Meet the court

Court cards confuse almost every beginner, so if they confuse you, you are in good company. There are sixteen of them: a Page, a Knight, a Queen and a King in each of the four suits. The good news is that once you understand the four ranks and the four suits, you can read all sixteen.

The four ranks

Think of the ranks as four stages of learning a skill.

• Page: the beginner. Curiosity, a message, a first step, apprentice energy. Pages are students of their suit.
• Knight: the one in motion. Pursuit, travel, commitment in action, and sometimes too much of the suit’s style. Knights are going somewhere fast.
• Queen: the one who has mastered the suit from the inside. Embodied skill, care, receptive wisdom and discernment.
• King: the one who leads with the suit. Responsibility, direction, public skill and stewardship.

Rank plus suit

Now combine rank and suit, the same way you combined number and suit in module 4.

• The Page of Cups is a beginner in feelings: a sweet surprise, a creative idea, an open heart.
• The Knight of Swords is thought in motion: fast, direct, sometimes careless with words.
• The Queen of Pentacles is mastery of practical care: someone who makes a home, a budget and a garden grow.
• The King of Wands leads with fire: vision, charisma, a natural leader.

Try the others yourself. A Knight of Cups? Feelings in motion: romance, an offer of the heart. A King of Swords? Leading with the mind: fair judgment and clear authority.

Not about gender

The figures on the cards are drawn as young people, men and women, but court cards are not limited by the gender or age of the figure. A Queen can describe a man. A Page can describe a grandmother learning something new. A Knight can describe a strategy rather than a person. Read the energy, not the costume.

Courts are not numbers

Court cards sit outside the Ace to Ten count. When a court appears, read character and approach first, not number symbolism. Ask: what kind of person, role or attitude is this?

A note on astrology

Many systems also pair court cards with elements or zodiac signs, and different books disagree about the pairings. You do not need any of that to read well. If your deck prints a sign on its courts, follow your deck. If not, leave it.

How to learn them

Sort the sixteen courts into a grid: four rows for the suits, four columns for the ranks. Look across a row and you will see one suit growing up. Look down a column and you will see one rank in four moods. That grid is the whole system on one table.

Try this

Today’s exercise: Lay out the four Queens side by side and write one sentence for each about how she is different from the others. Keep it short. Two or three lines in your notebook are enough, and there are no wrong answers. If you like, come back to the page tomorrow and add one more line about anything you noticed in the meantime. Small, regular notes like these are how the cards slowly become familiar.

Quick recap

• There are 16 court cards: Page, Knight, Queen and King in each suit.
• Pages begin, Knights move, Queens master, Kings lead.
• Rank plus suit gives you the meaning.
• Courts are not limited by the figure’s gender or age.

Keep going

When you have done the exercise, press “Mark as done” and continue with the next lesson, People, roles or energies?. There is no hurry. If a lesson needs a second day, give it one.

To go deeper, read “The Court Cards” in my book The Novice’s Guide to Tarot.

Need a refresher? Go back to Pentacles or see the whole course.

Go deeper: The Novice's Guide to Tarot: The Court Cards

Mark as done