In a standard tarot deck, there are four suits β cups, wands, swords, and pentacles. Within those four categories, the cards are separated further into court cards and numbered cards. Court cards include the king, queen, knight, and page (sixteen cards total); the numbered cards simply count up to ten in their particular suit (forty cards total). There’s a lot a tarot reader can glean from merely the type of card that is presented β information explained in this addition to my A Short Guide to Tarot series.
- WANDS
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As said before, each type of suit can tell a reader many different things regarding the time, season, and qualities of the question asked. Wands are the fiery cards of the deck, and since fire burns fast, the time occurrence of the answer regarding your question is only days away. They represent springtime, which is also why they’re the quickest unit of time, since rebirth begins at that point in the year. Wands symbolize intuition, hope, creativity, imagination, and energy. Think of introspection and internal battles that we all face, and the wands will turn up in a spread if your question is something you can answer by overcoming your own obstacles or coming up with a solution.
- CUPS
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The Cups of the deck represent the element of water. They also closely align with the season of summer and signify the answer is weeks in advance, the next longest time period after the wands with the spring. To remember the suit’s qualities, I like to delve a little into astrology β thinking of cups and their association with water, and in turn about water signs (Pisces, Scorpio, and Cancer). Considering the traits of the signs themselves, it all adds up; the cups represent the emotion and heart of the world, including the realm of love, happiness, relationships, sensitivity, and harmony. If the wands always reflect the passion of our relationship with ourselves, the cups speak of the relationships we have with each other.
- Swords
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The Swords are the air element of the deck and can take months to fully turn your question into an answer, since the cards’ season is autumn. Just like the wind and the air signs themselves, they are changeable and conflicting, and represent ideas, communication, struggle, resolution, and separation. I wouldn’t say that they are necessarily negative, but when they show themselves in a spread the querent better be prepared to roll with the tide of life. The good news is that change isn’t always bad, and may even bring with it some new opportunities and horizons.
- Pentacles
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Pentacles represent the earth and qualities of money, financial matters, responsibility, practicality, work, and stability β anything that belongs on a more material level. They are not to be confused with a pentacle, singular, which is another symbol entirely of a five-pointed star inside of a circular border. The pentacles of the cards, when they turn up in a spread, may answer your question years in advance, and are aligned with the season of winter. To remember these characteristics, I would keep thinking back to astrology.
- Court Cards
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The Court cards are found in each suit and are primarily used to represent people surrounding the question asked or the person asking it. This selection of cards can also be used to pull out what’s called a significator, which refers to the court card that best matches the person asking the question. Doing so can extremely help in setting the tone or clarifying the person involved. Choosing a court card for someone is simple because one only has to look at the suit and characteristics of each court “member”. Remember that the suits also represent elements, so what I usually go with is asking someone’s zodiac sign and narrowing it down to the suit that matches their corresponding element (water, fire, air, and earth signs). For the traits of the cards, they are all slightly different. A king signifies a strong, masculine person of power or maturity and can often stand for responsibility and achievement. The queen can represent someone who gives off mature, wise, and feminine energy β someone with confidence, experience, and life-giving qualities. The knight can stand in the place of a feminine or masculine person and speaks of a rash, impulsive, warrior β but they can signify change in a new direction. Lastly, the pages of the court are people of either gender who are youthful, hopeful, childlike, or naive. Since pages are such a inexperienced card, they are fragile in their interpretations, but they are also messengers, so they can stand for news arriving soon.
