February 27, 2025 • 20 mins
Today on CARD TALK, I’ll cover:
-court cards & personalities
-four methods for interpreting court cards in readings
-tips for calming down if court cards stress you out
-resources for further study
Resources mentioned:
-order in the court and card connections, both available through the conservatory membership program
-tarot spread archive
For more on Meg, check out 3amtarot.com, and order your copy of Finding the Fool through Bookshop.org or your favorite local bookstore.
Find episode transcripts and more over on the CARD TALK website. And as a special thank you for CARD TALK listeners, click here to download a completely free, exclusive workbook for building your best personal tarot practice.
Love what you’re hearing? Support the pod with a one-time donation or recurring subscription, and please subscribe, review, and share with a friend or two!
CARD TALK is written, edited, and produced by Meg Jones Wall of 3am.tarot. Theme music created by PaulYudin.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
I'm Meg Jones-Wall and this is Card Talk, a mini
podcast for tarot basics andevergreen insights.
I'm here to help you build atarot practice that works for
you.
Glad you're here.
In today's episode, we aregoing to be talking about how to
understand and interpret courtcards in your personal tarot
(00:32):
readings.
Now, I've already sharedepisodes on how to see court
cards as community work or howto work with court cards in
order to enhance your owncommunity work and community
building, but I've also sharedan episode that served as just a
general introduction to whatthese court cards are.
So if you haven't listened tothose episodes, I do highly
(00:52):
recommend going back andlistening to them first, as each
episode includes some generaltips and meanings for these
cards and really kind ofintroduces you to these figures
and different ways that you canwork with them outside of your
readings.
In this episode, we're going tobe focused on how to approach
these cards in your readings orin a more interpretive kind of
advice giving or insightoffering way.
(01:14):
Now, as I've explained inprevious episodes, I understand
court cards as being connectedto embodied energy or
internalized energy, or the waythat an energy might manifest in
a life or in a day, or in anaction or in a choice.
Now that doesn't necessarilymean that these cards are one
note, far from it.
(01:35):
Court cards have fullpersonalities and can include a
lot of different layers andcontradictions, correspondences
and meanings.
They bring a lot to the tableand in a reading.
Depending on what other cardsare involved in the reading,
that might mean that certainaspects of these figures are
going to be more heavilyemphasized or that certain
(01:55):
aspects are going to feel alittle bit quieter.
Just as human beings arecomplex and are always reacting
to and engaging with theirenvironment and their choices
and their emotions and theirsensations and their
observations and theirexperiences, court cards are the
same way, and so they mightbring something different to the
table in every single reading,based on the question and based
(02:18):
on the environment of thereading or the other cards that
are present in the reading.
In general, I think tarotactually does become more
confusing when we try to flattenindividual cards or simplify
them too much.
But I think this becomesparticularly messy or hard to
parse when we try to flattencourt cards too much.
In general, it is hard todescribe a whole person like a
(02:43):
person that you know well,especially just with a few
keywords right?
And even if you can, even ifyou can, describe your best
friend in three words or less,those words might not always
apply to how that person isgoing to behave in every single
situation or how other peopleare always going to perceive or
experience that person.
(03:04):
Right, people are complicatedand so are court cards and so,
again, as I said at the end ofthe last episode, if you can
learn to allow these cards tohave a lot of nuance, if you can
be comfortable with the factthat these cards might show up
in different ways at differenttimes, they're going to start to
be easier for you to understand, especially when they come up
(03:25):
in your readings.
If all of that just feels verytheoretical, let me give you a
theoretical example.
Say you meet someone and thefirst few times you meet them
they don't talk very much.
You see them in groupsituations, you see them with
their partner, who is reallyextroverted and talks a lot, and
so your impression of thisperson is that they're pretty
quiet, that they're pretty sweetand gentle, but that they're
(03:47):
deeply shy.
So you might project somethings onto this person because
they're not talking very muchand you don't necessarily have a
strong sense of who they are,but say that then you have the
opportunity to spend time withthis person one-on-one and in a
quieter scenario where they areable to articulate themselves.
We're able to give them timeand space to think, where they
(04:09):
feel like they are able to be ina more intimate and, like you
know, give and take kind ofresponsive conversation with you
.
They really open up and youstart to see all of these shades
and and aspects to theirpersonality.
They actually have a really dry, sarcastic sense of humor that
you never would have been ableto notice in the cacophony of a
larger group.
(04:29):
Getting to be in more intimateconversation with this person,
getting to see them in a placewhere they might be more
comfortable, allows them toexpress aspects of their sense
of humor and personality thatyou wouldn't get to see
otherwise.
And then imagine that thisperson, who's really quiet and
gentle and sweet most of thetime, experiences something
(04:50):
really scary.
Maybe something happens totheir partner in an emergency
situation and they have to gointo emergency protective.
I got to find my person mode.
You might see a completelydifferent version of who this
person is.
They might suddenly be reallyassertive.
They might suddenly be reallybrave and willing to push their
way into a conversation whereyou would never see them do that
(05:12):
normally.
But that fire that's lit undertheir ass, that fear, that
concern, that need to act,drives them in a different
direction and you get to seeanother aspect of their
personality.
You get to see them displayingcourage that they probably
always have, but that might notalways need to be pulled out
into the forefront of theirpersonality to accomplish what
(05:34):
they're trying to accomplish.
Now, that's just a theoreticalexample that I made up, but any
person and any court card isgoing to offer different skills
and assets and be more in theforefront or more in the
background of your readings,just like people are going to
engage and behave differentlydepending on what's happening
around them and where they are.
(05:55):
We all have places where wefeel more comfortable and less
comfortable.
Right, we all have situationsthat we feel more equipped to
handle and less equipped tohandle, and court cards are the
exact same way.
So if you can start to reallyinternalize that, it's really
going to help you engage withthese cards in your readings
with more clarity and a littlebit more confidence.
(06:16):
As I said in our last episode,court cards can be interpreted
in a number of different ways,and so in this episode, really,
I want to offer you a few of myown personal favorite ways to
understand these cards when theyshow up in my tarot readings.
But I really want to emphasizethat these are not the only four
ways to interpret and work withthese cards.
(06:36):
You might ultimately choose toread them in a very different
way, or you might realize thatdifferent readings call for you
to work with these cards indifferent ways.
Court cards have so manypossibilities when it comes to
interpretation, because thesecards have so many faces and
layers and aspects and nuances.
So please don't be afraidespecially if you're newer to
(06:57):
tarot to try out differenttechniques or approaches when
you're working with these cardsin your readings.
So, without any further ado,here are four potential ways
that you can interpret courtcards when they show up in your
personal tarot readings.
The first potential method forinterpretation that I want to
talk about when it comes tocourt cards is reading a court
(07:17):
card that shows up in yourreading as being representative
of a literal human being, personthat you know.
Now, for a lot of people, thismight be one of the first
interpretations that younaturally jump to, that if a
court card comes up in yourreading, it is representing a
person that is already in yourlife, or a person who will be
(07:37):
entering your life soon, orperhaps someone who's kind of on
the fringes of your life, butit's going to start taking up
more space.
I kind of think of this as theyou will soon meet, a tall, dark
, handsome, stranger kind ofinterpretation right, and
personally I don't read this wayvery often, but it is a very
popular and common way tointerpret court cards in
(07:59):
readings, and I often see thisget presented as a useful
technique or interpretivepossibility for understanding
court cards in reading.
So I think it's important toshare here right off the top Now
.
Every once in a while, if itfeels right, I will read the
cards in this way, especially ifI'm reading for another person,
for a client or for someonethat I know really well.
(08:21):
Sometimes my intuition isreally going to buzz on this
particular option and itsometimes just really feels like
what the cards are directing metowards, and so I do think it
is really useful to be aware ofas a potential way to understand
these cards and so that you canrecognize that if it does
happen or feel really relevantfor the reading.
(08:41):
Before we move on to the nextinterpretation, I want to just
acknowledge here that if youfind an older tarot resource,
like something published maybein the 80s or 70s or farther
back, you might find physicalcharacteristics associated with
certain court cards.
Okay, these can be consideredtraditional or standardized
sometimes, but they really haveto do with assigning certain
(09:03):
courts specific physicalcharacteristics like hair color,
skin color, body type, etcetera.
Personally, I have never foundthese helpful.
I can't even rattle them off asan example for you because I do
not know them.
I prefer to focus on the vibeor the quality or the
personality over physicaldescriptions or even
(09:23):
associations with certain genderor ages.
But for some people that isgoing to be really helpful.
I know plenty of incredibleprofessional tarot readers who
always read pages as children,for example, whereas I prefer to
read them as someone who mighthave a childlike energy or a
moment when a childlike energycould be useful.
So your experience may vary,your preferences may vary, but I
(09:46):
wanted to just make it knownthat if you're using an older
tarot resource, you might findthose kinds of charts with
physical characteristicsassigned to each of the 16 court
cards.
I don't want you to besurprised if that's a thing that
you find, but you don't have touse it.
I certainly don't, okay.
The second interpretation that Iwant to offer for a court card
that's showing up in yourpersonal tarot readings is that
(10:08):
this card represents an aspectof self or, if you're reading
for another person, an aspect ofthe querent.
Now, this is an interpretationthat I personally use a lot,
that court cards in readings canrepresent a part of who you are
, or an aspect of self thatalready exists within you,
something that might be worthutilizing or embracing or
(10:30):
exploring or taking pride in, orin the inverse of reckoning
with, or navigating or learningto understand, or having
compassion for, or perhaps evenlike tamping down or trying to
kind of have a little bit morecontrol over.
Again, people are layered andcomplicated, and so each of
these court cards can reallyhave a lot of positive qualities
(10:50):
or good qualities, or usefulqualities, or admirable
qualities, as well as qualitiesthat might create challenges or
make a messy situation evenmessier right, and so, in
thinking about these cards asrepresenting personal
characteristics or personalities, I really do like to let these
cards capture and represent thefull range of humanity and the
(11:13):
full range of personality thatwe all contain, to really
explore which aspects we mighthave in common with a particular
card.
Now, this particularinterpretation can be a very
useful way to think about thecards, for journaling techniques
or for tarot spreads that focuson trying to connect with a
particular card or anything likethat.
(11:35):
Journaling through all 16 cardsand trying to find your
personal connection with each ofthese court cards can be a
really helpful thing to do, andI took a note for myself that
maybe this is a resource Ishould create with some
additional structure.
So I guess be on the lookoutfor that whenever I write that.
The third interpretation that Iwant to offer for when a court
(11:56):
card shows up in your readingsis that this card is
representing something for youto specifically embody.
Now, this is kind of like asubset to the aspect of
self-interpretation that I justoffered, but I do personally
find often that court cards canshow up as an energy to reach
for or strive for, demonstratinga figure that we want to
(12:16):
emulate, or a vibe to try tocelebrate or enhance, or even a
version of self to embrace.
Court cards can offer reallyexcellent advice, and so, in
this particular kind of subsetof an interpretation, I think
the court card can show you whoyou can be, or who you can
strive to be, as a way ofnavigating or moving through a
(12:40):
specific challenge, situation,question, struggle or choice.
I find, especially if I'masking the cards for advice or
trying to figure out what to door what choice to make, when a
court card shows up it canreally be demonstrating a path
forward or a thing that I coulddo that might make dealing with
the situation easier or help mefeel more confident or give me
(13:04):
the knowledge or the awarenessor the insight that I need to
handle the situation.
Basically, this is aninterpretation that I use a lot
as well, and I do personally,because I've been working with
the cards for a long time, havespecific relationships with
different court cards to thepoint that when they show up, I
understand what exactly they'retelling me I should do or what
(13:26):
kind of behaviors or skills orresources or whatever I should
be utilizing to navigate theparticular situation.
Now, this is just theinterpretation that feels really
practical to me.
It's a little lessintrospective and a little bit
more directive.
So if you are someone thatoften finds yourself doing
readings that are looking foradvice or support, this can be a
(13:48):
really helpful interpretationto have in your back pocket.
The last and fourth kind ofpotential interpretation I want
to offer is a step in thejourney which might feel a
little bit more abstract, butstick with me because I think it
can be really helpful.
Court cards can represent whereyou are in a particular journey
or cycle or story in aparticular way, so they can kind
(14:10):
of show you how far along youare in a particular goal or
ambition or trying to reach acertain end point.
So you can see it this way thatpages, if it shows up in your
readings, might be reminding youthat you were just in the
initial stages of something new,that you're in the imagination
and decision portion of thestory, that you're still
(14:33):
choosing how to try something orwhat to do around something.
That there's an experimentalenergy and a discovery energy
and a questioning energy, reallytrying to figure out what your
place is in a certain part ofthe story.
Knights in this interpretationcan speak to a desire for
risk-taking or taking action orleveling up this craving for
(14:55):
putting yourself out there andreally seeing what happens and
making a big change in a waythat's going to lead to
visibility and connection andperhaps even accolades.
Queens, in this interpretation,could speak to being in the part
of the story where we want toprotect what we've already done
and starting to think long-termabout what we're building or
what we want to build, as wellas who we're in community with
(15:18):
or who we might want to inviteinto whatever we're doing.
And kings, in this particularinterpretation, can speak to
like legacy work, to thinkingabout how others are going to
see us once we've succeeded ornow that we have reached a
certain point in the journey, tohow our ideas and dreams and
ambitions are reallyintersecting with our community
(15:38):
or the broader collective.
When I see Kings, I think aboutbeing a real leader or being
someone in a position ofleadership or someone with a lot
of visibility and how.
That is a part of the storythat I'm in.
This might feel like a moreniche interpretation, and so it
might not be one that you findas useful, but especially if
you're someone who really likesnumerology or who tends to do a
(15:59):
lot of readings about broader,long-term goals or long-term
journeys, or who thinks in amore narrative way, this can be
helpful for anchoring into aparticular point of the story,
remembering where you are interms of a particular initiative
or not getting too impatientabout what you're accomplishing
or what you have access toversus how long you've been
(16:22):
doing a particular thing.
Now again, these four optionsfor interpretations are just
suggestions and they're justplaces to get you started.
You might find that the more youdo readings, you end up moving
in a particular way, leaningmore heavily on a particular
interpretation, or even readingthese cards in a way that has
nothing to do with anything I'vejust said.
(16:42):
And also, if you're using atarot spread, or the court card
comes up in a particularposition within that spread,
that can also help give youanother way to understand that
card that might be completelydifferent than what I've shared
here.
In general, when a court cardshows up in your readings,
remember that they are allowedto be nuanced and complicated
(17:03):
and that that is a feature, nota bug.
And especially if you findyourself really frustrated by,
or flustered with, court cards,I just want to remind you to
take a deep breath, think aboutthe work you've done with the
card, think about the things youknow about the element or the
suit or the rank, as well as anyother correspondences you might
use, and don't be afraid tolean on previous experiences
(17:26):
you've had with the card as well.
There's a lot of informationyou can pull from, and the more
you work with tarot, the moreyou use tarot, the more those
experiences are going to startto build up and help you
understand better who this cardis and what they might have to
offer you.
But try not to make the cardsthe star of the show, unless
you're reading happens to be allcourt cards.
(17:47):
You don't have to put animmense amount of importance on
these court cards over othercards, just because they might
feel like they're derailing you.
They're just part of the deck.
They don't have to be this big,mysterious section of the deck
that really deeply intimidatesyou.
Don't give them that much power.
Let them just be anothersection of the cards that you
(18:09):
just get to keep learning aboutand growing with.
Now, I always like to end theseepisodes with a tip or a trick
to help you incorporate thisinformation into your own
practice.
So here I'll just say thatdedicated work with court cards
in particular can be reallypowerful, especially again if
you find yourself as someonewho's really struggling with
(18:30):
these cards or who finds themreally challenging.
I do have a few differentjournaling and discovery
resources that are availablethrough the 3am Tarot
Conservatory, which is mysignature membership program for
tarot education that can helpyou work through or with these
figures more intentionally.
I have one called Order in theCourt that's specifically about
building relationships with all16 court cards, and I also have
(18:52):
a journaling resource calledCard Connections that has
journaling prompts to help youconnect with all 78 cards in the
deck.
But you don't necessarily haveto use a resource like this in
order to build deeperconnections with the court cards
.
If you'd rather do this on yourown, I encourage you to just
make a personal self-study outof this section of the deck.
Choose a particular court cardand think first about what you
(19:14):
have in common with that figure,if this card feels comfortable
or familiar to you, if itreminds you of anyone you know
or anyone you have known or acharacter in your favorite book
or story or movie or comic bookor video game or whatever, and
make a point of starting tobuild a specific, intentional
connection with that card andreally letting them become more
(19:35):
real to you.
The more you take time to buildrelationships with each of these
cards one-on-one, as well as towork with these cards in their
groupings of of suited courts orof specific ranks, the more
they're going to have to offeryou when they show up in
readings and the easier it willbe to know which kind of
interpretation makes the mostsense for that particular
(19:56):
reading.
That is all I have for youtoday, but, as always, thank you
so much for spending this timewith me, and I will be back
again soon with more Card Talk.
Card Talk episodes are alwaysfree for everyone to enjoy, so
if you love what you hear,please consider supporting the
podcast by subscribing,recommending Card Talk to a
friend or two or donating tohelp with production costs.
(20:18):
You can find episodetranscripts, learn more about me
and join my signature TarotConservatory membership program
through my website, 3amtarotcom.
Thanks for listening and seeyou next time you.
I'm Meg Jones-Wall and this is Card Talk, a mini
podcast for tarot basics andevergreen insights.
I'm here to help you build atarot practice that works for
you.
Glad you're here.
In today's episode, we aregoing to be talking about how to
understand and interpret courtcards in your personal tarot
(00:32):
readings.
Now, I've already sharedepisodes on how to see court
cards as community work or howto work with court cards in
order to enhance your owncommunity work and community
building, but I've also sharedan episode that served as just a
general introduction to whatthese court cards are.
So if you haven't listened tothose episodes, I do highly
(00:52):
recommend going back andlistening to them first, as each
episode includes some generaltips and meanings for these
cards and really kind ofintroduces you to these figures
and different ways that you canwork with them outside of your
readings.
In this episode, we're going tobe focused on how to approach
these cards in your readings orin a more interpretive kind of
advice giving or insightoffering way.
(01:14):
Now, as I've explained inprevious episodes, I understand
court cards as being connectedto embodied energy or
internalized energy, or the waythat an energy might manifest in
a life or in a day, or in anaction or in a choice.
Now that doesn't necessarilymean that these cards are one
note, far from it.
(01:35):
Court cards have fullpersonalities and can include a
lot of different layers andcontradictions, correspondences
and meanings.
They bring a lot to the tableand in a reading.
Depending on what other cardsare involved in the reading,
that might mean that certainaspects of these figures are
going to be more heavilyemphasized or that certain
(01:55):
aspects are going to feel alittle bit quieter.
Just as human beings arecomplex and are always reacting
to and engaging with theirenvironment and their choices
and their emotions and theirsensations and their
observations and theirexperiences, court cards are the
same way, and so they mightbring something different to the
table in every single reading,based on the question and based
(02:18):
on the environment of thereading or the other cards that
are present in the reading.
In general, I think tarotactually does become more
confusing when we try to flattenindividual cards or simplify
them too much.
But I think this becomesparticularly messy or hard to
parse when we try to flattencourt cards too much.
In general, it is hard todescribe a whole person like a
(02:43):
person that you know well,especially just with a few
keywords right?
And even if you can, even ifyou can, describe your best
friend in three words or less,those words might not always
apply to how that person isgoing to behave in every single
situation or how other peopleare always going to perceive or
experience that person.
(03:04):
Right, people are complicatedand so are court cards and so,
again, as I said at the end ofthe last episode, if you can
learn to allow these cards tohave a lot of nuance, if you can
be comfortable with the factthat these cards might show up
in different ways at differenttimes, they're going to start to
be easier for you to understand, especially when they come up
(03:25):
in your readings.
If all of that just feels verytheoretical, let me give you a
theoretical example.
Say you meet someone and thefirst few times you meet them
they don't talk very much.
You see them in groupsituations, you see them with
their partner, who is reallyextroverted and talks a lot, and
so your impression of thisperson is that they're pretty
quiet, that they're pretty sweetand gentle, but that they're
(03:47):
deeply shy.
So you might project somethings onto this person because
they're not talking very muchand you don't necessarily have a
strong sense of who they are,but say that then you have the
opportunity to spend time withthis person one-on-one and in a
quieter scenario where they areable to articulate themselves.
We're able to give them timeand space to think, where they
(04:09):
feel like they are able to be ina more intimate and, like you
know, give and take kind ofresponsive conversation with you
.
They really open up and youstart to see all of these shades
and and aspects to theirpersonality.
They actually have a really dry, sarcastic sense of humor that
you never would have been ableto notice in the cacophony of a
larger group.
(04:29):
Getting to be in more intimateconversation with this person,
getting to see them in a placewhere they might be more
comfortable, allows them toexpress aspects of their sense
of humor and personality thatyou wouldn't get to see
otherwise.
And then imagine that thisperson, who's really quiet and
gentle and sweet most of thetime, experiences something
(04:50):
really scary.
Maybe something happens totheir partner in an emergency
situation and they have to gointo emergency protective.
I got to find my person mode.
You might see a completelydifferent version of who this
person is.
They might suddenly be reallyassertive.
They might suddenly be reallybrave and willing to push their
way into a conversation whereyou would never see them do that
(05:12):
normally.
But that fire that's lit undertheir ass, that fear, that
concern, that need to act,drives them in a different
direction and you get to seeanother aspect of their
personality.
You get to see them displayingcourage that they probably
always have, but that might notalways need to be pulled out
into the forefront of theirpersonality to accomplish what
(05:34):
they're trying to accomplish.
Now, that's just a theoreticalexample that I made up, but any
person and any court card isgoing to offer different skills
and assets and be more in theforefront or more in the
background of your readings,just like people are going to
engage and behave differentlydepending on what's happening
around them and where they are.
(05:55):
We all have places where wefeel more comfortable and less
comfortable.
Right, we all have situationsthat we feel more equipped to
handle and less equipped tohandle, and court cards are the
exact same way.
So if you can start to reallyinternalize that, it's really
going to help you engage withthese cards in your readings
with more clarity and a littlebit more confidence.
(06:16):
As I said in our last episode,court cards can be interpreted
in a number of different ways,and so in this episode, really,
I want to offer you a few of myown personal favorite ways to
understand these cards when theyshow up in my tarot readings.
But I really want to emphasizethat these are not the only four
ways to interpret and work withthese cards.
(06:36):
You might ultimately choose toread them in a very different
way, or you might realize thatdifferent readings call for you
to work with these cards indifferent ways.
Court cards have so manypossibilities when it comes to
interpretation, because thesecards have so many faces and
layers and aspects and nuances.
So please don't be afraidespecially if you're newer to
(06:57):
tarot to try out differenttechniques or approaches when
you're working with these cardsin your readings.
So, without any further ado,here are four potential ways
that you can interpret courtcards when they show up in your
personal tarot readings.
The first potential method forinterpretation that I want to
talk about when it comes tocourt cards is reading a court
(07:17):
card that shows up in yourreading as being representative
of a literal human being, personthat you know.
Now, for a lot of people, thismight be one of the first
interpretations that younaturally jump to, that if a
court card comes up in yourreading, it is representing a
person that is already in yourlife, or a person who will be
(07:37):
entering your life soon, orperhaps someone who's kind of on
the fringes of your life, butit's going to start taking up
more space.
I kind of think of this as theyou will soon meet, a tall, dark
, handsome, stranger kind ofinterpretation right, and
personally I don't read this wayvery often, but it is a very
popular and common way tointerpret court cards in
(07:59):
readings, and I often see thisget presented as a useful
technique or interpretivepossibility for understanding
court cards in reading.
So I think it's important toshare here right off the top Now
.
Every once in a while, if itfeels right, I will read the
cards in this way, especially ifI'm reading for another person,
for a client or for someonethat I know really well.
(08:21):
Sometimes my intuition isreally going to buzz on this
particular option and itsometimes just really feels like
what the cards are directing metowards, and so I do think it
is really useful to be aware ofas a potential way to understand
these cards and so that you canrecognize that if it does
happen or feel really relevantfor the reading.
(08:41):
Before we move on to the nextinterpretation, I want to just
acknowledge here that if youfind an older tarot resource,
like something published maybein the 80s or 70s or farther
back, you might find physicalcharacteristics associated with
certain court cards.
Okay, these can be consideredtraditional or standardized
sometimes, but they really haveto do with assigning certain
(09:03):
courts specific physicalcharacteristics like hair color,
skin color, body type, etcetera.
Personally, I have never foundthese helpful.
I can't even rattle them off asan example for you because I do
not know them.
I prefer to focus on the vibeor the quality or the
personality over physicaldescriptions or even
(09:23):
associations with certain genderor ages.
But for some people that isgoing to be really helpful.
I know plenty of incredibleprofessional tarot readers who
always read pages as children,for example, whereas I prefer to
read them as someone who mighthave a childlike energy or a
moment when a childlike energycould be useful.
So your experience may vary,your preferences may vary, but I
(09:46):
wanted to just make it knownthat if you're using an older
tarot resource, you might findthose kinds of charts with
physical characteristicsassigned to each of the 16 court
cards.
I don't want you to besurprised if that's a thing that
you find, but you don't have touse it.
I certainly don't, okay.
The second interpretation that Iwant to offer for a court card
that's showing up in yourpersonal tarot readings is that
(10:08):
this card represents an aspectof self or, if you're reading
for another person, an aspect ofthe querent.
Now, this is an interpretationthat I personally use a lot,
that court cards in readings canrepresent a part of who you are
, or an aspect of self thatalready exists within you,
something that might be worthutilizing or embracing or
(10:30):
exploring or taking pride in, orin the inverse of reckoning
with, or navigating or learningto understand, or having
compassion for, or perhaps evenlike tamping down or trying to
kind of have a little bit morecontrol over.
Again, people are layered andcomplicated, and so each of
these court cards can reallyhave a lot of positive qualities
(10:50):
or good qualities, or usefulqualities, or admirable
qualities, as well as qualitiesthat might create challenges or
make a messy situation evenmessier right, and so, in
thinking about these cards asrepresenting personal
characteristics or personalities, I really do like to let these
cards capture and represent thefull range of humanity and the
(11:13):
full range of personality thatwe all contain, to really
explore which aspects we mighthave in common with a particular
card.
Now, this particularinterpretation can be a very
useful way to think about thecards, for journaling techniques
or for tarot spreads that focuson trying to connect with a
particular card or anything likethat.
(11:35):
Journaling through all 16 cardsand trying to find your
personal connection with each ofthese court cards can be a
really helpful thing to do, andI took a note for myself that
maybe this is a resource Ishould create with some
additional structure.
So I guess be on the lookoutfor that whenever I write that.
The third interpretation that Iwant to offer for when a court
(11:56):
card shows up in your readingsis that this card is
representing something for youto specifically embody.
Now, this is kind of like asubset to the aspect of
self-interpretation that I justoffered, but I do personally
find often that court cards canshow up as an energy to reach
for or strive for, demonstratinga figure that we want to
(12:16):
emulate, or a vibe to try tocelebrate or enhance, or even a
version of self to embrace.
Court cards can offer reallyexcellent advice, and so, in
this particular kind of subsetof an interpretation, I think
the court card can show you whoyou can be, or who you can
strive to be, as a way ofnavigating or moving through a
(12:40):
specific challenge, situation,question, struggle or choice.
I find, especially if I'masking the cards for advice or
trying to figure out what to door what choice to make, when a
court card shows up it canreally be demonstrating a path
forward or a thing that I coulddo that might make dealing with
the situation easier or help mefeel more confident or give me
(13:04):
the knowledge or the awarenessor the insight that I need to
handle the situation.
Basically, this is aninterpretation that I use a lot
as well, and I do personally,because I've been working with
the cards for a long time, havespecific relationships with
different court cards to thepoint that when they show up, I
understand what exactly they'retelling me I should do or what
(13:26):
kind of behaviors or skills orresources or whatever I should
be utilizing to navigate theparticular situation.
Now, this is just theinterpretation that feels really
practical to me.
It's a little lessintrospective and a little bit
more directive.
So if you are someone thatoften finds yourself doing
readings that are looking foradvice or support, this can be a
(13:48):
really helpful interpretationto have in your back pocket.
The last and fourth kind ofpotential interpretation I want
to offer is a step in thejourney which might feel a
little bit more abstract, butstick with me because I think it
can be really helpful.
Court cards can represent whereyou are in a particular journey
or cycle or story in aparticular way, so they can kind
(14:10):
of show you how far along youare in a particular goal or
ambition or trying to reach acertain end point.
So you can see it this way thatpages, if it shows up in your
readings, might be reminding youthat you were just in the
initial stages of something new,that you're in the imagination
and decision portion of thestory, that you're still
(14:33):
choosing how to try something orwhat to do around something.
That there's an experimentalenergy and a discovery energy
and a questioning energy, reallytrying to figure out what your
place is in a certain part ofthe story.
Knights in this interpretationcan speak to a desire for
risk-taking or taking action orleveling up this craving for
(14:55):
putting yourself out there andreally seeing what happens and
making a big change in a waythat's going to lead to
visibility and connection andperhaps even accolades.
Queens, in this interpretation,could speak to being in the part
of the story where we want toprotect what we've already done
and starting to think long-termabout what we're building or
what we want to build, as wellas who we're in community with
(15:18):
or who we might want to inviteinto whatever we're doing.
And kings, in this particularinterpretation, can speak to
like legacy work, to thinkingabout how others are going to
see us once we've succeeded ornow that we have reached a
certain point in the journey, tohow our ideas and dreams and
ambitions are reallyintersecting with our community
(15:38):
or the broader collective.
When I see Kings, I think aboutbeing a real leader or being
someone in a position ofleadership or someone with a lot
of visibility and how.
That is a part of the storythat I'm in.
This might feel like a moreniche interpretation, and so it
might not be one that you findas useful, but especially if
you're someone who really likesnumerology or who tends to do a
(15:59):
lot of readings about broader,long-term goals or long-term
journeys, or who thinks in amore narrative way, this can be
helpful for anchoring into aparticular point of the story,
remembering where you are interms of a particular initiative
or not getting too impatientabout what you're accomplishing
or what you have access toversus how long you've been
(16:22):
doing a particular thing.
Now again, these four optionsfor interpretations are just
suggestions and they're justplaces to get you started.
You might find that the more youdo readings, you end up moving
in a particular way, leaningmore heavily on a particular
interpretation, or even readingthese cards in a way that has
nothing to do with anything I'vejust said.
(16:42):
And also, if you're using atarot spread, or the court card
comes up in a particularposition within that spread,
that can also help give youanother way to understand that
card that might be completelydifferent than what I've shared
here.
In general, when a court cardshows up in your readings,
remember that they are allowedto be nuanced and complicated
(17:03):
and that that is a feature, nota bug.
And especially if you findyourself really frustrated by,
or flustered with, court cards,I just want to remind you to
take a deep breath, think aboutthe work you've done with the
card, think about the things youknow about the element or the
suit or the rank, as well as anyother correspondences you might
use, and don't be afraid tolean on previous experiences
(17:26):
you've had with the card as well.
There's a lot of informationyou can pull from, and the more
you work with tarot, the moreyou use tarot, the more those
experiences are going to startto build up and help you
understand better who this cardis and what they might have to
offer you.
But try not to make the cardsthe star of the show, unless
you're reading happens to be allcourt cards.
(17:47):
You don't have to put animmense amount of importance on
these court cards over othercards, just because they might
feel like they're derailing you.
They're just part of the deck.
They don't have to be this big,mysterious section of the deck
that really deeply intimidatesyou.
Don't give them that much power.
Let them just be anothersection of the cards that you
(18:09):
just get to keep learning aboutand growing with.
Now, I always like to end theseepisodes with a tip or a trick
to help you incorporate thisinformation into your own
practice.
So here I'll just say thatdedicated work with court cards
in particular can be reallypowerful, especially again if
you find yourself as someonewho's really struggling with
(18:30):
these cards or who finds themreally challenging.
I do have a few differentjournaling and discovery
resources that are availablethrough the 3am Tarot
Conservatory, which is mysignature membership program for
tarot education that can helpyou work through or with these
figures more intentionally.
I have one called Order in theCourt that's specifically about
building relationships with all16 court cards, and I also have
(18:52):
a journaling resource calledCard Connections that has
journaling prompts to help youconnect with all 78 cards in the
deck.
But you don't necessarily haveto use a resource like this in
order to build deeperconnections with the court cards
.
If you'd rather do this on yourown, I encourage you to just
make a personal self-study outof this section of the deck.
Choose a particular court cardand think first about what you
(19:14):
have in common with that figure,if this card feels comfortable
or familiar to you, if itreminds you of anyone you know
or anyone you have known or acharacter in your favorite book
or story or movie or comic bookor video game or whatever, and
make a point of starting tobuild a specific, intentional
connection with that card andreally letting them become more
(19:35):
real to you.
The more you take time to buildrelationships with each of these
cards one-on-one, as well as towork with these cards in their
groupings of of suited courts orof specific ranks, the more
they're going to have to offeryou when they show up in
readings and the easier it willbe to know which kind of
interpretation makes the mostsense for that particular
(19:56):
reading.
That is all I have for youtoday, but, as always, thank you
so much for spending this timewith me, and I will be back
again soon with more Card Talk.
Card Talk episodes are alwaysfree for everyone to enjoy, so
if you love what you hear,please consider supporting the
podcast by subscribing,recommending Card Talk to a
friend or two or donating tohelp with production costs.
(20:18):
You can find episodetranscripts, learn more about me
and join my signature TarotConservatory membership program
through my website, 3amtarotcom.
Thanks for listening and seeyou next time you.
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