← Encyclopedia of Tarot · lesson 83/121
Pages
The Pages are the first and youngest rank of the court cards: four figures, one in each suit, usually drawn as young people standing on foot and holding their suit's emblem as if studying it. They are the tarot's students and messengers. Where a Page appears, readers often see a beginning, a piece of news, a new interest or an open, curious way of meeting something.
The rank
Each rank of the court holds its suit's element in its own way, and the Page holds it as something new. A Page has not yet mastered the suit; they are discovering it. That is the source of both their charm and their limits: enthusiasm, openness and willingness to learn, together with inexperience and, sometimes, a lack of follow-through. In the old court of a king, a page was a young attendant who carried messages — hence the Page's long association with news, letters and invitations.
Across the four suits
- Page of Wands — a spark of enthusiasm, a new idea or adventure, eager news.
- Page of Cups — a dreamy, open-hearted beginner; a first feeling, an imaginative offer, an intuition.
- Page of Swords — alert curiosity, questions, vigilance; news that needs thinking about.
- Page of Pentacles — the diligent student, a practical start, an opportunity to learn or train.
As people
Older practice read the courts mainly as people. Waite gives the Page, when it is used as a significator, to a young woman, and in his card meanings Pages are often a young person, a child or a messenger. Modern readers usually take the rank symbolically: a Page can describe anyone of any age who is new to something, or the querent's own beginner's mind.
Names in other decks
The rank has had many names. In the early Italian decks it was the fante, a foot-servant; in the Tarot de Marseille it is the Valet, a young man; older English books called it the Knave, the ancestor of the Jack in ordinary playing cards. The Rider–Waite–Smith deck made it the Page. The Golden Dawn made it a Princess, and the Thoth Tarot kept that name: Crowley's court runs Princess, Prince, Queen and Knight, and his Princesses are young women warriors. Other modern decks use Daughter, Child or Seeker. The card in the same place is meant in every case.
The Golden Dawn attribution
In the Golden Dawn scheme each court rank has an element of its own, combined with the suit's, and the Page or Princess is Earth — the final, grounding stage in which the suit's force becomes solid. So:
- Page of Wands — Earth of Fire
- Page of Cups — Earth of Water
- Page of Swords — Earth of Air
- Page of Pentacles — Earth of Earth, the most concentrated of all
Unlike the other three ranks, the Princesses were given no span of the zodiac. Instead each was called the "Throne of the Ace" of her suit and set to rule a quarter of the heavens, so the Pages are tied closely to the Aces: the Ace is the seed of the suit, the Princess the ground in which it takes root. Some modern authors key the elements to the Rider–Waite–Smith names differently; schools do not all agree.
In a reading
When a Page appears, a reader might ask whether it is a person (someone young, or new to the matter), a message (news on its way), or an attitude (approach this as a learner). Several Pages in one spread are often read as a time of beginnings, of study, or of youthful energy around the question. Reversed, for readers who use reversals, a Page can suggest immaturity, delayed news or a beginning that does not get going.