Playing with Pages
For the last two days in a row, I've had a Page as my daily tarot card. The Pages are the young energy of the tarot deck, childlike and even innocent. They take the energy of their suit and start to play with it, to get to know it, to put it into practice. There is a hint of the trickster in the Page, trying out their energy to see how far they can take it, what it does, what happens when I do this? The Pages always operate from beginner's mind, seeing with fresh eyes. Because of this, they often hear the messages of the universe before anyone else, and pass these messages on to the rest of us. They are inspiration and intuition, the creative muse and the seemingly outlandish new idea, the lightbulb moment when our plans all come together. In the Greenwood tarot, the Pages come at the start of the season, and are light and playful. The Page of Cups is represented by the Kingfisher, taking the first plunge into the watery energy of feelings and imagination. The Stoat of the Page of Wands changes back from white to reddish-brown at the start of spring, literally embodying the transition from winter to the season of warmth and growth.
The Pages are exploring and familiarising themselves with the energy of their element. As a group, they are often linked to the element of earth, the shoots of new growth and the learning of new skills and values. They dance with their element, moving around it, into it, outside it again. They get to know it, until it becomes part of their being and they can take it out into the world as a Knight. For the medieval Page, as depicted in the traditional tarot hierarchy of the court cards, is a Knight in training. My favourite depiction of this is Wart in T.H. White's The Sword in the Stone - he is turned into many different animals by Merlin the wizard, and each has a different lesson for him. The ants teach him about the banality of war, the fish how to avoid, and where necessary stand up to, those stronger than him, and the geese how to fly in formation, united as a tribe. All this comes alongside his more conventional learning, practising sword fighting, hawking, how best to kill a boar without getting killed yourself, and serving at the castle table. Everyone needs a well rounded education!
The Pages are exploring and familiarising themselves with the energy of their element. As a group, they are often linked to the element of earth, the shoots of new growth and the learning of new skills and values. They dance with their element, moving around it, into it, outside it again. They get to know it, until it becomes part of their being and they can take it out into the world as a Knight. For the medieval Page, as depicted in the traditional tarot hierarchy of the court cards, is a Knight in training. My favourite depiction of this is Wart in T.H. White's The Sword in the Stone - he is turned into many different animals by Merlin the wizard, and each has a different lesson for him. The ants teach him about the banality of war, the fish how to avoid, and where necessary stand up to, those stronger than him, and the geese how to fly in formation, united as a tribe. All this comes alongside his more conventional learning, practising sword fighting, hawking, how best to kill a boar without getting killed yourself, and serving at the castle table. Everyone needs a well rounded education!