Different traditions have different
astrological correspondences when it comes to the Court Cards. For instance,
the Book-T system
attributes the cardinal attributes (initiating things) to the Queens, fixed (maintaining
order) to the Kings, and mutable (being able to adapt and transform) to the
Knights. Each court card is also linked
to the elements, with Pages with Earth, Knights being associated with Fire,
Queens with Water, and Kings with Air.
Other decks follow a different convention.
They keep the Knights as carriers of mutable qualities, but have the Queens
taking on the ‘fixed’ attributes and the Kings the ‘cardinal’ ones. This gives us the Queen of Wands as the Leo
card. That combination of fire and
fixed-ness suggests a mix of fiery enthusiasm and optimism, but there are some
boundaries this Queen won’t cross. She’s not going to take risks – not in the
way that the roving, changeable Knight or the dynamic, ‘go-getter’ King
might. But she’s quite likely to be able
to look after a number of things at the same time – she can compartmentalize
very successfully, and can make herself available to whoever needs her. And given all the mythology (see my previous
post, ‘Leo in the Major Arcana’) linking women with lions, it feels appropriate
that it should be the Queen, rather than one of the other Wands court cards,
with the link to the sign of Leo!
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| Druidcraft Tarot: Queen of Wands (detail) |
The Druidcraft Tarot was not designed with
astrology in mind, but I can see a Leonine element in its Queen of Wands, with
that rather lion-like cat under her throne. In the accompanying book, Philip
and Stephanie Carr-Gomm write that ‘if she or a friend are attacked, she can be
ferocious in defence’ – that cat looks as though it’s ready to pounce! The Queen too, with that Wand held firmly
upright in her right hand (the side of action), is the only Queen in the deck
shown wearing shoes – she’s dressed and ready for whatever’s coming her way.
(and Happy Birthday to my favourite Queen
of Wands – Alison Cross of This Game of Thrones fame!)
Druidcraft Tarot created by Philip Carr-Gomm and Stephanie Carr-Gomm, illustrated by
Will Worthington, published by Connections
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