The tarot court cards have always been the most difficult cards for me to interpret. The Tarot trumps are easy, because their rich symbolism provides many interpretive "handles" and has been most extensively commented on in Tarot literature. The "pip" cards in the four suits are also relatively easy, since each card has simple numerological and "suit" references that make it unique. There are traditional references for the "pip" cards as well, and many decks provide images on these cards as mnemonic "handles" for those references. But the court cards... I searched long and in vain for satisfactory keys to the meaning of these cards, and in the Tarot literature one also finds the greatest disagreement about how to interpret these cards.

Some sources treat the court cards as people (the king symbolizes a "father figure," the queen a "mother figure"; or, more annoyingly, the wands are dark people, the swords are fair haired people, etc.). Other sources treat them as impersonal qualities (page of cups symbolizes imagination, the queen of coins introspection, etc.). None of these approaches have ever really worked for me. But one day I had been doing some reading on the "Myers-Briggs" personality type analysis, and it occurred to me that there were 16 Myers-Briggs personality types and 16 Tarot court cards. Might there be a satisfactory correspondence?

As I thought about it some more, it occurred to me that clearly the court cards could easily and logically be divided between "introverts" and "extroverts." The Kings and Queens are clearly extroverts, since as the "rulers" they are the ones who are energized through interaction with large numbers of people and are natural leaders. The Knights and the Valets are the introverts, finding their energy in more solitary pursuits and activities.

What about the "judging" and "perceiving" categories? Again, it seemed obvious to me that the Kings and the Knights were all about making decisions and judgments and acting on them, while the Queens and the Valets, the "secondary" cards in their respective upper and lower ranks, were not in a position to "judge" others and were thus afforded the option of observing and analyzing. They were clearly the "perceiving" types.

The remaining categories obviously applied to the four suits. Many other systems of Tarot interpretation have succumbed to the temptation to associate "thinking" with one suit (say, Swords), "feeling" with another suit (usually cups), etc. What I realized is that this often fails to acknowledge the relationships between the four suits. For instance, Wands and Swords are typically associated with each other as the "masculine" suits while Cups and Coins are viewed as the "feminine" suits. Wands and Cups on the other hand, are often associated with each other as the more "spiritual" suits, while Coins and Swords are the more "practical." I've never liked using gender as an interpretive handle in the Tarot... It perpetuates unnecessary myths about men and women. So dropping the "masculine" and "feminine" category and replacing it with "thinking" (Swords and Wands) and "feeling" (Coins and Cups) seemed satisfying to me. Wands and Cups, as the more "spiritual" suits, were clearly the "intuitive" types while Swords and Coins, the more practical, were the "sensing" types.

The result was a very satisfying way to look at the 16 court cards, that is remarkably consistent with many "traditional" interpretations of these cards, and which doesn't rely on irritating gender or racial stereotypes (i.e., a Queen is no longer necessarily a woman, but a person who is extroverted and perceiving). In actual interpretation, I tend to view the court cards either as people with whom I interact, or as an aspect of myself. Occasionally I view them as more "impersonal" principles or forces. In all of these situations, I find the "personality type" approach gives me the best "handle" on these cards. Using the personality type approach, it is also easy to pick a court card that represents you or the querent. For instance, I have consistently tested as an "INFJ" personality type, which would make me a "Knight of Cups":