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The Llewellyn Journal

Hidden and Secret Meanings: The Court Cards — Part II

This article was written by David Allen Hulse
posted under Tarot

Precis: In part I of this two-part article, we shared an email from a Tarot student revealing something that many people learn — one of the most difficult parts of learning to read the Tarot is coming to terms with the sixteen Court Cards. Are they people? If not, what do they represent? As a serendipitous synchronicity, we had just received this literate and even controversial article by the author of two of the most comprehensive books on magical techniques and underlying theories of magic ever published — The Western Mysteries and The Eastern Mysteries. This article reveals some of the secrets of the Golden Dawn and Aleister Crowley as well as ways the Court Cards can be interepreted, including his previously-secret system for utmost accuracy.


HIDDEN AND SECRET MEANINGS
The Court Cards — Part II
By David Allen Hulse

As a student of the Tarot progresses in learning the cards, the sixteen Court Cards will always be the leanest in meaning and nuance. Many books and teachers don't seem to know what to do with them. However, they are a gold mine of oracular vocabulary if their secret symbolism is studied deeply enough.

There are two basic ways of interpreting a Court Card when it is drawn in a Tarot reading. The exoteric approach is to look at the specific Court Card as a person outside of the querent (the individual whose cards are being read). It is someone they already know or are about to meet who has great influence (which is usually determined by the cards surrounding a specific Court Card in a Tarot spread). The nature of that person is determined by cosmetic appearances or by the zodiacal sun sign. The esoteric approach is to view a specific Court Card as a mask, attitude, or experience that the querent needs to assume in the future, is already assuming in the present, or has assumed in the past.


In my beginning studies of the Tarot, the most difficult cards were the sixteen Court Cards. The pictorial Major Arcana cards had very dramatic and distinct pictures to help me intuit their meanings. The Minor Arcana, at least in Waite's well known version, also had distinct picture images to guide me in determining their divinatory complexion. But the sixteen Court Cards seemed to resemble one another and were not distinct enough for me to easily grasp their oracular vocabulary. The most I could see in these cards were the distinction of gender and possibly age. As such, in my initial Tarot readings the Court Cards symbolized other people gathered around the querent. Hair color and complexion seemed to be indicated in the various card designs, and these cosmetic indicators were all I could use to initially differentiate among these sixteen similar looking and often misunderstood Tarot cards.

The two master Tarot scholars, Waite and Case, defined the Court cards by hair color more than anything else. But if we look at the doctrine of Tarot correspondences found in the secret teachings of the magical order known as the Golden Dawn, you will discover that these sixteen cards have a deep series of correspondences which can help you in your readings.

THE BEGINNINGS OF MODERN COURT CARD INTERPRETATION

Ettellia (born Jean-Baptiste Alliette, 1738–1791) was the first of many French writers to develop manuals for cartomancy (fortune telling with either Tarot or playing cards). His first work dealt with reading the common pack of playing cards rather than the Tarot. The King, Queen, and Jack (corresponding to the Page in the Tarot) are given two sets of meanings, one if the card fell upright and the other if the card was reversed. These attributes were recorded in his textbook of 1770 entitled Etteilla, or a Way to Entertain Oneself with a Pack of Cards.1

ETTELLIA'S KEY TO THE COURT FIGURES IN A PLAYING DECK

  CLUBS HEARTS SPADES DIAMONDS
KING DARK MAN BLOND MAN LAWYER MAN
(REVERSED)
 CHESTNUT BROWN MAN CHESTNUT BLOND MAN WIDOWED MAN MAN
QUEEN DARK LADY BLONDE LADY WIDOWED LADY LADY
(REVERSED)
 CHESTNUT BROWN LADY CHESTNUT BLONDE LADY LADY OF THE WORLD LADY
JACK DARK YOUTH BLOND YOUTH MESSENGER SOLDIER
(REVERSED)
 CHESTNUT BROWN YOUTH CHESTNUT BLOND YOUTH SPY SERVANT

These attributes would be further developed in Etteilla's later works on Tarot divination. Eliphas Levi (born Alphonse-Louis Constant, 1810–1875), the most famous of all French Occultists, discussed the Tarot in many of his works. He never went into great detail over the Court Cards. However, he composed a short poem to describe their symbolism in his Transcendental Magic:

"King, Queen, Knight,Page.
The Married pair, the youth, the child, the race.
Thy path by these to unity retrace"2
In my beginning work as a Tarot diviner, if such cards were encountered in the reading, I felt that they must signify another person other than the querent. At first I used the tried and true formulae that Paul Foster Case (1884–1954) shows in his The Tarot, A Key to the Wisdom of the Ages, found in Chapter XXVII "Tarot Divination." These attributions for the Court Cards use hair color, complexion, and age to discern between the sixteen personality types of these sixteen cards. These simple attributes (that came from Ettellia and are used in Mathers' pamphlet on the Tarot, about which I will have more to say later) are a quick way of giving meaning to the Court Cards. They are also utilized in Waite's book on the Tarot. The following table summarizes these attributes as shown in Mathers' Tarot pamphlet and extracted from the writings of Etteilla

EXOTERIC MEANINGS FOR THE 16 COURT CARDS3


  WANDS CUPS SWORDS PENTACLES
KING Country Gentleman Fair Man Lawyer Dark Man
QUEEN Lady of the Manor Fair Woman Widow Dark Woman
KNIGHT Departure Arrival Soldier Useful Man
PAGE Good Stranger Fair Youth Spy Dark Youth

Case qualified these attributes by stating that "Pages may be young girls as well as young lads. Queens are not always married, but represent rather women with experience of life."4 This clarification helps, since many commentators show the King, Knight, and Page all as masculine images, with the Queen being the only feminine figure.

Case also adds the following spiritual attributes for the Court Cards. He classifies the Kings as the spirit, the Queens as the soul, the Knights as the ego, and the Pages as the body.5


But we shall see further that Case's four attributes allow the highest order to fall to the King, when in fact the esoteric attributes will give the Knight the highest order as the father, while the King will be seen as the son of the Knight. But such a realignment did not occur until the Golden Dawn established its own esoteric doctrine for the Tarot.

From the above table, the King and Queen are mature adults, the Knight a young adult, and the Page a youth. Looking at their court titles, one would naturally pair the King with the Queen as co-rulers of an empire, and the Knight with his Page, his apprenticed helper. This was the standard interpretation until the appearance of the Golden Dawn in 1887.

The Golden Dawn is the most important quasi-Masonic order to contribute to the evolution of the modern Tarot. S. L. MacGregor Mathers (1854–1918) and W. Wynn Westcott (1848–1925) wrote most of the papers documenting the Order's secret teachings. Much was derived from a set of hidden documents known as the Cipher Manuscripts that contained the skeleton attributes of all the magical symbolism utilized in the rituals and practices of the Golden Dawn. The famous attribute of assigning Key 0—The Fool to the Hebrew letter Aleph and the element Air is concealed in a table interspersed among the many leaves of the manuscripts which were written in a coded alphabet of the Abbot Trithemius (1462–1516). However, this manuscript makes no mention of the doctrine of the Court Cards that appears in the Golden Dawn document Book T.

Book T was written by Mathers and contains many new innovations for the Tarot as a whole. There are 3 levels of symbolism that Mathers imbued into these sixteen mysterious cards: the fourfold family found in the Qabalistic tetragrammaton, the 36 decans of the zodiac, and the counterchange of the four elements.

THE CONFUSION BEGINS

One of the most difficult aspects of the Golden Dawn system of Court Cards is that Mathers revised the titles for the four court personages. Traditionally the four are shown as King, Queen, Knight, and Page. However, Mathers came up with a different set of titles as King, Queen, Prince and Princess. This has caused nothing but havoc with most modern interpretations of Mathers complex symbolism.

The confusion rests in the title of the King. In glancing at Mathers' new titles one would readily assume that Mathers' new King is equivalent to the old King. But this is where it gets tricky. Mathers' King is the new title for the old Knight. This is the most recondite teaching in the Golden Dawn Court Card system. Both Waite and Case seem to be confused by this reshuffling of titles, but Crowley was perceptive enough to understand Mathers' new classification system. For the Old Knight becomes the New King, the Queen remains the same in both schemes, while the New Prince is the Old King and the new Princess is the Old Page.

Mathers' logic for this renaming is based on the mystery surrounding the four-lettered name of God, Jehovah or Yahweh, written in Hebrew as IHVH. This mystery name contains the four elements and the fourfold family as Father, Mother, Son, and Daughter. In Mathers' renaming of the Court cards, the King is fire and the father, the Queen is water and the mother, the Prince is air and the son, while the Princess is earth and the daughter. Crowley immediately saw the difficulty in these revised titles so in his own Book of Thoth, published in 1944, he brought back the old title of Knight, so that in his own scheme the four court personages were transformed into Knight, Queen, Prince, and Princess. This was done to guard against confusing the old King with the new King.

In Crowley's own Magical Diary for May 3, 1920 he writes a new commentary to replace Levi's own poem on the Court Cards: “Why do the Tarot Cards give the Knight as the father, the King as the son? It is an echo of the legend of the wandering Knight who wins the Queen and whose son becomes the King.”6

This diary entry shows that Crowley clearly understood Mathers' secret symbolism. For the Knight as the father goes out on a quest for the hand of the Queen, and when he completes his mystic journey he is united with his Queen to generate his own heir in the King. That King, who is his son, ultimately takes on a bride, the Page who becomes the new Queen. This is an open-ended cycle that repeats itself again and again through each new generation, where son and daughter become father and mother. This pattern may be of help in determining the changing energies represented by a Court Card when it appears in a reading. The following table shows the complex, and often misconstrued, symbolism of the Golden Dawn Court Card system:

THE FAMILY DIVISION OF THE GOLDEN DAWN COURT CARDS7

OLD NEW CROWLEY FAMILY ELEMENT JEHOVA
Knight King Knight Father Fire I
Queen Queen Queen Mother Water H
King Prince Prince Son Air V
Page Princess Princess Daughter Earth H

THE TREE OF LIFE
AND A SECRET FOR INTERPRETATION

Based on this scheme of the fourfold family, the four court cards in each of the suits can be placed on the Tree of Life as one of the ten sephiroth or stations on the Tree of Life. The Tree of Life is a Qabalistic diagram of the Cosmos. There are ten basic numbers or stations on the Tree of Life (sephirah in the singular). Each of the ten sephiroth correspond to the Minor Arcana cards numbered Ace through ten in the four suits. The 22 cards of the Major Arcana correspond to the 22 separate paths that serve as connecting links between the ten sephiroth. Of the ten sephiroth, four fall to the family structure of Father, Mother, Son, and Daughter. These in turn can be the four court cards as the secret Golden Dawn family structure. The following table shows this allocation on the Tree of Life:

16 COURT CARDS ON THE TREE OF LIFE

COURT CARD FAMILY SEPHIRAH MINOR ARCANA
KNIGHT Father Chockmah Twos
QUEEN Mother Binah Threes
KING Son Tiphereth Sixes
PAGE Daughter Malkuth Tens

From this attribution, each of the sixteen Court cards can be directly connected to one of sixteen select Minor Arcana cards, and share the divinatory meaning of that specific Minor Arcana card. This is another method of obtaining an alternate set of meanings for the Court Cards. This was one of the first secret methods that I used in my own Tarot divinations to enhance the elusive meanings for the Court Royals beyond their outward cosmetic appearance. Here are key definitions for the Court Cards based on the Minor Arcana:

THE COURT CARDS AND THEIR MINOR ARCANA ORACULAR VOCABULARY

COURT WANDS CUPS SWORDS PENTACLES
KNIGHT Dominion Love Peace Restored Change
QUEEN Virtue Marriage Sorrow Creative Work
KING Victory Pleasure Science Material Success
PAGE Oppression Satiety Ruin Wealth

When using the above attributes in a reading for the Court Cards, read the specific Court Card drawn as indicative of an event in the querent's life, not someone else in their life.

USING THE ASTROLOGY OF THE COURT CARDS
TO CHOOSE A SIGNIFICATOR

The Golden Dawn, inspired by Paul Christian's (born Jean Baptiste Pitois, 1811–1877) attempt of applying astrological harmonies to the Court Cards as revealed in his History of Magic (published in 1870), devised an astrological scheme which associated the twelve signs of the zodiac and the four elements to the sixteen court cards. In Christian's scheme, the Kings stood apart as four major stars in the night sky, while the Queens, Knights, and Pages became the signs of the zodiac. In the Golden Dawn scheme the signs of the zodiac were aligned to the Knights, Queens, and Kings, while the Pages stood apart as the elements. In essence the Knights were assigned to the mutable signs, the Queens to the cardinal signs, and the Kings to the fixed signs.

GOLDEN DAWN ASTROLOGICAL ATTRIBUTES FOR THE COURT CARDS

  WANDS CUPS SWORDS PENTACLES
KNIGHT Sagittarius Pisces Gemini Virgo
QUEEN Aries Cancer Libra Capricorn
KING Leo Scorpio Aquarius Taurus
PAGE Fire Water Air Earth

You can use the above table fora quick determination by the Sun sign of what card should be chosen to represent a specific querent in any given reading.

There is a more complex zodiacal attribution for these Court Cards in the Golden Dawn system of magic. This aspect has each court card bridge 2 zodiac signs. This complexity has been missed by many commentators. For the Golden Dawn system, the zodiac was further divided into 36 decans for these astrological attributions.

Each sign of the zodiac is 30 degrees of a 360 degree circle for the complete zodiac. Each sign of is subdividedinto three decans, each decan ruling ten degrees of that particular sign. A decan equals about ten days, as a zodiac sign equals about 30 days of the year. Each Court Card represents a zodiac sign spanned between two signs, the last ten degrees of the preceding sign plus the first twenty degrees of the current sign. Thus, Knight of Wands represented the last ten degrees of Scorpio and the first twenty degrees of Sagittarius, though the card is predominately Sagittarius. With this system any person who was born on a cusp (i.e.straddling between two signs) could easily be classified as a specific courtcard. The following table shows the time of the year governing each card:

THE 36 DECANS RULING THE 4 KNIGHTS, QUEENS, AND KINGS

TIME OF THE YEAR
DECANS
12 SELECT COURT CARDS
March 11–April 9
20°Pisces–20°Aries
Queen of Wands
April 10 – May 10
20°Aries–20°Taurus
King of Pentacles
May11 – June 10
20°Taurus–20°Gemini
Knight of Swords
June 11 – July 12
20°Gemini–20°Cancer
Queen of Cups
July 13 – August 12
20°Cancer–20°Leo
King of Wands
August 13 – September 12
20°Leo–20°Virgo
Knight of Pentacles
September 13 – October 13
20°Virgo–20°Libra
Queen of Swords
October 14 – November 12
20°Libra–20°Scorpio
King of Cups
November 13 – December 11
20°Scorpio–20°Sagittarius
Knight of Wands
December 12 – January 10
20°Sagittarius–20°Capricorn
Queen of Pentacles
January 11 – February 8
20°Capricorn–20°Aquarius
King of Swords
February 9 – March 10
20° Aquarius–20°Pisces
Knight of Cups

Using the above table you can determine the exact Court Card to use as the significator card for your querent. The Golden Dawn astrological correspondences are the most sophisticated and accurate astrological attributes for the Court Cards ever devised.

THE ELEMENTS AND THE COURT


A third level of symbolism was incorporated by the Golden Dawn into the lore of the Court Cards. Mathers reasoned that since there were sixteen cards in the Court Royals that these sixteen cards must correspond to the sixteen sub-elemental counterchanges of fire, water, air, and earth. The doctrine in Western Magic is that the elements come together to form sixteen relationships between the elemental forces of nature. There are four classic elements of fire, water, air and earth. In the Golden Dawn scheme of magic, these four elements are the four minor suits of Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles. In the divination system of Geomancy the sixteen counterchanges of the elements are of great importance. The Tattva system of India also utilizes this scheme of counterchanged elements. Crowley's own unique research in the area of the I Ching allowed this elemental classification system to be applied to sixteen select hexagrams, for four of the eight trigrams are symbolic of the four Western elements.

Mathers clearly connected one of four elements to the cycle of Knight, Queen, King and Page as fire, water, air, and earth. Further, the four suits were also the four elements of fire, water, air and earth. Sixteen counterchanged elements were generated from these four elemental building blocks that allowed each major element to be subdivided into four blends of two elements. Thus for the element fire there are four counterchanges being fire of fire, water of fire, air of fire and earth of fire. This is true for all four elements. Here are the sixteen elemental counterchanges for the Court Cards:

ELEMENTAL COUNTERCHANGES FOR THE COURT CARDS

 
WANDS
CUPS
SWORDS
PENTACLES
KNIGHT
Fire of Fire
Fire of Water
Fire of Air
Fire of Earth
QUEEN
Water of Fire
Water of Water
Water of Air
Water of Earth
KING
Air of Fire
Air of Water
Air of Air
Air of Earth
PAGE
Earth of Fire
Earth of Water
Earth of Air
Earth of Earth

By bringing in this elemental symbolism for the sixteen Court Cards, the attributions of Geomancy, the Tattvas and the I Ching can all be aligned to each Court Card, allowing a much deeper set of symbols than any other previous system for the Tarot. Here are these systems indicating new oracular vocabularies for the Court Cards.

GEOMANCY

Geomancy (meaning divination by patterns in the earth) is a very early earth divination system that had its origin in the Middle East and spread to Africa, Madgascar, and ultimately Renaissance Europe. There are sixteen figures that are cast in this system. Each figure is composed of four lines made up of one or two dots, odd or even (male or female). Casting of the figure was accomplished by poking holes in the earth (or sand) with a rod, or by casting two sided objects such as seashells.

The Golden Dawn used the European refinement of this system, and paired each Geomantic figure to one of the sixteen elemental counterchanges of fire, water, air, and earth. Each figure was also given both a planetary and zodiacal influence. Based on the elemental counterchanges, the sixteen Geomantic figures were assigned to the sixteen Court Cards. The following table lists:

  1. The name of the Court Card
  2. The Latin title of the Geomantic figure assigned to that Court Card
  3. The Planet and Zodiac sign of the Geomantic figures
  4. Its oracular vocabulary to be used as a means of interpreting the Court Cards
GEOMANCY AND THE COURT CARDS8

Knight of Wands
Acquisitio
Jupiter/Sagittarius
Gain,Acquisition		 Queen of Wands
Puer
Mars/Aries
Youth, Rash Action		 King of Wands
Fortuna Major
Sun/Leo
Wealth, Fame, Help		 Page of Wands
Cauda Draconis
Saturn/Dragon Tail
Exit, Below, Leave
Knight of Cups
Laetitia
Jupiter/Pisces
Joy, Delight, Health		 Queen of Cups
Populus
Moon/Cancer
People, Crowd		 King of Cups
Rubeus
Mars/Scorpio
Passion, Temper		 Page of Cups
Via
Moon/Cancer
Way, Path, Journey
Knight of Swords
Albus
Mercury/Gemini
Wisdom, Bright		 Queen of Swords
Puella
Venus/Libra
Innocence, Beauty		 King of Swords
Tristitia
Saturn/Aquarius
Sadness, Illness		 Page of Swords
Fortuna Minor
Sun/Leo
Small Fortune, Aid
Knight of Pentacles
Conjunctio
Mercury/Virgo
Union, Meeting		 Queen of Pentacles
Carcer
Saturn/Capricorn
Delay, Tie, Prison		 King of Pentacles
Amissio
Venus/Tarus
Loss, Give Away		 Page of Pentacles
Caput Draconis
Jupiter/Dragon Head
Upper, In

The oracle associated to each of these Geomantic figures can be used as an oracle for each of the Court Cards.They should be read as an indicator of the querent in the reading rather than a person outside of the querent.

TATTVAS

The Tattvas originate from India and were incorporated as part of the Theosophical tradition. The term Tattva combines the Sanskrit for "that" and "thou" to symbolize the essence of reality. They are a set of magical symbols that can classify the physical universe as five elemental shapes. The Golden Dawn brought this system into their own magical tradition from Theosophical sources. The Tattvas are a subset of the Hindu system known as Yantras, which, in part, are diagrams to aid the mind in meditation. They are used as a tool to induce concentration, and Mandalas are part of this tradition. The Tarot can be seen as a system of Yantras for the West.

In the Tattva system there are five basic shapes: oval, circle, triangle, crescent and square. These five basic shapes are counterchanged so that 25 combinations can be generated. Each combination has one symbol drawn half the size of the original and laid inside the original. This smaller symbol counterchanged on a larger symbolis the sub division of that element. Thus a smaller triangle within a larger circle designates the elemental counterchange of fire (triangle) of air (circle). This is reminiscent of the sixteen counterchanges of the four elements. However, with the Tattva system the blue-violet oval is spirit as the fifth element, so that 25 combinations are generated.

[Editor's Note: If you are interested in this fascinating but little-known system, there is an in-depth analysis of it in Hulse's The Eastern Mysteries. You may also want to look at Dr. Jonn Mumford's Magical Tattwa Cards kit. It includes a book with a full description of the Tattwa or Tattva system (giving many practical uses), plus a deck of 25 cards illustrating all of the potential counterchanges. Working with these may help you get a better understanding of the energies of the Court Cards.]

Of these five basic shapes, four are equal to the Western fourfold elements. They are in turn both one of the four court cards and one of the four suits in the Minor Arcana. Here are the attributes:

TATTVA ELEMENTAL CHART

TATTVA SHAPE ELEMENT COURT SUIT
Tejas Red Triangle Fire Knights Wands
Apas Silver Crescent Water Queens Cups
Vayu Blue Circle Air Kings Swords
Prithivi Yellow Square Earth Pages Pentacles

For the Golden Dawn, the 25 Tattva combinations were used as astral doorways to the various elemental kingdoms. By passing though the symbol in the astral body, the many gradations of the elemental kingdom could be explored. Each counterchange represented a certain type of astral scenery. Of the 25 counterchanges, sixteen correspond to the classic sixteen elemental counterchanges. By this attribution sixteen select Tattvas can be paired to the sixteen Court Cards. Each counterchange is a different scenic location. These geographical oracles are shown in the following table which lists the name of the Court Card, the name of the Tattva counterchange, and the geographical location that the Tattva represents in a divination.

ELEMENTAL TATTVA LOCATIONS AND THE COURT CARDS9

Knight of Wands
Tejas of Tejas
 Hot Climate		 Queen of Wands
Apas of Tejas
 Tropical, Rainbow		 King of Wands
Vayu of Tejas
 Hot Winds		 Page of Wands
Prithivi of Tejas
 Volcano, Earthquake
Knight of Cups
Tejas of Apas
Hot Springs		 Queen of Cups
Apas of Apas
Wet Climate, Ocean		 King of Cups
Vayu of Apas
Rain, Fog, Mist		 Page of Cups
Prithivi of Apas
Waterfall, Riverbank
Knight of Swords
Tejas of Vayu
Sunshine		 Queen of Swords
Apas of Vayu
Snow, Ice		 King of Swords
Vayu of Vayu
Windy, Clouds		 Page of Swords
Prithivis of Vayu
Cliff, Valley
Knight of Pentcles
Tejas of Prithivi
Desert		 Queen of Pentacles
Apas of Prithivi
Beach		 King of Pentacles
Vayu of Prithivi
Mountain		 Page of Pentacles
Prithivi of Prithivi
Forest, Garden

As such, these attributes can beused in a reading to determine the geographical locations that the querentmay be exposed to, in the past, the present or the future.

THE I CHING

The Chinese Book the I Ching(meaning the Book of Changes) is an earth oracle similar to Geomancy. Either a straight line (yang or male) or a broken line (yin or female) are cast six times in this oracle to generate one of 64 combinations. The basic building block of these combinations are known as trigrams, each made of three lines. The eight trigrams represent, the sun, the moon, male, female, and the four elements. The trigrams that correspond to the four elements can be linked directly to the Court Cards and the elemental suits of the Tarot.

These elemental cross-correspondenceswere developed by Aleister Crowley in both 777 and The Book of Thoth. They are not part of the Golden Dawn tradition; however, they can be directly linked to the sixteen elemental counterchanges. The following table shows the number of yin or yang strokes that make up:

  1. The trigram (starting with the bottom line)
  2. The Chinese name
  3. The element in nature for this trigram
  4. Tthe corresponding Western element
  5. The Tarot suit
  6. The Court Card
FOUR TRIGRAMS AND FOUR ELEMENTS

TRIGRAM NAME NATURE ELEMENT SUIT COURT
Yang: Yin: Yin Chen Flame Fire Wands Knight
Yang: Yang: Yin Tui Lake Water Cups Queen
Yin: Yang: Yang Sun Wood (Wind) Air Swords King
Yin: Yin: Yang Ken Mountain Earth Pentacles Page

These four basic elemental trigrams form sixteen counterchanges in the series of 64 hexagrams. Sixteen of the hexagrams correspond to one of the Court Cards, and can be used as an oracle for the Court Card series. Again, the attribution comes from the sixteen elemental counterchanges that can unite sixteen select hexagrams of the I Ching with the Court Cards. The following table gives:

  1. The name of the Court Card
  2. The names of the two trigrams that form the hexagram
  3. The number and Chinese name of the hexagram
  4. The translation of the Chinese name
  5. The oracular language that can be used to define the Court Card in light of the I Ching. This oracular meaning should apply to the querent in the reading.
THE I CHING AS ORACULAR LANGUAGE FOR THE COURT CARDS10

Knight of Wands
Chen of Chen
51: Chen
Arousing
Inner strength deflects attacks
Queen of Wands
Tui of Chen
17: Sui
The Quest
 In order to rule, one must first serve
King of Wands
Sun of Chen
 42: I
Increase
 To seize the moment & advance
Page of Wands
Ken of Chen
 27: Yi
Nourishment
 To care for yourself & others around you
Knight of Cups
Chen of Tui
 54: Kuei Mei
Marrying Maiden
 To follow, rather than lead
Queen of Cups
Tui of Tui
 58: Tui
Joyous
 To entertain or talk with friends
King of Cups
Sun of Tui
 61: Chung Fu
Inner Truth
 To win over your opponent's view
Page of Cups
Ken of Tui
 41: Sun
Decrease
 Passions curbed by higher instinct
Knight of Swords
Chen of Sun
 32: Heng
Duration
 Keeping to the path first chose
Queen of Swords
Tui of Sun
 28: Ta Kuo
Power of the Great
 Standing firm even though alone
King of Swords
Sun of Sun
 57: Sun
Gentls (Wind)
 Gradual, lasting influence on others
Page of Swords
Ken of Sun
 18: Ku
Renovation
 To not recoil from hard work or danger
Knight of Pentacles
Chen of Ken
 62: Hsiao Kua
Power to the Small
 To attempt the small & avoid the great
Queen of Pentacles
Tui of Ken
31: Hsian
Influence
 Unexpected help coming from above
King of Pentacles
Sun of Ken
 53: Chien
Gradual Progress
 Persevere to the end of a long journey
Page of Pentacles
Ken of Ken
 52: Ken
Keeping Still
 To rest after a long journey


ELEMENTAL PERSONALITIES
(JUNG AND THE COURT CARDS)

There is one more application of the elemental counterchanges for the Court Cards that can reveal a psychological portrait of an individual. This is a system that I had developed after I had gained familiarity with reading the cards. It based in part on Carl Jung's fourfold division of the human psyche as will, emotions, intellect, and the body (as sensation). These four attributes can be attributed to fire as will, water as emotions, air as intellect, and earth as the body (or somatic response). These four principals modify one another as the sixteen Court cards. Here are traits that can be used as further definitions for the Court cards in any reading. They can be either the querent or someone the querent knows.

THE COURT CARDS AS ELEMENTAL PERSONALITIES11

Knight of Wands
Pure Will		 Queen of Wands
Emotions modifying Will		 King of Wands
Intellect modifying Will		 Page of Wands
Body modifying Will
Knight of Cups
Will modifying Emotions		 Queen of Cups
Pure Emotions		 King of Cups
Intellect modifying Emotions		 Page of Cups
Body modifying Emotions
Knight of Swords
Will modifying Intellect		 Queen of Swords
Emotions modifying Intellect		 King of Swords
Pure Intellect		 Page of Swords
Body modifying Intellect
Knight of Pentacles
Will modifying Body		 Queen of Pentacles
Emotions modifying Body		 King of Pentacles
Intellect modifying Body		 Page of Pentacles
Pure Sensory (Physical)

THE INFLUENCE OF BOOK T ON WAITE, CROWLEY, AND CASE

Arthur Edward Waite (1857–1943) In The Pictorial Key, Paul Foster Case (in The Tarot) and Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) in his The Book of Thoth give divinatory attributes to the sixteen court cards that are derived from the Golden Dawn esoteric tradition for the Tarot. There is much agreement among these three authorities, and the following table will give you the essential divinatory vocabulary in defining the court cards as personality traits. These are the most common divinatory meanings that most modern Tarot readers ascribe to the Court Cards. For the most part these definitions were derived from Mathers' elaborate Golden Dawn order teachings as recorded in his secret Book T.

BOOK T'S KEY WORDS USED BY WAITE, CROWLEY, AND CASE12

COURT BOOK T WAITE CROWLEY CASE
Knight of Wands Active, fierce, sudden and impetuous Journey, Discord Fierceness, Impulsive, Revolutionary Departure, Change of Residence
Queen of Wands Adaptability, Steady Rule, Great attractive power Magnetic personality, Love of money or success Persistent energy, Calm Authority, Easily deceived Magnetic, Friendly, Business success
King of Wands

 Swift, Strong, Hasty, Violent yet just, Noble, Generous
Honest, Ardent, Animated, Noble, Good but Severe
 Violent in Expression of opinion, Noble, Indefatigable Friendly, Ardent, Honest, Possible inheritance
Page of Wands Brilliance, Force, Courage, Beauty, Sudden in love or anger Envoy, Faithful, A lover, Indecision Extemely individual, Brilliant and daring Messenger, Brilliance, Courage
Knight of Cups Graceful, Indolent but enthusiastic if roused, Venusian Higher grace of imagination, Advances, Proposition Dilettante, Amiable, Exceedling Sensitive Venusian, Indolent, Arrival, Approach
Queen of Cups Imaginative, Poetic, Dreamy, Good Nature, Coquettish Gift of Vision, Fair, Beautiful, Loving intelligence Dreaminess, Patient, Tranquility Fair, Imaginative, Poetic, Gift of Vision
King of Cups Fierce nature with calm exterior, violent, subtle Creative intelligence, Law, Science, Art, Divinity Intensely secret and artistic, secret violence, ruthless Calm exterior, Subtle, Violent
Page of Cups Poetry, Dreamy, Sweetness, Gentleness, Imaginative Meditation, Reflection, Message, News Live in world of romance, perpetual dream of rapture Studious, Reflection, News
Knight of Swords Courageous but inclined to domineer, Clever, Delicate, Skillful Skill, Bravery, Defense, War, Wrath, Ruin, Destruction Attack, Activity, Skill, Cleverness Active, Clever, Domineering, Enmity, Wrath, War
Queen of Swords Perceptive, Quick, Confident, Graceful, Fond of dancing & balance Sorrow, Sadness, Widowhood, Mourning Intense individualist, Swift, Accurate, Confident Subtle, Quick, Perceptive, Keen, Widowhood
King of Swords Overcautious, Firm in friendship and enmity, Full of Ideas To sit in judgement, Authority, Command Intellectual, Ideals without practicality, Faddist Distrustful, Suspicious, Extreme caution
Page of Swords Wisdom, Strength, Grace and dexterity, Acuteness Alert, Lithe, Vigilance, Spying, Overseeing Stern and revengeful, Cleverness, Dexterity Vigilant, Subtle, Acute, Active
Knight of Pentacles Heavy, Dull, Material, Clever, Patient, Laborious Slow, Enduring, Responsible, Able, Interested Preoccupied with material things, Success due to instinct Laborious, Patient, Dull
Queen of Pentacles Impetuous, Kind, Timid, Charming, Melancholy, Great-hearted Greatness of soul, Opulence, Generosity, Liberty Quiet, Hard working, Practical, Sensible Generous, Charming, Intelligent, Moody
King of Pentacles Steady, Reliable, Practically applies things, Increase Valor, Success, Intelligence, Business Aptitude Persevering, Competent, Ingenious, Insensitive Friendly, Steady, Reliable
Page of Pentacles Generous, Kind, Diligent, Benevolent, Persevering Application, Study, Rule, Management, Reflection Being on the brink of transfiguration, Being a woman Diligent, Careful, Deliberate

With the elaborate Golden Dawn attributes for the Court Cards, we have come to the most sophisticated set of attributes possible. This is certainly a deeper view of the cards, than the traditional "a dark man", "a fair woman", or "a clever youth". Hopefully, the wealth of new divinatory meanings captured in this essay will help enrich your own Tarot readings when dealing with the elusive sixteen Court Cards. May the Spirit of HUA that dwells over the Tarot cards guide you with light in all your readings.


Editors Note:

As you have no doubt seen by this article, David Allen Hulse is an amazing and thorough student of the occult. His two remarkable books follow this tradition of depth and accuracy. The Eastern Mysteries uses language as a uniting factor in its examination of six major Eastern spiritual traditions, including sources of Hebrew and the Qabalah, secrets of the chakras and Sanskrit, mysteries of Chinese and the I Ching, etc. The Western Mysteries follows the same focus on the secrets of language. It links astrology, runes, magick squares, Enochian magick, the Tarot, etc. Together they form a complete introduction (and thus, a great encyclopedic resource for research) to virtually all major spiritual and magical systems. Both The Western Mysteries and The Eastern Mysteries by David Allen Hulse are © Llewellyn Worldwide.

Have you used the information in either of these books to help your Tarot divinations or for some other purpose? Share what you've learned with other readers. Send an email to us a TLJletters@llewellyn.com or click on the "We want to hear from you" link below with your story.


Please Help Me: The Court Cards — Part I


FOOTNOTES
1. Decker, Ronald et al. A Wicked Pack of Cards. New York: St. Martins Press. 1996. p.75.
2. Levi, Eliphas (Translator, Waite, A.E.). Transcendental Magic. London: Redway. 1923. Chapter X. p.103.
3. Mathers, S. L. MacGregor. The Tarot. 1891. Reprint New York: Weiser, 1971. Pgs.17-21.
4. Case, Paul Foster. The Tarot, A Key to the Wisdom of the Ages. Richmond: Macoy Publishing Company. 1947. p. 207.
5. Case, Paul Foster. Ibid. p. 17.
6. Crowley, Aleister. The Magical Record of the Beast 666. (editors Symonds, John, and Grant, Kenneth). Montreal: The Next Step. 1972. Diary entry for May 3, 1920.
7. Hulse, David Allen. The Western Mysteries. St. Paul: Llewellyn Worldwide. 2000. The remaining tables in this essay have been extracted from the Twelfth Key, pp. 259-457
8. Hulse, David Allen. Ibid. See pp. Lxxxviii-Ci for an overview of Geomancy.
9. Hulse, David Allen. The Eastern Mysteries. St. Paul: Llewellyn Worldwide. 2000. See pp. 286-334 for a complete description of the Tattva system.
10. Hulse, David Allen. Ibid. See pp. 376-517 for a extensive analysis of the I Ching.
11. Hulse, David Allen. The Western Mysteries. St. Paul: Llewellyn Worldwide. 2000. Table derived from p. 306.
12. Hulse, David Allen. Ibid. Table derived from pp. 308-317.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Case, Paul Foster. The Tarot, A Key to the Wisdom of the Ages. Richmond: Macoy Publishing Company. 1947.
Christian, Paul. The History and Practice of Magic. 1879. Reprinted, New York: The Citadel Press, 1969
Crowley, Aleister. The Magical Record of the Beast 666. (editors Symonds, John, and Grant, Kenneth). Montreal: The Next Step. 1972.
_____________. The Book of Thoth. Berkeley: Shambhala. 1969 (first published 1944).
Decker, Ronald et al. A Wicked Pack of Cards. New York: St. Martins Press. 1996.
Hulse, David Allen. The Eastern Mysteries. St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications. 2000.
_______________ The Western Mysteries. St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications. 2000.
Kuntz, Darcy. The Golden Dawn Court Cards. Edmonds: Holmes Publishing Group.1996.
Mathers, S. L. MacGregor. The Tarot. 1891. Reprint New York: Weiser, 1971.
Regardie, Israel. The Golden Dawn. 1940. Reprint St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications. 1970.
Waite, Arthur Edward. The Pictorial Key to the Tarot. 1910. Reprint. New York: University Books. 1959.


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