Legend: The Queen of Cups, Britannia

Sophie-David

Another of Anna-Marie's most beautiful cards, Legend's Queen of Cups flows with the life, fertility and beauty of Spring. This Queen is Britannia, the avatar of the Land itself. United in sacred marriage to the King of Cups, the Fisher King, the health and beauty of the land depends on the wisdom, fitness and strength of its king. Here we see Britannia radiant with the love of her healthy counterpart, a symbol of feminine creativity, intuition and fertility.

With a delicate but noble countenance, Britannia's blonde hair billows behind her, adorned with a wreath of passionate wild pink roses. Her floral dress and transparent cape merge into the beauty of the land beneath her as in her left hand she holds a rose thoughtfully, close to her heart. Violets spring from around her feet as a curious cat with tail raised in acknowledgement looks towards the observer in friendly greeting. A wild rose bush arches behind them both, and behind that yet, long grasses edge the hidden catch basin of a high watery cascade plunging down from its rocky heights. Water awakens the fertility of the Land, just as this Queen's soul brims over from its romantic and intuitive depths.
 

WalesWoman

Don't have much to say about this Queen...sort of go by the traditional meanings for it...
I think this is the weak spot in the deck...that Britania should have been the Empress...life/earth/reproduction rather than Queen Cups. Guenivere seems to fit this card better, but being wife to Arthur....oh well. I didn't make this deck, so even tho' I love the image of this card, I have trouble relating it to this deck and all that...
 

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Sophie-David

Although I am comfortable with Britannia as the Queen of Cups, I certainly do see your point WalesWoman. It would seem that if divinities are going to be included it would be better to have them in the Majors. Britannia also seems a lot closer to the Empress archetype than the sense we normally have of Guenevere. And Guenevere could certainly make a good Queen of Cups, and perhaps this would be a better fit than as an Empress.

The Fisher King could join Britannia in the Majors as her consort, the Emperor. Like Guenevere as the companion Major, Arthur makes an appropriate Emperor but not a great one. But then where would we put Arthur in the Courts? Certainly not as the King of Cups - erotic and passionate love wasn't really his thing.

I suppose that really we could leave Arthur as Emperor; in a sense he was married more to Britannia as the Land than to Guenevere as his wife.

As an alternative, perhaps Arthur and Guenevere could be the King and Queen of Pentacles. Certainly if Guen had a weakness it seemed to be her preference for her comfortable position over her true love. And Arthur's great motivation was to bring unity, peace and stability to the Land.

In any event, there's no easy placement for any of these three characters - it must be very difficult to find perfect matches for each and every card in a themed deck!
 

WalesWoman

I agree whole heartedly with you, I don't think I was being critical in a negative way... and can see that this was probably the most logical way to do this. Elaine might have been just as good of a choice for Queen of Cups, since her heart ruled her no matter what. LOL

Glad it wasn't me trying to figure it out, or this deck would probably still be unpublished, shuffling everything around and trying to make it all fit. LOL

Still, it is a beautiful card and can speak volumes. When I first got this deck and did the "How are we going to get along?" type of spread, this was the first card that came up, so I knew the infatuation I already had with this deck would blossom into pure love, which it has. My abilities as a reader has bloomed trememdously since I started reading with this, just almost a year ago...like those blossoms on the apple tree.
 

Sophie-David

Oh, so that's at apple tree, not wild roses? I like flowers but have problems identifying them. Probably if I had seen the tree in person I would have recognized it. And those flowers at her feet aren't really violets either are they?
 

WalesWoman

It might be a wild rose, for some reason apple blossoms and spring come to mind whenever I see this card. It would make sense if it were a fruit tree, because the Queen of Cups is about creativity and making something from it. The blossoms of imagination bearing fruit...later once those creative ideas have had time to grow and mature.

sophie-david said:
And those flowers at her feet aren't really violets either are they?
LOL I don't think so, violets are like pansies, very small and low to the ground. These look more like some sort of wild iris. But I just love the sound of violets...like velvet, soft like rose petals.

Now I'll have to go look up the symbolism for these.
 

Leo62

WalesWoman said:
When I first got this deck and did the "How are we going to get along?" type of spread, this was the first card that came up, so I knew the infatuation I already had with this deck would blossom into pure love, which it has.

Couldn't agree more. I've only been using this deck for a few weeks, but Britannia was one of the cards that jumped out at me right at the beginning. For me, she embodies the spirit of this deck - gentle, sensitive and kind (at least so far!).

BTW, I think those flowers at her feet may be bluebells :)
 

Sophie-David

Hi Leo

Welcome to the ATF and to this study group too! BTW, I really can really identify with the interest you mentioned in your profile, "Making lists of books I want to buy";)
Leo62 said:
BTW, I think those flowers at her feet may be bluebells :)
Now this is where it really helps to have participants from Britain. I didn't think I had heard about or seen any bluebells in Canada, and I see its because they are essentially a British only plant. Having only spent five years of my childhood in England, my bluebell awareness has since dropped right off the scale. Comparing Britannia's flowers to the pictures at the link above I can see you are absolutely right. Now when I see this card it will bring back some pleasant childhood memories. :)

Cheers
David
 

WalesWoman

There are wild bluebells here on the rocky coastlines of the north eastern Pacific, bluebells-of-Scotland in fact, common harebell, Campanula rotundifolia. I can see them just above me when we're fishing, tempting me to do some death defying climb, since they're usually on some cliff accessible only to the birds.

I'm reading a book about Guenever, very different from anything I've read so far, but what struck me was the description of this card and the Flower Queens in this book, The Dragon Queen. That the King had to be deemed worthy to be the Flower Queens lover for him to rule the land and for it to blossom. In a sense it is very much like Ragnell in 9 Shields, appearing as a hag until she deemed Bedivere worthy and blossomed into loveliness, but it also said that Elaine, the Daughter of the Fisher King is often thought of representing the bearer of the Grail.

But one thing, she is a very fitting card for the season of spring, new life and love in the air.
 

Sophie-David

Well, that is interesting, WalesWoman, I wonder if these bluebells are the same species as the British ones? Where they introduced - like the yellow broom that covers Vancouver Island - or were they native?

Is The Dragon Queen a work of fiction or a research?

Have I asked more than enough questions for one night? ;)

Cheers
David