DruidCraft Study Group - Queen of Cups

WalesWoman

I was wondering if the beetle might be a protective covering, to have a bit of a hard shell, rather than leaving your emotions exposed. Not to be too overly sensitive and easily crushed?

I was thinking how the moon almost rises from the cup and is balanced above it, the feminine nature in perfect balance, rising above the elements. Contained in some ways and released in others...
 

WalesWoman

I laid out all the court families since reading the comment that they did indeed look like families and was noting the differences but was struck that the Queen Cups and Queen Swords are both in profile and have very similar facial features, is if they could be sisters. The other two queens face forward and only the Queen of Wands makes direct eye contact with the reader.

The Queen Cups is night, Queens Swords is day, it is as if the gulf of the shore lies between them, yet in a way it seems that they both direct each others energies to each other. Both have their eyes closed in concentration and sort of seem to radiate from the force of their mind and solar plexus, sending it out from the way they are positioned into an arc. Even thier left feet are both arched, almost as if the Queen Swords can feel the wetness of the water around the Queen Cups toes.

I wonder about the beetle bug again. Is it about to bug her? Like her trailing clothing can pick up excess baggage if she's not more aware of her surroundings. Also beetles chew up wood...hmmm, sign of rotten timbers or foundations? Rock and hard thing to bug you?

I guess all the thrones are the same as the ones their King sits upon, so maybe they do split their ruling times. If you match the sky and landscape, the queen and king face away from each other and his is on the stone while she has moved hers to the growing grass. You can almost see the shape of the outstretched leg of the dog near the asp... the poison that kills love, creativity or the wisdom to use it.

Everytime I look at these cards... they blow me away.
 

Namaste

WalesWoman said:
Everytime I look at these cards... they blow me away.

Me too, WalesWoman! This deck takes my breath away.

I have never seen queens such as these. I find delightful the way this one steps into the water, her eyes closed as though she were sleep-walking. Maybe this has been said before, but have you noticed how the moon seems to hover just above the chalice she holds, as though it were not only filled with water, but also with moon beams?
 

WalesWoman

It's as if she levitates the moon from out of her cup or will catch it in her cup when it sets below the horizon...if the King and Queen are next to each other, then it looks as if the moon is setting and the sun will soon rise.

Is that a ripple by her immersed foot or a dead salmon? It almost looks like the fish leaping next to the King.
 

TygrEyes

WalesWoman said:
Is that a ripple by her immersed foot or a dead salmon? It almost looks like the fish leaping next to the King.

It looks like a ripple to me. :eek:)

I'm SO happy everyone is getting their decks with the American release. It's great seeing more points of view & questions as to what's in the cards. It's like observing a flower bloom - unfolding bit by bit.
 

Little Baron

Emily said:
I think its a male Stag Beetle :) - and they don't just live by water but in woods, hedgerows - they are very rare according to the sites I've just been to and are the UK's largest beetle, they only live around 3 months as an adult, to breed, unless they find a good place to try and hibernate though the winter.

Oh, this brings back memories ... I remember waking one morning when my bed was by the open window and on my pillow, about ten centimetres infront of my nose lay a stag beetle. It was massive and just sitting there. Not the best thing to wake up to, believe me! The one in this card looks as though it is about to creep up her robes, but she is so deep in concentration that she doesn't notice. Maybe it is illustrating the depth of her meditation. Probably not, but just a thought. I just posted in the 'King of Cups' thread - he has a crab near his feet - does anyone see a connection between the crab and the beetle? Is the relevance in their being combined, rather than alone?

LB
 

Laurelin

This queen, to me, exudes a rather tepid, powerful spiritual energy. She is the water, pulled by the moon. She ebbs and flows with the tide. Everything she experienced in her life has brought her in closer connection with her emotions and intuition. She seems to me not only to be a queen but a powerful sorceress as well, a healer and priestess. In Druidry, green symbolizes the Ovate grade. Ovates are considered seers and herbalists. In our bardic training, we learned the myths and legends. Now it's time to pull up our sleeves and do some real work. She wears green and is surrounded by green. I sense that she is a caregiver queen. She doesn't lord over her subjects, she feels for them and tries to meet their needs. She wants a happy villiage and is willing to give her whole heart to get it. She is a healer and a wise woman among her people. They depend on her to make sure the world keeps spinning. Her mysticism and reputation were not of her own design, her people can see the truth in her. She doesn't hide. She experiences life with her whole heart.

The stag beetle is very close at her heels. It seems rather undaunted by her presence. The closeness of these animals seems to point towards her connection with nature. She is part of her world, not above it. Her hem is worn from walking and frequent dips in the pool. I almost fancy it has been nibbled by fish at some point. Perhaps she fidgets with it when she sits in that throne. I don't think she's content to sit and watch. I think she'd much rather be out and experiencing the world.

I love the connection between her and the sword queen. I would never have noticed it otherwise! They do seem like sisters, both experiencing and deep in thought. They are both aware of their surroundings without their primary sense (vision). Our intellectual queen parses the bits and interprets them analytically. We would call her intuitive, but I think she would say observant. She doesn't care for frills, and observation is as much a part of intuition as anything else to her. Our cup queen, on the other hand, is more empathic than intuitive, I believe. She (whether through observation or genuine psychic ability) really does feel the emotions of others. Perhaps it is because she has experienced all the possible ranges of emotions herself.

As a mother, I see her as a constant source of comfort to her children. Her daughter is learning her ways and has watched her mother's way of experiencing firsthand. She, as a result has learned to appreciate and absorb. The elder brother, for a prince, seems almost feminized in his depiction. As the wand queen is garbed in a masculine fashion, the cup prince was without his shoes. He was the most emotional of the princes to me and has learned a lot from his mother. Unlike many boys, he was taught to get in touch with his feelings. There is no shame in acknowledging your heart. This mother nurtured her children and treats her subjects like family.

Empathy, healing, nurturing, mysticism, and transformation. She looks very youthfull but almost timeless as well, like her wisdom is without limits. She knows. She isn't sure how, she just knows.
 

Shade

Does the beetle remind anyone of he crustacean on many decks' Moon cards that is drawn up by the lunar tide?
 

LixiPixi

I'm sitting here trying to salvage my dear deck with my newly acquired card-scalper (a newfound dream, btw!) and can't help but wonder if anyone else feels the Queen of Cups is about to commit suicide? The very first day this deck arrived in my mail and I went through the cards counting to make sure they were all there, this was the FIRST card to stand out for me and I, to this day, still have a hard time seeing her in a positive light :(

She just looks as if she's closed her eyes, put her whole life into that cup, and is ready to give it all over to the supreme being. If this woman isn't about to drown herself.....please explain to me what you see differently :)

LP~