Tarot Court Cards: How to Read the Page, Knight, Queen and King

Written by Orbitarot · Sources: listed at the end of this guide · Updated October 7, 2026

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Key finding: Court cards are 16/78 = 20.51% of the deck; at least one appears in 1 - C(62,n)/C(78,n) of n-card draws (50.29% of three cards, 91.46% of ten), and Waite's own text describes seven of them as people by coloring (all Wands, three Cups) while contradicting itself on the Wands' coloring.

What are the court cards in tarot?

The court cards are the 16 people cards of the Minor Arcana: a Page, a Knight, a Queen and a King in each of the four suits. Together they make up 16 of the 78 cards, or 20.5% of the deck, so roughly one card in five you draw is a court card.

They are also the cards most beginners find hardest, because each one can be read as another person, as a side of yourself or as the way a situation is moving. This guide starts with how often they turn up, then looks at what A. E. Waite actually wrote about them in The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910), and ends with a simple way to decide which reading fits, plus a table of all 16.

How often do court cards come up in a reading?

Often. A single card is a court card 16/78 = 20.51% of the time. In three cards the chance of at least one court card is 50.29%, in five cards 69.35%, and in a ten-card Celtic cross 91.46%. On average a ten-card spread holds about two of them.

The formula counts the spreads with no court card at all and subtracts from 1. There are 78 - 16 = 62 non-court cards, so the chance of at least one court card in n cards is 1 - C(62,n)/C(78,n), where C is the number of ways to choose cards without regard to order.

The average number of court cards in ten cards is 10 x 16/78 = 2.05. So in a Celtic cross reading, a spread with no court card at all (C(62,10)/C(78,10) = 8.54%) is far rarer than one with three or more (33.42%, adding up the exact counts for 3 to 10 court cards). Knowing how to read them is not optional.

How did Waite describe the court cards?

Waite described the court cards mainly through their pictures and their pace. His Knights are defined by how their horses move, his Pages by what they are paying attention to, and his Queens and Kings by temperament. His divinatory meanings then mix real people, often described by coloring, with plain qualities and events.

The Knights: read the horse

For the Knight of Wands, Waite gives the key to all four: "The motion of the horse is a key to the character of its rider". The four horses then run from fast to slow:

• Swords: "He is riding in full course, as if scattering his enemies."
• Wands: the motion "suggests the precipitate mood, or things connected therewith."
• Cups: "Graceful, but not warlike; riding quietly".
• Pentacles: "He rides a slow, enduring, heavy horse, to which his own aspect corresponds."

Two Knights are also events rather than people. The Knight of Wands means "Departure, absence, flight, emigration", and the Knight of Cups means "Arrival, approach", sometimes of a messenger. That is why many readers treat a Knight as news or a change of pace.

The Pages: what they are looking at

Each Page is caught in a moment of attention. The Page of Wands "stands in the act of proclamation". Of the Page of Cups, Waite writes: "It is the pictures of the mind taking form." The Page of Swords is "looking this way and that, as if an expected enemy might appear at any moment." The Page of Pentacles "moves slowly, insensible of that which is about him."

The Queens and Kings: temperament

Waite's Queens look inward. The Queen of Cups is "Beautiful, fair, dreamy", yet "she sees, but she also acts, and her activity feeds her dream." The Queen of Swords has a face that "suggests familiarity with sorrow." His Kings face outward: the King of Swords "sits in judgment, holding the unsheathed sign of his suit." On the King of Pentacles he adds a note on the whole suit: older packs used coins, and he says the consensus of divinatory meanings supports a change "because the cards do not happen to deal especially with questions of money."

Reversed court cards

Waite's court reversals usually turn the person's quality sour. The King of Cups reversed is a "Dishonest, double-dealing man", and the Knight of Cups reversed is "Trickery, artifice, subtlety, swindling, duplicity, fraud." The Wands are the exception: the King of Wands reversed is "Good, but severe; austere, yet tolerant", and the Queen of Wands reversed begins "Good, economical, obliging, serviceable." So a reversed court card in Waite is not automatically a bad person. Read it as the same temperament under strain, or used too hard.

Do tarot court cards represent people?

Sometimes, and Waite's own text is split. In his upright meanings, seven court cards describe a person by coloring: all four Wands and three of the Cups. None of the eight Swords and Pentacles court cards does; they list qualities such as authority, utility or opulence instead.

The seven are the Page of Wands ("Dark young man"), Knight of Wands ("A dark young man"), Queen of Wands ("A dark woman"), King of Wands ("Dark man"), Page of Cups ("Fair young man"), Queen of Cups ("Good, fair woman") and King of Cups ("Fair man"). Compare the King of Swords, whose meaning is "Whatsoever arises out of the idea of judgment" with no person described.

Waite's coloring scheme does not even agree with itself. In his Celtic method, choosing a card for the person asking, he writes: "The four Court Cards in Wands represent very fair people, with yellow or auburn hair, fair complexion and blue eyes." Yet his card meanings for all four Wands courts say dark. His Celtic section also ties rank to age and sex, and its rule for men reads oddly today: "A Knight should be chosen as the Significator if the subject of inquiry is a man of forty years old and upward; a King should be chosen for any male who is under that age". He did leave room for judgment: "You can be guided on occasion by the known temperament of a person".

Modern readers, ourselves included, drop coloring, age and sex entirely and read the court cards by temperament. That fits Waite's own fallback, and it means any court card can stand for anyone.

How do you read a court card in a reading?

Try three readings in turn and keep the one that fits: a real person in your situation, a side of yourself you are using or need, or the pace and style of events. Let the rank tell you the stage and the suit tell you the area of life, then let the position decide.

Rank gives the stage of maturity:

• Page: a learner or a message. Curiosity, a first try, news.
• Knight: movement. A quest, a push, a change of pace, at the speed of its horse.
• Queen: inner mastery. Someone who holds the suit's quality calmly and from within.
• King: outer mastery. Someone who uses the suit's quality to lead, decide or provide.

The suit gives the area: Wands for drive and plans, Cups for feelings, Swords for thought and speech, Pentacles for work and practical life.

1. Is there a person in the question? If the card is in a position like "the other person" on our love tarot reading, read it as them first.
2. Does it describe you? In a "yourself" position, read it as the attitude you bring, or the one the situation asks for.
3. Is it about pace? Knights in particular often describe how fast things move rather than who is involved.

On this site every court card leans yes upright and maybe reversed in our yes or no readings, because each one shows a person actively using the suit's strength. When two or more turn up, our reading summary notes that other people play a real part, and a matching pair, such as two Queens, gets its own note. Our guide to tarot card combinations explains how pairs of court cards of the same rank read.

What do all 16 court cards mean?

Each court card blends its rank with its suit, so the Page of Cups is a learner in feelings and the King of Pentacles is a leader in practical life. The table below gives the upright keywords for all 16 from our card pages, where you will also find reversed meanings, love and career readings and Waite's full text.

To practice, draw a random tarot card until a court card comes up, which takes about five draws on average (78/16 = 4.9), and try all three readings on it. Our guide on how to read tarot covers positions and spreads.

Questions

Do court cards always represent people?

No. They can be another person, a side of yourself or the pace of events. Even Waite described only seven of the 16 by hair and skin coloring in his upright meanings; the rest are mostly qualities or events.

Which court card represents me?

Choose by temperament, not looks or age. Waite used coloring, age and sex, but he also allowed choosing by a person's known temperament, which is how most readers do it today.

What is the difference between a Knight and a King in tarot?

A Knight is movement: a push, a quest or a change of pace. A King is outer mastery: someone who uses the suit's strength to lead, decide or provide.

How many court cards are in a tarot deck?

Sixteen: a Page, Knight, Queen and King in each of the four suits. That is 16 of 78 cards, or 20.5% of the deck.

Sources

• A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, 1910 (public domain): the 16 court cards and Part III, section 7, An Ancient Celtic Method of Divination: https://sacred-texts.com/tarot/pkt/index.htm
• Court card probabilities: our own Python calculation, 1 - C(62,n)/C(78,n): Computed October 2026
• Court card keywords and yes/no leans: this site's card meaning files: /tarot-cards/

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