On the Hermetic Path of Tarot one has to learn of the elements. The elements are the components of the physical and the psychological aspects of the human being. How do we go about doing this? We have to enter the Court of the Tarot Deck and salute the Royal Arcana.
Each suit represents an element ( fire, water, air, earth) and each has a ruling hierarchy symbolized by the King, Queen, Knight and Page. In this ranking each element is represented, i.e. all Kings are Fire, each Queen is Water, Knights are air and the Pages Earth. For example the King of Wands is Fire of Fire while his Queen is Water of Fire. In the Suit of Disks The Knight is Air of Earth, while The Page of Swords is Earth of Air.
Each court card is a combination of suit element filtered through the rank of the Royal who presents it!
The so called personal attributes of the Royal Arcana are in truth coded energy patterns. We know the energies themselves have “natures”. Fire expands, Water contracts, Air moves and Earth supports. By their natures Fire and Water, Air and Earth are in opposition; while Earth and Water, Air and Fire are complementary. This helps us to read the energies of each Royal Arcana or Court Card and hence the effect it has in any grouping of cards.
The new reader of Tarot is often perplexed as to why the Court cards appear so frequently in readings. The answer is they do so to show the patterns of energy the Querent is working with. However, one has to step beyond the lore of coloring and the assignment of human personalities and their traits as persons around the client in fortune telling and move into the realm of divination in the Hermetic system, which views the Royal Arcana as being both internal and integral to the client.
The Royal Arcana is seen as a means to weigh psychological components. This is the hinge on which the entire process hangs- the alignment and balancing of the candidate’s internal energies.