One of the major stumbling blocks for tarot card readers is interpreting the "people cards", or "Court Cards".   These pop up in a reading, and the reader freezes, unable to decipher who or what situation the card represents.  There are no numbers on the cards to help either, and with all of the people in an individual's life, it can be daunting to pinpoint the exact person the card represents.  Reading Court Cards effortlessly requires programming your deck before you use it.  What do I mean by programming your deck?  This means, decide ahead of time what these cards will mean for you, and make it the same every time.  

Here is how I program my deck:
The Kings and Queens always represent actual people.  They never represent a situation.  The Knights represent a person thirty years old or younger, or a situation.  The Pages represent children or a message.  I assign each Queen, King and Knight an astrology sign, based on their suit element of fire, earth, air or water.   I keep this the same.  Therefore, every time the Queen of Swords comes up, it is representing a Libra.  I can then ask the client, "Who's the Libra?", (if I don't get any other psychic hit on this card).  The only time this changes, is when I see something about the Queen of Swords card that makes me think of someone or something that would cause me to say, "This is your mother, your aunt, your friend, Melissa, a Gemini...", or any psychic information that would override the Libra programming that I assigned to this card.  One can even write the word "Libra" on the Queen of Swords to help memory.  I personally know a reader who does this.  The Knights will represent the astrology sign of a person, a younger adult, or the specific situation I programmed the card to represent.  The Pages will be their suit Astrology sign represented as a child with its particular nature, such as the Page of Cups representing an intuitive dreamy child, or the card will represent its programmed meaning of a type of message, such as a phone call.  If a King or Queen come up as an outcome card, I take this to mean that the outcome is determined by this person or a person who is involved in the question or situation.  Or it is this person's choice.  If my card, the Queen of Cups comes up when I ask a question, I take that to mean it is my choice.

If you know anything about astrology, you can get more detailed in your programming of the cards.  For example, all the Queens can be fixed signs, the Kings cardinal signs and the Knights mutable.  If your client doesn't know the person in question's astrology sign, you can assign physical descriptions to the cards, as well as personality.  The client will most likely recognize who you are talking about. 

What are your tips for reading Court Cards?

A lot of times interpreting messages from the Other Side can be like talking to someone under water.  Interpreting symbolic information or words spoken from another space/time dimension is difficult, not to mention the fact that usually more than one spirit shows up in a session.   In my experience with going to other mediums, I have found that I am not the only one who is faced with challenges. 

Before I begin opening my closet of skeletons, I want to say that I find it amusing that people think the only spirit showing up is the relative they want to speak to, when we actually "know" hundreds of dead people - relatives, ancestors, friends, co-workers, bosses, schoolmates, neighbors, church members, etc...and all the relatives and friends of these people as well, trying desperately to give someone else a message through us.  Supposedly, a "good" medium will only focus on the spirit with the strongest energy or desire to speak, which is usually the one with which the client wants to speak.  Unfortunately, I hear them all, so I guess that doesn't make me a Theresa Caputo.  For me, sometimes the message clarity is crystal clear and specific, and other times it comes through from a seeming room at the other end of the house with soundproofing walls to boot.  Sometimes I think I am talking with one person, and then several spirits jump in without revealing who they are.  When I can hear all of them at the same time, it makes it difficult to know who is speaking or showing me something.

"Anyone who knows someone who was shot in the head, stand up."

I will relate two experiences I myself have had as the client.  The first was with the famous John Edward, an amazing medium, who can deliver a message (without knowing you), that you were standing in the gift shop at Disney World buying a Mickey Mouse doll, when you felt the presence of your dead father....  Remember that?  I was sitting in an audience of hundreds, watching John live with my friend Cindy.   Before the session, I was silently telling my boyfriend "Johnny" that he better show up and bring in Cindy's grandfather (since people on the Other Side can bring in other people with them).  Well, lo and behold, John Edward comes to my section and asks if any of us knew a man who shot himself in the head and committed suicide.  No one raised their hand.  John was struggling.  Finally, after about five minutes, he said, "Anyone who knows someone who was shot in the head, stand up."  I was the only one in the room who did.  My sister's boyfriend, who was coincidentally named "Johnny", as well, was shot in the head.  He was minding a retail store for a friend, and was killed by a gunman robbing the store.  I responded with, "...but he didn't commit suicide."  Well, it was my sister's boyfriend, and he had messages for me to deliver to her.  And in came Cindy's grandfather...yay!  

"...due to  a crazy ex trying to kill me..."

I always wondered about that day, why John Edward had gotten so confused with the details.  Well, it wasn't until about 6 years later, that looking back I realized both Johnny's had shown up together.  They had the same name, so imagine how confusing that must have been for John Edward.  My boyfriend Johnny had been killed on a motorcycle.  He had a heart condition, and was not supposed to do anything strenuous.  He was killed going down a ravine holding his chest...coincidentally on the turn-off of the road where I used to live.  (They thought it was due to his bad heart).  You see, I had moved away, was going through a really bad time due to a crazy ex trying to kill me (not Johnny), had met someone else, and was getting married.  He found out my news the day before my wedding, drove to the store and bought the motorcycle.   I always felt at the back of my mind that Johnny had killed himself.  The day of my marriage, I was hoping Johnny would show up and stop the ceremony (as I knew I was making a mistake), not knowing he was already gone.  I think the session with John Edward was Johnny's way of letting me know, now that I was ready for the news, that he had taken his own life.    

My second experience with a "confused" medium was during a live group session with Carl Woodall, a well-known medium in Atlanta.  He was speaking to a spirit named "Mike", who was wanting to get a message to the brother of someone in the audience.  Carl kept pointing at a woman and asking her over and over if she had a brother with a friend who had passed away, named Mike.  The woman repeatedly denied this.  Actually, no one in the audience had a brother who lost a friend named Mike...except me, that is.   He had this woman come and sit next to me, which by the way was the only empty seat in the house (the room was packed full with people sitting on the floor, yet the woman next to me suddenly got up and left, leaving an empty seat).  With this woman now sitting next to me, Carl said, "Mike says the brother owned a mini bike."  Now, I was sure this message was for me, and not the other woman,  but I didn't want to interrupt Carl.   Finally Carl looked at me and said, "Is this message for you?"  In summary, my brother's friend had passed away about six months earlier.  Being much younger, I did not know Mike well, but the last time I would have seen him was when I was a teenager, up at my parent's lake house where my brother kept his mini bike.  At that time, I would have looked a lot like the woman Carl originally thought the message was directed toward.  Maybe Mike was confused, knowing I was there, but having trouble finding me in the audience, just like my sister's boyfriend, Johnny, whom I had only met once.  Carl had the extremely difficult job of having to solve the confusion, and I find it really interesting the way Spirit works, arranging the seat next to me to be vacant, drawing the attention over to me.  

My message with this blog?  Don't shoot the messenger!

Do you have a similar story?  Please share!