking for tarot readers or psychics to help validate what they are saying is true for them. So, if I say to someone, there is a dark-haired man in your life, he is mature, stable, financially secure, this helps the person know that the cards are accurate. Court cards are great tools for that, because they can be so literal in that way.

But the court cards aren't just about other people, they can help you identify the energy you are bringing to the situation. I read for someone a few weeks ago with three knights in her layout. So, what does that tell me?  That is not necessarily about the one knight, but the symbol of the knight, which we will get into later. It is telling me she is acting in extremes right now, making decisions quickly, being fearless and/or reckless in some aspects of her life, where and how those knights appear in the layout help me help her to identify where that recklessness or fearlessness is playing out. in general, court card gives a true human depth to the reading, if you can be honest about your motivations and accept the warnings and validations of the tarot.

Knights have a specific energy in the Tarot. That energy is one of movement and action. The knight, after all, isn't sitting on a throne, or lounging about the castle, his duty in the kingdom is one of protector, warrior, and messenger. He is in defense of the kingdom, or riding off to battle, or off to rescue the princess. So, the knight energy carries with it extremes of each suit from its best attributes to its worse. Only the reader and questioner can really figure out whether this extreme can be positive or negative in your life. Often, when you read about knights, there are pair of words to describe the knight energy--reckless/fearless. They are pairs of words that have the energy, but different outcomes. 

The Knight of Cups embodies the extremes of the emotional suit of Cups. Often, but not always, this emotional extreme deals with love. Love is where we are most vulnerable and most emotional in our lives, so when the Knight shows up in our reading, we get to look at this energy. And it bears a sort of emotional honesty that is imperative with the Knights. Often Knights are warnings, recognitions of our own extremes, and an invitation by the Tarot for genuine and honest self-appraisal.

The Knight of Cups is a poet, a lover, a rescuer. This card is often called the Knight in Shining Armor card, because the energy of this knight is one of idealization, either rightly or wrongly. What I mean by that is that we often are idealized or idealizing someone else when this card appears. Placing someone on a pedestal, or being placed on one, a lover who seems too good to be true, or just is that good. We sometimes say this card appears when someone is in love with being in love. Or feels like this new relationship or person in their life was love at first sight.

 And the darker side is this idea of illusion, of people, particularly a romantic partner, being too good to be true. So, reversed, or in challenging positions, we often have to ask if we are seeing things clearly, or are we being swindled? There is another underlying theme of being rescued--either we are waiting for rescue, or waiting to rescue. Either way, it is often a warning in the tarot to check our intentions and our illusions.

This Knight is a sensitive soul, perhaps overly emotional, self-centered, moody, melodramatic or temperamental. On the other side, he injects romance into the situation, ecstasy, drama, beauty, and creativity. Sometimes, the Knight of Cups brings this deeper quest into the reading, the quest for our Higher Purpose, the passion of your soul's path. Can we follow our soul's path as fearlessly and passionately as we pursue a new hot relationships? For spiritually based questions, the Knight of Cups can be about emotional courage. For example, a silent retreat can be hugely recharging, or it can be torture depending on where you are emotionally. Can you be courageous enough to do this type of work? That kind of spiritual process requires Knight of Cups energy. We also pull the Knight of Cups when we are doing intensive emotional work through therapy or other processes, like the Twelve Steps, or self-help work. It requires a beautiful bravado and belief in the ideal you--the one that has always resided in you. The romance and idealization can be strongly tied with falling in love with yourself, who you are meant to be, who the Creator envisioned us all to be.

Whether it is romantic love, or self-love, or courageous energy, the Knight of Cups can be the spark of emotional courage that we need to find that romance, our soul path, or the way to our emotional truth. 

I'd love to hear what you think of the Knight of Cups, or anything on this blog. Remember that I offer tarot readings, either remotely or in person, with the same type of depth I do with my blog posts. You can find my offerings here, or shoot me an email at themoonandstone(at)gmail(dot)com.