As a professional Tarot reader, I often get excited when I see a court card in a Tarot spread. Whether it’s a Page, a Knight, a Queen or a King, regardless of suits, they lend so much depth to my querant’s situations by offering me insights about the personalities and attitudes of the querants, or the other people involved in the querants’ lives and their approach to their respective situations.
I just returned from a wonderful 5-day vacation in Bangkok. Well, it was wonderful for me but I’m not sure if it was the same for the family members who traveled with me because I was a completely intolerable bitch fussing over every detail and stressing over any unexpected change in plans. The reversed Queen of Swords herself reigned in me that week.
So in this blog post, I would like to share my perspective about the Queens in Tarot by paying tribute to 4 key women who influenced my life positively.
Queen of Swords
I’ll start with her shall I? .The Queen of Swords is a seasoned lass. She’s got so much experience borne from her days of maneuvering times of gale force winds alternating with the gentle breeze. A Queen that’s associated with the element of Air, she’s the mother of intellect, deep thought, wit, guile and communication. You can never fool her, because she’ll smell bullshit from a mile away. She’s way too smart, way too savvy, extremely disciplined and if you annoy the hell out of her, she’s going to have you for breakfast.
This Queen is a manifestation of my Mom. Mom’s sharp as a knife and she’s been through a lot to be able to take a lot of things in her stride. However if you cross her path, she’ll make sure you’d never forget it. Mum had been through tough times when Dad got incarcerated for having a different point of view from the establishment. They weren’t that kind to alternative political viewpoints at that time, labeling Dad as a political dissident. However, Mom had balls made of brass. She marched into Dad’s boss’ office weeks after his incarceration and demanded that his boss continues to pay Dad his salary in spite of Dad’s detention, so that the family could survive. He conceded.
Queen of Pentacles
The Queen of Pentacles is the quintessential Earth Mother, rendering love and support to the people closest to her. She’s got the ability to balance her family life, nurturing and taking care of them whilst financially providing for them. Governed by the element of Earth, this Queen is so well-grounded, that she makes practical decisions in the interest of everyone around her. She’s also independent in her outlook and is not afraid to tread life’s journey on her own.
This Queen is a manifestation of my ex-boss and close friend L. She was a positive influence in my life and a role model for me. As a mentor, she was responsible totally for my career success. I became a good marketer because she taught me how to be one. But more importantly, she taught me to be the better person always during trying times. She held my hand through that winding path as I managed a divorce, single motherhood and a remarriage. At my second wedding, she was the one who walked me up the aisle. It wasn’t Mom and Dad because as staunch Roman Catholics, they had initial misgivings about my divorce and remarriage. It was L who was my best friend, mother, sister, mentor, boss all rolled into one.
I saw L as a fantastic boss when she could rally a huge team of marketers under her to deliver the best results for the company. Our team at that time, enjoyed a great deal of camaraderie and close friendships. Because of L’s positive influence, today I have a team of great marketers under me, I affectionately call the A-Team. They too enjoy a close and familial camaraderie envied by many other team members within this company.
Like L, I am not done learning yet. While she had gone on to attain a doctorate in the field and is happily teaching students who were once like myself, I had gone on to pick up a skill of a different kind – Tarot reading and numerology which helped me serve my purpose of bringing light, comfort and assurance to the clients who come to me. I could never thank the universe enough every day, for the light L brought to me.
Queen of Wands
My favorite Queen. This woman has unleashed her inner Goddess and is filled with exuberance, warmth and energy that even I can’t keep up with her. She leads such an active life, and welds her career with an iron hand, innate in a natural-born leader. She has a creative soul, always full of ideas and will waste no time sharing it with you quite openly. I’d like to think that I am this Queen but because I am a bit of an overbearing cow at times, people around me often tell me to “get back in my box”. Governed by the element of fire, this Queen is a ball of passion and enthusiasm. She will get things done, and done in her way as well. So watch out.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said “Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with your might, Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality.” The Queen of Wands personifies this statement and is a manifestation of one of my favorite personalities Oprah Winfrey. As a talk show host (I love her shows), producer, writer, publisher and philanthropist, she epitomizes strength, will and passion. She grew up in an impoverished home, daughter of a teenage single mom but made it right to the top as one of the few black billionaire women. From her, I learnt that nothing is impossible when you set your mind to it and conquer it with passion. Her website www.oprah.com has become a fabulous source of information and inspiration for me.
Oprah, in fact, coined this phrase which I have taken to be the mantra of the Queen of Wands, “Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another stepping stone to greatness.”
Queen of Cups
How many of you actually balance your head and your heart when you make critical decisions? This Queen does. Governed by the element of Water, she has so much emotional maturity, warmth and sensitivity. She is carried by the tide of a caring and compassionate disposition. Anyone in her midst who need help and comfort will flock to her instantly to seek solace, like a port in a storm.
I tried very hard to find someone in my life that actually has the qualities of this Queen. I’d like to think my Mom is one but really, I think there are times; I am calmer than she is and I have more composure than she does. So at this point, I am going to reveal a little secret of mine.
I had a privileged childhood. I was never in want of anything and was the apple of Dad’s and Mum’s eyes until 11 years later, my brother came into this world to turn mine upside down. As a spoilt only daughter who had to share her world with a snotty boy, I then grew up as a difficult and rebellious teenager because everything that I had, Jerome had twice more. He was a sickly boy, and suffered from fits quite frequently, so Dad and Mom legitimized their incessant pampering of Jerome with this reason. And where was my “port in the storm”? I found solace in the Mother Superior, Sister Catherine, at the Convent of Our Little Sisters of the Poor.
Our Little Sisters of the Poor was an order of Roman Catholic nuns who specialized in elderly care. They ran a home and a hospice for the aged years ago at Thomson Road in Singapore. I was introduced to the order by my childhood friend G and spent all my weekends at the home assisting the nuns with the elderly patients. I fed them, washed them, changed them, talked to them, prayed with them. My favorite moments were spent with Sister Catherine in the serenely beautiful and lush gardens of the convent grounds. There, she recounted her childhood stories and spoke to us about God and how she chose her vocation to help the elderly through their twilight years in a bid to make it as less painful as possible. I was mesmerized by these stories and I wanted to become like her. I wanted to be a nun.
Out of the 7-8 girls in our group that volunteered actively at the hospice, I only remembered 1 girl that had finally donned the habit of a novice. I was so filled with envy but as I grew older, I realized that my efforts at the hospice and my time spent with Sister Catherine, was my way of escaping the harsh realities of growing up pains.
I woke up at the moment when I had to make a choice to go on to university to complete my studies. Sister Catherine knew when to say goodbye. To her, it didn’t matter whether or not I chose that vocation to be a nun. What mattered to her was that she had been my guiding light in my teenage years and was critical in helping me develop my own emotional maturity and intellect to discern right from wrong, good from bad. Through that gift of emotional maturity, I discovered choice, and more importantly, I discovered the importance of taking responsibility for my own choices. I chose to leave Our Little Sisters of the Poor to find my life somewhere else and perhaps, one day, become the “port in a storm” for other people.
Don’t Be Afraid Of A Court Card
The protégés whom I mentor often tell me that their biggest fear in reading Tarot cards is having to interpret a Court Card. However, do you see now, why I absolutely love the Court Cards in Tarot? It’s not difficult to interpret them. I like to attach a significant person or influence in my life whenever I pick a court card. I do see the Court Cards as Tarot’s way of advising me to adopt the positive energy of that specific Court Card when I make important decisions.
When I pick the same for a client, I tend to have a deeper discussion with him/her about the people who have an influence on his/her situation. Quite often, the Court Card picked might be a manifestation of my client too.
So, do share your perspective with me. Which Queen do you most associate with?
The writer of this blog post is a marketeer by trade, and a tarot card reader by accident. She was awarded a Certified Professional Tarot Reader qualification from the Tarot Certification Board of America (TCBA) and was recently certified as a numerologist in Singapore. A member of the American Tarot Association (ATA) and the Tarot Association of the British Isles (TABI), she is also a reader for the Free Tarot Network and is a mentor for the ATA.
She can be contacted at www.facebook.com/SunGoddessTarot or www.sungoddesstarot.com
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