By Lalia Wilson
King and Queen of Cups from the Golden Age of Hollywood Tarot by Lorelei Douglas
The 16 court cards in the tarot deck represent the man (King), woman (Queen), son (Knight) and daughter (Page or Princess) of the family. Each suit represents a family. Wands are the family of enthusiasm, motivation, and affirmations. Swords are the family of intellectual discipline, scrupulous research, and great knowledge. Cups are the family of passion, love/hate, and the world of the psyche. Pentacles are the family of progress in the earth plane; the ones who take on tasks and make sure they are done right.
In some ways we each have some of all sixteen court cards within ourselves. A truly great person is in touch with all 16, though he or she may not overtly express all of them in public.
There are a couple of ways we can use the court cards to help us find love. We will discuss one here and continue with the other in a later issue of Tarot Reflections.
First let’s look at your court card. If you identify with a Page/Princess or a Knight, you are not yet ready for a mature life-partnership. If you find yourself identifying with a Queen or King, then you are ready. Which Queen or King do you see as yourself?
Let’s arbitrarily pick the King of Wands. As the King of Wands you have a natural affinity with the Queen of Wands. She will be the easiest of the Queens to partner with. In addition, the Queen of Wands is probably a type that your mother, sister, or aunt may represent. So, the Queen of Wands is home territory.
Now, still being the King of Wands, let’s look at the other Queens. The Queen of Swords can be your equal and push back when you press her. The Queen of Swords has her own realm of expertise, and she will not concede that territory to you. She is a good match, but not easy like the Queen of Wands. The Queen of Pentacles does not share much with your interests and values, yet she will not be bulldozed by you, either. This Queen is a possible match. Lastly the introverted Queen of Cups is likely to be overwhelmed by you. You share very little with the Queen of Cups. She is an introvert; you are an extrovert. She likes to stay at home; you like to party. She has a small circle of relationships; you know everyone. To sum: the King of Wands has an easy relationship with the Queen of Wands; he has a good and productive relationship with the Queen of Swords; he has an okay relationship with the Queen of Pentacles; he has a poor compatibility with the Queen of Cups.
The Queen of Wands will have a similar pattern. She has the easiest relationship with the King of Wands. She has a good relationship with the King of Swords, and okay relationship with the King of Pentacles, and a poor relationship with the King of Cups.
The King and Queen of Swords are good and easy partners for each other, and each pairs well with their Wands compliment. The Swords have much less in common with the Pentacles, having okay relationships. The Swords share subtleties with the Cups. A Swords-Cups pairing is okay, but not great.
Now to the Cups. The King and Queen of Cups most easily pair with each other. They have a strong understanding of each other. Most likely they had similar people in their family of origin. Outside of Cups with Cups, their next best relationship is with Pentacles. Though the Pentacles are much more literal and practical, they are clueless about the emotional terrain inside a Cups King or Queen. Marriages between a Cup and a Pentacle are good, but there are areas of their lives that don’t share well. The Cup is okay with the Sword; both deal with abstracts and subtleties, each gives the other space in their own particular niche. The Cup does not relate well with the Wand. They pretty much have no common ground.
The Pentacles pair well with each other, as both are practical, pragmatic, and living in the now. They pair well with the Cups, although they are much dreamier and less focused than Mr. or Ms. Pentacle. The Pentacles can pair with the Wands, but the relationship will take work and will do best if the two are jointly committed to a project beyond just their relationship. The Pentacles pair least well with the Swords, one is concrete, one is abstract, one is hands on, the other is thoughts on; one gets lost in projects such as carpentry, gardening, or crafts, the other gets lost in the library or the web.
This is a simple way to look at prospective partners. There are more complex ways which perhaps are better. We will look at one such soon.
Finally, I have much less experience with same-sex pairings. I don’t know how well this works in those cases.