Myers-Briggs Type Indicators and the Court Cards

Tarot court cards, sometimes known as "people cards," can represent situations, current attitudes, attitudes one should develop, or actions to take. They can also point to actual people, revealing a particular aspect of a person's character. 

In this series, I am focusing the court cards as representations of actual people. I want to emphasize that I don't believe in "typecasting." You cannot truly know someone without giving time and attention to get to know them. The MBTI can help us understand some ways we approach life and interact with others and tarot cards can point to certain characteristics or talents. However, we must be truly be present to one another. As my revered spiritual teacher says, "When we look into each other's eyes, let us remember that we are looking into the eyes of God."

To better understand the personalities of the court cards, I turned to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Like the tarot court cards, the MBTI categories do not describe a person entirely, but outline "differing psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions."

I have a fondness for tidy, organized systems that purport to explain things comprehensively. This inclination of many tarot students explains why Kabbalah, astrology, runes, and other systems have been grafted onto tarot, with varying degrees of practical success.

Similarly, I turned to the MBTI, a system in which I'm not fully conversant with and noticed a superficial similarity to the tarot court: there are 16 Myers-Briggs personality types and 16 court cards.

However, the vast difference between the two systems quickly became apparent. Despite this, I persevered and came up with a set of correspondences for testing.

The first difficulty was that tarot court cards have two characteristics (rank and suit), while the Myers-Briggs personality types have four pairs of characteristics. The MBTI pairs of characteristics are:

Attitudes: Extraversion (E) / Introversion (I)
Information-gathering functions: Sensing (S) / iNtuiting (N)
Decision-making functions: Thinking (T) / Feeling (F)
Lifestyles: Judging (J) / Perceiving (P)

(Judging relies mostly on the info gathering function, S or N, and Perceiving relies mostly on the decision making function T or F.)

The permutations of those 4 sets of characteristics results in sixteen psychological types, each designated by four letters.

One organized method of arranging all sixteen types is shown in the image below. The SJs are in the top left quadrant. Moving clockwise around the circle, the NJs are next, then the SPs and the NPs.

(Note: David Kiersey divided the sixteen pairs  differently than Isabel Briggs Myers had. In Kiersey's system, two sets are SJs and SPs, based on the second and fourth letters, and the other two sets are NFs and NTs, based on the second and third letters).

In attempting to assign court cards to the sixteen types, I decided to rely on the information-gathering function and the decision-making function to narrow down the possible suits associated with each type.

Here's how I assigned the tarot suits to the MBTI functions:

Sensing = Pentacles
iNtuiting = Wands
Thinking = Swords
Feeling = Cups

Thus, a type that includes both Sensing and Feeling could be represented by a Pentacle or by a Cup. While a type that includes both Sensing and Thinking could be represented by a Pentacle or a Sword. 

Attitudes (E/I) and Lifestyles (J/P) can correspond to any suit or rank, as shown in the chart below. Dividing the sixteen types into four categories, I assigned one card of each rank to that categoryand ensured that each group includes three of the four suits.

Although I did not understand why Kiersey divided the sixteen types as he did, I decided to keep his system in mind, and made sure that each of his four categories also contain one card of each rank. (As a result, his NF and NT categories contain only two suits each.)

Sensing-Judging Cards: 

ESFJ, ISFJ, ESTJ, ISTJ

E S F J (Caregiver) King of Cups 
I S F J (Nurturer) Queen of Pentacles 
E S T J (Guardian) Knight of Pentacles  
I S T J (Duty-fulfiller) Page of Swords 

Kiersey labelled the SJs melancholic or depressive. 

iNtuitive-Judging Cards:

ENFJ, INFJ, ENTJ, INTJ

E N F J (Giver) Page of Cups  
I N F J (Protector) King of Wands
E N T J (Executive) Knight of Wands  
I N T J (Scientist) Queen of Swords

In occult literature, kings are associated with the element of fire and thus to intuition. In my system of correspondences, only the King of Wands is aligned with an iNtuitive function.

The first two types in this group belong to Keirsey's NT category, which he labelled insensitive. The second two belong to his NF category, which he labelled over-sensitive. Taking his system into consideration affected which cards I assigned to the NJ and the NP cards.

Sensing-Perceiving Cards:

ESFP, ISFP, ESTP, ISTP

E S F P (Performer) Queen of Cups 
I S F P (Artist) King of Pentacles  
E S T P (Doer) Page of Pentacles  
I S T P (Mechanic) Knight of Swords

Occult literature associates Pages with the element of earth (sensing), Knights with the element of air (thinking), and Queens with the element of water (feeling). In my system, only the Page of Pentacles, the Knight of Swords, and the Queen of Cups are aligned with their proper function.

Kiersey labelled the SPs hypomanic, excitable.
 
iNtuitive Perceiver Cards:

ENFP, INFP, ENTP, INTP

E N F P (Inspirer) Knight of Cups
I N F P (Idealist) Queen of Wands 
E N T P (Visionary) Page of Wands  
I N T P (Thinker) King of Swords  

The first two types belong to Keirey's NF category, which he labelled over-sensitive. The second two belong to his NT category, insensitive.

*       *       *       *

This method of analysis, connecting tarot with another system, may not be the most fruitful use of tarot, which is, most importantly, a visual tool for harnessing intuition and exploring experiences. However, this was a fun puzzle. I haven't achieved a reliable, scientific chart or even a set of poetic correspondences to stimulate my imagination, but it was an enjoyable mental exercise.

There were several cards that I hoped would align with particular personality types: Page of Pentacles with the ISFJ type, King of Wands with the Counsellor (INFJ), and a few others. Less than half the time, I got what I wanted.

 Fully exploring these assignments will require more time studying the Myers-Briggs categories with the court cards in mind. I wonder if studying the MBTI lead to new insights into the cards.

EDIT: You can read about my conclusions about using these two systems in tandem at the end of my Page of Wands post.