← Encyclopedia of Tarot · lesson 85/121
Queens
The Queens are the third rank of the court cards: four seated women, one in each suit, each enthroned in a landscape that belongs to her element. They are the court's mastery turned inward. Where a Queen appears, readers often see the suit's quality fully understood and lived — offered as care, wisdom, presence or example rather than as command.
The rank
The Queens and the Kings both hold their suit with maturity, and the difference between them is the usual way to read either. The King directs the suit outward into the world, through rules, decisions and responsibility. The Queen holds it from within: she is the suit's quality, and others feel it around her. Pollack and many others describe the Queens as the rank at home with the element — receptive, steady, deeply knowing. That inwardness can also be their shadow: a Queen's quality can turn into possessiveness, coldness, moodiness or self-absorption when it has nowhere to go.
Across the four suits
- Queen of Wands — warmth, confidence and magnetism; the person who lights up a room and gets things growing.
- Queen of Cups — emotional depth, empathy, intuition; the one who listens and understands.
- Queen of Swords — clear judgement, honesty, independence; perception sharpened by experience, sometimes by loss.
- Queen of Pentacles — practical care and resourcefulness; looking after people, places and bodies.
As people
When Waite chose a significator, he gave the Queen to a woman of forty or more and the Page to a younger woman. Older readings took a Queen as a mature woman in the querent's life, sorted by colouring: fair for Wands, light brown for Cups, dark brown for Swords, very dark for Pentacles. Modern readers usually loosen this. Gender in the cards is taken as a symbol, so a Queen can describe a man, a group, or the querent's own capacity for care and understanding.
Names in other decks
The Queen is the one court rank whose name has stayed almost the same everywhere. In the early Italian decks she was the regina; in the Tarot de Marseille she is the Reine; in the Rider–Waite–Smith deck, the Golden Dawn system and the Thoth Tarot she is the Queen. While the King and Knight swap names between those systems, a Queen is a Queen in all of them. Interestingly, she is the rank Spanish and Italian playing cards dropped when they simplified the court, while French cards kept her as the Dame.
The Golden Dawn attribution
In the Golden Dawn scheme the Queen is Water — the receptive stage in which the suit's force is received and given form. Each was titled "Queen of the Thrones" of her element, and each was given a span of the zodiac:
- Queen of Wands — Water of Fire, 20° Pisces to 20° Aries
- Queen of Cups — Water of Water, 20° Gemini to 20° Cancer
- Queen of Swords — Water of Air, 20° Virgo to 20° Libra
- Queen of Pentacles — Water of Earth, 20° Sagittarius to 20° Capricorn
Each span runs from the last decan of one sign into the next, and the greater part of each lies in a cardinal sign — the signs that open the seasons. Readers who weigh elemental dignities find the Queens' double element useful: the Queen of Cups, Water of Water, is the purest form of her suit, while the Queen of Wands carries both Fire and Water and is read as fire held with warmth rather than force. These are the Golden Dawn's attributions; not every school uses them, and some key the elements to the courts differently.
In a reading
A Queen can be a person who matters in the situation, the querent themselves, or an invitation to approach the matter as she would — with care, insight, clarity or patience according to her suit. Several Queens in one spread are often read as a situation shaped by nurture, by women, or by people acting from understanding rather than authority. Reversed, for readers who use reversals, a Queen may show her quality blocked or turned sour.