Court overview

As with traditional tarot decks, the court cards are divided into four suits allocated to the four compass directions. Each court has four members: King (mature male), Queen (mature female), Jack (adult male or female), and Child (male or female). These can be used in readings, for example to suggest (by physical or temperamental similarity) a type of person who the subject may encounter.

Names
In this deck the four courts were inspired by research into the history of the Great North Wood, but represent types of people who can be recognised anywhere.

Kingsmen represent four established powers in the Wood: the Law, the Church, the City, and the College. These powers are historically based, but they also align with both contemporary and much longer term, even if not 'timeless', archetypes. They can appear as opposition, enforcement, and cycles of authority, eg outdated and crumbling or a newly emerged young leader.
Gypsies represent disestablished or illegitimate powers within the Wood. The images are not of stereotypical nineteenth-century gypsies, and the names are not intended to morally stereotype present-day ethnic groups. Moral stereotyping would be the province of the Kingsmen, excluding the Gypsy powers. In the area of South London where the deck is geographically rooted, gender and ethnicity play in patterns which are different from a hundred years ago, so the four images representing excluded powers use both contemporary understanding and an historically empowered name.
Theatricals represent creative powers who move between the established and disestablished worlds. There place is in flux, moving from the apparently lost, outside or fantastic to achieved, possessed actuality, and back in the opposite direction. They can appear amoral in being solely concerned with enabling this flow without regard to consequences.
Commoners represent powers defined more by their being fixed and stable than in their capacity to create change. They can seem to be just the powerless subjects of other powers, but they resist, endure, and continually rise afresh - the 'salt of the earth'.

Archetypes and individuals
The sixteen court cards are archetypes (as in the twelve signs of the zodiac), ie broad characterisations of people into types. While these are simplfications of individual diversity, they indicate the underlying similarities of role, quality and temperament, which people tend to possess. This is useful for generalising about people, for example in a reading situation where you want to identify a certain type of person. On a deeper level, archetypes are also ways in which individuals can transcend their personal limitations to access a higher level of power by identifying with or attuning to the archetypes.