Sheridan Douglas - The Queens

Moonbow

I'll start to post a couple of thoughts to get the discussion going and hope that other people will join in.

I put all four cards together and looked at them, the similarities and the differences.

Queen of Cups.. she has her eyes closed and no jewellery. Her clothes are quite plain and her hair straggly. It's as though she follows her heart, feelings and emotions, and possessions are less important to her.

Queen of Swords.. She sits in an upright and eleborate chair, wears an elegant dress and she's blue! Why I ask myself, is it because she wants to be noticed for her intellect and not her beauty as she blends into the background?

Queen of Batons... She sits upright and slightly arches her back, she wears a red ring and the background of the card is a firey red too. The card exudes passion.

Queen of Coins... The only Queen who is gently smiling. Her dress and jacket are elegant, and the jacket edged with fur. Her hair is held in a net and her throne is ornate, she likes the home comforts does this one!

More comes to me each time I look at these, but this is a start.
 

Sulis

I'll add some images and chime in a bit more later.
 

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Moonbow

Thanks Sulis, I have a problem connecting my laptop to the scanner and printer through a wireless connection. I will try to get it sorted.

Meanwhile....

Look at which hand they hold their implement in.

Which way they face.

..and why does the Queen of Coins hold her left hand in that way? Is she pointing to the earth perhaps?
 

Antonius

Which way they face.

Thanks Moonbow, i like your thoughts on the colour significance,and i also like your idea about the queen of swords being blue in colour,your thoughts seem to make sense. As we all see different types of symbolism in each of the cards,its good to read what others see and how others interpret the images.
I already have my own established meanings for the four Queens, and the way they face and also the seated posture has speacial meaning for me.

If you look at all the court cards you will see that the Queen of swords is the only one that is facing to the cards left,all the others either face right or sit facing front looking straight at you. Anyway, here are a few of my own interpretations for the Queens.

The Queen of Swords;
She sits facing the left of the card,this for me is the past,i always feel she reflects alot on the past and has learnt alot of her divine wisdom and intellect(the yellow sword) through past strife and conflict,but this has only served to make her a stronger person.(hence, in the RWS she could be a widow or divorcee.)
She sits quite relaxed her left wrist rests very relaxed on the arm of her throne,while her right hand supports the sword very firmly,so,she is relaxed but also very alert.

The Queen of Cups;
She sits facing to the right of the card (the future),her eyes are closed indicating imagination,intuition,and dreams of pleasant future plans?,she holds up the cup as if offering help and kindness.Her posture is very feminine with her right hand placed gently on her knee,her clothes and hair are quite simple suggesting that love and emotion are more important than material possessions.

The Queen of Batons;
She also sits looking towards the right of the card(the future) (or her left!) but unlike the queen of cups her eyes are wide open,she can see what she wants and is poised and ready to get up and go and get it,the way her right hand is placed on the arm of the throne,gives her a very strong posture and she is ready to leap up at any time.(Hence,a lively energetic woman).

The queen of Coins;
Last but not least! the Queen of coins sits facing directly at you,she looks you straight in the eye with a confident smile.
She loves the good things of life,and the way she caressess the coin in her right hand shows she loves her wealth.She is also very clever and intelligent,a business woman.She is the only queen who sits looking straight at you,showing her true confidence.

So there we have it,just a few imaginative! ideas for the four Queens and the way they face.

Hope this helps.:thumbsup:
 

Moonbow

Hi Antonius

I was hoping you would drop by.

I saw some of the things you mentioned also. Reading with a Marseilles deck has served me well in noticing these types of things.

I decided to tackle these four together after drawing two of them in a spread and noticing that they are actually very dissimilar to each other.

As you say, the Queen of Batons seems to sit on the edge of her throne as though she is about to rise. She's a fidget, can't keep still, lots of energy. The Queen of Swords isn't going anywhere, if people want her... they come to her!

All four thrones are different, the Queen of cups seems to have the most comfey one... she's lost in it....

I think the more we explore this the more the cards have meaning to us.

Great stuff.
 

Alfred Douglas

Queen of Coins

I pointed out in my book that the Queen of Coins is frequently shown with her crown attached to the back of her headdress, rather than sitting squarely on top of her head. It is depicted this way on very early Tarot cards - see typical early 19th century card attached.

Quite what this convention signifies, I don't know. When shown in profile, the Queen's head shows it very clearly. Perhaps she was based on a real Queen who dressed like that. It almost gives an impression of speed, as if she was facing into a stiff breeze which had pushed her crown back.

Of course in our deck the Queen of Coins isn't rushing anywhere; she's much too elegant and dignified for that. Because she is facing us we can't really see how her crown is attached, but her forehead seems very high - perhaps the front of her scalp has been shaved to heighten her brow (as was sometimes the fashion) and her crescent crown is mounted quite far back on a sort of alice band, with her red hair carefully netted behind to hold it clear of her beautiful gown and elegant neck. Of the four Queens, she is the only one whose hair is not falling free.

Also, note that two of the Queens - Cups and Coins - have a crescent on each of their heads, while the other two - Batons and Swords - wear more conventional crowns. Is this significant, perhaps?
 

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Emily

I tried to get these scans uploaded earlier but I had a technical problem but I wanted to see the Queens next to each other.

All of the Queens look so different - the Cup and Baton Queens are left handed and the Sword and Coin Queens are right handed. The Sword Queen looks really elegant, she's my favourite Queen in this deck. She looks confident and very aware.
 

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lark

The first thing I noticed about the Queen of Swords was her gold ring, it looks like the moon glowing at night.
And she looks like the original Ice Queen.
The Queen of Batons crown looks very heavy and like the top of a fortress.
She looks like she means business and is ready to defend herself and those she loves.
Queen of Cups I think is meditating.....and very relaxed look at how her hand rests on her leg.
She has the most comfortable chair too.
Queen of Coins feels the most friendly and inviting, I love the little stars on the bottom of her gown.
And the way her hand is open in a gesture of generosity.
 

Moonbow

Alfred, many thanks for your post about the Queen of Coins. I've often thought of her as looking quite masculine in historical decks, and Queen Elizabeth I comes to mind, particularly since you mention that they shaved their hair back on the forehead. I didn't know that.

I see the implements of Coins and Cups as being female, whilst Swords and Batons are male. Perhaps this could be why those two Queens in the Sheridan Douglas deck have Moon crowns. :D

There are some great thoughts coming up here, thanks to everyone.

I also think that the more we look at these cards, particularly in comparison to each other, that their personalities come across.... which is great for reading the cards.
 

Alfred Douglas

The Queenly crowns

Most people agree that two of the minor arcana suits are masculine/yang in character - Batons and Swords - while two are feminine/yin - Cups and Coins.
Batons and Cups form a male/female pair, as do Swords and Shields (Coins).

So in our deck the Queens of Batons and Swords wear 'kingly' crowns, while the Queens of Cups and Coins wear lunar crescents (well done, Moonbow!).

Until reading this thread I'd forgotten how much attention we'd paid to such details. Now it's coming back.

Place the four queens in a square - Queen of Batons top left; Queen of Swords top right; Queen of Cups bottom left; Queen of Coins bottom right. Now compare them. Batons and Swords face each other, as do Cups and Coins (ish).
The Queen of Batons holds her baton in her left hand and wears a ring with a red stone on a finger of her right hand. The Queen of Swords holds her sword in her right hand and wears a ring with a gold stone on her left hand.
The Queen of Cups holds her cup in her left hand; the Queen of Coins holds her disk in her right hand. The Queen of Cups seems to be not wearing a ring at all, but the Queen of Coins might be wearing a plain gold band on a finger of her right hand.

None of these details just happened. We also paid attention to the thrones they are sitting on, and their postures.

You are all picking up on these details and deducing what they add to the significance of each card. Fascinating.