Tarot Tales: Y is for Youth (the Pages)

Welcome to the 2021 A to Z Blogging Challenge! My theme this year is Tarot Tales. I am making a selection of folktales, legends, and other traditional stories that correspond to tarot cards. Storytelling and tarot go well together. Do other stories come to mind? Let me know in the comments!

For the last time this month, I am doing court cards, four instead of one. We have already met the Kings, Queens, and Knights - it is time to meet the Pages! They are all about youthfulness, new beginnings, and potential. 

Page of Cups

This Page is full on unbridled creativity. They are open to new possibilities, follow their intuition and their feelings, they are curious about everything, and they love surprise discoveries. This card is about new creative endeavors, and seeing the beauty in new things around you. 

Windbird and the Sun (Khoi)

From a very old book, but it's a beautiful story. Thashira, daughter of the Queen of Fountains, is in love with colors. She collects flowers, berries, different kinds of dyes, and paints her own skin as well as the rocks around her home. She admires anything colorful. The Sun falls in love with her and creates colorful sunsets. The Wind also falls in love and brings rain to make colorful flowers. Thashira chooses the Sun, and as she rises into the sky to meet him, she becomes the rainbow.

Page of Swords

This Page is looking for knowledge. They want to learn new things, come up with new ideas, explore new theories, and find new ways to express all these. Since Swords are related to intellect and communication, this Page also has an affinity for wording or explaining things in innovative ways.

The two brothers and the magistrate (Korea)

This story features two very clever brothers who understand the language of birds and are "clever at drawing deductions from the smallest signs" (hmm, where have I heard this before?). They set out to see the world and exercise their skills. They solve a mystery about a lost cow, get framed for murder, and then dazzle a magistrate with all kinds of clever observations and deductions - including the one when they tell him who his biological father is.

Page of Wands

This Page is about restless energy. They are ready to go, starting out on a journey, full of inspiration and creativity. They want to discover the world, find new things, and go places.

The Ocean-Jumping Shoes (Hungarian folktale)

One of my favorite Hungarian tales. It's about a girl who wishes for ocean-jumping shoes so she can travel the world and see all there is to see. When her father finds her the shoes, she sets out on all kinds of adventures, including a visit to the Glass Mountains and an encounter with an evil witch. The brave and clever girl rescues a prince and his sisters, and goes on to many other adventures in her magic shoes.

Page of Pentacles

This page is about material, practical things: learning new skills, starting new business opportunities, finding a new profession, a source of income or wealth. They are actively beginning to turn ideas into tangible things, practicing, learning, exploring.

Archie's besom (Scottish Traveller tale)

One of my favorite tales from legendary Traveller storyteller Duncan Williamson. Archie is a poor boy who makes a living from doing odd jobs with his brother. One day they meet an old Traveller who makes brooms from heather, and Archie decides he wants to learn his craft. He gets to work with great determination and enthusiasm, asking questions and experimenting with making his first broom. The end result is a bit strange: Archie's besom is huge, much bigger than any broom should be. But Archie doesn't despair, rather he cheerfully sets out to sell it. As luck would have it, he meets a very strong-boned witch who has been looking for a broom big enough to carry her. She happily buys the broom, and pays Archie with a magic coin.

Which Page do you feel closest to? Have you started any new things lately?