As a Beginner I had the most trouble reading Court Cards, especially if several of them appear in one spread. It took a lot of practice to be able to decipher the meanings. In general, Court Cards represent personal characteristics of individuals, attitudes, and levels of maturity. Sometimes they represent physical characteristics and actions too.
In tarot books you will see meanings based on physical characteristics like age, sex, marital status, hair colour or colour of skin. As far as colour of hair and skin is concerned it doesn’t resonate when you are living in Asian countries. Energetically the court cards have the least energy but they still can represent an aspect of oneself.
In a reading you can choose a Court Card as a significator based on sun sign (Fire, Water, Earth or Air) and then their gender and level of maturity. Another method is to have the querent look through the Court Cards and pick one for themselves. This will often tell you quite a bit about the querent and about how best to communicate with him or her.
How to Read Court Cards
1. Pay close attention to the position and/or the direction the Court Card is facing. What are they looking at or pointing to? The figures on the cards always talk to each other. That way it’s very easy to interpret the meanings.
2. Don’t get fixated with the gender of the court cards. Sometimes a King can be a person’s mother and a Queen like the father.
3. The reversed court cards express different opinions that is your “hopes and fears.” It will talk about an aspect of your life or personality which is missing or needs more attention. Reversed Court Cards are not evil people only their characteristics can be weakened or excessive. Reversals can represent refusing to act like the energy in that Court Card. Another interesting way to read court card is as your inner hidden self-versus your public self.
4. If you’ve drawn three or more court cards in a reading then look out for which suits did you get? Does one suit dominate? Do the suit energies harmonize or do they seem to conflict? And which suit is missing? Usually you don’t need to be as aware of a missing suit as much as you need to be aware of the suits that turned up!
5. Try doing a reading with the 16 court cards and draw one card. Read the card carefully for it will describe the part of yourself that is most active and of which you need to be most aware. How are you Kingly, Queenly, Knightly or like a Page? It can show your level of knowledge, experience and command (King and Queen)
in this area or how open you are to learning (Page) or able to take action (Knight).
Try to absorb the energies of the members of the court. They will tell you a lot of vital information in the most subtle way.