Considering the Pages of the Tarot
Ahh the Pages of the Tarot! I will admit that over the years the court cards have been some of the most difficult cards to apply to readings. I have heard this is similar for many people interested in reading the cards and its understandable as there is an important difference between the other minor cards and the Court cards. Whereas with the minor cards we have images of events to offer more information about the nature of a circumstance or approach to that circumstance, with the Court cards, we have an image of an actual person. Unlike the minor cards, we also know that in someway the court cards are specific to a person rather than an event or circumstance. For myself I was always uncomfortable with this concept as I did not like the mine field of confusion this manner of interpretation seemed to lay out before me. The crux of the matter is it requires honesty and humility to admit that we are human and as far as are psychic or intuitive talents are concerned, we are as much afraid of making a mistake as anyone else. To declare that because of the appearance of a court card, you see a young man of dark complexion AND who is very concerned with earthy matters and study is to become important to a querents life, is a difficult leap of faith for many burgeoning readers. Again, I will say that intuition and experience does play an important part on how one determines to handle a Court card. The other dilemma that an inexperienced reader may be faced with, is that an individual court card suggests that is is describing in totality the essence of the individual by just that one Court card alone. This is a mistake and somewhat foolish thing to do as humans are complex in their simplicity and no one is as two-dimensional as any one Court card can exemplify. I do believe that the physical characteristics of the cards as ascribed traditionally or otherwise can be very valid, but they should be considered among many of the elements within a reading when interpreting them. The Tarot, as a tool of divination can and will serve as a mnemonic device to trigger certain interpretations that may have nothing to do with a cards traditional meaning. Knowing this, we should always remember that this applies to not just the Court cards but to all the cards.
The cards being a very personal experience, I believe it is important for a person to approach the Court cards as you would a character in a book. As humans, we all have preset notions of people and the visual representations that represent them. In other words – we do use stereo-types. As politically incorrect as this may sound we need to acknowledge our own humanity and one primary aspect of being human in the material world is our need for categorization of our environments. People are part of our environment undeniably and are not excluded from this categorization process. When do stereo types become a negative? Well when they serve to dismiss someone or alienate us from each other. These things obviously do nothing for fostering good will and harmony in the world, now do they? Yet in many ways they are a way we protect ourselves from the unknown. Perhaps this is a carry over from our more tribal days when we looked with suspicion on outsiders as potential threats and for valid reasons – to protect the tribe. However like all things, we must approach characterization with caution and wisdom. Fear often because of the unknown demands that we do our best to make that unknown – known! If the fear is justified than we take appropriate steps and if it is not, than we move forward. So with the Court cards, how does one approach interpreting them? I suggest taking the time to understand their basic natures as their suits dictate as well as to the nature of their actual stations while at the same time getting to know them for they types of people they remind us of in our own life experience. For ultimately the Tarot is speaking to our personal experiences and the symbols that represent them to provide us a language we can associate with the Tarot’s imagery.
The pages are young. They have only just begun to reach out from the confines of home and hearth. I do not see them as generally any younger than eight or ten years old and most often as an adolescent prior to actually leaving the nest to make their way for themselves in the world. This is also an attitude or an approach to circumstances as well and not limited to the physical age of a person. Someone can be sixty-two years old and yet retain the qualities of child-like wonder, or perhaps is approaching a new chapter in their life in much the same way we all do when it is new and full of possibilities. For instance taking the example of our sixty-two year old individual, consider that they maybe returning to school for what ever reason. Maybe they have always wanted to study art but it was only until this point in their lives that they actually were able to persue a program of study in that area. An appropriate representation of that circumstance would be the Page of Pentacles. In many agreed upon attributes to this Page, study and education is amongst them. Now the image of the page is of a youth and for many people who causally look at the card it appears to be that of a boy as well. What if our sixty-two year old querent is a woman? This is where flexibility, intuition and logic (yes logic does play it’s part in interpretation) come into importance. In this example our querent’s age and gender are not the important elements of the interpretation of this card, instead it is those qualities that are describing her situation and the way she is or should be approaching them. She is embarking on a new chapter in her life! She is returning to school and mostly doing it for her own enjoyment and interest, and she is obviously going to have an intense interest perhaps with the same playful wonder we all may have had when we were first in school or determined what it was that we truly wanted to educate ourselves about.
When I read for people, I find that I often become very aware of the expression on a Court Cards face and that in of itself serves to tell the whole story. I see very subtle yet distinct facial expressions in each of the Pages which definitely do correspond with my feelings and accepted meanings of their respected suits. I also notice particular manners of stance and they way they carry their bodies as well as what their environments seem to be. I have come to learn that there is a lot of correspondence to the traditional elements of their suits being shown in these very subtle areas. It is often sad to see how in more contemporary artistic interpretation of these cards that these elements are not regarded or worse yet – ignored.
