For some Tarot Readers, the Court cards are the bane of our existence! Are they people? Feelings? Traits? When they appear in a reading, they can leave many confused. I know I had many issues coming to terms with these fellows for the longest time. So, how can you tackle this tricky troupe?

It’s important to develop your own system! I’d like to stress that quite a bit. While it’s important to know all the meanings and ideas behind them that you can, in the end you have to decide what they mean for you yourself!

When you see one of these friendly faces in your readings, what do you want them to represent? Some people will strictly use them as other people in the Seeker’s life. Others will simply use them as traits, or even a mixture of both. In order to be comfortable with them, you want to find a system that works for you and stick to it. Inform your deck that pulling a court card means such and such before your reading.

My favorite method is to assign special traits to the courts, and then utilize their element.

Pages symbolize Learning and Growing.

Knights symbolize Doing, Questing for your Goal.

Queens symbolize Nurturing, Empowering yourself, and Inspiring others.

Kings symbolize Control and Full Mastery.

Now these are easy enough, but once you pair them up to their respective element, things get a lot more fun! Note that these meanings are general, there can be many facets to these dear cards.

Wands represent Inspiration, Passion, Determination, and Strength

Cups represent Love, Relationships, Creativity, and Intuition

Pentacles represent Money, Finances, the Material, and Career

Swords represent Education, Mind, and Action

Here is the fun part!

Say I draw a Page of Swords. This card can tell you that you should focus on Growing your Mental Skills.

Queen of Cups? Nurture your Intuition and Inspire Creativity in your Relationships. The whole “try something new and spice it up a bit!”

Go ahead and try some of these yourself, utilizing them in your readings and helping you to gain a better understanding of the Court Cards. Feel free to let me know how this works out for you!