flipperjane
What is she holding and gazing so intently at? Also I imagine she's on a spit of land and not an island?
What is the Queen of Cups holding?
Eeviee
...a cup, with an elaborate cover piece.
Some say it's The Grail, others say it's her own creation...
She is indeed upon some sort of land... notice how she is seated upon her throne on land, yet she sits before and her dress flows into the water.
Some say it's The Grail, others say it's her own creation...
She is indeed upon some sort of land... notice how she is seated upon her throne on land, yet she sits before and her dress flows into the water.
Zephyros
Hmmmm. Well, and forgive me for going into technicalities, but on the Tree of Life the Queen sits on Binah, the Sephira that measures the distance Chochma has travelled, intellect, form, structure. Now, this is a simplification, but I would imagine that that is the cause of her intense stare; it is the one thing she has to live for.
On the other hand, the Cup she is holding is quite special. It takes after the Marseilles tradition, symbolizing perhaps the actual structure of the Church holding inside the faithful. This also relates to Binah, as it holds and structures within itself the energy produced by Chochma. The two angels are the angels on the Ark of the Covenant, again relating to holding within the essence and Word of God.
On the other hand, the Cup she is holding is quite special. It takes after the Marseilles tradition, symbolizing perhaps the actual structure of the Church holding inside the faithful. This also relates to Binah, as it holds and structures within itself the energy produced by Chochma. The two angels are the angels on the Ark of the Covenant, again relating to holding within the essence and Word of God.
Richard
The object she holds is a ciborium, a container used to hold the consecrated wafers (Hosts) for Holy Communion. Catholics believe the Hosts to be the actual body of the Christ. Waite added the Kerubim of the Ark of the Covenant.
ETA. It symbolises Waite's conception of the Holy Grail. Read all about it in Waite's The Hidden Church of the Holy Grail.
Attachments
flipperjane
So is the Queen of cups deeply religious? Should that be part of ones understanding of that card. I am not religious myself so I find this aspect a little difficult to grasp
Sulis
I think, like anything in tarot it would depend on the context but I don't see why she couldn't be deeply religious. I prefer to think of her as deeply spiritual and in tune with her emotions and intuition.
The Queens represent a level of maturity where they have an inner understanding of their element and this queen's element is Water so she has an understanding of all things represented by that element.
She's understanding, caring, reflective, intuitive, spiritual. She's a good listener and she knows how to make whoever she is interacting with feel special and listened to.
I think being deeply religious could also be one of her traits if it fits with your context, question and the rest of the cards in the reading you're doing.
Zephyros
Many Tarot decks, especially the RWS, use religious imagery to portray concepts that are not in themselves religious. Look beyond the face value of a symbol. The ciborium holds what is essentially life, protects it, nurtures it and then later brings it to fruition at a ceremony which symbolizes a spiritual birth. Seen this way, she could very well be looking at her own womb (which is much of what the Holy Grail represents).
The Queen isn't religious in the sense we would define it. Like Sulis said, she is highly spiritual, endlessly receptive, deeply feeling. She has no need for organized faith, she instinctually "knows" what's what, she feels it inside deeply. For her, love of God is universal love, love of everything. In fact, she feels nothing but love, which, depending of course on the reading, could indicate someone too much a slave to their emotions. The same base idea of Love could go back and forth, good or bad, depending on the surrounding cards. She could also be religious, but not necessarily.
flipperjane
Thank you for those interesting and informative answers.
Richard
The Q/C religious!?!? How strange that seems, although I suppose it is possible, in a heretical way (see next paragraph). Or it could even indicate the opposite! The women of medieval Europe were not allowed to touch such sacred ecclesiastical objects as the ciborium.
The presence of the Female Pope and the Queen of Cups in Tarot has led to conjectures that the deck may have originated in some of the Gnostic sects which appeared in medieval Europe, such as the Albigenses, which practiced equality of the sexes. They were brutally eradicated by the dominant Christian establishment.
ETA. Pardon my longwindedness, but this is the historical section of AT......
There is a lot of religious imagery in Tarot. The Christian religion was an important factor in the lives of Europeans at the time Tarot was developing. The established Church tried to dominate every aspect of life, from food to sex to the social pecking order. It is therefore only natural that religious imagery would appear in a playing card deck. However, some of the cards are poking fun at the religious establishment, some aspects of which were cordially despised, just as they are today.