queen of cups

Translation by Kitos Digiovanni from smallcabin.org

synthetic meaning

Seated and facing to the left, on a dais, and wearing a double headdress, holding in her right hand a capped cup and in her left a scepter in the shape of a white taper, the Queen of Cups symbolizes the intimate condensation of animistic forces in order to express them in the form of love in its universality, as much in devotion as in affection, and with the feeling of its daily application.

analytic meaning

The Cup, resting on her right knee and held firmly in the right hand, denotes its power of realization in the material world in its full animistic radiance.

The dais, with its enveloping shape, the double headpiece, and the cop, with its cap and spherical shape, all show the great passivity of the Cup, accentuated by its orientation towards the left, concentrated at the interior of Being and clothed, moreover, in universality, the sphere being the representation of the universe as a whole.

This is also indicated by the shape of the scepter, its white color symbolizing the abstract and the synthesis of principles. It constitutes a antenna capacitor of universal forces. These are collected at the base by her left hand which transfers them to the psyche of the Being.

The spindle symbolizes, in general, day-to-day work, carried out with perseverance. This idea, added to the preceding ones, demonstrates the application of feelings, represented by the Queen of Cups in the concrete and the details of life. They are the thousand nuances of love that ennoble its material side. The color of the dais, flesh and yellow, illustrates as well this willing descent into life and the intelligence of matter.

The red stripe connecting the neck of the Queen of Cups to the end of the scepter and her hand represents an active current powering the force of action in the physical world, the scepter functioning as an antenna.

Her belt, with its 9 points, is evocative of the triple ternary, which is to say, the harmonious agreement of all its modes, on the three planes. They also indicate the complexity of the domains where psychic activity can be exercised, because the primordial numerals end with 9.

Her blue headpiece, decorated with a red disk and interposed between her hair and the crown, indicates a wish not to be exposed to the Universal (the crown signifying radiance into the Universal) before it has considered good material undertakings imbued with dedication and designed with a material spirit (the red of the headpiece is surrounded by blue).

The red ball, separating the tetrahedral base of the Cup from its upper spherical part, symbolizes, Queen of Cups' capacity for diffusion and by virtue of her specifically intelligent nature, an effort energetic, willful and unceasing, what the spirit must do in the material world in order to reconcile the universal and synthetic role of the animistic intelligence manifested by the sphere with its structure in the physical world, signified by the tetrahedron.

The covering on the Cup reinforces its passivity in principle, and accentuates the animistic condensation implied by this Card and which is expressed by the treasure of love that all Being is able to possess in its own foundation; but it requires an effort to open the Cup, that is to say, to manifest it. An indication of this effort is that she is holding the Cup in her right hand.

On the very top of the cup are arranged three rectangles representing the ternary: Love, Light, Life on the spiritual plane and the six motifs in a Greek pattern at the center, locate the double ternary: Love, Light, and Life, in their double aspect of passivity and activity.

The eight lines below symbolize the four states of matter in passivity and activity, and the three lines on the central red ball are the reflections of the ternary on the material plane.

meanings as they relate to the three planes

MENTAL. Transcendence. Connection with universal forces or with great intelligences.

ANIMISTIC. This card transcends sexual love, and represents universal love, a superior altruism.

PHYSICAL. Mastery, complete success. Any matter of feeling is achieved in full. Perfect health.

INVERTED. Very bad. A darkening which persists, because all principles are disrupted, turned upside down. Total distraction. Escape from this requires in this case the assistance of the Page of Swords and, above all, the Knight of Swords.

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In its Elementary Sense, the Queen of Cups represents feelings of altruism which Man carries deep within himself, but which he cannot manifest except through daily effort with dedication and affection.