Iona Grant

Court Cards: Rational Swords

The Suit of Swords contains some of the most painful cards in the tarot. The sword can be used to cut through illusion, and it is used by heroes. But it also can cause pain and suffering. In tarot, the swords represent thoughts, communication, and the mind. Many of us harm ourselves with sharp and painful thoughts, and sometimes we hurt others with angry or hurtful words.

How will you use the Suit of Swords? Each of these characters uses the swords’ potential in different ways. If you are careful and have good intentions, you can use this suit to appreciate your intellectual side, rationality, and an ability to see through illusion. Being able to recognise fake news is a good quality of this suit. But if you have bad intentions, this suit can lead you down a dangerous path.

Page of Swords: This Page is a little detached from the real world, and loves to learn new information. Always asking ‘but why?’ they are endlessly curious. They are known for being smart, but are still very inexperienced, as all pages are. The Page of Swords is a student, and wants to know the truth. The Suit of Swords is associated with the card Justice, so this page may have a very black-and-white view of what is right and wrong. Their inexperience can prevent them from seeing nuance. They love reading books and learning facts, and have great potential in academia.

Knight of Swords: Like the page, the Knight of Swords may be dogmatic and think they know it all. They hate being wrong, or perhaps just can’t accept it. Like all knights, they are impulsive, so they might learn something and run with it, rather than looking for nuance. They might be a bit of a fanatic. On a positive note, swordsy people can make excellent activists due to their love for justice. They are well-intentioned and idealistic.

Queen of Swords: The Queen of Swords has been through a lot of pain in their life. They may have done a lot of difficult work related to personal growth to get to where they are. The Rider-Waite-Smith depiction of this card includes butterflies, which shows that the queen has gone through a metamorphosis. This queen is very wise and intelligent, and always knows how to give excellent advice. Deep down, they may feel a lot of sorrow, but they use that to inform how they deal with the world around them. Though they may not always be the most sympathetic person, they certainly have a lot of compassion. They wish for a fair world.

King of Swords: The King of Swords is a rational authority. They may be a little closed-minded, having had a lot of experience and studied for such a long time that they have lost their beginner’s mind. They may be arrogant and overly logical, denouncing the use of emotion in any decision-making process. They are perceptive and can see through you if you try to lie to them. They are honest and say things how they are even if it’s hurtful. They have excellent life skills, but maybe not so many people skills.

Tarot Deck Review: Considerate Cat

This review is not sponsored.

Considerate Cat Tarot is a crowd funded tarot deck featuring the stories of rescue cats. The deck contains over 150 illustrations of cats, most of them real life cats with stories to tell. Each deck contains 78 cards that stay true to classic Tarot imagery but with a light-hearted, feline twist.

This deck supports the rescue efforts in Vancouver B.C. Of every deck sold 5% of proceeds go directly to the entirely no kill and volunteer run V.O.K.R.A. This deck is full of life, love, challenges, hard work and most of all: a love and respect for cats. Cats are magical, mysterious creatures with strong intuitions. This makes them the perfect subject for Tarot.

– Quote from the Considerate Cat website.

As a cat owner, I was instantly attracted to this whimsical deck featuring real rescue cats and dainty images of nature and the home. This is a standard 78 card deck, using the usual naming convention of wands, cups, swords, and pentacles. However the Court cards have been renamed as follows:

Page => Daughter
Knight => Son
Queen => Mother
King => Father

Rather than include a Little White Book, which would usually fit into the box with the cards, the creator of this deck, Madeleine Belanger has chosen to include a slightly larger Pocket Guidebook. This booklet is in full colour and features photos of the cats that inspired this deck. There is an option to order a hardback copy of this book, however I have the standard paperback edition. Here’s everything I got in my order:

From left: cardboard box with a ribbon containing the deck, paperback guidebook, enamel pin and tarot bag

There was a slight hitch receiving my order, the package going missing somewhere between Canada and Scotland, but Madeleine was extremely helpful and posted me a replacement, which arrived a few weeks later.

This is a peaceful and positive tarot deck, and I think it would be great for gratitude and compassion practices. In the introduction, Madeleine describes tarot (for her) as similar to journaling or meditative yoga, a quiet time for reflection. Here’s a flip-through of the Major Arcana:

Major Arcana of the Considerate Cat Tarot

The Minor Arcana is also fully illustrated. That, and the descriptions of the cards in the booklet suggests that this deck is probably more inspired by the Rider-Waite-Smith than other types of tarot such as the Marseilles. However the illustrations are not very similar to any other deck that I have seen, so it is really quite unique.

A selection of Minor Arcana cards from Considerate Cat

As mentioned earlier, the booklet is in full colour, and the addition of rescue cat photos was one of the factors that made me decide to buy this deck. It’s so impactful to use an art project like this to bring attention to rescue cats, often forgotten and ignored in shelters. But here they take centre stage as Empresses, Lovers, and Magicians.

Rescue Cat Glossary and description of cards from the Considerate Cat Pocket Guidebook

In terms of the quality of the cards, overall I think they feel nice to touch. Slightly glossy, but not shiny, they’re fairly thin which makes them easier to shuffle. The image quality is nice– not pixellated– but on close inspection appears to be made up of tiny dots. The cards have borders and the edges are not gilded. The paperback guidebook is a little difficult to keep open at first, and some of the images and text is obscured by the binding, but it seems to get easier with use.

Video shows how bendable the cards are

If you would like to order this deck, you can order it at the official website based in Canada, or UK buyers may prefer to order it from Little Red Tarot. Either way, I recommend Considerate Cat for anyone who enjoys human-free or nature based decks, or if you love animals and support rescuing pets rather than buying them.

Considerate Cat

Little Red Tarot

I’ll finish with a little reading I did for my cat Mac using this deck. I went for a simple Stop Start Continue spread:

From left: Stop- Daughter of Wands, Start- Mother of Wands, Continue- Three of Pentacles

The guidebook describes those three cards as follows:

Daughter of Wands: Enthusiasm, confidence. You’ve recently discovered a new passion or have been inspired recently to work hard on a current project. You’re excited and inspired to be creative and work hard.

Mother of Wands: Attraction, fertility, confidence. Mother of Wands is a good and loyal friend and is always there for you when you most need her. This card can tell you that you’ll need the support of someone with these qualities and that you should be open to it.

Three of Pentacles: Expression, hard work, creativity. You are ready to take on a new creative challenge in your life. You have new skills at the ready and you’re eager to put them to the test and get to work!

The way I would interpret this spread is that Mac has been like The Fool- ready for adventure and wide-eyed. Maybe because he has been zooming around and knocking things over, he should listen to his owner (me) saying ‘calm down!’, but he should continue to be creative and fun loving.

I hope you have enjoyed this review; please comment or contact me with any feedback or requests, and feel free to follow this blog from the sidebar.

Court Cards: Overflowing Cups

The Cups Suit is associated with water, and represents emotions, love, relationships, intuition, and so on. It focuses on your inner experiences, and how you connect to the world around you. Although it can often be a harmonious suit, strong and uncontrollable emotions can cause us a lot of harm. We see how that plays out in cards such as the Five and Eight of Cups. Perhaps the character in the Eight of Cups is escaping an abusive relationship, a situation where emotions have been used against them.

This little Cups family are romantic, dreaming of a better world. How does that play out with each card?

Page of Cups: The Page of Cups is the kind of person who has an active imagination, daydreaming, very open. They might be a bit of a crybaby. They love falling in love and might be spiritual. Some people describe Pages as messengers, so if you pull this card, pay attention to new emotional developments in your life. This card may be asking you to trust you intuition and your creative process. In many depictions of this card, the Page is surprised at the fish popping out of their cup. Think about how you cope with surprises, whether you welcome or fear them, and how to improve your ability to deal with new developments.

Knight of Cups: The Knight of Cups is a hopeless romantic. A knight in shining armour, maybe a little dramatic. Slightly impractical, this knight loves fantasy and being the hero. They are learning to embrace and rein in their emotions, but they haven’t mastered that yet. They aren’t afraid of love, and maybe haven’t been hurt or betrayed before. If you pull this card and you see yourself as this knight, take some time to consider how you react to difficult situations. If you don’t see yourself as this character, maybe it’s time to bring a little romance and levity to your life. Getting in touch with your emotions might be a good opportunity for you.

Queen of Cups: This Queen is very intuitive and may be doing some kind of therapeutic work. They have mastered their emotions, perhaps practice mindfulness and gratitude a lot. In order to get to this point, they have had to go through some difficult times, so they are very compassionate towards other people. They are an excellent listener. They are stable and a comforting presence to others.

King of Cups: Kings are more external than Queens, so the King of Cups using emotions to their advantage. The water around them looks choppy, so they may have difficulty with strong emotions. As a leader, they must learn not to lash out at other people or become paranoid at others’ intentions. This King does care about others, but may be a little passive until they feel attacked in some way. Once they have improved their feelings of security, they are a very compassionate leader, but may struggle to show their own emotions for fear of losing control.