By Sarah Taylor
The Queen of Wands cuts an interesting figure. She seems demure, and yet as the feminine guardian of fire she is wholly at home in her erotic energy; her expression is peaceful, impassive, even — yet she is flanked and backed by four lions, two teeth-bared, two sparring, and a single black cat. Is she a witch? She certainly holds the makings of a broom.
If the Queen is a wise woman who is at ease with who she is, then she is a witch. If she is a person who understands the necessity of balancing spirit and nature, then she is a witch. If she is someone who embraces the feminine instinct, even when it calls forth the darkness, then she is a witch.
The Queen has reached a stage in her own evolution where she has integrated the three stages of the feminine: she is maiden, ready to birth; she is mother, nurturer of her children; she is old woman, whose voice is her own.
As co-ruler of the suit of fire, she knows that the fire within and the fire outside are interdependent: life needs her creativity, and creativity needs to be sustained by life. The sunflower that she holds is not rooted in the ground, but in her. It’s as if they both feed each other. The black cat symbolises the intuitive part of her nature: a somewhat untameable and indefinable quality that has its own laws. Black cats are mysterious, sometimes a source of superstitious fears. That black cats are associated with witches says more about how we see these two creatures than it does about who they really are.