Tarot Spread: Getting Curious
Working with the Page (or Princess) of Swords
For my new course on learning to read and connect with the tarot court cards, Awaken the Court Cards, I’ve created a workbook including tarot spreads for the 16 court cards. I’ve previously posted a tarot spread for one court card, the Queen of Pentacles, but I was inspired to share a spread for the Page or Princess of Swords.
Rather than using the RWS visuals as a guide to understanding the card, which I did for the Queen of Pentacles and the other minor arcana for which I’ve created tarot spreads, the idea behind this spread derives entirely from the concepts behind the suit of Swords and the rank of Page or Princess.
Swords are the suit of thoughts, language, and communication, as well as other mental processes and some symbolic structures.
The Pages are students and explorers and the Princesses as those who give birth to new things.
From these simple concepts, I decided to focus on the lifelong student’s curiosity to explore the realm of the mind and to explore how we communicate our ideas. There’s the structure of the student who is trying to understand and break down complex ideas into something more manageable. There’s also a touch of grad school literary and cultural theory in this spread to bring in that complicated structure of thinking and communicating, as well as understanding other perspectives (the dialectic of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis). But because the Page/Princess is the court card that is least enmeshed in conventional power structures—either as a servant who will almost never become a noble or as the princess who marries into the family created by the other three cards—their processes are more open to inspiration, and they’re not ashamed of being a little unpolished, which allows them to bring new life to the court. So while the spread starts formally with an analytical opening and the critical theory of the dialectic, it ends in raw genius born of an undisciplined mind.
The Page or Princess of Swords didn’t used to be one of my favorite cards, but I really came to love them once I saw the motion in their depiction of my Life Line Tarot. I felt such a connection to their brave new way of thinking and being that I made a sticker of them!
The P of Swords goes boldly forth into unknown territory. They aren’t as prone to foolishness and rash haste like the Knight—they’re grounded by their element of earth—but their relative youth and inexperience means that they probably don’t know quite enough to be afraid or humble. And that lets them ignore fear, naysaying, and imposter syndrome and leaves them open to the full power of inner genius.
Whether you just need clarification about what the Page or Princess is offering as an idea to explore or you want to connect with that exciting energy, try this spread and be ready to get curious.
Focus: What idea needs my attention?
Thesis: What do I think I know about this?
Antithesis: What counterpoints do I need to consider?
Synthesis: What is the truth between these opposing points?
Tangent: What seemingly unrelated thoughts get triggered?
Genius: How can I use those to find a brilliant new way forward?
Want help creating your own layouts?
You’ve got options! Join my upcoming semester of tarot, which includes the live course version of Awaken the Court Cards, and take advantage of 20+ office hours, where we can talk through your ideas and how best to ask the questions that matter most and create a custom signature layout for you.
Can’t wait? Sign up for my intensive fundamentals course for new and experienced readers, Read Tarot like a Nerd, where we get into the heart of asking questions that matter, along with a dozen or two other valuable topics to take your tarot readings beyond the basics. Or check out my Saturday seminars, including past recordings of Reading the Big Picture and Getting Intentional, which will help you create your own spreads.