Queen of Cups

Meanings according to Rider-Waite:

ASTROLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE: The Moon in Pisces as a symbol of subtlety of feelings, readiness to help others, and imaginative thinking.

QUEEN OF CUPS The Queen of Cups, personifying the feminine aspect of the element of water, signifies subtlety of feelings, empathy, imaginative thinking, and a readiness for self-sacrifice; she symbolizes healing, fortifying power, as well as the inward gaze. Thus, she governs the unconscious forces of the soul. She is the fairy and wise enchantress who lives within us, the soothsayer who interprets our dreams, the clairvoyant who helps us find our way through the fog. She is sometimes called the "dark card," because the sources of her wisdom are hidden, and they cannot be grasped through rational thought.

From the book: Hajo Banzhaf. THE TAROT HANDBOOK. Translated from the German by E. Kolesov. Publisher: Center for Astrological Research, 1999.

QUEEN OF CUPS In general, the QUEEN OF CUPS embodies and unites within herself the influences of Venus, the Moon, and Neptune. In life, this may be either a woman (as is most often the case) or a man. The latter is undoubtedly of the "Venusian" type. This is a person who often serves as a "shoulder to cry on," to whom it is good to weep and confess. At the same time, if the QUEEN OF CUPS appears reversed, beware, for your confessions will very soon be turned against you.

UPRIGHT POSITION Astrological equivalents: Libra, Aquarius, the Seventh and Eleventh Houses. The QUEEN OF CUPS is a friendly, attractive, and tender personality. This person is loved and adored, most likely by many. Most probably, this is a woman (in which case she is a wonderful mother and a devoted wife). This card may also indicate a very good friend, regardless of sex. The QUEEN OF CUPS is practical, very direct in her speech, yet at the same time she is wholly suffused with spirituality, which manifests itself most of all in the spiritual relationships by which she is usually absorbed. Often the QUEEN OF CUPS possesses the gift of foresight, and her counsel is well worth heeding.

REVERSED POSITION Astrological equivalents: the same, but with a distinct sense of the lower Saturn. Dishonesty, an inclination toward forbidden methods, base tactics, and blackmail. The moral principles of the reversed QUEEN OF CUPS leave much to be desired. This person is inwardly deeply unscrupulous. As a rule, the QUEEN OF CUPS is very materialistic, and her religiosity, if there is any at all, is expressed only in a kind of prayerful begging, nothing more. The reversed QUEEN OF CUPS may indicate a treacherous person appearing on your path, who will try to lure you into the snares of her cunning intrigues. If the card denotes action.

A. Upright position The card indicates that the emotions associated with the following cards have already been conceived and are in a state of initial formation. It may point to a nascent feeling, when everything is still rather vague and indistinct. Or, conversely, it is the first impulse after which two people gradually become strangers to one another.

B. Reversed position The card states that the feelings indicated by the content of the following cards have not yet manifested or been realized. Events are for the time being perceived from the standpoint of pure reason, speculatively. Or else the feelings evoked by events are clearly not adequate to them. Thus, a great love or friendship often begins with a quarrel; close friends meet by falling out.