Have you ever wondered which tarot court card best represents you? This is not such a silly question as many tarot spreads require you use a particular court card as your ‘significator’. The significator represents you or the person you are reading for, in a reading. It’s usually taken from the deck and placed, face-up, before the reading commences. So, without further ado, ask the question, ‘Which court card am I?’ and I’ll do my best to answer it. Firstly, we’re going to get a little technical by associating court cards with astrology.
Court Cards and Zodiac Signs
There are 16 court cards, so they don’t neatly fit into the 12 zodiac sun signs. However, the cards and signs mesh according to their ruling element:
Wands/Staves—Fire—Aries/Leo/Sagittarius
Cups/Chalices—Water—Cancer/Scorpio/Pisces
Swords—Air—Aquarius/Gemini/Libra
Pentacles/Disks/Coins—Earth—Taurus/Virgo/Capricorn
If you are familiar with astrology, you will know that the signs are divided into three modalities:
- Cardinal—Forward moving, focused on a single direction—Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn
- Fixed—Consolidated and stabilizing—Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius
- Mutable—Adaptable, flexible and changeable—Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces
To assign these qualities to the court cards, we have to ignore the Pages because we assume that their qualities and adult personalities are not yet formed sufficiently to place them into definitive categories.
There are disagreements between various tarot scholars about which modality fits which rank of court card, but to me they are obvious:
- Cardinal — Knights
- Fixed — Kings
- Mutable — Queens
So let’s put these modalities to the court cards
- Knight of Wands—Cardinal—Fire—Aries
- Queen of Wands—Mutable—Fire—Sagittarius
- King of Wands—Fixed—Fire—Leo
- Knight of Cups—Cardinal—Water—Cancer
- Queen of Cups—Mutable—Water—Pisces
- King of Cups—Fixed—Water—Scorpio
- Knight of Swords—Cardinal—Air—Libra
- Queen of Swords—Mutable—Air—Gemini
- King of Swords—Fixed—Air—Aquarius
- Knight of Pentacles—Cardinal—Earth—Capricorn
- Queen of Pentacles—Mutable—Earth—Virgo
- King of Pentacles—Fixed—Earth—Taurus
So you may find that the above information is all you need to determine your court card. However, people don’t always fit into neat categories like that, so let’s take a more flexible approach to the court card personalities, and this time, we can include the Pages; the youngest members of the court card families.
Which Court Card Am I? Personalities
A note on gender: court cards are not restricted by gender, so a woman may feel that the description of the Knight of Wands fits her best (and I love that there is a female Knight in this deck), or a man may find that the description of a Page fits him better than a Knight or a King. That’s fine. However, for the purposes of brevity and clarity, I’m going to assume that Pages (sometimes called ‘Princesses’) and Queens are feminine and Knights and Kings are masculine.
Page of Wands — a young, or young at heart adventurer. Always open to new possibilities and eager to discover what life has in store. Excitable. Can be impulsive, both in words and deeds.
Knight of Wands — a keen, creative entrepreneur, a passionate, but unreliable lover. Burns bright, but lacks stamina for long-term commitments. Cannot deal with boredom and is always on the go. Will drop people when they are not of use.
Queen of Wands — an enthusiastic, career-oriented person. Slightly disorganized, somewhat ditzy in her personal life. May have serial relationships until she finally settles. Has lots of friends and enjoys socializing. Her negative traits may run to slovenliness.
King of Wands — a steady leader. Inspiring to others and is often the subject of hero-worship. Is always in control, but suffers from the occasional bout of irritability. Relationships are important to him, but often they are relegated to second place after his work. May marry more than once. His temper is legendary, and not in a good way.
Page of Cups — a young creative who enjoys expressing and exploring emotions. Very likely to be an artist or similar. Calm and wise beyond her years but always up for fun. Could be over-emotional or irrational.
Knight of Cups — a caring lover who follows his feelings. Often too immature to understand that real love involves changing diapers as well as roses and chocolates. Loves to share his feelings, and to talk and cuddle for hours. Won’t stay the course in a long-term relationship unless he matures quickly.
Queen of Cups — a warm-hearted, loving woman who is ready to comfort a friend at any time. She is sensitive to the feelings of others and is often an emotional empath. She is also likely to have a well-developed intuition and possibly psychic skills. May suffer with mental health problems due to over-sensitivity.
King of Cups — a man who appears calm and restrained. However, there may be hidden facets to his personality. He is either a harbour in a tempest kind of guy, or he has many demons of his own. He could even be a mix of the two.
Page of Swords — an articulate, intelligent young person who wields words with panache. They may be witty and verging on sarcastic at times. Always reading, always informing themselves, always exploring new ideas. They may be preparing for a life in politics or similar career path. People either love or dislike them. As we say in the UK, ‘Marmite’.
Knight of Swords — a young fighter. Always fighting for a cause close to their heart. Focused. Intense. Highly intelligent. Difficult for some to get along with, but will settle eventually. Looks for a partner as single-minded as himself. Has no patience for those who cannot keep up with his quicksilver mind.
Queen of Swords — a woman who demands nothing less than complete honesty. She will not tolerate fools. She knows her goals and consistently works towards them. She is cool, calm and deadly. Her negative traits may mean she has a propensity toward gossiping and manipulation, but this is, of course, not a given.
King of Swords — a professional to the core. Has reached the pinnacle of his career and is highly sought after for his opinion. He is well-balanced and reasonable. Seemingly self-sufficient, yet he relies on a smooth-running partnership with his mate. Should that relationship end, he may fall apart. He can be nit-picky and demanding.
Page of Pentacles — a student of the world around her. She never loses her enthusiasm for learning. She’s curious, yet cautious. She will learn all she can about something before taking action. Quietly independent. Might come across as unsociable.
Knight of Pentacles — a loyal, hard-working guy. He appears to be a simple man with simple needs, yet beneath the surface he is fiercely passionate. Once committed to a person or a path, he’s committed for life. Some may label him as a bit boring.
Queen of Pentacles — a practical woman, a nest-builder who is also likely to be a career woman. She is organized and reliable. Easy to talk to and happy in company or on her own. She’s no pushover, and will help anyone if she can see they are trying to help themselves. Can be bossy and annoying.
King of Pentacles — a mature, easy-going, self-made man. He enjoys the finer things in life and has worked hard to achieve his ambitions. He’s happy to sit back now and reap the rewards of his endeavours. Yet, he can’t quite let go of the reins and is not hesitant in expressing his opinions, which are usually fixed. Often finds it hard to get on with his adult children.
So, Which Court Card Are You?
Have you decided yet? Still having trouble? Well, there’s nothing to prevent you choosing two or even three cards to represent you. It’s possible you feel quite Page of Pentacles on some days, yet on others, you seem to be channeling the Queen of Swords. That’s okay. Choose whichever you feel most comfortable with at the time.
If you still can’t decide, try going through the 16 court cards and pick out the one that speaks to you. Sometimes, we simply have to trust our own intuition. Once you have definitely made your mind up which card (or cards) best reflects your persona, delve into the card’s energy. Learn all you can about it, and take its attributes into your heart.
The deck pictured is the wonderful Light Seer’s Tarot (Amazon affiliate link).
Please note: a version of this article was originally posted by the author at Lunar Café.
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