its been six months since i did one of these! how silly. now its halloween. not samhain yet for another hour 40 or so by my count - i consider halloween to be the whole calendar day of the 31st, but samhain to be from the sunset on the 31st until the sunset on the 1st of november. but thats just my style (pedantic) ! anyway .
so the queen of swords . this is one of those ones where i get like nothing off the bat from the waite entry. here it is anyway:
"Her right hand raises the weapon vertically and the hilt rests on an arm of her royal chair the left hand is extended, the arm raised her countenance is severe but chastened; it suggests familiarity with sorrow. It does not represent mercy, and, her sword notwithstanding, she is scarcely a symbol of power. Divinatory Meanings: Widowhood, female sadness and embarrassment, absence, sterility, mourning, privation, separation. Reversed: Malice, bigotry, artifice, prudery, bale, deceit."
i remember jessica dore getting pissed about how misogynist this is in an instagram story i think. unless it was the queen of cups. (edit: i found the screenshot, it was this one) i thought i screenshotted it but i cant find it. anyway just reading this by itself i dont get it, personally. so then i checked 78 degrees of wisdom, rachel pollacks book, and let me pull a big quote out of that too.
"As the yin aspect of the suit, the Queen of Swords symbolizes experiences of both sorrow and wisdom, and especially the connection between them. Having experienced pain (the card sometimes signifies widowhood), and having faced it with courage, acceptance, and honesty, she has found wisdom."
that makes way more sense to me! she even kind of addresses the smack of gender later with this:
"In the sense that powerless women will often suffer from the actions of men, the card refers specifically to women. In its character, it can represent someone of either sex, for neither sorrow nor courage are restricted by gender."
thats great. so the receptive part of the mastery of swords (air, intellect) ... the connection between wisdom and sorrow. thats heavy and cool. you know what, theres only one more paragraph to that entry, actually the middle paragraph .. lets have it too. theres just too much good stuff in there.
"The tassel hanging from her left wrist (the side of experience) resembles a cut rope (compare the Eight of Swords). She has used the sword of her intellect to free herself from confusion, doubt, and fear; now, although she frowns at the world, she opens her hand to it. Though clouds gather around her, her head remains above them in the clear air of truth. One bird, a symbol of hte purity of her wisdom, flies high above her. Her sword, like that of Justice and the Ace, stands straight up."
just ... so much good stuff , thing on her wrist being the remains of the sword-cut ropes that had bound the figure in the 8 ... "although she frowns at the world, she opens her hand to it" ... what a killer line !
side note, i always liked her butterfly crown. just a cool piece. i like that butterflies appear as a counter symbol to the swords in the higher court cards ... emerging from their cocoons ... here's the queen literally crowned with the final stage of realized transition , yet the thing itself is so fragile and delicate , in foil to the sword .. just nice . going back to the waite entry i can ALMOST see how hes trying to say some of this . not enough that i really wanna talk about it tho .
this ones pretty freeform huh ! i wonder if im gonna publish it like this. 40 min to sundown . so the queen of swords embodies this kind of wisdom that comes from an acceptance of sorrow. at first just there i wrote "existential ennui that comes with a mastery of intellect." but weirdly i think thats kind of reversed from whats actually on the card. cause its coming from the other direction, like sorrow is the thing thats showing you the truth, not the truth bringing you sorrow.
she's got the sword like Justice and but she's in profile instead of head on. a specific side of justice ... the sword side, namely ! here's the whole entire entry from "next world tarot" by cristy c. road. this is fun it's like a little reading list with inline gloss.
"Fairness and survival are universal. The Queen of Swords believes they can exist in the absence of an emotional response. They enable life, family and community to happen—even the times our hearts are closed. Neither are a construct, and both are essential to co-existing in humanity. Respecting others, eating, breathing, drinking water, being accountable— this enables us to think, live, seek purpose, and grow from moments of both turmoil and enlightenment. The Queen of Swords reminds us that the harshest of these experiences fortify us in order to eventually open our hearts.
The Queen accepts the challenge and asks you to do the same. The Queen of Swords is devoted to her method of thought, as it mirrors the grounded and unchangeable qualities of fairness and science. If a situation deserves objective focus, intent, and wisdom, the Queen asks to set your heart aside and make a just decision.
The Queen of Swords asks you to investigate what is truly healing. She asks you to evade unwarranted sentiments, and empathetic responses that erase your truth."
so some common ground ... harsh experiences fortifying us in order to eventually open our hearts ... and then some more focus on the "justice-related" side, the objectivity of fairness stuff .. i like "they enable life family and community to happen even the times our hearts are closed" line a lot. because sometimes thats what it takes ! sometimes you have to use your head and not your heart in order to get along with people, and its not a failure its just the nature of relationship. frowning with an open hand ... feet in the clouds, head in the clear blue sky.
the wisdom gained in sorrow ... fairness as an objective truth. whats the synthesis? road's entry seems to connect them via "harsh experiences" of ineterpersonal turmoil teaching us where we have to use our heads to get along. generalizing the archetype further, any time we accept a harsh reality in a way we complete a metamorphosis, and we are crowned with the wisdom gained in sorrow. acceptance as the final stage of grief, of course. we are freed from bondage and we face the world frowning and with an open hand, with a soaring bird above.