Three 
Titles, Gender
& Physical Identifiers
It is the belief of many sociologists that gender is a social construct. As members of modern society, we are assigned a gender at birth. This is something that is done to us. We do not have any say in this assignment, and from that point on, it subconsciously shapes how we are addressed and goes along with a ton of expectations about how we behave, dress, and even what we can and cannot do with our lives. Many of these circumstances are subconscious and solidly in place before we are even born. Gender assignment does not mean that it is the gender that we identify with. This is one of the reasons that the tarot court is problematic for modern tarot readers.
If we are looking at gender within traditional tarot, you will see that the tarot court was predominantly male. As a matter of fact, the entire deck historically was predominantly male. In the tarot court, the only presence of females were the queens. Queens historically were often married into their court and not, in many societies, allowed their own reign. There has been a progressive change in the tarot world where a break from tradition has allowed for a more inclusive court. One of the factors in this assignment is that the tarot evolved from a playing card game and that structure was adopted from the Tarocchi cards. The male-majority court stuck even as the tarot evolved.
Along with the titles of the tarot court, we see cultural importance given to stations of power that are held predominantly by men. While we are going to be exploring each of the archetypes of the tarot court through a lens that has no gender assignment, there are elements of gender identification that creep in through society and what is accepted and given as power. This can also limit readers who identify as male when a queen comes up in their readings. There is much that can be gained from the wisdom of those cards, but a querent may automatically disregard the card as an aspect of themselves because the image is showing someone with assumedly different body parts from them.
Some tarot decks, such as the Thoth Tarot by Aleister Crowley, have changed the titles of the tarot court, replacing the pages for princesses. Others have their own unique court systems, like the Daughters of the Moon Tarot by Ffiona Morgan that only has the Maiden, Mother, and Crone. Still other tarot decks have depicted their tarot court as more androgynous or abstract figures, allowing the tarot reader to be less bound by traditional roles and features. Examples of these are the Wild Unknown Tarot by Kim Krans and the Tarot of the Silicon Dawn by Egypt Urnash.
Representations of people of colour (most tarot decks show the tarot court as white individuals), LGBTIQ, and people with disabilities have been rare in mainstream commercial tarot, but are slowly becoming more widely available thanks to some incredible independent creators.
The tarot court cards do not have to carry out the reproductive assumptions of their title or represented age. A queen does not have to be a mother. A king does not have to be a father. A knight can be single or married with or without children. Believe it or not, freeing the tarot court of these stigmas and assignments allows us to really harness each card’s true power without getting caught up with outdated models of gender and having to cross off some gender role checklist. We have long moved past the idea that you can’t be a queen unless you are a mother.
The titles used in this book are the titles associated with the court cards themselves, and their accompanying pronoun may be used when discussing a specific court card. This is so that the information can be related back to the tarot card, and to give a deeper connection and understanding of the card. It is also done to avoid confusion when you are referencing outside information on the tarot court.
We can be any of the court cards in life. In fact, we are all or many of the sixteen tarot court cards in some area of our lives or at some point. It is more about how we communicate, relate, feel, and experience certain things than being born into a role within a family or assigned with a specific gender. This will be explored in greater detail in a later chapters.
It is my philosophy that the progression of the tarot court, from the page to the king, is reflective of initiations, maturing, and coming into one’s power, regardless of gender, religion, background, or age. The placement of a tarot court card in the structure of the tarot does not equate a person’s gender or power when you are working with the archetypes in this book. It also does not equate your querent’s and/or your own gender or power when looking at the tarot court in a reading.
Physical Identifiers
Using physical identifiers when it comes to pinning the tarot court cards down is one way you can relate and read the cards. It can be problematic. Many tarot readers would have come across a chart that looks something like this:
The Wands—A red headed person
The Cups—A blonde haired person with green or blue eyes
The Pentacles—Dark featured person with dark hair colours
The Swords—Pale skin and dark hair
Identifying people through the tarot court in relation to popular documented associations is not something that is reliable in the modern day. This in no way diminishes the use of formulas that are published and well-known. If it works for you, then carry on doing it. Due to its simplistic take on personal exteriors and lack of diverse associations such as cosmetic alterations, fake tanning, hair colouring, and contact lenses it can make it difficult to pinpoint if it is a person based solely on their physical features. It is one way in which you can help make a connection to the people in your querent’s life; however, I recommend not using it as the only way you do so. You may be even more successful if you use this information as a jumping-off point along with a deeper understanding of the court through this book, for example, or you could add more associations to make them well-rounded and make sense for you.
For my own personal tarot practice, I may get a flash of what the person looks like for a client. I also look deeper at the court cards based on my client’s personality and how it connects with their reading or how they interact with the world and others.
Age and the Tarot Court
Age is one way in which we can define the court. It can help you identify who the tarot court cards are in a reading. This is something that has been well discussed and explored within the tarot community. My offering to you for what age groups each of the tarot court represent is:
• Pages—Children—up through the age of 11
• Knights—Adolescents—ages 12 through 21
• Kings and Queens—22+, depending on how the individual identifies themselves
Beyond identifying people in the tarot court through their age alone, I invite you to view the titles in a way that reflects how we interact with our situations and the people in them. If we look at age as the only means of connecting the tarot court to the people in our lives, we are limiting their potential. Are children less valuable or less wise than adults? Do kings and queens have their lives more ordered or have a deeper understanding of life than a teenager? Rather than looking at age as the only way to know who is who in the tarot court, I view it as one of the identifiers.