Queen of Cups

I am a conduit for powerful love

Sensual, dynamic healer, intuitive, sexual and other-worldly, the Queen of Cups demonstrates your gift of emotional intelligence, a rich empathy, creativity and understanding. Creating this card was a truly joyful experience. This archetype resounded so richly in my mind symbolizing the possibility of life brimming with a magical energy. We have simply forgotten how to see and experience it.

I wanted to bring out the animistic nature of the Queen card. Animism comes from the Latin word, anima or “Breath, spirit, soul.” This belief system holds that objects, places, and creatures possess a distinct spiritual essence. Even words can be infused with spirit. We see the old broken television in the card releasing a spirit into the waiting cup, as an Ibis-Woman reaches for it in reverence. This refers to the Egyptian belief where birds had a special magical power: flight…the possible source of our image of winged spirits, angels.

The entire environment of this card is vibrantly alive and interactive. Sticks become tiny “Alberto Giacometti” beings, busying themselves around the Queen. An idea replicated in children’s stories such as Pinocchio, where the wooden puppet eventually turns into a fully-fledged human boy. Again and again we see life – consciousness – emanating from mere wood or metal, little glass girls in fairy tales, toys coming to life when adults leave the room. In this context we can fully accept the life in normally inanimate objects.

Yet we forget that the chair we sit on is made from the same “energy” as us. All life springs from the same source and is animated by the same energy. Animism is a theme which draws me throughout this Tarot deck.

The idea of ordinary things becoming conduits of the miraculous, plays out strongly in this card – the extraordinary in the ordinary. We are all, in fact, miraculous forms of technology, spirit technology. The fact that as yet science still has no idea of why we possess consciousness tells us that life is so much more mysterious than we can possibly imagine. To connect with the wonder of your own existence is the path back home.

The Queen of Cups is therefore concerned with matters of the heart. It signals acceptance and a rich empathy and understanding of the nature of things. To feel your inherent empathy with your fellow creatures, to be emotionally intelligent and fully expressed, unashamed of what your imagination is capable of conjuring. There is much to be gained from listening deeply within, giving credence to the dreaming world and being a bridge between the two.