The 78 Cards
Queen of Cups
Minor Arcana, the suit of Cups, the Queen. Element: water.
Compassion, intuition, and feelings held with care.
The picture
A queen sits on a carved throne at the very edge of the sea, with small childlike figures carved along its top. Water laps at the pebbled shore by her feet. She holds an ornate golden cup with a lid and a small cross on top, and she gazes at it closely. Her white gown seems to flow into the water around her.
Upright
The Queen is mastery on the inside. She holds and nurtures her suit. In Cups, she holds feeling itself: her own and everyone else's.
This is the card of compassion, empathy and intuition. The person who listens without rushing to fix. The friend you ring at two in the morning. The part of you that knows how someone feels before they say a word.
Look at her cup. It is the only cup in the whole suit with a lid. She keeps her cup closed and studies it, and what is inside stays safe until she chooses to open it. That is emotional mastery: feeling deeply, and still choosing what to do with it.
Look at where she sits too. Right on the line between land and water. She lives with one foot in the feelings and one on solid ground.
Like every court card, she can be a person, an approach, or a part of you. The age and gender of the figure do not limit who it describes.
Reversed
Reversed, the Queen either overflows or pours only outwards. I read this card as too much, or as turned inward.
Too much is the lid coming off. Soaking up everyone else's emotions until you cannot tell which ones are yours. Caring so much for others that you drown in it.
Turned inward is the Queen who gives her care to everyone except herself. Her own cup stays sealed and unattended while she listens to the whole world.
To tell which, notice how you feel after time with someone in distress. If you carry their feelings home and cannot put them down, it is too much, and you need a lid. If you are fine with them and neglecting you, it is turned inward.
When it turns up
Whose feelings are you carrying right now, and which of them are really yours?
If you would like the cards read against your own chart, my readings are here.
The 78 Cards
Every card in the deck, upright and reversed.
See every page and post in the Contents.
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