“Putting A Face To It” — Physical Profiling with the Tarot
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Most of us have felt the quandary expressed in the trope “I know the name but I can’t put a face to it.” I’m often asked whether the court cards of the tarot can be used to reliably describe the physical characteristics of someone involved in the querent’s life. Here is my answer to one such inquiry.
In The Pictorial Key to the Tarot of A.E. Waite, and in the work of Ettiella (the father of modern cartomancy) before him, efforts were made to ascribe qualities of human appearance to the court cards: “a dark older man; a light-skinned, fair-haired young woman, etc.” Aleister Crowley wisely kept away from the details of appearance and instead focused on “moral qualities,” which make for a more dependable personality profile. Etteilla (or one of his 19th-Century interpreters) bizarrely supposed that blonds were categorically upright and trustworthy because they often had a more noble upbringing.
It always struck me that Waite was writing for the typically white, male British occultist, just as 18th-and-19th-Century French tarot books (except those of Etteilla, who seemed to have been a populist) were aimed at the predominantly white, Continental members of esoteric fraternal orders; the arcane pursuits they described were seldom undertaken by the unschooled and underprivileged people of that era, so the material seems to have been intended primarily for the educated Northern European demographic (who else could decipher Waite’s turgid prose or the Kabbalistic ambiguities of Papus?). A question came up on the r/tarot Reddit sub regarding why tarot is currently deemed inappropriate for determining physical characteristics; nobody mentioned the influence of “political correctness,” but it has to be considered a contributor,
For me (beyond the obviously ludicrous assumption that the majority of African individuals born in Aries at the end of March are going to meet Waite’s racially-biased “blond-haired-and-blue-eyed” description unless they happen to be “Afrikaners”), it comes down to the “First Hermetic Principle” of The Kyballion: “The All is Mind; the Universe is Mental.” This seems to make tarot more suited for psychological analysis than for physical profiling when it entails portraying people. The same holds true for age and gender distinctions. Not only are they often irrelevant to the subject of a reading, they seem to offend so many modern querents that it isn’t worthwhile even raising the topic during a reading.
However, there is one instance where both the personality type and the physical identity of another person can have a bearing on the seeker’s experience of a situation. When a court card appears in a reading, the first thing I ask my client is whether the figure on the card is recognizable as another person who has a stake in the matter at hand. (My rather snarky premise is that, since most people come for a reading because they are wrestling with some difficult problem or decision, they have absolutely no hesitation about shifting the blame for their troubles onto another player in the drama shown by the cards.) The reader’s task is to assess the plausibility of any such cartomantic “character assassination,” then if deemed appropriate steer the reading away from social interaction and in a more personal, internally-oriented direction or a more broadly impersonal, external trajectory.
Although it is common for present-day tarot readers to dodge the subject and just propose that a court card suggests the attitudes and behaviors the sitter should either adopt or avoid under the circumstances, there are times when we would be remiss if we fail to pinpoint the likely engagement of someone privy to the querent’s affairs who could have a significant impact on the outcome. For that reason, it is perfectly legitimate to ask whether the King of Swords might depict an older male with a rather austere demeanor who is in a position to cause perturbations in the flow of events. All they have to say is “No” and we can move on.
I had an interesting case study in this regard a few years ago. I typically read without knowing the exact question the sitter has in mind, just letting the cards “speak their piece” and dialing in the narrative as we go. One of the Pages came up in the woman’s spread (I forget which) and — although they can represent young people of either gender — I went with a hunch and asked her whether there was a young male at the heart of the matter. She winced visibly and said it had to be describing her teenage son, who had “issues.” I don’t recall the advice offered by the cards, but they were clearly on the scent of her dilemma.
To summarize, although I seldom follow my own advice as noted above, it is usually best to begin by suggesting that a court card in a spread may be highlighting the querent’s likely mental-emotional stance in the situation (or perhaps hinting at impartial, non-specific or “universal” aspects of the matter) that should be taken into account when making observations about the likely course of events or the development of circumstances. If the sitter feels strongly that a particular individual is being singled out, this premise can be adjusted along the lines of personal identity (e.g. gender and level of maturity if not actual physical appearance).
Originally published at http://parsifalswheeldivination.wordpress.com on February 7, 2024.
