Ethony Dawn - Your Tarot Court

Llewellyn Publications

Woodbury, Minnesota

Copyright Information

Your Tarot Court: Read Any Deck With Confidence 2019 by Ethony Dawn.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any matter whatsoever, including Internet usage, without written permission from Llewellyn Publications, except in the form of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

As the purchaser of this e-book, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. The text may not be otherwise reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, or recorded on any other storage device in any form or by any means.

Any unauthorized usage of the text without express written permission of the publisher is a violation of the authors copyright and is illegal and punishable by law.

First e-book edition 2019

E-book ISBN: 9780738759043

Cover design by Kevin R. Brown

Cover tarot card art is from Llewellyns Classic Tarot by Eugene Smith

Editing by Brian R. Erdrich

Illustrations from The Bad Bitches Tarot 2015 by Ethony Dawn are used with permission, no further reproduction allowed.

Illustrations from The Steampunk Tarot by Aly Fell and Barbara Moore 2012 used with permission, no further reproduction allowed.

Illustrations from Everyday Witch Tarot by Deborah Blake and Elisabeth Alba 2012, reproduced with permission from Llewellyn Publications, no further reproduction allowed.

Illustrations from Tarot Mucha 2015 by Giulia Massaglia, Barbara Nosenzo, Lunaea Weatherstone, and Massimiliano Filador are used with permission from LoScarabeo, Torino Italy, no further reproduction allowed.

Illustrations from The Triple Goddess Tarot by Jaymi Elford and Franco Rivolli 2017 are used with permission from LoScarabeo, Torino Italy, no further reproduction allowed.

Llewellyn Publications is an imprint of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data (Pending)

ISBN: 987-0-7387-5865-7

Llewellyn Publications does not participate in, endorse, or have any authority or responsibility concerning private business arrangements between our authors and the public.

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Llewellyn Publications

Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

2143 Wooddale Drive

Woodbury, MN 55125

www.llewellyn.com

Manufactured in the United States of America

Dedicated to my son, my ray of sunshine, Dominic.

Thank you for letting me see the world through your eyes.

Contents

One:

Two:

Three:

Four:

Five:

Six:

Seven:

Eight:

Nine:

Ten:

Eleven:

Appendix I:

List of Practicums and
Tarot Exercises

Introduction

You have entered the world of intrigue, power, strong wills, and changing faces. History has shown that the royal court can be a dangerous place where people hold their cards close to their chest (no pun intended) and missteps can lead to grave misfortune at the hand of powerful players. That may be a clue as to why the court cards are so hard to understand when they appear in a tarot reading. People are always changing and wear many masks.

When I first started to study the tarot seriously, I would have readings where the court cards came up all of the time. It was incredibly frustrating, but it did force me to learn how to connect and communicate with these important cards in the tarot.

The court cards can be some of the hardest to understand in the deck. I decided to write this book and these exercises to provide you with a further understanding of the cards so that you wont remove them from your decks (yeah I know you are out there) and the colour will not drain from your face when you flip over a court card. Fear not, the court cards are there to help you better understand yourself and the people around you. They can do this by identifying limiting patterns in your personal and professional lives and allowing you to lean into your strengths. Even after working through this book, the tarot court may still confuse you from time to time, but a little mystery is a good thing.

One of the amazing things about the tarot is that you never stop learning, because there are so many layers to the cards. The meaning and experience of the cards can change depending on the question you ask, the position the card is in, and what cards are next to each other. We all bring our own history and set of experiences to the table as well, which is another layer added to a tarot reading. This is why it can take years to become a proficient tarot reader and a certain knack for being a good tarot reader.

This book will help you explore the court cards in more than one way. This really is a getting to know your court book. So the fact that there is more than one definition given or question posed is purposefully done.

The more you work with the tarot, the more you will learn and become comfortable, recognising when each card means a certain thing.

There are a number of exercises in this book and I highly recommend that you use a notebook or blank journal to record your journey. I have a number of notebooks that I use for the tarot and I always date the entries so that I can look back and reflect. Being a visual learner, I really enjoy a brightly coloured journal and have decoupaged my own many times for my notes. Use whatever medium works best for you.

When it comes to selecting a tarot deck to work with try to find a deck with beautiful, detailed, engaging court cards, make sure that the images resonate with you. The more you like the look of the cards or the more they speak to you, the better your experience will be. Dont be worried if you have a less than positive reaction to some of the cards. That is normal. For example, I find that sometimes the ugliest card of the court is the Queen of Swords, and she is my significator card! I still love her stern face anyway.

Tarot Jargon significator This is a card that signifies the person the reading is about. This can be yourself, your client or a third party. It can help anchor the reading so that the outcome is clearer and specifically about that person. For readings where you use a significator, you do not need to interpret the significator cards; they are there to anchor a reading and hold a representational energy.

The most common feedback I have had over the years from students and fellow tarot readers is that when a court card appears in a reading, it is hard to ascertain whether it represents a person in the querents life or an aspect of the querent themselves. Or to be really tricky, both. They can be complicated because people are complicated.

Tarot Jargon querent The querent is the person the tarot reading is for, the person asking the questions of the cards. It can be yourself if you are reading for personal development and knowledge.