Tarot Suit of Cups - deal with the emotional level of consciousness and are associated with love, feelings, relationships, and connections. Cups are about displays of emotion, expression of feelings and the role of emotions in relation to others. The Cups Tarot cards indicate that you are thinking with your heart rather than your head, and thus reflect your spontaneous responses and your habitual reactions to situations. Cups are also linked to creativity, romanticism, fantasy, and imagination.
Tarot Suit of Pentacles - deals with the material aspects of life including work, business, trade, property, money, and other material possessions. The positive aspects of the Suit of Pentacles include manifestation, realization, proof, and prosperity. Pentacles deal with the physical or external level of consciousness and thus mirror the outer situations of your health, finances, work, and creativity. They have to do with what we make of our outer surroundings - how we create it, shape it, transform it, and grow it.
Tarot Suit of Swords - are associated with action, change, force, power, oppression, ambition, courage, and conflict. Action can be both constructive and/or destructive, sometimes resulting in violence. This suit can also mean hatred, battle, and enemies, and of all the suits, this one is the most powerful and dangerous. The Suit of Swords deals with the mental level of consciousness that is centred around the mind and the intellect. Swords mirror the quality of mind present in your thoughts, attitudes, and beliefs. Swords themselves are double-edged and in this way the Suit of Swords symbolizes the fine balance between intellect and power.
Tarot Suit of Wands - are associated with primal energy, spirituality, inspiration, determination, strength, intuition, creativity, ambition and expansion, original thought, and the seeds through which life springs forth. Wands deal with the spiritual level of consciousness and mirror what is important to you at the core of your being. They address what makes us tick - our personalities, egos, enthusiasms, self-concepts, and personal energy, both internal and external. Wands are also indicative of all things that you do during the day to keep you busy, be it working at the office, home, or the great outdoors.
The Four Court Card Tarot Ranks
One mistake that readers can make is to let age or gender hinder their interpretation of the court cards!
When we talk about age and gender in the courts, they are only useful as metaphors. For example, a page has a childlike approach to life but does not always represent an actual child.
A queen can be biologically male, and a king can be biologically female. Even though in most decks the court cards are given gender binary names, the court cards do not have to be interpreted through a gender binary perspective. It would work just fine to replace every instance of "she" or "he" with "they" or "them."
