Queen of Tarot

The ancient wisdom of the cards

Tarot Reading What lies in my future?

Reading Performed 11/27/2012 at 4:52 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

King of Swords from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Upright

Whatsoever arises out of the idea of judgment and all its connexions-power, command, authority, militant intelligence, law, offices of the crown, and so forth.

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 Two

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.

Card Description

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

Card Three

Eight of Pentacles from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Upright

Work, employment, commission, craftsmanship, skill in craft and business, perhaps in the preparatory stage.

Card Description

An artist in stone at his work, which he exhibits in the form of trophies.

Card Four

Judgement from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Upright

Change of position, renewal, outcome. Another account specifies total loss though lawsuit.

Card Description

I have said that this symbol is essentially invariable in all Tarot sets, or at least the variations do not alter its character. The great angel is here encompassed by clouds, but he blows his bannered trumpet, and the cross as usual is displayed on the banner. The dead are rising from their tombs--a woman on the right, a man on the left hand, and between them their child, whose back is turned. But in this card there are more than three who are restored, and it has been thought worth while to make this variation as illustrating the insufficiency of current explanations. It should be noted that all the figures are as one in the wonder, adoration and ecstacy expressed by their attitudes. It is the card which registers the accomplishment of the great work of transformation in answer to the summons of the Supernal--which summons is heard and answered from within. Herein is the intimation of a significance which cannot well be carried further in the present place. What is that within us which does sound a trumpet and all that is lower in our nature rises in response--almost in a moment, almost in the twinkling of an eye? Let the card continue to depict, for those who can see no further, the Last judgment and the resurrection in the natural body; but let those who have inward eyes look and discover therewith. They will understand that it has been called truly in the past a card of eternal life, and for this reason it may be compared with that which passes under the name of Temperance.

Card Five

Six of Swords from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Upright

journey by water, route, way, envoy, commissionary, expedient.

Card Description

A ferryman carrying passengers in his punt to the further shore. The course is smooth, and seeing that the freight is light, it may be noted that the work is not beyond his strength.

Card Six

Five of Cups from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Upright

It is a card of loss, but something remains over; three have been taken, but two are left; it is a card of inheritance, patrimony, transmission, but not corresponding to expectations; with some interpreters it is a card of marriage, but not without bitterness or frustration.

Card Description

A dark, cloaked figure, looking sideways at three prone cups two others stand upright behind him; a bridge is in the background, leading to a small keep or holding.

Card Seven

The World from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Upright

Assured success, recompense, voyage, route, emigration, flight, change of place.

Card Description

As this final message of the Major Trumps is unchanged--and indeed unchangeable--in respect of its design, it has been partly described already regarding its deeper sense. It represents also the perfection and end of the Cosmos, the secret which is within it, the rapture of the universe when it understands itself in God. It is further the state of the soul in the consciousness of Divine Vision, reflected from the self-knowing spirit. But these meanings are without prejudice to that which I have said concerning it on the material side. It has more than one message on the macrocosmic side and is, for example, the state of the restored world when the law of manifestation shall have been carried to the highest degree of natural perfection. But it is perhaps more especially a story of the past, referring to that day when all was declared to be good, when the morning stars sang together and all the Sons of God shouted for joy. One of the worst explanations concerning it is that the figure symbolizes the Magus when he has reached the highest degree of initiation; another account says that it represents the absolute, which is ridiculous. The figure has been said to stand for Truth, which is, however, more properly allocated to the seventeenth card. Lastly, it has been called the Crown of the Magi.

Card Eight

Six of Cups from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Reversed

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

Card Description

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

Card Nine

Nine of Cups from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Upright

Concord, contentment, physical bien-etre; also victory, success, advantage; satisfaction for the Querent or person for whom the consultation is made.

Card Description

A goodly personage has feasted to his heart's content, and abundant refreshment of wine is on the arched counter behind him, seeming to indicate that the future is also assured. The picture offers the material side only, but there are other aspects.

Card Ten

Strength from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Upright

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

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 Eleven

Knight of Pentacles from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Reversed

Inertia, idleness, repose of that kind, stagnation; also placidity, discouragement, carelessness.

Card Description

He rides a slow, enduring, heavy horse, to which his own aspect corresponds. He exhibits his symbol, but does not look therein.

Card Twelve

King of Cups from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Upright

Fair man, man of business, law, or divinity; responsible, disposed to oblige the Querent; also equity, art and science, including those who profess science, law and art; creative intelligence.

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 Thirteen

The Star from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Upright

Loss, theft, privation, abandonment; another reading says-hope and bright prospects.

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 Fourteen

The Hermit from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Upright

Prudence, circumspection; also and especially treason, dissimulation, roguery, corruption.

Card Description

The variation from the conventional models in this card is only that the lamp is not enveloped partially in the mantle of its bearer, who blends the idea of the Ancient of Days with the Light of the World It is a star which shines in the lantern. I have said that this is a card of attainment, and to extend this conception the figure is seen holding up his beacon on an eminence. Therefore the Hermit is not, as Court de Gebelin explained, a wise man in search of truth and justice; nor is he, as a later explanation proposes, an especial example of experience. His beacon intimates that "where I am, you also may be." It is further a card which is understood quite incorrectly when it is connected with the idea of occult isolation, as the protection of personal magnetism against admixture. This is one of the frivolous renderings which we owe to Eliphas Levi. It has been adopted by the French Order of Martinism and some of us have heard a great deal of the Silent and Unknown Philosophy enveloped by his mantle from the knowledge of the profane. In true Martinism, the significance of the term Philosophe inconnu was of another order. It did not refer to the intended concealment of the Instituted Mysteries, much less of their substitutes, but--like the card itself--to the truth that the Divine Mysteries secure their own protection from those who are unprepared.

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Card Fifteen

The Fool from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Upright

Folly, mania, extravagance, intoxication, delirium, frenzy, bewrayment.

Card Description

With light step, as if earth and its trammels had little power to restrain him, a young man in gorgeous vestments pauses at the brink of a precipice among the great heights of the world; he surveys the blue distance before him-its expanse of sky rather than the prospect below. His act of eager walking is still indicated, though he is stationary at the given moment; his dog is still bounding. The edge which opens on the depth has no terror; it is as if angels were waiting to uphold him, if it came about that he leaped from the height. His countenance is full of intelligence and expectant dream. He has a rose in one hand and in the other a costly wand, from which depends over his right shoulder a wallet curiously embroidered. He is a prince of the other world on his travels through this one-all amidst the morning glory, in the keen air. The sun, which shines behind him, knows whence he came, whither he is going, and how he will return by another path after many days. He is the spirit in search of experience. Many symbols of the Instituted Mysteries are summarized in this card, which reverses, under high warrants, all the confusions that have preceded it. In his Manual of Cartomancy, Grand Orient has a curious suggestion of the office of Mystic Fool, as apart of his process in higher divination; but it might call for more than ordinary gifts to put it into operation. We shall see how the card fares according to the common arts of fortune-telling, and it will be an example, to those who can discern, of the fact, otherwise so evident, that the Trumps Major had no place originally in the arts of psychic gambling, when cards are used as the counters and pretexts. Of the circumstances under which this art arose we know, however, very little. The conventional explanations say that the Fool signifies the flesh, the sensitive life, and by a peculiar satire its subsidiary name was at one time the alchemist, as depicting folly at the most insensate stage.

Card Sixteen

Eight of Swords from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Upright

Bad news, violent chagrin, crisis, censure, power in trammels, conflict, calumny; also sickness.

Card Description

A woman, bound and hoodwinked, with the swords of the card about her. Yet it is rather a card of temporary durance than of irretrievable bondage.

Card Seventeen

Seven of Cups from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Reversed

Desire, will, determination, project.

Card Description

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

Card Eighteen

Two of Pentacles from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Reversed

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

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 Nineteen

Page of Wands from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Upright

Dark young man, faithful, a lover, an envoy, a postman. Beside a man, he will bear favourable testimony concerning him. A dangerous rival, if followed by the Page of Cups. Has the chief qualities of his suit. He may signify family intelligence.

Card Description

In a scene similar to the former, a young man stands in the act of proclamation. He is unknown but faithful, and his tidings are strange.

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Card Twenty

Ace of Pentacles from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Reversed

The evil side of wealth, bad intelligence; also great riches. In any case it shews prosperity, comfortable material conditions, but whether these are of advantage to the possessor will depend on whether the card is reversed or not.

Card Description

A hand--issuing, as usual, from a cloud--holds up a pentacle.

Card Twenty One

Nine of Swords from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Reversed

Imprisonment, suspicion, doubt, reasonable fear, shame.

Card Description

One seated on her couch in lamentation, with the swords over her. She is as one who knows no sorrow which is like unto hers. It is a card of utter desolation.

Details of this Tarot Reading

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