The Minor Arcana: The King of Cups Titles: Fire of Water; The Lord of the Waves and the Waters; The King of the Hosts of the Sea Astrological Correspondence: 21° Aquarius to 21° Pisces Commentary: Golden Dawn “Liber T” (S.L. Mathers): “Graceful, poetic, Venusian, but enthusiastic if roused. Ill-dignified, he is sensual, idle and untruthful.” … Continue reading Court Card Thumbnails: The King of Cups
Courts
Court Card Thumbnails: The Page/Princess of Wands
The Court Cards: The Page/Princess of Wands Titles: Earth of Fire; Princess of the Shining Flame – The Rose of the Palace of Fire Astrological Correspondence: The northwest quadrant of the zodiac, comprising the signs of Cancer, Leo and Virgo. Commentary: Golden Dawn “Liber T” (S.L. Mathers): “Brilliance, courage, beauty, force, sudden in anger or … Continue reading Court Card Thumbnails: The Page/Princess of Wands
Court Card Thumbnails: The Knight/Prince of Wands
The Court Cards: The Knight/Prince of Wands Titles: Air of Fire; The Prince of the Chariot of Fire Astrological Correspondence: 21° degrees of Cancer to 20° degrees of Leo Commentary: Golden Dawn “Liber T” (S.L. Mathers): “Swift, strong, hasty, rather violent, yet just and generous, noble and scorning meanness. If ill-dignified, cruel, intolerant, prejudiced and … Continue reading Court Card Thumbnails: The Knight/Prince of Wands
Court Card Thumbnails: The Queen of Wands
The Court Cards: The Queen of Wands Titles: Water of Fire; The Queen of the Thrones of Flame Astrological Correspondence: 21° Pisces to 20° Aries Commentary: Golden Dawn “Liber T” (S.L. Mathers): “Adaptability, steady force applied to an object. Steady rule; great attractive power, power of command, yet liked notwithstanding. Kind and generous when not … Continue reading Court Card Thumbnails: The Queen of Wands
Court Card Thumbnails: The King of Wands
This is the first of what will be a series of daily posts on the tarot court cards. They are drawn from lesson material I created last year for a beginner's course. The quoted sections were taken from Tarot Divination: A Description of the Cards of the Tarot, Aleister Crowley's publication of the Golden Dawn's … Continue reading Court Card Thumbnails: The King of Wands
Court Card Thumbnails: An Introduction
This brief introduction sets the stage for a series of posts on the tarot court cards taken from material I developed for my "Tarot 101" beginner's course last year. The Structure of the Tarot: The Court Cards The cards representing medieval royalty are some of the most difficult to interpret for beginners and experienced readers … Continue reading Court Card Thumbnails: An Introduction
“Who’s the Boss?”
I once had a 95-pound German Shepard who fully understood the authoritarian zeal of the Emperor. He was big and strong enough to have ripped my throat out, so every informal training session included a demonstration of my "alpha male" superiority. He loved to mock-fight, so I used to don a pair of heavy work … Continue reading “Who’s the Boss?”
“Hard” and “Soft” Suits
One concept from the Tarot de Marseille "school" of interpretation - which has a meager divinatory legacy unless one can read French - that is worth carrying forward into general use is that of "hard" and "soft" suits. The former are comprised of the Wands and Swords cards, while the latter encompass the Cups and … Continue reading “Hard” and “Soft” Suits
Coming or Going?
In the Golden Dawn tarot papers, MacGregor Mathers made an observation regarding the facing or directionality of the Kings and Pages when placed in a spread: "The Kings, if looking against the direction of the reading, or if meeting it, represent the coming of a person or event, or phase of an event, but if … Continue reading Coming or Going?
Court Cards as Scapegoats
It can probably be said with some confidence that a good many people, when finding themselves in difficulty, first cast about for some other person on whom to fix the blame. Human nature seems to crave a salve for the troubled conscience, and woe to anyone who is careless enough to look even marginally culpable. … Continue reading Court Cards as Scapegoats
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 