Journeying into a tarot card – Queen of Wands, Sacred Circle Tarot

Today’s tarot article is brought to you by tarot reader, teacher and counselor, Emma Sunerton-Burl. You can find Emma’s website here.

By Emma Sunerton-Burl

In this article, I will be journeying into a card from the Sacred Circle Tarot deck which was created by Anna Franklin and Paul Mason and Published by Llewellyn. To undertake the journey, I approached it with the intention that I would gain information about the card as a whole, as well as the personal message that it held for me. To help achieve this, I used the visualisation of light and a stairway to take me into the higher realms before walking into the card.

Journeying into a tarot card is a good technique to use to understand a deck better and to gain a personal working relationship with it. I am compiling my own journeys into the Sacred Circle into a book, using them to bring together meanings for each card and questions and affirmations that you can also ask yourselves. At the end of this article I have included the meanings I discovered for the specific card we are working with today, namely the Queen of Wands. When choosing which card to use, I elected to let the deck decide and picked a card that would be of most use to all those who would read this article — so hopefully something in this journey will speak to you.

I share my journey with you below.

I look at the card and see the sunrise shining over the landscape; it looks very pure and wholesome. The queen looks young and has a gentleness about her. It seems as if she stands guard over the realm.

I walk into the card.

“After the blackness comes the light and all becomes clear: There is a meaning to the world and the layout can be seen clearly. I am the goddess of the dawning of the day. I bring freshness and renewal. Come to me for renewal of yourself. I have energy and enthusiasm; I will help impart these qualities to you. My youthful spirit and look is not to be confused with naivety. I travel through the night time — the darkness of the soul — to show you it is possible and to give you the illumination that you need in your life.

“When darkness is experienced, then your world is viewed with new eyes in the dawn of a new day and you can begin again — afresh with experience and strength from what you have been though, facing your fears and your inner difficulties, trusting only to your inner senses to know the way to go. I am the guardian of inner knowledge too: I light the fires of passion and joy — you can only know the true you and experience your true passion for life after you have been through the shadow of yourself and reclaimed the wealth and gold you stored there with the hard difficult parts of yourself.”

“Wow. Thank you,” I say. “You have so much to say to me and I have only just got here.”

“It is part of my nature to get right into things: I do not waste time and like to cut to the chase and speak as it is necessary. Come explore my realm. I can show you where you store your hidden energy and help you release it for use in your life.”

“That sounds great,” I say. “Thank you.” I like this woman. She seems unstoppable and intense but also very straightforward, like nothing is hidden. There is a lovingness to her even though she hesitates for nothing. I feel that she understands at some level people who are different from her.

“I would like to talk with the fox and the fire before we travel on. Would that be ok?” I ask.

“Yes, certainly,” she says, and stands back to allow different interactions to take place.

“Hello, fox. What do you represent here?”

“I am the slyness and cunning that are sometimes needed to allow people to believe what they want to believe. If my message falls on deaf ears I do not worry, for I know I cannot be attacked, as within my message there is truth for those who wish to hear; for those who are not ready for the message, I will seemingly slip away and disappear as if invisible. It is my protection. I protect the queen here so she is free to be all of herself: I will help her to slip away when needed without a trace, as well as to feel confident to stand strong in her own domain and land as is appropriate.”

“It seems strange to me,” I say “that she is so open and forthright, and yet you seem to be the opposite of that.” “Well,” he says, smiling. “I am her shadow, am I not? And she knows me well so she can indeed be all of herself — for if she denied the side of her that was hidden and unknowable — that liked to be private and unseen — she would indeed be cutting herself off from an important part of her and a part that at times she needs for protection. Not for deceiving another in a negative way, but for becoming invisible to those who do not understand her. I know you know what I talk of, as invisibility is something you wish for, along with your need to be seen and heard by others. When the balance is right you honour your spirit, and I am here to help you and her honour that spirit in truth.”

“Thank you, fox. You are very wise indeed.”

I turn to the fire and it tells me it will consume and transform anything that is put into it and that the old will be burnt away to ashes so that the new can be reborn. It is a letting go, but more than that, it is a transformation in order to allow more of the self to be free and to allow more energy to be active in the body and the person. “What would you have me transform for you?” it asks. I pause and consider for a moment.

“I would like you to transform fears I have — fears of being overwhelmed, fears of being too slow, fears of being too much.”

“Throw your fears into the fire and watch the flames for the messages of your life ahead. As you let go of these restricting fears, you will see the gold you can claim and also the freedom and energy that will be released.”

From the fear of being overwhelmed, I receive trust and the knowing that I have the power to align my life at the level of energy and activity I am comfortable with, and that the universe will act in accordance with my wishes, and that my wishes are allowed.

“From your fear of being too slow [this is referring to my running, and though this wasn’t mentioned specifically in the journey I feel it may have meaning in a more general sense, too] you release your fear in your body and allow your strength of character to shine through as a beacon both to yourself and to all others who are near you. Your speed is the speed that is right for you at any one time, and as you trust this process your energy of enjoyment will increase and excitement will be yours regardless of the time you take, and this will help you and result in making you faster — for it is not speed you are focusing on but your inner enjoyment of expressing yourself physically as you go forward.”

As I release my fear of being too much, I claim knowledge of my own power as a transformative and spiritual experience for me and those around me. My fear had served to hold me back, for it was fear of how good I could be. As I do not fear this any more, I am free to show myself as I am and others can benefit from this experience as well. My own life is no longer littered with paranoia and uneasiness when I feel strong, nor do I feel a pulling back when I approach success. The fire burns my fears; spirit fills my motivation; my fear of being self-serving disappears as I look to the heavens and become aware I am nothing without the energy of spirit in my soul and its connection to the source — and that it is this connection that is the source of all, and not my ego. This connection is available to all, whether they are aware of it or not.

“Thank you, great fire. I feel you have helped me considerably with your simple cleansing that you have offered me here.”

I turn to the queen. She is smiling patiently as if she knows I have to go through these things before I can truly experience her journey, and she is not hurrying me although she is speedy and lightning-quick in her actions and travels.

“I will go with you now,” I say. “Where do you have to take me?” I follow her off to the right and I am taken to a wall which looks very familiar to me. Then I realise that this is my personal garden that I travel to often to receive information and to find answers to my questions. “Why are you bringing me here?” I think. She says, as if hearing me, “This is your garden. It is you. Explore it and know it is all of you — all facets and all areas — and your power is safe here, your energy is free and open here. Go here if you need to claim anything of yourself, and you will find a cave going deep into the earth. Deep in here, you will find a physical manifestation of what it is that you are reclaiming of yourself. Go and explore — you know the terrain. I am here should you need me — just call — I will let you guide yourself from here as it is your world.”

I walk into my garden and feel at ease and at peace, and somehow things slow down immediately: I feel at home and less frantic. I walk left into some woodland where I rarely explore. I see a small opening to a cave to the right and I am guided into it.

The small entrance opens out into a large cavern with an orange glow to it — like the rocks themselves have a light to them. I follow deeper into the cavern and I see pure crystals in orange, like amber, in the watery pools at my feet. I pick one up and put it into my sacral chakra: I know this is a cleansing of my creative energies and of my connections with others at this level. I stand up and feel the crystal move to my back and heal the pains I have been experiencing here; I experience a sudden release and an opening to this point that I feel as if I had been keeping it tightly shut. I can feel the energy lifting, that the fears have gone from the fire earlier, and that now I am claiming release and freedom in the physical world.

I really like this cavern and its coolness that is not cold but is somehow fresh. I see a guide come to me — a man I have met many times before. He comforts me and strokes my back area. “You can let it go now — it is safe,” he says gently, over and over. I allow his words to wash over me and ask my body to follow his instructions.

I feel a place between my shoulders which almost takes on some of the dissipating energy and I ask my guide about it. He puts a turquoise crystal into my back and says it will keep the energy flowing for me. I allow it in and to work for me; I feel this is an important thing for me right now.

“Thank you,” I say to my guide, and I tell him I will be back later. I walk out of the cave and into the garden. The Queen is there waiting for me with her fox with a gentle, loving, understanding smile. I know I have no need to explain to her what has happened — just to know all is well. We walk back to the card and the doorway in peace and contentment. As I leave, I thank her, and she says, “You have done well, my child. Your energy is balanced now — and you know the excess of this card leads to burn out from your own experience. It is a good learning. Reversed cards can indicate this over-use of energy, as well as the under-use of your own power. In balance, there is peace as well as an energised feeling — and peacefulness doesn’t have to mean slowness or inaction or quiet meditation, though there is a place for these things. There is spiritual growth through excitement and activity also.”

“Thank you again,” I say, and walk out of the card, transformed. A powerful and wonderful experience – I really enjoyed this card.

From the experience

Key Words

Directness, renewal, energy and enthusiasm, youthfulness, mastery of the shadow, passion, joy, compassion, strength, witnessing process, release of life energy, feeling all feelings, freedom from oppression, self-contained, wise use of cunning, transformation of fears, fire, expression of soul energy on the physical plane, sacral chakra.

Reversed

Burn out, avoidance of truth through over-activity, under-use of personal power, the need to prove oneself, splitting of energies in too many directions, excitement as a block to getting things done.

Transformational potential

When this card is in a reading, you have the opportunity to let go of any fears or emotions you have been storing. As you acknowledge and release things you have held to tightly, you release tied-up energy and find yourself free and energised. Life flows, and much more can be accomplished easily. It also leads you to a place of compassion as you see in others the processes you underwent to get to this point of having the courage to let go. Compassion doesn’t mean rescuing those whose struggle you understand, but witnessing their situation, confident that they too can make it to their freedom.

Questions

1. What would it mean for you to embrace your personal power fully? What things would change in your life?
2. Is there anyone you need to be compassionate towards at this time? Can you bear witness to their journey?
3. Where might you need to use your cunning and intellect in you current situation? Hold to your own beliefs without feeling you need others to agree with you.

Suggestions

• Trace back into your history the earliest time you felt you needed to hide your power, and/or hide your energy. Be compassionate to yourself in this situation and see how it aided you at the time. Then take the opportunity to show yourself how things are now different from that situation and that it is safe to embrace your power and energy fully.
• Be compassionate rather than judging towards all situations and people you see and witness. See if this changes your usual perspective.

Affirmations

• I am filled with power and love.
• I embrace my full energy and use it in the service of love.
• I honour my own experiences whether others understand them or not.
• I claim the gold from my shadow.

A note about reading reversals:

The way I am seeing reversed cards here is that access to the card’s energy is challenged or blocked in some way. With this in mind, a reversed card represents a transition to the more direct energy of the upright card. So when you get a reversed card in your reading, read first the reversed meanings — this is your starting point and the energy you are likely to be accessing as this card comes to play in your life. Then read the upright meaning and transformational potential, as these energies are also available to you as you recognise and accept the current position indicated by the reversed meaning.

Deck created by Anna Franklin and published by Llewellyn. The Sacred Circle Tarot deck is available to buy from both websites, and also from Emma’s book store.