Queen of Tarot

The ancient wisdom of the cards

Tarot Reading Will he come back?

Reading Performed 02/13/2019 at 3:55 PM

Click or scroll down for the meaning of each position and the interpretation of its card.

Visual Layout

The Meanings of these Tarot Cards

Card One

Four of Wands from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Upright

They are for once almost on the surface--country life, haven of refuge, a species of domestic harvest-home, repose, concord, harmony, prosperity, peace, and the perfected work of these.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

Society, Union, Association, Concord, Harmony

Card Description

From the four great staves planted in the foreground there is a great garland suspended; two female figures uplift nosegays; at their side is a bridge over a moat, leading to an old manorial house.

Card Two

King of Wands from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Upright

Dark man, friendly, countryman, generally married, honest and conscientious. The card always signifies honesty, and may mean news concerning an unexpected heritage to fall in before very long.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

Man living in the country, Country Gentleman, Knowledge, Education

Card Description

The physical and emotional nature to which this card is attributed is dark, ardent, lithe, animated, impassioned, noble. The King uplifts a flowering wand, and wears, like his three correspondences in the remaining suits, what is called a cap of maintenance beneath his crown. He connects with the symbol of the lion, which is emblazoned on the back of his throne.

Card Three

Five of Swords from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Reversed

The same; burial and obsequies.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

Losses Trouble (same signification, whether reversed or not.)

Card Description

A disdainful man looks after two retreating and dejected figures. Their swords lie upon the ground. He carries two others on his left shoulder, and a third sword is in his right hand, point to earth. He is the master in possession of the field.

Card Four

The Heirophant from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Reversed

Society, good understanding, concord, overkindness, weakness.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

Over-kindness, weakness, Foolish exercise of generosity.

Card Description

He wears the triple crown and is seated between two pillars, but they are not those of the Temple which is guarded by the High Priestess. In his left hand he holds a sceptre terminating in the triple cross, and with his right hand he gives the well-known ecclesiastical sign which is called that of esotericism, distinguishing between the manifest and concealed part of doctrine. It is noticeable in this connexion that the High Priestess makes no sign. At his feet are the crossed keys, and two priestly ministers in albs kneel before him. He has been usually called the Pope, which is a particular application of the more general office that he symbolizes. He is the ruling power of external religion, as the High Priestess is the prevailing genius of the esoteric, withdrawn power. The proper meanings of this card have suffered woeful admixture from nearly all hands. Grand Orient says truly that the Hierophant is the power of the keys, exoteric orthodox doctrine, and the outer side of the life which leads to the doctrine; but he is certainly not the prince of occult doctrine, as another commentator has suggested. He is rather the summa totius theologiae, when it has passed into the utmost rigidity of expression; but he symbolizes also all things that are righteous and sacred on the manifest side. As such, he is the channel of grace belonging to the world of institution as distinct from that of Nature, and he is the leader of salvation for the human race at large. He is the order and the head of the recognized hierarchy, which is the reflection of another and greater hierarchic order; but it may so happen that the pontiff forgets the significance of this his symbolic state and acts as if he contained within his proper measures all that his sign signifies or his symbol seeks to shew forth. He is not, as it has been thought, philosophy-except on the theological side; he is not inspiration; and he is not religion, although he is a mode of its expression.

Card Five

Nine of Wands from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Upright

The card signifies strength in opposition. If attacked, the person will meet an onslaught boldly; and his build shews, that he may prove a formidable antagonist. With this main significance there are all its possible adjuncts--delay, suspension, adjournment.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

Order, Discipline, Good Arrangement, Disposition

Card Description

The figure leans upon his staff and has an expectant look, as if awaiting an enemy. Behind are eight other staves--erect, in orderly disposition, like a palisade.

Card Six

Two of Wands from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Upright

Between the alternative readings there is no marriage possible; on the one hand, riches, fortune, magnificence; on the other, physical suffering, disease, chagrin, sadness, mortification. The design gives one suggestion; here is a lord overlooking his dominion and alternately contemplating a globe; it looks like the malady, the mortification, the sadness of Alexander amidst the grandeur of this world's wealth.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

Riches, Fortune, Opulence, Magnificence, Grandeur

Card Description

A tall man looks from a battlemented roof over sea and shore; he holds a globe in his right hand, while a staff in his left rests on the battlement; another is fixed in a ring. The Rose and Cross and Lily should be noticed on the left side.

Card Seven

Queen of Wands from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Reversed

Good, economical, obliging, serviceable. Signifies also--but in certain positions and in the neighbourhood of other cards tending in such directions--opposition, jealousy, even deceit and infidelity.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

A good a virtuous Woman, but strict and economical, Obstacles, Resistance, Opposition.

Card Description

The Wands throughout this suit are always in leaf, as it is a suit of life and animation. Emotionally and otherwise, the Queen's personality corresponds to that of the King, but is more magnetic.

Card Eight

Nine of Pentacles from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Upright

Prudence, safety, success, accomplishment, certitude, discernment.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

Discretion, Circumspection, Prudence, Discernment

Card Description

A woman, with a bird upon her wrist, stands amidst a great abundance of grapevines in the garden of a manorial house. It is a wide domain, suggesting plenty in all things. Possibly it is her own possession and testifies to material well-being.

Card Nine

Temperance from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Reversed

Things connected with churches, religions, sects, the priesthood, sometimes even the priest who will marry the Querent; also disunion, unfortunate combinations, competing interests.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

Ill-advised combinations, Disunion, Clashing interests, &c.

Card Description

A winged angel, with the sign of the sun upon his forehead and on his breast the square and triangle of the septenary. I speak of him in the masculine sense, but the figure is neither male nor female. It is held to be pouring the essences of life from chalice to chalice. It has one foot upon the earth and one upon waters, thus illustrating the nature of the essences. A direct path goes up to certain heights on the verge of the horizon, and above there is a great light, through which a crown is seen vaguely. Hereof is some part of the Secret of Eternal Life, as it is possible to man in his incarnation. All the conventional emblems are renounced herein. So also are the conventional meanings, which refer to changes in the seasons, perpetual movement of life and even the combination of ideas. It is, moreover, untrue to say that the figure symbolizes the genius of the sun, though it is the analogy of solar light, realized in the third part of our human triplicity. It is called Temperance fantastically, because, when the rule of it obtains in our consciousness, it tempers, combines and harmonises the psychic and material natures. Under that rule we know in our rational part something of whence we came and whither we are going.

Card Ten

The Magician from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Upright

Skill, diplomacy, address, subtlety; sickness, pain, loss, disaster, snares of enemies; self-confidence, will; the Querent, if male.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

Will, Will-Power, Dexterity

Card Description

A youthful figure in the robe of a magician, having the countenance of divine Apollo, with smile of confidence and shining eyes. Above his head is the mysterious sign of the Holy Spirit, the sign of life, like an endless cord, forming the figure 8 in a horizontal position . About his waist is a serpent-cincture, the serpent appearing to devour its own tail. This is familiar to most as a conventional symbol of eternity, but here it indicates more especially the eternity of attainment in the spirit. In the Magician\'s right hand is a wand raised towards heaven, while the left hand is pointing to the earth. This dual sign is known in very high grades of the Instituted Mysteries; it shews the descent of grace, virtue and light, drawn from things above and derived to things below. The suggestion throughout is therefore the possession and communication of the Powers and Gifts of the Spirit. On the table in front of the Magician are the symbols of the four Tarot suits, signifying the elements of natural life, which lie like counters before the adept, and he adapts them as he wills. Beneath are roses and lilies, the flos campi and lilium convallium, changed into garden flowers, to shew the culture of aspiration. This card signifies the divine motive in man, reflecting God, the will in the liberation of its union with that which is above. It is also the unity of individual being on all planes, and in a very high sense it is thought, in the fixation thereof. With further reference to what I have called the sign of life and its connexion with the number 8, it may be remembered that Christian Gnosticism speaks of rebirth in Christ as a change "unto the Ogdoad." The mystic number is termed Jerusalem above, the Land flowing with Milk and Honey, the Holy Spirit and the Land of the Lord. According to Martinism, 8 is the number of Christ.

Card Eleven

The Hanged Man from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Reversed

Selfishness, the crowd, body politic.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

Selfishness, Unbound, Partial sacrifice.

Card Description

The gallows from which he is suspended forms a Tau cross, while the figure--from the position of the legs--forms a fylfot cross. There is a nimbus about the head of the seeming martyr. It should be noted (1) that the tree of sacrifice is living wood, with leaves thereon; (2) that the face expresses deep entrancement, not suffering; (3) that the figure, as a whole, suggests life in suspension, but life and not death. It is a card of profound significance, but all the significance is veiled. One of his editors suggests that Eliphas Levi did not know the meaning, which is unquestionable nor did the editor himself. It has been called falsely a card of martyrdom, a card a of prudence, a card of the Great Work, a card of duty; but we may exhaust all published interpretations and find only vanity. I will say very simply on my own part that it expresses the relation, in one of its aspects, between the Divine and the Universe. He who can understand that the story of his higher nature is imbedded in this symbolism will receive intimations concerning a great awakening that is possible, and will know that after the sacred Mystery of Death there is a glorious Mystery of Resurrection.

Card Twelve

Seven of Cups from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Upright

Fairy favours, images of reflection, sentiment, imagination, things seen in the glass of contemplation; some attainment in these degrees, but nothing permanent or substantial is suggested.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

Idea, Sentiment, Reflection, Project

Card Description

Strange chalices of vision, but the images are more especially those of the fantastic spirit.

Card Thirteen

King of Swords from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Reversed

Cruelty, perversity, barbarity, perfidy, evil intention.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

A Wicked Man, Chagrin, Worry, Grief, Fear, Disturbance.

Card Description

He sits in judgment, holding the unsheathed sign of his suit. He recalls, of course, the conventional Symbol of justice in the Trumps Major, and he may represent this virtue, but he is rather the power of life and death, in virtue of his office.

Card Fourteen

Ten of Cups from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Reversed

Repose of the false heart, indignation, violence.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

Combat, Strife, Opposition, Differences, Dispute.

Card Description

Appearance of Cups in a rainbow; it is contemplated in wonder and ecstacy by a man and woman below, evidently husband and wife. His right arm is about her; his left is raised upward; she raises her right arm. The two children dancing near them have not observed the prodigy but are happy after their own manner. There is a home-scene beyond.

Card Fifteen

Six of Wands from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Upright

The card has been so designed that it can cover several significations; on the surface, it is a victor triumphing, but it is also great news, such as might be carried in state by the King's courier; it is expectation crowned with its own desire, the crown of hope, and so forth.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

Attempt, Hope, Desire, Wish, Expectation

Card Description

A laurelled horseman bears one staff adorned with a laurel crown; footmen with staves are at his side.

Card Sixteen

Two of Cups from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Reversed

Love, passion, friendship, affinity, union, concord, sympathy, the interrelation of the sexes, and--as a suggestion apart from all offices of divination--that desire which is not in Nature, but by which Nature is sanctified.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

Crossed desires, Obstacles, Opposition, Hindrance.

Card Description

A youth and maiden are pledging one another, and above their cups rises the Caduceus of Hermes, between the great wings of which there appears a lion's head. It is a variant of a sign which is found in a few old examples of this card. Some curious emblematical meanings are attached to it, but they do not concern us in this place.

Card Seventeen

Seven of Wands from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Reversed

Perplexity, embarrassments, anxiety. It is also a caution against indecision.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

Indecision, Doubt, Hesitation, Embarrassment, Anxiety.

Card Description

A young man on a craggy eminence brandishing a staff; six other staves are raised towards him from below.

Card Eighteen

Six of Cups from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Reversed

The future, renewal, that which will come to pass presently.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

The Future, that which is to come, Shortly, Soon.

Card Description

Children in an old garden, their cups filled with flowers.

Card Nineteen

Five of Pentacles from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Reversed

Disorder, chaos, ruin, discord, profligacy.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

Disgraceful Love, Imprudence, License, Profligacy.

Card Description

Two mendicants in a snow-storm pass a lighted casement.

Card Twenty

Three of Pentacles from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Reversed

Mediocrity, in work and otherwise, puerility, pettiness, weakness.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

Children, Sons, Daughters, Youths, Commencement.

Card Description

A sculptor at his work in a monastery. Compare the design which illustrates the Eight of Pentacles. The apprentice or amateur therein has received his reward and is now at work in earnest.

Card Twenty One

Three of Cups from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Reversed

Expedition, dispatch, achievement, end. It signifies also the side of excess in physical enjoyment, and the pleasures of the senses.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

Expedition of business, Quickness, Celerity, Vigilance.

Card Description

Maidens in a garden-ground with cups uplifted, as if pledging one another.

Details of this Tarot Reading

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