The Queens of the Tarot: The Queen of Swords

I’ve been wanting to do a piece on the Queens in the various Tarot decks for a while now and given yesterday was International Women’s Day, this seemed like the perfect time to begin a series on the Queens. I looked through my various decks and chose seven (yes, I know) that I thought would illustrate enough variety. I’ll group the Queens by suit and use the same order when looking at each one. The following list also observes the order for each Queen in the pictures for each suit, beginning at the top left, for easy reference and I’ll use this same order for the next three posts as well. But as the title indicates, I’m beginning with the Queen of Swords.

• The Wild Unknown Tarot – Kim Krans, creator/artist
• The Robin Wood Tarot – Robin Wood, creator/artist
• Rider-Waite Tarot – A.E. Waite, creator; Pamela Coleman Smith,artist
• Haindl Tarot ~ Hermann Haindl, creator/artist
• Morgan-Greer Tarot – Bill Greer, creator/artist; Lloyd Morgan
• The Wildwood Tarot – Mark Ryan/creator, John Mathews/co-creator; Will Worthington, artist
• Thoth Tarot – Aleister Crowley, creator; Lady Frieda Harris, artist

Queen of Swords

A cursory look tells us that Tarot deck authors certainly view this woman from a myriad of perspectives. I confess to loving the Queen of Swords in the Thoth deck more than the others, however, the non-traditional avian depictions are also lovely. Haindl’s rendition on the upper right, the Mother of Swords in the South, offers a historical, diety-oriented perspective with his use of Nuit, the Egyptian goddess of the night sky. Lady Frieda Harris, on the other hand, depicts the Queen in Crowley’s Thoth deck reclining on her throne in the clouds, a sword in one hand and a severed head in the other.

Both the Robin Wood and the Rider-Waite decks depict a Queen looking in a westward direction, clouds present, with an upright sword in her right hand and her left extending out to someone unseen. The Rider-Waite has her seated in her throne while the Robin Wood depicts her standing, her robes flowing in the breeze, capturing the Queen’s true spirit while the Rider-Waite Queen seems to take a back seat to her position.

The Morgan-Greer deck defines the Queen in a more direct fashion as she looks directly at the reader, deliberate and powerful. Like the first two Queens, she holds a sword, however, this time it’s in her left or receptive hand suggesting, and the roses around her reinforcing, that intellect or reason should be used in a gentle versus authoritarian manner.

Moving to the bird depictions, Kim Krans uses color selectively in her Wild Unknown Tarot deck, at least in my viewpoint, to illustrate elemental qualities contained within each card. For the Mother of Swords, however, we see the use of black and white as she depicts an owl perched atop a downward pointing sword. A Portland artist, this deck immediately grabbed my attention, not only because she’s a stone’s throw away from me on the other side of the Mt. Hood, but because of how she sees the tarot itself. The owl as Mother or Queen looks directly at the reader, her gaze piercing and knowing. She sees all, this Queen, as she stands in her own power.

The Wildwood authors use a graceful white swan to depict the Queen of Swords, Arrows in their deck. We see her looking back at the reader, her feathers full, as if hiding or protecting something, her chicks perhaps, from the view of predators. She seems to be moving away from the reader, gliding gracefully through the water where arrowheads, cattails, and overhanging trees reside. The Wildwood Tarot seems to view the Queen from the perspective of nurturance and protection.

Representing the Divine Mother, Haindl uses the Hindu goddess, Kali, in his rendition of the Queen of Swords, renaming this card the Mother of Wands in the East. See the note below on the directional differences in this deck. Kali destroys evil forces and gives birth to creation. We see her sitting on a throne, in coitus with Shiva, a serpent of rebirth coiled around his head. Kali as the Queen of Wands defines herself an equal with her consort, establishing right order and balance.

Lastly, we come to my favorite card in all of Tarot, Crowley’s Queen of Swords from the Thoth deck. Here Lady Harris draws the Queen reclining on a crystalline throne in the clouds, a severed head, likely the King’s, in one hand and a sword in the other, nude from the waist up. Her golden hair flows behind her as she’s cut through whatever nonsense that’s happening and now she’s done. This Queen makes the difficult choice, strong and sure. She takes no prisoners and suffers no fools.

If taken together, the seven Tarot decks describe a complete picture of our Queen. She’s strong, yet gentle and nurturing. She resolves to find balance blending authority with reason and compassion. She is multi-faceted, to the consternation of all men everywhere. She will never be controlled and her word is final.

Next up in the series, I’ll take a look at the Queens in the suit of Cups.

Queenly Blessings to all!

NOTE: There are differences in where folks assign Elements and directions. Some folks, like Haindl, view the East as corresponding with Elemental Fire and therefore Wands. Others like myself, assign Swords to Air and an East direction, and Wands to the Fire Element and a South direction. It depends entirely on one’s perspective which I’ve never understood completely although at one point I wondered if it was reflective of the hemisphere in which one resides given that winter occurs in the southern hemisphere when summer occurs in the northern but ultimately, I don’t know. Haindl also uses a different rune Futhark than I do, so whenever I interpret this deck, I do so from my own perspective. So, ignore the East reference and consider it as South.