Agatha Christie’s detective, Miss Marple, said she solved crimes by recognizing the characteristics of people she knew well from her own small village.
Come to my June 18 class on the Court Cards to hone your skills (details at the end of this post).
What if each of the Court Cards was a suspect in an Agatha Christie murder mystery? Why don’t we call it, Murder at the Tarot Symposium! Sixteen is a lot of suspects, so let’s whittle down the possibilities. That’s easy because it’s one of the Court Cards who’s been killed. I shuffle my deck and the first card off the top is the Queen of Cups reversed. Sorry, Isabella Donati. It seems you fell down a steep flight of stairs (3 of Pentacles is the next card), right in front of two of the Court Cards, the Queen of Wands and Knight of Swords who were standing at the bottom of the stairs. They saw a hidden figure stick out a booted foot forcing the lovely Ms. Donati to fall. That leaves thirteen suspects.
Four teenagers, the Pages, who were newbies at this symposium, were at that moment being admonished by the Queen of Swords for bad-mouthing one of the presenters (9 of Swords). So that’s five more who are out, leaving eight.
The King of Cups reversed was in the bar – drunk as usual, telling his maudlin story to a High Priestess. Meanwhile, the Knight of Cups tried to extricate himself (8 of Swords reversed) from a lecture on the “true” history of Tarot by the argumentative, know-it-all King of Pentacles (5 of Wands).
That leaves five.
The King of Wands is followed by the Ace of Cups. He’s a passionate man who carried a torch for the beautiful and dreamy Queen of Cups, although she hardly deigned to take her eyes off her tarot deck to look at him. Hadn’t he offered to get Ms. Donati a cup of water?
The King of Swords, described by the 6 of Pentacles, was dispensing his definitive opinions to the vast unwashed masses via a podcast, so he’s out, isn’t he, or was the podcast pre-recorded? He didn’t like that students preferred Ms. Donati’s intuitive skills to the logic of his teachings.
The Knight of Pentacles reversed is a tee-totaler (4 of Cups reversed), supposedly off meditating in the retreat room. But I think a gift he’d brought Ms. Donati had been rebuffed.
The Queen of Pentacles reversed was doing voice exercises (Judgment) before her presentation on coming out of the closet as a tarot reader. Hadn’t she called out the blond-haired Ms. Donati in the past for being too blatantly revealing?
Last of the 16 and represented by the final two cards in my shuffled deck, the Knight of Wands, although young and impulsive, had considered Ms. Donati to be his special mentor (Hierophant). He had recently run off when he found her tutoring others.
Who do you think murdered Ms. Donati, the Queen of Cups? And why?
Mary K. Greer has made tarot her life work. Check here for reports of goings-on in the world of tarot and cartomancy, articles on the history and practice of tarot, and materials on other cartomancy decks. Sorry, I no longer write reviews. Contact me
Mary K. Greer's Tarot Blog 
29 comments
Comments feed for this article
April 9, 2017 at 8:02 pm
mboydp
What a cool idea, Mary!!!!
April 9, 2017 at 9:01 pm
Linda
I reckon The Knight of Pentacles RX did the dastardly deed. He’s wearing a decent set of boots and would be feeling vengeful if the lovely Queen of Cups didn’t accept his gift. Though maybe not, this Knight isn’t usually associated with spur-of-the-moment action, but he’s out of sorts and maybe took to the drink even though he’s supposed to be a tee-totaller….with disastrous consequences!
April 9, 2017 at 9:29 pm
mkg
Linda, thanks for playing. Good point about the Knight and his boots. And I would think he might get mean if he fell off the wagon.
April 9, 2017 at 9:30 pm
mkg
mboydp,
I’m so glad you like it.
April 10, 2017 at 4:19 pm
Charlie Harrington
Iiiiiinteresting! As we know it’s often the people with the best alibi who did it and something like this sounds like it was a conspiracy! We are meant to expect it’s the hot headed Knight of Wands who has felt betrayed by his mentor but if Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries have taught me anything it’s that his sort is too obvious a choice to be our killer. But who had motives in common enough to come together?
My money is on an alliance between the King of Swords and Queen of Pentacles. The common motive between the two is a deep regard for Tarot’s reputation and the link in the evidence is auditory. She was practicing voice exercises… perhaps she only SOUNDED like she was doing that but the King of Swords recorded her earlier and also his podcast and then played both recordings loudly from their rooms. Being a former Tarot podcaster I can attest to their unsavory nature.
The Queen of Pentacles asked Ms Donati up to her room because she was in distress, knowing a Queen of Cups always leaps to lend a listening ear (and a heaping of advice). Once she passed the tapestry on the landing the King kicked out with his booted foot and sent her to meet her maker.
April 10, 2017 at 4:54 pm
Anne Zetterberg
This is fun. I like the scenario in the comment above – Miss Marple often revealed surprising co-conspirators! I would pick the King of Swords too. The pre-recorded podcast is very easy for someone with his technical mastery. I imagine the Queen of Cups intuited from the Six of Pentacles that he was playing favorites among his students in an unsavory way and dispensing more than knowledge – he killed her to save his reputation and his teaching career!
April 10, 2017 at 5:12 pm
Charlie Harrington
Oooh I could see that – a teacher/student scenario is just the sort of thing a King of Swords might get up to. It’s even possible that the some of those Pages who were bad-mouthing other presenters were students of his and had taken on his zealous demeanor. This would arouse the suspicions of an astute Queen of Swords who would easily put two and two together.
April 10, 2017 at 5:17 pm
Mary K. Greer
Charlie & Anne,
I love your thinking and the fact that you are on the same page. Playing favorites in an unsavory way?? One of the Pages being affected? Queen of Swords as detective? Someone revealing too much. Hummm. In a day or two I’ll draw a few more cards to see if we can get another clue as to who the murder(s) might be. I like where this is headed.
Mary
April 10, 2017 at 7:25 pm
Lynda Fox
It was the King of Wands! The clue is in the Ace of Cups. He revered the ethereal Queen of Cups and put her high on a pedestal. Unfortunately he just discovered that she was no Madonna and the child she was expecting was not his. The terrified Queen backed away as he swung his club and down she went… game over.
April 10, 2017 at 10:22 pm
Kaira Sherman
Absolutely brilliant Mary. Have fun in England!
Much Love,
Kaira
April 11, 2017 at 12:51 am
tarotfreecom
I would focus on the King of Swords. I believe his “serial” podcast was actually a recording. The murder of Ms. Donati was premeditated by the King of Swords and he played the recording as an alibi that he was in his room recording live. His meaning in the Legend of the Arthurian Tarot describes him as “an authority figure who has secured his standing, but continues to seek promotion.” (thus he was jealous of Ms. Donati’s intuitive skills) “One who may be ruthless and daring in attaining his ambitions.” (he would do anything, even kill, to get rid of the person that was more popular with the students.
April 11, 2017 at 12:52 am
tarotfreecom
Not sure why my post posted as tarotfreecom but the above post was by Caroline Broussard.
April 11, 2017 at 12:56 am
Sally Rose
OOooo.. I say it was the Knight of Wands but he was coerced by the King of Swords and the Queen of Pentacles who were conspiring but didn’t want to get their hands dirty. So they plotted to use the Knight as he was saddened by Ms. Donati ‘s “betrayal” and was putty in their diabolical hands. They convince the young Knight that Ms. Donati was not worthy of his devotion and there for must “go.” Just a little accident. No one would suspect any of them as well Ms. Donati is such a clumsy thing, right? Anyone would have fallen down those stairs in those shoes.
April 11, 2017 at 8:09 am
Anne Zetterberg
Charlie, that’s brilliant that the pages are the King of swords’ students. I like that they get to participate, plus Miss Marple was very aware of the young people in her village. So I’m for taking a closer look. The Page of Cups must have smelled something fishy! Maybe went to the Queen of Cups. I’m pretty sure the page of pentacles had his nose buried in a book and noticed nothing. That leaves Page of Swords and page of wands. Which was the king of swords’ undeserving favorite? One is idealistic and one is rather eager and possibly ambitious. Which is which? We need Miss Marple to tell us who they remind her of in her village. . .
April 11, 2017 at 10:15 am
C.A.T.
Ahhh, but was the King of Cup really drunk???
April 11, 2017 at 10:51 am
mkg
Anne,
Since the Court Cards are the inhabitants of your own inner village you should know which Page was most likely to be the ‘undeserving favorite.’
April 11, 2017 at 12:30 pm
Charlie Harrington
Much to mull over, when you pull cards to find more clues I would love to see if there are any cards that can explain the relationships between the suspects.
Miss Marple was a bit of a Queen of Swords wasn’t she?
April 11, 2017 at 1:38 pm
mkg
Charlie, I’d say that Miss Marple was a Queen of Swords in the guise of a Queen of Pentacles (with her gardening, etc.). It those knitting needles she was always wielding that were the dead give-away.
April 11, 2017 at 1:38 pm
mkg
C.A.T., good question about the King of Cups – was he faking being drunk? If so, what was he covering up by doing so?
April 12, 2017 at 3:02 pm
Doro
Somehow my comment wasn’t posted. I thought I’d left one the other day. So I’ll try again … my take on the case: it was the Queen of Wands and the Knight of Swords. They were in on it together. They didn’t witness Ms Donati falling, they pushed her. There never was a booted foot. Ms Donati was about to expose them as frauds at the symposium because in violation of the ethics rules and possibly even the law the pair cheated people out of their money by using insider knowledge, manipulation/sabotage and fake tarot readings. They made people believe they were cursed and offered to lift the curse for a certain sum of money.
Ms Donati was onto them and was about to reveal what those crooks were up to.
They were the least suspicious in the set-up, so in a mystery novel that is not a good sign. 😉
April 12, 2017 at 5:05 pm
Charlie Harrington
Aaaah Doro, so the 3 of Pentacles for the Queen of Wands and Knight of Swords might indicate a creative collaboration. Teamwork may have been the key.
April 12, 2017 at 11:10 pm
Doro
Right. And the 3 of Pentacles shows ambition, too.
April 12, 2017 at 11:19 pm
Doro
I don’t seem to be able to directly comment on the posts. But I like the conspiracy theory about the King of Swords and the Queen of Pents. For me this had the feeling of teamwork, too.
So we’re definitely looking for more than one culprit. The pages as his students and Queen of Cups about to expose him – that’s great. Do we have a motive for the Queen of Pentacles? Why did she help? Only because she wants to protect Tarot’s reputation? Or maybe she idolizes the King of Swords or is in love with him and she doesn’t want to see her image of him hurt in any way?
April 13, 2017 at 5:29 am
thebackdeck
(This is Anne Zetterberg – I have trouble posting too.) I wonder if the Queen of Pentacles was trying to protect the reputation of one of the student/Pages? Seems like something she might do – perhaps she is secretly the mother of one of them. That may be more soap-opera than Agatha Christie!
April 13, 2017 at 5:36 am
thebackdeck
(Anne Zetterberg again) Mary, I didn’t pick one of the pages although my money was on the Page of Wands, because I was hoping that Miss Marple in her incarnation as your Tarot deck would give us more cards for the Pages as clues to how they are involved.
Needless to say, I am enjoying the mystery tremendously. Thank you for this new interactive Tarot activity!
April 13, 2017 at 5:41 am
Doro
Off topic: I just noticed the word “tremendous” i.e. “tremendously” has started to creep me out. Wonder why?
April 14, 2017 at 11:26 am
mkg
Doro & Anne
I love your solution, Doro. It is elegant. It is devious. It is nasty. Lovely!
Sorry to have coped out on the Pages. I was trying to simplify the story and not get lost in too many details.
[My earlier comment on your post went astray, too. Don’t know what’s happening.]
April 30, 2017 at 5:09 am
Weekly Tarot Forecast: 29 April 2017
[…] Loving this court card murder mystery idea from three weeks ago by Mary K. Greer. Lots of fun and educational as well. Details here. […]
January 24, 2022 at 6:17 pm
Mel Hofmann - Energy Healer and Artist
Nice and amazing post. I really appreciate you on good effort.