Min's Compleat Tarot User Manual - Chapter 5 of 9
M A G V S
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Chapter 5
Court Cards
NOW THAT YOU've been introduced to the twenty-two
universal trump cards of the major arcana, in the
sophisticated language of astronomy and astrology,
music and mythology, you'll be happy to know that
the minor arcana is, for all intents and purposes,
perfectly synonymous with playing cards--save for
the four additional "page" cards plus the obvious
dissimilarity in how tarot cards or playing cards
are commonly used. This should make it easier for
you to recognize and remember the fifty-six cards
of the minor arcana, by associating them with the
more familiar cards of hoyle--and no wonder since
playing cards are known to be rooted in the minor
arcana, thus associations are perfectly justified.
You'll surely recognize the first twelve cards of
the minor arcana as the face cards: King, Queen &
Jack each of the four suits Clubs, Hearts, Spades
and Diamonds. That's the easy part. The hard part
is learning what these "face" cards mean in tarot,
since they correspond with astrological houses of
ones horoscope, meaning that predominantly ruling
planets revealed in a tarot spread point to which
houses are the most active, and which planets are
the most effective or influential for the reading.
This aspect of the tarot pertains to daily living
or the more temporal influences of the planets to
the Earth and to our body, the corporeal energies
of the planets in the houses, activating channels
or pathways in the horoscope. If it sounds to you
like this is difficult to learn, you're right. It
depends on your mathematical and musical aptitude
as much as anything else. And if you're intuitive,
that helps too, but intuition alone is not nearly
as certain as the synergy of mind, heart and soul.
Some come by this naturally, while others have to
work at it a bit. If I could give but one word of
advice over all others, learn pattern recognition.
Learn to recognize the limits of uncertainty. The
order can not help but to emerge out of the chaos.
It's like "finding" familiar images in the clouds.
Our collective unconscious "helps" us to see this
empirically like a biofeedback mechanism of sorts.
Some call it anthropomorphism, but basically it's
just you and it--and everything that that entails.
How else can I explain this? It just comes to you
with practice. You look at the cards and see what
they reveal. You can listen to the cards and hear
their key signature "singing" in a dominant voice.
Granted, that probably sounds crazy to the novice,
but believe me with practice you'll see the light.
As with the major arcana, all of the cards in the
minor arcana include a brief summary of important
features or aspects thereof. Essentially, you can
look at each card in its layout position and read
the description printed thereon and get a picture
of the reading without much extra effort. All you
need to remember really, is that the major arcana
denotes heavenly aspects of the psyche, while the
minor arcana denotes more immediate and temporary
portents having a more direct effect on your life.
Rather than devote so much of this chapter to the
descriptions, explanations and divinatory meaning
of each face card all by itself, it's more useful
to learn how the planets interact with these face
cards, since these tell the planets in the houses
of the horoscope. Meanwhile, I've listed the face
cards below for reference since their stand-alone
meanings are, for the most part, self-explanatory,
just as all the other cards in the deck are. What
also counts more is their positions in the layout,
as we'll cover in the next chapter on "pip" cards.
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Court: King of Wands
Quality: Cardinal Self
Force: Strong Nuclear
Element: Fire
Suit: Clubs
House: First
Tone: C
Color: Red
Sign: Ego (aries)
Ruler: Mars-inferior
________________________
Court: Queen of Pentacles
Quality: Fixed World
Force: Gravitation
Element: Earth
Suit: Diamonds
House: Second
Tone: C#/Db
Color: Red-Orange
Sign: Riches (taurus)
Ruler: Venus-inferior
________________________
Court: Knight of Swords
Quality: Mutable Consciousness
Force: Electromagnetic
Element: Air
Suit: Spades
House: Third
Tone: D
Color: Orange
Sign: Brothers (gemini)
Ruler: Mercury-inferior
________________________
Court: King of Cups
Quality: Cardinal Unconscious
Force: Weak Nuclear
Element: Water
Suit: Hearts
House: Fourth
Tone: D#/Eb
Color: Orange-Yellow
Sign: Parents (cancer)
Ruler: The Moon
________________________
Court: Queen of Wands
Quality: Fixed Self
Force: Strong Nuclear
Element: Fire
Suit: Clubs
House: Fifth
Tone: E
Color: Yellow
Sign: Sons (leo)
Ruler: The Sun
________________________
Court: Knight of Pentacles
Quality: Mutable World
Force: Gravitation
Element: Earth
Suit: Diamonds
House: Sixth
Tone: F
Color: Green
Sign: Servants (virgo)
Ruler: Mercury-superior
________________________
Court: King of Swords
Quality: Cardinal Consciousness
Force: Electromagnetic
Element: Air
Suit: Spades
House: Seventh
Tone: F#/Gb
Color: Green-Blue
Sign: Marriage (libra)
Ruler: Venus-superior
________________________
Court: Queen of Cups
Quality: Fixed Unconscious
Force: Weak Nuclear
Element: Water
Suit: Hearts
House: Eighth
Tone: G
Color: Blue
Sign: Death (scorpio)
Ruler: Mars-superior/Pluto
________________________
Court: Knight of Wands
Quality: Mutable Self
Force: Strong Nuclear
Element: Fire
Suit: Clubs
House: Ninth
Tone: G#/Ab
Color: Blue-Indigo
Sign: Spirit (sagittarius)
Ruler: Jupiter-superior
________________________
Court: King of Pentacles
Quality: Cardinal World
Force: Gravitation
Element: Earth
Suit: Diamonds
House: Tenth
Tone: A
Color: Indigo
Sign: Society (capricorn)
Ruler: Saturn-superior
________________________
Court: Queen of Swords
Quality: Fixed Consciousness
Force: Electromagnetic
Element: Air
Suit: Spades
House: Eleventh
Tone: A#/Bb
Color: Indigo-Violet
Sign: Friends (aquarius)
Ruler: Saturn-inferior/Uranus
________________________
Court: Knight of Cups
Quality: Mutable Unconscious
Force: Weak Nuclear
Element: Water
Suit: Hearts
House: Twelfth
Tone: B
Color: Violet
Sign: Debts (pisces)
Ruler: Jupiter-inferior/Neptune
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End Chapter 5. See Chapter 6 for continuation...
Daniel Joseph Min
*Min's Compleat Tarot Pak:
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=9IBCQ0PN375...@Gilgamesh-frog.org
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