Tarot Lessons: Introduction to the Basics of the Minor Arcana Cards and Court Cards

Greetings and welcome again to Tarot with a Twist!

To review: For me Tarot is so far removed from the old fashioned fortune telling parlor trick that I feel it's important to provide an inside peek into my system which hopefully can provide some background for developing an awareness into how dynamic, practical, timely, and empowering my approach to Tarot can be for anyone, anytime. For that we are continuing with the ground floor essentials by following up our last lesson with an overview of the Minor Cards and the Courts.

The Minors

The Minor Cards are forty in count. They are organized, or packaged, according to one of the four Suits and are also known as the number, or "Pip" cards. To that end, each order is labeled 2 through 10, plus the Ace, which is actually counted at least twice: Once as the initiator, or foot of the bridge, and again as the "prize" for crossing, and thus serving as examples of both the Paradox of One and as Fibonacci Twins(1,1).

In a nutshell, the Minor Cards are the environments in which we interact and respond.  They perpetuate awareness of our shared common human experience sustained in the Court Cards by generating the steps, tests, and routines which move us along, complete an experience, and reinforce our choices, relative to the context provided by the Major Cards and in order to pave the way across the unfolding bridges to our heart's desires.

Court Cards

The Court Cards of the Tarot are your "peeps"; they embody the whole cast of external characters, influences, rivals, and relative comparables, and are also the multi-faceted self-portraits and envisioned images that personify the voices with whom you hold inner dialogues and who make up your personality.

They are therefore the simultaneous reflections and assumptions of identity, expression, motive, status, and skill relative to how you perceive them in others, as well as how others reflect back or project them on you. They are sixteen in number and their influences are divided and united through to their four embedded orders.

They are typically referred to as: Page, Knight, King, and Queen. Each personality is reflected four ways according to its Suit, or Order (Swords, Wands, Cups, Pentacles), but their ongoing interactions are actually indivisibly and exponentially relative to each other ad-infinitum.

To this end, the Court Cards build, challenge, influence, and move across the bridges of opportunity to varying degrees and serve as dynamic, fluid links between the Major Cards and Minor Cards.

Ok this is enough to take in so we'll leave it here for now.

 

Looking Ahead: Getting Suit Specific, Holding Court, and Reversing the trend.

                                                                    Salutations until next time, Jo

 

Meanwhile, don't forget to check out my updated Unlimited Tarot Readings subscription offer under my Tarot section here at astrology.com or the latest version of my itarot (free, deluxe, and extreme) apps for iphone and the ipad over at the itunes store. Both with exclusive features, including free daily email readings and the "be your own tarot reader" options!

Some of my related articles and stuff:

Speaking of Fools, Anytime Tarot for Everyday People...et, al.  at Quantum Tarot 

What Tarot Can Do For You: Steps to Success:

Card of the Day: Get a boost with my free Power Card du jour

Tarot 101: Why it Works