Tea-break Tarot School

It’s the start of class.  We’re gathering, putting down bags, chatting.  A hush falls, as someone enters from the door at the back.  Heads turn,  she makes her way down the aisle, steadily, poised, graceful, if she catches your eye you’re both struck by her take-no-prisoners gaze and, just beneath it, a wicked, sharp humour.

Please bow, now, for the Queen of Swords.

This card is usually depicted as a female figure, often seated on a throne of some kind.  In the Gaian Tarot she is a seer, seated on a mountain top with a crystal bowl, in the Green Witch a woman with a knife trimming away dead flowers.  In the Steam Punk tarot she is seated side-on to the viewer, elegantly clad in a silken gown, her hand offered to a figure outside the scene to be kissed, but the giant sword clasped in her right hand suggests she is not someone you’d want to mess with, no siree. Her sword reminds me of the Justice card and I feel she brings some of this energy with her.  Similarly the figure in Two of Swords in the RWS deck (this Queen on a day trip to the seaside perhaps?).

The Queen of Swords is an energy to call on when needing to make choices, weigh options, and a card which challenges us to get out of our indecision and get on with it already.  In a reading she may represent someone else, male or female, who holds this energy for you, or she may be an indication that this energy is at play in your own life or the circumstances linked to your question.

I know a few people who would embody this figure; usually women in my experience, intelligent, often academics, an ability to think deeply and critically, yet also showing a creative flair in their thinking and life choices, breaking conventional “western” stereotypes of what it means to be a “woman” or “mother”.  A movie archetype for me would be Princess Leia or Eowyn in Lord of the Rings. Warrior queens.

Exercise 62

We’ve done this before but it’s a helpful way to get into the feel of the card.

• Take your Queen of Swords card. Sit with it as you slow your breathing.
• Now step inside in your imagination (a good air/ swords ability!).
• What does it feel like here?  What is the temperature? What do you notice visually in the environment around you?  What can you hear or smell?
• Greet the Queen (however s/he appears) respectfully.  Ask them what they have to teach you.  Listen within for the unexpected thoughts arising. Thank them for their wisdom.