The court cards: a person, or a part of you?

Many beginners find the court cards the hardest part of the deck. The numbered cards describe situations, and the Majors describe big themes, but the courts are people, and people are complicated. When the Queen of Swords turns up, is that your sister, your manager, or you?

The answer is that it can be any of them, and this lesson is about telling which.

Four ranks, four suits

Every suit has four court cards. In this deck they are the Page, the Knight, the Queen and the King. That's sixteen in all.

They are modelled on a royal court of the time the cards were made, which is why there are three men and one woman in each suit. Other decks rename them. Some use a Princess in place of the Page. The Thoth deck, which comes from the same magical society as this one, uses Princess, Prince, Queen and Knight, with its Knight in the King's place. If you ever pick up a deck like that, the ranks line up differently, so read its own guide.

What each rank is like

The simplest way into the courts is to know what each rank brings, and then add the suit.

• The Page is a playful child. Curious, keen, easy-going, trying the suit out for the first time. Pages are often read as news, a message, or something new starting small.
• The Knight is a teenager on the move. Eager and sincere, but out of balance: a Knight takes his suit's quality too far. You can admire his energy and still notice what he leaves out.
• The Queen looks inward. She embodies her suit rather than acting it out. Her style is relaxed and natural, more about being than doing, about feelings, relationships and self-expression.
• The King looks outward. He uses his suit's quality to get things done. His style is direct and assured: authority, control, results.

So a court card is a sentence with two words. Rank says how the quality is expressed. Suit says what the quality is.

Suit and rank together

The four Knights show it best, because a Knight always takes his suit as far as it will go.

The Knight of Wands rides a rearing horse: all passion and adventure, off before the plan is finished. The Knight of Cups walks his horse slowly, holding out a cup: the romantic, the dreamer, sincere and perhaps a little unreal. The Knight of Swords charges flat out into the wind: sharp, fast, and likely to say the thing that can't be unsaid. The Knight of Pentacles sits on a heavy horse that has stopped dead in a ploughed field: steady and dependable, and slow to the point of stuck.

Same rank, four very different people. Try the same with the Queens: the Queen of Wands is warm and confident, the Queen of Cups intuitive and caring, the Queen of Swords clear-sighted and honest, the Queen of Pentacles practical and nurturing. And with the Kings: a creative leader, a calm and kindly one, a fair and exacting one, a successful and generous one.

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All sixteen court cards

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Row by row: the Page, Knight, Queen and King of Wands; then of Cups; then of Swords; then of Pentacles.

Three things a court card can be

When a court card appears in a reading, it usually means one of three things.

A side of you. The card shows a way you are behaving, or a way you could. It might be a side you're proud of, or one you've been avoiding. Asking whether to go into business with a friend and drawing the King of Swords might be a nudge to be fair, look at everything carefully and say plainly what you need.

Another person. If you look at the card and think "I know who that is", it very likely is. It may also be someone who hasn't come into the picture yet. And it's worth reading what the card says about that person: a new partner shown as the Knight of Cups is romantic and sincere, but a Knight is out of balance, so the card might be asking whether the relationship has dependability as well as feeling.

The mood of a situation. Sometimes a place or a group takes on a personality of its own. Ask about a new flat-share and draw the Queen of Pentacles, and the card may be describing the household: warm, generous and sensible.

How to tell which

There's no rule that settles it every time, but four questions help:

• What did you ask? A question about a particular person leans the card towards them. A question about your own choices leans it towards you.
• Where did it fall? In a position like "how to approach this", it's almost always advice about you.
• Do you recognise it? That jolt of "that's her" is worth trusting.
• What do the other cards say? Several court cards together often means several people are involved.

An older approach to leave behind

You'll find books that tie each court card to a type of person by age, sex, or even hair and eye colour: the Queen of Cups as a fair-haired woman, Pages as children, Kings as men over forty. As a loose guide to age it can help: a Page sometimes is a child. But the hair-colour schemes describe a very narrow slice of humanity, and most modern readers have dropped them.

The same goes for sex. A King's way of acting is open to anyone, and so is a Queen's. If you draw the King of Wands about a woman you know, there's no need to look for a man: she may simply be acting like a King of Wands.

What to take from this

• Rank says how, suit says what. Page plays, Knight overdoes, Queen embodies, King acts.
• A court card can be you, someone else, or the atmosphere. Your question, the card's position and your own recognition help you tell which.
• Don't read the card's age or sex too literally. The qualities belong to anyone.

Next, your first reading: one card, every day, and the habit that turns a deck of strangers into cards you know.