Before I begin, I’d like to note that I read tarot as existing between the binary. This figure can be the embodiment of certain attributes that we may see as nurturing, kind, and rooted in reciprocity. This card can be anything you find resonance in. I may interchangeably use different pronouns to describe the card itself. Please use the pronouns that feel resonant for you in your body and practice.
For the month of October we are working with the 🌊 Queen of Cups 🌊
I initially felt very surprised by the Queen of Cups coming through. I was expecting a card that depicts a palette that lends itself to warmer colors for the harvest season. I sat with this pull over this last week and sure enough it made a ton of sense to me.
The queen of cups is card of strength, of fluidity, and of courage. It’s a card that isn’t afraid to speak from the emotional well of which it has learned through experience. The queen is the only figure we see in the card and yet they are not alone. Unlike many other court cards in the tarot, there is no definitive separation between the queen herself and the surrounding elements. Their throne, clothing, and body are in direct relationship with all that is around them.
The cups in the tarot correspond with the element of water. Water for me as a reader comes through as fluidity. It comes through in surrender. The sky is a soft blue; the shore washes up to the very place they sit. We can imagine that the bottom of their cloak is dirty from the rocks and sand and water washing up against it. The blue depicted in this card is gentle. It feels like a cushion in which to lay for a while after a big reckoning.
The cups in the tarot are often depicted as spilling and receiving. We may see two figures sharing cups or even a figure with cups that have been spilt over in loss or grief. This cup in particular is depicted like a chalice. It’s large, adorned with images and engravings. It has a top. Both hands are used to hold this cup up as an offering.
This cup is an offering. This offering is a vessel. This vessel comes through in my current experience as a vessel of repair.
The queen of cups is the vessel of repair.
The vessel reminds that our cups more readily spill and receive when we’re in constant relationship with reciprocity. The vessel reminds that we must move through the deep well of grief in order to fully understand the deep well of joy. The vessel reminds that what has been lost is sacred. We must honor that. The journey is the vessel.
The queen notices.
The queen notices when to speak and when to salvage energy for what is in service to their practice. This queen reminds in the practice of patience. This queen reminds in the patience of practice. This queen reminds that the conversation with the sky and land and sea is where the vessel may be filled. The queen’s vessel is nourished by the tide rolling in and out unpredictably.
The queen of cups is the gained wisdom of this last lunar cycle. It’s the gained wisdom of this last year. It’s the gained wisdom through relationships lost. It’s the vessel of spaciousness given through active choice. The queen is the vessel of clarity through deep observation and trusted surrender.
I hold this vessel highly as a reminder for all that it’s taken for me to get here. It’s the vessel that I sip from when I find myself depleted. It’s the vessel that many want to sip from when they haven’t been tending to their own vessel first. It’s the vessel that I readily open when I feel resourced in my practice.
The queen of cups reminds me that my sensitivity is my strength.
Your sensitivity is your strength.
Your sensitivity is your strength.
Your sensitivity is your strength.
The queen of cups uses their learned experience to better inform their work and words in service of compassion.
What have I willingly spilled out this last lunar cycle?
What might I choose to fill my vessel with in this current lunar cycle?
Where might I allow myself to take up more space with and in my own vessel?
Where does my vessel show me what needs further repair?
Thank you to all who have supported these last few weeks! The mural “come home to yourself” is ready for y’all to see in Cabbagetown at any time. I’m also super grateful for those who supported my show at Press Shop this last week. It was really special.
If you’d like to book a one-on-one tarot session with me, you may find that here. If you have any questions otherwise, feel free to reach out.
With gentleness,