Scorpio in the Druidcraft court cards

Last in our exploration of Scorpio on the tarot -but not least - Scorpio in the court cards. But which one – or ones?  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 Cups as the court card associated with Scorpio.  That combination of Water and fixed-ness suggests being in control of her emotions and very self-contained – strong Scorpio qualities! She trusts her instincts and is very intuitive, in touch with the watery world of emotions. Feelings cannot be ignored – or only at your peril.  Other Scorpio traits which could be seen in the Queen are seductiveness and mysteriousness!  

Queen of Cups (detail): Druidcraft Tarot

The Druidcraft Tarot was not designed with astrology in mind, but I can see a Scorpionic element in its Queen of Cups, not least from the scorpion edging out from under her cloak and the snake emerging from under her throne! The Queen stands at the water’s edge, a chalice in her hands, positioned in such a way that the full moon appears to be rising from it. She’s able to draw deep into the depths of her emotions and intuition to transform dreams into creative reality. 

The Queen of Cups is often seen as a healer, such as a therapist or counsellor – someone who’s willing to accompany others into the depths of their psyche and emotional world in order to heal themselves. 

 

The snake and the scorpion, both creatures associated with Scorpio, remind us that we need to recognize our desires, our fears, our cravings – whatever it is that’s driving us; only when we’re truly aware of them should we attempt to master them, otherwise we run the risk of drowning.  The water appears tranquil, as does the Queen - calm on the surface yet carrying tremendous power for transformation within.

Druidcraft Tarot created by Philip Carr-Gomm and Stephanie Carr-Gomm, illustrated by Will Worthington, published by Connections

Scorpio in the Druidcraft Minor Arcana: The Seven of Cups

The Seven of Cups, in the astrological correspondence system I follow, is linked to the last decan (13^th-22^nd November), as well as to Venus in Scorpio.   

So, what qualities does Venus bring to Scorpio? Venus has been called ‘the principle of attraction’. It describes our appreciation for beauty (a very subjective area!) and reflects our taste in all sorts of things (dress, art, music, etc) as well as giving us clues about the relationships we’re drawn to.  So, if we combine this with what we know about Scorpio – the Fixed Water sign – what do we find? A deep, emotional attraction – intense, compulsive, obsessive even! There could be a need to ‘dive into the depths’ of relationship in order to feel close to the other.

But there’s also a balance between giving and receiving (remember that Venus also rules airy Libra, which has an affinity to the 7^th house of partnership), so Venus in Scorpio can be very healing through transformation in the area of shared resources.

Seven of Cups (detail): Druidcraft Tarot

Bu how does this fit with the Seven of Cups? This card is often linked to daydreams and fantasies, and having to make choices from a number of options in order to turn dreams into reality.  The figure in the Druidcraft’s version gazes into a pool in which six cups have been submerged; a seventh sits by his side.  He’s drawing on his imagination to envisage the things he longs for.   

Here we have the power of Venus at work – we fantasize about what we desire.  And it may be that we are unwilling to recognize or admit to having all these deep desires, especially if we feel that we “shouldn’t” have them – that they are ‘taboo’ (a word often associated with Scorpio) in some way.  By being patient – by sitting by the pool and gazing – we often find out which of those desires will simply evaporate, and whether any of them are worth the wait.  We do need to guard against our imagining of possibilities taking us into the world of illusion, of course!

Sometimes this card is linked to the idea of debauchery, that by grabbing every opportunity to feed our desire we are consumed by a type of greed.  Our daydreams or fantasies run the risk of leading to overindulgence, satiation, succumbing to our compulsions – particularly things which we feel are ‘taboo’ or not allowed – ending up with us feeling emotionally out of balance. Venus is no longer in her beloved Libra, but is now in deep, dark intense Scorpio!  But the message is the same – it’s time to open our eyes and see the reality, not the dreams – otherwise we can’t move forward; we will stagnate.   We may still choose one of those dreams, but it’s time to turn it into reality.

Druidcraft Tarot created by Philip Carr-Gomm and Stephanie Carr-Gomm, illustrated by Will Worthington, published by Connections

Scorpio in the Druidcraft Minor Arcana: The Six of Cups

Back to the Minor Arcana! Today we move on to the Six of Cups, which - in the system I use - is linked to the second decan (3^rd-12^th November) as well as the Sun in Scorpio. (For more information on this system of Planetary and Zodiacal dignities, I recommend Elizabeth Hazel's Tarot Decoded, published by Weiser, 2004.)

Just to recap: Scorpio is the fixed Water sign, so Scorpio will want to know what’s going on at a deeper level, not at the bubbly surface – “still waters run deep” is a good description of Scorpio’s focus.  Scorpio has to dive into the depths in order to unearth the root of a problem and will then try to transform it – but it may take a crisis or something similar before Scorpio will take that plunge.  

But here we have Sun in Scorpio – the addition of warmth and light!  Sounds like the complete opposite of dark and intense Scorpio, you might think?  If we think in terms of the Sun representing our creative energy, then in Scorpio that creativity is going draw on our emotions and intuition at a very deep level.  This could be seen as the need to express our creativity by changing or transforming something.  The Sun also represents our core being, our vitality – and in Scorpio this could connect us to our inner desires, perhaps even compulsions or obsessions.  The ‘shadow’ side of this – the reversal, if you like – could be seen as emotional obsessions or fixations getting in the way of the expression of creative energy, or perhaps the fear of losing control.

Six of Cups (detail): Druidcraft Tarot

How is the Sun in Scorpio reflected in the Six of Cups, in particular in the Druidcraft Tarot?  The man looks out at the children playing, remembering perhaps his own childhood – or perhaps imagining the children’s future. In the accompanying book, Philip and Stephanie Carr-Gomm write that “at the level of the heart, linear time ceases to exist. ...Instead, past and present merge and there is only love, or any number of other feelings”¹.  With Six being the number of harmony, the feelings (Cups) we’ve brought with us from the past, from the depths of childhood (or beyond), are integrated with those we experience now.  Like the Sun’s energy, this merging or integrating of memory allows us to penetrate what’s going on at the surface and to go deeper into the root of the issue.  The Sun’s warmth and light also allows old love to be uncovered or to be rekindled – relationships that have died coming back to life.

The downside, or ‘shadow’, of the Sun in Scorpio/Six of Cups is the potential trap of living in the past, or of dwelling on the past, which is not always a happy experience. That takes us back to the image of the Five of Cups – focusing on what’s past and ignoring what we still have.  Those five empty cups are full in the Six of Cups, full to the point of overflowing. It’s not clear whether the cup the man holds is empty, but the point is – he’s looking out at the five full cups, not down at the one he holds.  The fear of disappointment has been overcome so that more pleasant things can be enjoyed.  Enjoy what we have now, and let go of what’s past – that, to me, is the essence of the Sun in Scorpio!

¹ Druidcraft Tarot created by Philip Carr-Gomm and Stephanie Carr-Gomm, illustrated by Will Worthington, published by Connections