Editor’s Note: If you want to experiment with tarot cards and don’t have any, we provide a free tarot spread generator using the Celtic Wings spread, which is based on the traditional Celtic Cross spread. This article tells you how to use the spread. You can visit Sarah’s website here. –efc
By Sarah Taylor
Interesting. When I was shuffling and cutting the deck in preparation for this weekend’s single-card reading, part of my mind was obviously still on Wednesday’s article, where we had worked with three cards. And so I started by picking out three cards instead of one.
The first one is the one that I’m going to be working with today: the Queen of Swords. But I think it is significant that the second card that I had drawn was the 7 of Wands, the star of last weekend’s reading.
For me, that marks an obvious progression; and a nod to the idea that the cards are all connected, and that the stories that they tell have no end and no beginning, but work together to mirror the flow of life.
So, to the Queen of Swords — specifically the Queen from the Rider-Waite Smith deck, which I am going to be working from today.
The little white book that accompanies the Rider-Waite Smith deck has, I feel, a rather narrow definition of the Queen of Swords, associating her with such things as “sterility, widowhood, embarrassment”. That’s not to say that these do not apply, but I believe that the cards speak to our light as well as our shadow aspects, and the Queen of Swords is no exception. There is a strength and richness to the imagery that is far from sterile or austere, and, in fact, evokes a sense of the Queen as one who is devoted to nurturing her subjects using the strengths that she has as a ruler.
Court cards (i.e. the King, Queen, Knight and Page) often refer to people rather than situations or things. They tend to come up in a reading when the cards wish to draw the querent’s attention to someone in their life, or to aspects of themselves. This isn’t always the case, but I have found that my own readings have borne this out more often than not.
The Queen is a serious ruler. Her hair and the resolve demonstrated in her firmly set jaw remind me of what we know of Queen Elizabeth I: a woman who was aware of her femininity, but who was able to draw on the more masculine aspects of assertiveness and action to protect those in her care.
Her long red hair is partly covered by a red headdress and gold crown of butterflies. Butterflies — often symbols of transformation — adorn her throne, as do two sickles, which are associated with those who work the land: perhaps the workers over whom she holds dominion. The landscape behind her is far from austere: trees and water appear to her left, dominated by the sky, a mix of blue expanse and roiling clouds.
Swords are representative of the mind and mental processes. Here, the Queen wields the sword of reason, which is thrust above the clouds and into the blue. Her mind rises above confusion and her hand points forward, her resolve apparent in her face, as she sees the way through the turbulence. She is in control of her thoughts — also seen in the fact that she wears a cloak that mirrors the sky: it is in service to her, not she to it.
There is also something distinctly masculine about her sword: she owns the phallus as it stands erect. Here, again, she is both masculine and feminine incarnate. She has mastery over her sexuality and is able to channel it to her will. This takes me full-circle to Queen Elizabeth I as The Virgin Queen, who chose to direct that energy into her role as monarch, rather than as a wife or mother.
In this reading, the Queen symbolises to me the idea of directed, controlled action of the mind in service to something. There is balance in the picture that is really not alluded to in many descriptions. There is nature (trees, water) vs. civilization (the throne); hardness (sword and stone) vs. softness (hair, clothing); colour vs. monochrome. All work together to create imagery that evokes upward and forward motion.
The Queen of Swords is alone, yes — as are we all. To dwell on that as something to be feared or avoided, however, ignores the gifts that solitude can help us to find: clear-headedness, single-pointedness, unimpeded action, wholehearted devotion and the integration of both male and female rather than seeking for a sense of power ‘out there’.
A small bird soars into the blue skies in the distance. My eye keeps getting drawn back to it, as if to remind me that even these qualities that we find in the Queen are not the be-all and end-all. That sometimes it is necessary to leave the firm, the directed and the resolute behind to be lifted on the thermals of something that we cannot control fully. All things are transitory and have their time. The Queen might have hers, but she is not necessarily the final answer.
I did some extensive research and I couldn’t find any examples of Victorian or Edwardian mourning jewelry with tassels. It seems like that would be too ostentatious for mourning. There were period bracelet designs with tassels, but the only examples I could find were very showy, solid gold chain-like tassels, and did not look anything like the tassel in the card.
It is kind of a reach, turning the little tassels into a wrist binding, the drawing is indistinct so there’s no direct evidence in the card to support that interpretation. But I think it fits the spirit of the card.
There are some fantastic contributions here – thank you, everyone! Charles, your description of the tassel, especially, makes a lot of sense.
Jere – I take your compliment in the spirit in which it was given! š
This is the most understandable interpretation of this card, I have encountered.
And so synchronistically attuned to what is happening in my life at the moment.
Amazing.
Charles, good call.
Sarah, your spread’s impeccable. (Yes, I know that sounds weird.. I’m just sayin’..)
With laughter and smiles,
Jere
I recall an interpretation of that “bracelet” as a tassel of rope. The Queen had her hands bound by rope, and has used her sword of reason to cut the bonds and free herself. Look closely and you can see a similar tassel laying on the armrest of her throne, under her right hand. She raises her right hand, to display the tassel, to show others the way of liberation. She could have removed them completely, but she retains the symbols of her former bondage. I like this interpretation very much, I use it a lot. I wish I could remember where it originated.
This card has lovely symbolism. It is all about Air. She wears a robe of blue with clouds, but interestingly, the trim and inner lining is red and yellow.I see that as the airy outer personality concealing more fiery, turbulent internal thinking.
I see this card as passive. Her pose seems receptive, not active. She rests the hilt of her sword on the armrest of her throne. She holds the sword perfectly vertical, no other Air court card does that. Her left hand seems to beckon.
Her throne rests on a raised platform, she is literally raised into the air. I never heard anyone describe those arcs on the side as sickles, but I can see your point. I always read them as symbolic of two opposite lunar phases. That seems more feminine, and also shows she can change moods to an exact opposite.
Note how little of the ground we see in the card, she seems like she is on a mountain peak, far above the world. In the background we see trees, they look like windswept pines like you’d see on the sides of a high mountain, but we barely see the ground that anchors their roots, it seems like they spring from a pile of mountain snow. The turbulent clouds dominate the background, rising from the earth, a storm is coming but is still distant. But for me, the most essential symbol is the single bird. I describe it during readings as “ideas take flight.” It is exactly above her head, symbolizing the mind and its ideas.
The themes of this card speak to me about using one’s own mental processes and discernment to cut through difficulties and make a decision. She may be somewhat cruel, but she is fair, and above getting presonally involved in the difficulties. Problems come to her, she decides with her keen wit, and these thoughts move on to take other forms. Air is too nebulous to sustain a form of its own, it always moves on.
I am told it’s a Victorian mourning bracelet. Hence, the interpretation of someone who has experienced a loss, and also someone who is independent.
Sarah:
Since I get this card alot as my signifier, I have learned to embrace her. I/she can get along quite well in the man’s world, and she is probably smarter than most men. Your description using QE1 is apt, but its not always an easy place for a woman to be.
I wonder if the bids in the background aren’t ideas? Dreams? Her realm is the air and the clouds. Being an Aquarian woman, I see her quite clearly being grounded, rooted, in fact, allowing the birds of her visions to fly free.
My first thought was Kabbalah. Amazing how that bracelet has worked its way into my consciousness from the media.
My second was that it is a beautiful contrast to the sword. Small, soft, red – female. There is some beautiful symmetry going on with the hands, the sword and the bracelet.
What are your thoughts?
Sarah, the little booklet that comes with this deck is fairly well useless and I have thrown away many of them.
You do an excellent job interpreting this card.
I didn’t see you mention her bracelet. What do you make of that?
ef