The Queens

oceana15 said:

Yeah, that's exactly what I was doing -- taking it personally! haha. I keep forgetting each Court card is meant to represent only a specific trait or aspect, rather than a whole person. Thanks for clarifying!

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We all do it. Note, this doesn't mean that the Queens are that restricted in meaning. All the cards have a wide spectrum of meaning. Huge. That Queen/Cups there can stand for empathy, psychic powers, spirituality, bringing together the family...all kinds of things. But she does have limits. She can't stand for the Queen/Wands energy or the Queen/Pents homemaker talents. If she could, there wouldn't be any need for those two queens.

Of course, such limits get really muddy if you make that Queen/Cups a signifier for someone. Now she has to stand for that person if she appears in a reading--that's all of that person, not just the empathetic parts. But if the Queen/Cups shows up in an unrelated reading for someone else, now she has to go back to being just the Queen/Cups, and you can't think of her as that other person. Oy! The complications we readers create for ourselves

Long and short of it, each card has its expertise. Learning that, while not undermining our intuition is, I think, half the battle to understanding what the cards are trying to tell us.

Hmmm, you're giving me lots to think about. I was seeing the Knight of Cups, for example, as the representation of an ex-boyfriend (as I mentioned in another thread) with whom I had a pretty confusing and turbulent relationship, because he didn't know himself that well but he desperately wanted to be in love. Being with him was like a roller coaster -- all in one day, running away the next. So I was starting to hate the sight of the Knight/Cups because he "became" that one person for me. Does that make sense? Now I realize how limiting that can be, especially when I'm doing a reading for someone else who doesn't have my baggage or personal history!

oceana15 said:

Does that make sense? Now I realize how limiting that can be, especially when I'm doing a reading for someone else who doesn't have my baggage or personal history!

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Makes perfect sense! And yep, you've given that card your baggage to carry no matter what reading it turns up in. But, to be fair, if the cards want to warn you that someone's boyfriend is a roller-coaster ride sort of person, they've only to give you the Knight/Cups card and you'll be able to pass that message along. Baggage often creates a kind of short-hand between us and our deck.

Like I said...the complications we create It's not something that comes fast and easy; it takes times, but if you try to see the knight/cups sans baggage, then eventually you'll get a feeling for when it doesn't mean a roller-coaster type of guy, and when it does. After all, the meaning you've applied to that card isn't wrong. It certainly can mean that sort of guy. You just want to avoid thinking the card means that and only that, 24/7.