RWS stage cards: The power of two little lines

During a deep dive into the RWS tarot, I became drawn into the world of the stage cards and it seems they had no interest in letting me go until I paid them some attention. So, here is me paying them attention.

What is a stage card?

Stage cards are represented by two lines that suggest we are looking at a stage backdrop rather than an outdoor scene. Are we sure that’s what they are? Who can say? Like every interpretation in tarot, the ultimate answer to that question is up to us. There is even contention about which cards should be included.

The cards I consider to be stage cards are:

• Wands
  • Four, nine and ten
• Cups
  • Two, five, ten and page
• Swords
  • Two, five and seven
• Pentacles
  • Two, four, six and eight

Other articles I have read included the Two of Wands, the Eight of Cups, and the Nine of Swords each of which are pictured below so you can decide for yourself whether to include them. I toyed with the idea of including the Two of Wands and excluding the Five of Cups but in the end the list above are the ones that I see as “staged”.

What do they mean?

In her book, Pictures from the Heart: A Tarot Dictionary, Sandra Thomson shares the three ways that Wald Amberstone and Ruth Ann Brauser Amberstone interpret these cards. They are as follows:

1. What appears to be going on may be an illusion or a fiction, in which case you need to consider what might be going on “behind the scenes.”
2. The people are projecting the image on the backdrop “skrim.” They envision the scene, and manifest it through their will and focused attention.
3. What is seen in the card is something the querent is projecting onto his/her situation.

Others, such as Isabel Kliegman, have other ideas. She suggests the cards refer to existential separation but to be honest that seems way too heady and therefore less helpful to me, so I’m going to focus on the Amberstone’s ideas.

Plus, I’m inspired by how Pamela Colman Smith concluded her article, “Should the Art Student Think?” published in The Craftsman Magazine in 1908. There she wrote “Use your wits, use your eyes. Perhaps you use your physical eyes too much and only see the mask. Find eyes within, look for the door into the unknown country.” Since she drew these pictures, at her urging, I want to venture beneath the surface to see what I might find there.

One idea I don’t want to dismiss is that the characters in these cards may simply be starring in a biopic play. As with any biographical movie, to add impact, some things are made to appear more dramatic than they actually are, but that doesn’t mean they negate the story being told. Sometimes things are very much as they seem.

Pamela Colman Smith loved the theatre and maybe this was her way of sharing her love and her inspiration.

So, why am I interested in them?

If the stage cards could in fact be nothing, then why am I interested in them? Theatre director, Peter Brook’s quote “I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across the empty space whilst someone else is watching him, and this is all that is needed for an act of theatre to be engaged,” sums up why I’m interested in stage cards. When I look at every card in the deck, in fact in every deck, it is my gaze that gives the card meaning.

I am transforming the image, regardless of whether it’s the appearance of a polar bear in The Ark Animal Tarot or a series of black lines and sticks drawn by Kim Krans for her Wild Unknown Tarot, into a relatable story. To do so I draw meaning from my life, my knowledge, my question, any other cards in the spread, and most directly, from the elements included in the card.

Out of seventy-eight cards in the RWS deck, on fourteen, Pamela Colman Smith drew two lines that gave the impression of a stage. Yes, I’m curious as to why, but I can’t answer that. What I can do though, is consider what impact they can have on how I see the cards.

Exploring four of the stage cards

Ten of Wands

In recent posts I wrote that the Earth Woman Tarot 10 of Wands shows a strong, independent woman shouldering her burdens. In Ciro Marchetti’s Mystic Palette Tarot he clearly illustrates the idea that many of our burdens exist purely in our mind. I appreciate and respect both of these interpretations and I can connect with both protagonists. Then I look at the RWS 10 of Wands and my first thought is, “What is he doing? Why would you carry your wands like that? It makes no sense.”

Then I see the stage.

I’ve heard this card interpreted in many ways. One of which is that he is nearly there, one final push and he will have completed his tasks. But then, what is the illusion? Does he want to be free of his “burdens” or does he identify with them? Is he carrying the wands in that way to show that he uses busyness as an avoidance strategy? Would he rather avoid going home? Or is it that he is trying to garner our sympathy? Is he a victim more so than the person on the 10 of Swords? So many questions.

What is going on beneath the surface and how does that relate personally when this particular stage card appears in a reading?

In another play, the scene may be suggesting the need to picture your goal. Achieving steps one through ten might seem challenging, but rather than just focusing on what is ahead, as per the Amberstone’s second idea, it’s time to envision the goal and what you want to manifest then use that visualisation to motivate you. Go within and draw on your strength. In this instance, this could suddenly well be my, “getting up a hill on a bushwalk” pep talk card. Until this very moment I have never seen the Ten of Wands in this way.

The first paragraph begs the question, “How am I doing this in my own life?” while the second encourages me to ask “How can I use this idea to help me overcome insecurity and overwhelm?” Shut it down by focusing on the why comes in answer to the latter question. Take a good, hard, and honest look at yourself comes to mind for the former.

Page of Cups

The Page of Cups is the only court card to be set on a stage. That got me interested. If Pages are simplified to being messengers then is his message sincere? Often I used to see the fish as his intuition talking to him. But then I saw the Page of Cups in Ana Tourian’s Tarot of Echoes pictured above and I saw him very differently.

That fish doesn’t belong in the cup. It belongs in the sea behind him. Plus, if all was as it seems, why is the sea not calm and tranquil and the background blue or yellow? Why is it a murky brown on my Original Rider Waite Tarot and grey on the Rider Tarot? Is he offering something he isn’t ready, or able, to offer?

Or does the dullness of the background suggest that while he is trying to manifest a vision for himself, his idea is not fully formed? Maybe it is too fanciful and lacks practicality?

I know that if I saw a man on a stage, holding a cup with a fish in it, I would feel uncomfortable. I’d want him to let it go. Journalist Ellen Goodman wrote, “There’s a trick to the graceful exit. It begins with the vision to recognise when a job, a life stage, a relationship, is over and to let go. It means leaving what’s over without denying its value.” Is that the message of this card when considered through the lens of the stage? Am I projecting the idea that what the “fish” represents is something wonderful and magical when in fact I really should be letting it go?

Ana Tourian’s version definitely suggests this.

Two of Swords

Look up the Two of Swords and invariably one of the keywords will be Indecision. But what does it mean when that indecision is played out on a stage? As with many of the RWS cards this figure is androgynous. Is she The Magician without the security the red coat affords? I often associate the colour red with the base chakra so does this mean that the indecision is due to a lack of basic resources? Does the person want to get to the other land mass but doesn’t have the means to do so? Is this a desire to move but without the financial resources to make it happen? Maybe as the Amberstone’s third idea suggests, maybe that’s merely a projection?

Or, is her indecision an act?

She knows what her heart is telling her but she is worried about what others would think of her decision. Isn’t this often the case? We know what we want to do but we worry about how others will feel about it. Or maybe she doesn’t want to do something and she’s pretending that she’s thinking about it? I’ve definitely been guilty of both.

And, why the rocks in the water?

Are they there to remind her that she needs to take little steps or that small steps can move her to where she wants to go if she is prepared to look? But the rocks seem too far apart to navigate easily so she might need another plan. Maybe the island in the background just a sandbar and therefore nothing solid enough to base a big decision on? Which is the illusion? The surrounding cards could narrow that down.

Or maybe, the answer is to simply block outside distractions and truly going within to find a solution and a way to bring it to fruition? Sometimes what you see is all that you need to see.

Nevertheless, the appearance of those two lines makes it much harder to simplify this card meaning to indecision.

Six of Pentacles

This is one of my least favourite cards in this deck. In general I see the sixes as harmony. After the challenges of the fives, here you can see how you can take your power back. But, this card doesn’t fit that idea. Maybe by the time I have explored it further through writing this, I will change my mind.

Nevertheless, at this stage I look at this entire act of charity as a performance. There is nothing generous about it. He stands above the others dropping money from a distance into one of the men’s hands. If nothing is as it seems though, how else can I look at it?

Maybe he is paying back that man’s generosity from when it was he who was struggling. When I look at the positioning of the pentacles it is possible to tease out that story. Maybe the man in the yellow cloak gave of his services or shared his knowledge, (3 pentacles), before the man had the resources he does now.

Plus, if things aren’t what they seem, what is on the blue cloak? Are they patches, as I first thought, or is it a pocket already overflowing with resources? Could this man actually be like the man with his hand out on the Six of Pentacles in The Green Witch Tarot pictured above?

And, where is the benefactor’s other leg? Is the man in the blue cloak cosying up to him that much now that he feels he has something to offer? And, has the benefactor seen past that?

Could it be that the other man with the two pentacles above his head did, as the the figure in the Two of Pentacles, (another stage card), does? Did he weigh up whether or not to help? Did he keep most of what he had to offer hidden under his “hat” rather than offering any assistance?

If I consider the wealthier man more generously myself then the scales could represent him balancing the ledger rather than him meting out what he feels the others deserve? Maybe it is about returning favours and appreciating the help that others offer even when they don’t have much to give. A simple reminder to not forget the people that helped you when your fortunes change? As so often occurs, I find the answers lie in the questions.

Plus I have found ways to consider this card in new ways.

Final thoughts

It really is possible to draw a lot of additional information to challenge your thinking from these stage cards. All it takes is a change of focus. As Shakespeare’s oft touted quote states,

All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players; they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts.

None of us are immune. It is up to us to decide what role we are playing when these cards appear.

---

Featured Decks

• The Original Rider Waite Tarot Deck
  • Created by Arthur Waite with art by Pamela Colman Smith and 1st Edition published by RIDER – TRADE 23 July 1999
• The Wild Unknown Tarot
  • Created by Kim Krans and published by Harper One in 2016
• The Ark Animal Tarot & Oracle Deck
  • Created by Bernadette King with art by Heidi Sutherlin. 2nd edition, 2nd printing published by Satiama Publishing in 2020
• Earth Woman Tarot
  • Created by Tarn Ellis and published by Lo Scarabeo 8 June 2024.
• Mystic Palette Tarot
  • Created by Ciro Marchetti with guide book by Lee Bursten and published by Llewellyn Publications on 15th April 2024
• Tarot of Echoes
  • Created and published by Ana Tourian in 2024
• The Rider Tarot Deck
  • Created by Arthur Edward Waite and Pamela Colman Smith and 1/30/03 edition published by US Games Systems Inc. 1 January 2000
• The Green Witch Tarot
  • Created by Ann Moura with artwork by Kiri Ostergaard Leonard with the 1st Edition, 5th Printing, published by Llewellyn Publications in 2019