The Court Cards in Tarot can be some of the hardest energies to understand and decipher. As such, the Court Cards are often overlooked or ignored, yet when you understand the Queens, Kings and their loyal subjects and the energies they are made of, they become powerful messengers within divination.
As a general rule, when a Court Card appears in your tarot readings, they represent actual persons you know who are playing a significant role in your situation or love life.
Pages: A younger person or someone inexperienced
Knights: Romantic suitors or sexual encounters
Kings & Queens: Long-term partners, your age or older
Pages and Knights are also messengers. They can represent something new coming into your life: an invitation to adventure, a new job opportunity, a collaboration. I see the Pages as the initial energy related to the Aces of the Minor Arcana suits. The Knights tend to be someone who is engaging you to join an established cause or calling you into action.
In love readings, a Page is someone with initial feelings of interest, a cute crush, whereas the Knight is... calling you into action. Kings and Queens represent energies of authority, mastery and confidence. They tend to point to age, but more often the energy of the person and their maturity. We never want to be too literal about the zodiac sign and age, because spiritual energies are fluid and changeable. That being said, Leo's in particular love to make themselves known in the cards and will often show up exactly as-is!
Tips on Understanding the Court Cards in Tarot
I've found that dividing the suits within tarot with the elements of Air, Water, Earth and Fire, I have a very accurate assessment of these characters.
Suit of Swords
Represent Air Signs (Aquarius, Gemini or Libra) or embody the energy of the person in question: intellectual, inspired, witty, curious, talkative, can be cut off from their emotions and cold or harsh.
Suit of Pentacles
Represent Earth Signs (Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn) or embody the energy of the person in question: practical, traditional, reliable, strong silent type, can be stubborn and prize materials over connection.
Suit of Cups
Represent Water Signs (Pisces, Cancer, Scorpio) or embody the energy of the person in question: sensitive, mystical, romantic, idealistic, can be easily hurt and reactive or prone to addictions.
Suit of Wands
Represent Fire Signs (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius) or embody the energy of the person in question: charming, independent, magnetic, boisterous, can be easily distracted and here for a good time, not a long time.
Which of the Court Cards in Make the Best Love Matches?
Any of these signs will make fantastic, loyal partners but tend to have different pathways before they commit.
Fire signs often need to explore all of their options and experience their sexual curiosities before they know what they desire.
Water signs often need the necessary pain of codependency before so they stop losing their identity in a relationship.
Earth signs often need to establish their material wealth and social standing before they know their value as a provider.
Air signs have perhaps the most challenging task of grounding their idea of love into reality and not chasing an elusive dream of perfection.
Court Cards in a Love Reading
Those of you who practice Tarot will notice how the Court Cards can often foretell or precede the entrance of this person coming into your life. About six months before I met my partner, the Knight of Pentacles was showing up in all of my readings, even leaping out of the deck. At the time, I was preparing to leave the country and move halfway around the world and be on my own, but the cards intrigued me.
When I met this younger Taurus, I knew I had to pay attention. We just celebrated two years together and have been thriving while surviving the pandemic. Such a gift.
As always, Tarot speaks to us in symbols, metaphors and energies. We don't always know who the person is and perhaps we're not meant to - yet. Often hindsight gives me so much more understanding, which is why it's important to record your readings in a journal - read more about that here. Particularly when we're looking for love, tarot can show us what to prepare for or who needs to be cleared before we accept our next divine assignment. I hope this provides you a little light through the dark.