The Minor Arcana
In a traditional tarot deck, there are a total of 78 cards. If we break the deck down into two parts called the Major Arcana and the Minor Arcana, we will find Court Cards in only one of these parts. There are no Court Cards within the Major Arcana portion of the deck, which only contains twenty-two cards; two of them being The Empress and The Emperor.
In the Minor Arcana, however, there are a total of fifty-six cards, which may be broken down further into suits. There are a total of four suits, which are the Wands, Cups, Pentacles, and Swords. There with fourteen cards in each of these suits, with ten of them being numbered, while four are what is referred to as the Court Cards.
The Suits
The suits of the Minor Arcana are called the Suit of Swords, the Suit of Wands, the Suit of Pentacles, and the Suit of Cups. Each of the suits covers an aspect of everyday human life, with the swords symbolizing thoughts, for example, and cups symbolizing emotions. Each card inside of a single suit will have some likeness, such as the theme of emotions for each of the Cup cards.
Each of those suits contains fourteen cards, while four of those are Court Cards. Court Cards are the Pages, Knights, Queens, and Kings and there are four of each of them. Therefore, there is one Page, one Knight, one Queen, and one King for each suit. Such as the presence of the King of Wands, the King of Cups, the King of Swords, and the King of Pentacles.
Likewise, each of the Court Cards differs from one another, with a Knight being unique from a Queen. Considering there are four Knights, on the other hand, is where other similarities occur. As a result, all of the Knights have something in common with one another. If the Knight happens to be a Knight of Pentacles, that particular Knight also has similarities to the Suit of Pentacles that none of the other Knights do.
What sets the Court Cards apart from one another, such as the Knight, is that they’re in a separate suit. This means that although a King is an authority figure who has mastered something, the suit the King is in will explain to you what it is he has mastered. If it’s a King of Cups, he’s mastered his emotions. Conversely, if it’s a King of Swords, he’s mastered his thoughts.
Court Cards Characteristics
The Court Cards are the Pages, Knights, Queens, and Kings of the tarot deck. Because there are four suits, there are four Pages, Knights, Queens, and Kings, with one for each of those suits. Although each of the Pages, for example, share similarities, what makes each one different is the suit they’re in. So, a Page of Wands and a Page of Swords are both pages, they’re different Pages because of the suits they fall into.
To learn more about the suits, click here.
Each of the Court Cards is symbolic of various things from age, to maturity, to gender roles, to appearance, to stages of life. A Page is likelier to be younger than the King, while a King would probably have more masculine qualities than the Page, which means that oftentimes, the Court Cards may describe real people in our lives. This isn’t always the case, however, as they can likewise point to something metaphorical, like getting a Page when the person is an excitable amateur of something.
Court Card Meanings
From Within the Labyrinth,
-Lakin
Love that the king of cups looks like someone I know from the waist down. How come they ain’t no black people in Mayberry mfer