Queen of Wands (Archeon Tarot)
Queen of Wands (Archeon Tarot)
On a day that is beginning very low energy, I draw the Queen of Wands. In the Archeon Tarot, her connection to energetic fire is clear – the card itself seems to be suffused with firelght, and the Queen carries a torch. She’s got a determined look on her face as she walks forward – not frantic, but not still, either.
She strikes me as someone who knows how to use her energy – neither expending it wastefully, or letting it dissipate through idleness. The torch she wields lights up the darkness so that she can see what is near at hand – she doesn’t need to see everything or rush around and try to do everything, either.
Instead, she focuses her attention and energy so as to manage those things that are within her sphere of influence.
That’s my plan for today… to hook into the energy I have, to focus on my most immediate concerns, and to calmly exert my influence where it can most efficiently be applied. I find that even in low energy times – perhaps especially during those times, it is beneficial to maximize and care for whatever energy is available to me. And that is exactly what the Queen of Wands does.
4 of Swords (Buckland Romani Tarot)
4 of Swords - Buckland Romani Tarot
This version of the 4 of Swords shows a man napping under a tree in the Winter. All around the tree and man it is cold and snowy, but the ground beneath the man is green. Three knives are stuck in the tree and a fourth is on the ground next to him.
The image looks very still and quiet – it is easy to picture not just the peaceful rest of the man, but also hibernating animals, the dormant sleep of the trees… the world is taking a pause beneath a blanket of snow.
Many of us around the country have been getting our fill of snow this year – my daughter in Nebraska reports on how high the drifts are that are enclosing their house and making keeping the driveway passable a work that takes a day to complete..repeatedly. This morning, my younger daughter’s fiance wasn’t able to get the car up the hill that is our driveway without sliding all over like a fish on the deck of a ship.
This snowy quiet works better when you don’t have anywhere you’re trying to be… the 4 of Swords is a card of mental rest, and that’s the ticket… to go accept the down time and not try to fight it. This card is often about recuperation – the need to take a break to heal, and there again, it can be either peaceful or painful depending on how willing one is to chill out and rest.
Today I have little to do and plan to mentally hibernate and I will remember that this rest allows that hint of green to appear… that in silence and stillness there is the beginning of growth.
6 of Water (Osho Zen)
The Dream - 6 of Water (Osho Zen)
In the Osho Zen deck, the Cups suit is “Water” and the 6 of Water shows a woman envisioning herself happily in the embrace of her Prince Charming. The fantasy self is radiant, well dressed, the prince the stuff of romantic perfection. The reality is an attractive, simple maiden wearing everyday clothes.
In the Rider-Waite style decks, this card is usually shown as a pair of children, one handing off a bouquet of flowers to the other, with the idea being simple pleasures, nostalgia, childhood…
Here, the highlight is more on the childlike looking ahead to a ‘happily ever after’ future with a mate. The possibility of finding one’s Dream mate is real… as long as one doesn’t stand too hard on the notion of perfection – the mate we find will be as real and as flawed as we are. Finding a person to share our lives with will not magically grant us a better wardrobe, make us beautiful, or make every day a graceful waltz.
Children don’t yet know this – and adults sometimes never learn it, and instead see every conflict or imperfect (or indeed every less-than-lovely mood) as a sign that the person they’re with is not ‘the One’ and keep dreaming and looking for that person who is going to make everything perfect for them.
This card highlights that the Dream is just that – a dream. It doesn’t mean real relationships can’t lead to great happiness – they can and do, but that happens when we love and honor the real live flawed and perfectly human real people in those relationships and give each other a break. Childlike dreams are a lot of fun, but you risk losing the fun of a real life if you try to live in them.
Morgana Fillions's Tarot Journey 