Queen of Tarot

The ancient wisdom of the cards

Tarot Reading Billy Thomas Cantwell

Reading Performed 01/14/2020 at 3:33 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

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.

Papus's Divinatory Meanings

Male Inquirer.

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 Two

Strength from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Upright

Power, energy, action, courage, magnanimity; also complete success and honours.

Papus's Divinatory Meanings

Justice.

Card Description

A woman, over whose head there broods the same symbol of life which we have seen in the card of the Magician, is closing the jaws of a lion. The only point in which this design differs from the conventional presentations is that her beneficent fortitude has already subdued the lion, which is being led by a chain of flowers. For reasons which satisfy myself, this card has been interchanged with that of justice, which is usually numbered eight. As the variation carries nothing with it which will signify to the reader, there is no cause for explanation. Fortitude, in one of its most exalted aspects, is connected with the Divine Mystery of Union; the virtue, of course, operates in all planes, and hence draws on all in its symbolism. It connects also with innocentia inviolata, and with the strength which resides in contemplation. These higher meanings are, however, matters of inference, and I do not suggest that they are transparent on the surface of the card. They are intimated in a concealed manner by the chain of flowers, which signifies, among many other things, the sweet yoke and the light burden of Divine Law, when it has been taken into the heart of hearts. The card has nothing to do with self-confidence in the ordinary sense, though this has been suggested--but it concerns the confidence of those whose strength is God, who have found their refuge in Him. There is one aspect in which the lion signifies the passions, and she who is called Strength is the higher nature in its liberation. It has walked upon the asp and the basilisk and has trodden down the lion and the dragon.

Card Three

Two of Pentacles from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Reversed

Enforced gaiety, simulated enjoyment, literal sense, handwriting, composition, letters of exchange.

Papus's Divinatory Meanings (When Upright)

Difficulty in getting inheritance or good fortune.

Card Description

A young man, in the act of dancing, has a pentacle in either hand, and they are joined by that endless cord which is like the number 8 reversed.

Card Four

King of Pentacles from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Reversed

Vice, weakness, ugliness, perversity, corruption, peril.

Papus's Divinatory Meanings (When Upright)

Fair man. Inimical or indifferent.

Card Description

The figure calls for no special description the face is rather dark, suggesting also courage, but somewhat lethargic in tendency. The bull's head should be noted as a recurrent symbol on the throne. The sign of this suit is represented throughout as engraved or blazoned with the pentagram, typifying the correspondence of the four elements in human nature and that by which they may be governed. In many old Tarot packs this suit stood for current coin, money, deniers. I have not invented the substitution of pentacles and I have no special cause to sustain in respect of the alternative. But the consensus of divinatory meanings is on the side of some change, because the cards do not happen to deal especially with questions of money.

Card Five

Three of Cups from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Upright

The conclusion of any matter in plenty, perfection and merriment; happy issue, victory, fulfilment, solace, healing.

Papus's Divinatory Meanings

Mutual love.

Card Description

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

Card Six

The Moon from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Reversed

Instability, inconstancy, silence, lesser degrees of deception and error.

Papus's Divinatory Meanings (When Upright)

Hidden Enemies. Danger.

Card Description

The distinction between this card and some of the conventional types is that the moon is increasing on what is called the side of mercy, to the right of the observer. It has sixteen chief and sixteen secondary rays. The card represents life of the imagination apart from life of the spirit. The path between the towers is the issue into the unknown. The dog and wolf are the fears of the natural mind in the presence of that place of exit, when there is only reflected light to guide it. The last reference is a key to another form of symbolism. The intellectual light is a reflection and beyond it is the unknown mystery which it cannot shew forth. It illuminates our animal nature, types of which are represented below--the dog, the wolf and that which comes up out of the deeps, the nameless and hideous tendency which is lower than the savage beast. It strives to attain manifestation, symbolized by crawling from the abyss of water to the land, but as a rule it sinks back whence it came. The face of the mind directs a calm gaze upon the unrest below; the dew of thought falls; the message is: Peace, be still; and it may be that there shall come a calm upon the animal nature, while the abyss beneath shall cease from giving up a form.

Card Seven

Seven of Wands from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Reversed

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

Papus's Divinatory Meanings (When Upright)

Certain success.

Card Description

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

Card Eight

Ten of Cups from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Upright

Contentment, repose of the entire heart; the perfection of that state; also perfection of human love and friendship; if with several picture-cards, a person who is taking charge of the Querent's interests; also the town, village or country inhabited by the Querent.

Papus's Divinatory Meanings

Uncertainty.

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 Nine

Seven of Swords from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Reversed

Good advice, counsel, instruction, slander, babbling.

Papus's Divinatory Meanings (When Upright)

Enemy successful.

Card Description

A man in the act of carrying away five swords rapidly; the two others of the card remain stuck in the ground. A camp is close at hand.

Card Ten

Knight of Wands from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Upright

Departure, absence, flight, emigration. A dark young man, friendly. Change of residence.

Papus's Divinatory Meanings

A dark young man. A friend.

Card Description

He is shewn as if upon a journey, armed with a short wand, and although mailed is not on a warlike errand. He is passing mounds or pyramids. The motion of the horse is a key to the character of its rider, and suggests the precipitate mood, or things connected therewith.

Card Eleven

The Lovers from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Upright

Attraction, love, beauty, trials overcome.

Papus's Divinatory Meanings

Love.

Card Description

The sun shines in the zenith, and beneath is a great winged figure with arms extended, pouring down influences. In the foreground are two human figures, male and female, unveiled before each other, as if Adam and Eve when they first occupied the paradise of the earthly body. Behind the man is the Tree of Life, bearing twelve fruits, and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is behind the woman; the serpent is twining round it. The figures suggest youth, virginity, innocence and love before it is contaminated by gross material desire. This is in all simplicity the card of human love, here exhibited as part of the way, the truth and the life. It replaces, by recourse to first principles, the old card of marriage, which I have described previously, and the later follies which depicted man between vice and virtue. In a very high sense, the card is a mystery of the Covenant and Sabbath. The suggestion in respect of the woman is that she signifies that attraction towards the sensitive life which carries within it the idea of the Fall of Man, but she is rather the working of a Secret Law of Providence than a willing and conscious temptress. It is through her imputed lapse that man shall arise ultimately, and only by her can he complete himself. The card is therefore in its way another intimation concerning the great mystery of womanhood. The old meanings fall to pieces of necessity with the old pictures, but even as interpretations of the latter, some of them were of the order of commonplace and others were false in symbolism.

Card Twelve

Ace of Wands from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Reversed

Fall, decadence, ruin, perdition, to perish also a certain clouded joy.

Papus's Divinatory Meanings (When Upright)

Commencement of an enterprise.

Card Description

A hand issuing from a cloud grasps a stout wand or club.

Card Thirteen

King of Cups from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Reversed

Dishonest, double-dealing man; roguery, exaction, injustice, vice, scandal, pillage, considerable loss.

Papus's Divinatory Meanings (When Upright)

A fair man. A friend. A barrister, judge, or ecclesiastic. A bachelor.

Card Description

He holds a short sceptre in his left hand and a great cup in his right; his throne is set upon the sea; on one side a ship is riding and on the other a dolphin is leaping. The implicit is that the Sign of the Cup naturally refers to water, which appears in all the court cards.

Card Fourteen

The Star from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Reversed

Arrogance, haughtiness, impotence.

Papus's Divinatory Meanings (When Upright)

Hope.

Card Description

A great, radiant star of eight rays, surrounded by seven lesser stars--also of eight rays. The female figure in the foreground is entirely naked. Her left knee is on the land and her right foot upon the water. She pours Water of Life from two great ewers, irrigating sea and land. Behind her is rising ground and on the right a shrub or tree, whereon a bird alights. The figure expresses eternal youth and beauty. The star is l\'etoile flamboyante, which appears in Masonic symbolism, but has been confused therein. That which the figure communicates to the living scene is the substance of the heavens and the elements. It has been said truly that the mottoes of this card are "Waters of Life freely" and "Gifts of the Spirit." The summary of several tawdry explanations says that it is a card of hope. On other planes it has been certified as immortality and interior light. For the majority of prepared minds, the figure will appear as the type of Truth unveiled, glorious in undying beauty, pouring on the waters of the soul some part and measure of her priceless possession. But she is in reality the Great Mother in the Kabalistic Sephira Binah, which is supernal Understanding, who communicates to the Sephiroth that are below in the measure that they can receive her influx.

Card Fifteen

Eight of Wands from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Reversed

Arrows of jealousy, internal dispute, stingings of conscience, quarrels; and domestic disputes for persons who are married.

Papus's Divinatory Meanings (When Upright)

Partial success.

Card Description

The card represents motion through the immovable-a flight of wands through an open country; but they draw to the term of their course. That which they signify is at hand; it may be even on the threshold.

Card Sixteen

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.

Papus's Divinatory Meanings

A dark man. A friend. Generally married. The father of a family.

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 Seventeen

The Devil from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Upright

Ravage, violence, vehemence, extraordinary efforts, force, fatality; that which is predestined but is not for this reason evil.

Papus's Divinatory Meanings

Immense Force. Illness.

Card Description

The design is an accommodation, mean or harmony, between several motives mentioned in the first part. The Horned Goat of Mendes, with wings like those of a bat, is standing on an altar. At the pit of the stomach there is the sign of Mercury. The right hand is upraised and extended, being the reverse of that benediction which is given by the Hierophant in the fifth card. In the left hand there is a great flaming torch, inverted towards the earth. A reversed pentagram is on the forehead. There is a ring in front of the altar, from which two chains are carried to the necks of two figures, male and female. These are analogous with those of the fifth card, as if Adam and Eve after the Fall. Hereof is the chain and fatality of the material life. The figures are tailed, to signify the animal nature, but there is human intelligence in the faces, and he who is exalted above them is not to be their master for ever. Even now, he is also a bondsman, sustained by the evil that is in him and blind to the liberty of service. With more than his usual derision for the arts which he pretended to respect and interpret as a master therein, Eliphas Levi affirms that the Baphometic figure is occult science and magic. Another commentator says that in the Divine world it signifies predestination, but there is no correspondence in that world with the things which below are of the brute. What it does signify is the Dweller on the Threshold without the Mystical Garden when those are driven forth therefrom who have eaten the forbidden fruit.

Card Eighteen

Five of Wands from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Upright

Imitation, as, for example, sham fight, but also the strenuous competition and struggle of the search after riches and fortune. In this sense it connects with the battle of life. Hence some attributions say that it is a card of gold, gain, opulence.

Papus's Divinatory Meanings

Obstacles surmounted.

Card Description

A posse of youths, who are brandishing staves, as if in sport or strife. It is mimic warfare, and hereto correspond the divinatory meanings.

Card Nineteen

Three of Wands from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Upright

A calm, stately personage, with his back turned, looking from a cliff'He symbolizes established strength, enterprise, effort, trade, commerce, discovery; those are his ships, bearing his merchandise, which are sailing over the sea. The card also signifies able co-operation in business, as if the successful merchant prince were looking from his side towards yours with a view to help you.

Papus's Divinatory Meanings

Realization of the commencement of an enterprise. The basis of the work is now definitely established, and the undertaking can be fearlessly continued.

Card Description

A calm, stately personage, with his back turned, looking from a cliff\'s edge at ships passing over the sea. Three staves are planted in the ground, and he leans slightly on one of them.

Card Twenty

Justice from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Reversed

Law in all its departments, legal complications, bigotry, bias, excessive severity.

Papus's Divinatory Meanings (When Upright)

Strength. Fortitude.

Card Description

As this card follows the traditional symbolism and carries above all its obvious meanings, there is little to say regarding it outside the few considerations collected in the first part, to which the reader is referred. It will be seen, however, that the figure is seated between pillars, like the High Priestess, and on this account it seems desirable to indicate that the moral principle which deals unto every man according to his works--while, of course, it is in strict analogy with higher things;--differs in its essence from the spiritual justice which is involved in the idea of election. The latter belongs to a mysterious order of Providence, in virtue of which it is possible for certain men to conceive the idea of dedication to the highest things. The operation of this is like the breathing of the Spirit where it wills, and we have no canon of criticism or ground of explanation concerning it. It is analogous to the possession of the fairy gifts and the high gifts and the gracious gifts of the poet: we have them or have not, and their presence is as much a mystery as their absence. The law of Justice is not however involved by either alternative. In conclusion, the pillars of Justice open into one world and the pillars of the High Priestess into another.

Card Twenty One

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.

Papus's Divinatory Meanings

Great success.

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.

Details of this Tarot Reading

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