Queen of Tarot

The ancient wisdom of the cards

Tarot Reading I am an incredibly lucky, and flipside, incredibly unlucky, person. What will the next disaster pertain to, and when will my next streak of luck begin?

Reading Performed 11/17/2018 at 7:06 PM

Click or scroll down for the meaning of each position and the interpretation of its card.

Visual Layout

The Meanings of these Tarot Cards

Card One

Knight of Wands from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Upright

Departure, absence, flight, emigration. A dark young man, friendly. Change of residence.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

Departure, Separation, Disunion

Card Description

He is shewn as if upon a journey, armed with a short wand, and although mailed is not on a warlike errand. He is passing mounds or pyramids. The motion of the horse is a key to the character of its rider, and suggests the precipitate mood, or things connected therewith.

Card Two

Queen of Swords from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Reversed

Malice, bigotry, artifice, prudery, bale, deceit.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

A Bad Woman, ill-tempered and bigoted, Riches and Discord, Abundance together with Worry, Joy with Grief.

Card Description

Her right hand raises the weapon vertically and the hilt rests on an arm of her royal chair the left hand is extended, the arm raised her countenance is severe but chastened; it suggests familiarity with sorrow. It does not represent mercy, and, her sword notwithstanding, she is scarcely a symbol of power.

Card Three

Ten of Wands from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Upright

A card of many significances, and some of the readings cannot be harmonized. I set aside that which connects it with honour and good faith. The chief meaning is oppression simply, but it is also fortune, gain, any kind of success, and then it is the oppression of these things. It is also a card of false-seeming, disguise, perfidy. The place which the figure is approaching may suffer from the rods that he carries. Success is stultified if the Nine of Swords follows, and if it is a question of a lawsuit, there will be certain loss.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

Confidence, Security, Honour, Good Faith

Card Description

A man oppressed by the weight of the ten staves which he is carrying.

Card Four

Nine of Cups from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Upright

Concord, contentment, physical bien-etre; also victory, success, advantage; satisfaction for the Querent or person for whom the consultation is made.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

Victory, Advantage, Success, Triumph, Difficulties surmounted

Card Description

A goodly personage has feasted to his heart's content, and abundant refreshment of wine is on the arched counter behind him, seeming to indicate that the future is also assured. The picture offers the material side only, but there are other aspects.

Card Five

Ace of Wands from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Upright

Creation, invention, enterprise, the powers which result in these; principle, beginning, source; birth, family, origin, and in a sense the virility which is behind them; the starting point of enterprises; according to another account, money, fortune, inheritance.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

Birth, Commencement, Beginning, Origin, Source

Card Description

A hand issuing from a cloud grasps a stout wand or club.

Card Six

Three of Swords from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Upright

Removal, absence, delay, division, rupture, dispersion, and all that the design signifies naturally, being too simple and obvious to call for specific enumeration.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

A Nun, Separation, Removal, Rupture, Quarrel

Card Description

Three swords piercing a heart; cloud and rain behind.

Card Seven

Queen of Pentacles from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Reversed

Evil, suspicion, suspense, fear, mistrust.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

Certain Evil, a suspicious Woman, a Woman justly regarded with Suspicion, Doubt, Mistrust.

Card Description

The face suggests that of a dark woman, whose qualities might be summed up in the idea of greatness of soul; she has also the serious cast of intelligence; she contemplates her symbol and may see worlds therein.

Card Eight

Temperance from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Upright

Economy, moderation, frugality, management, accommodation.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

Combination, Conformation, Uniting

Card Description

A winged angel, with the sign of the sun upon his forehead and on his breast the square and triangle of the septenary. I speak of him in the masculine sense, but the figure is neither male nor female. It is held to be pouring the essences of life from chalice to chalice. It has one foot upon the earth and one upon waters, thus illustrating the nature of the essences. A direct path goes up to certain heights on the verge of the horizon, and above there is a great light, through which a crown is seen vaguely. Hereof is some part of the Secret of Eternal Life, as it is possible to man in his incarnation. All the conventional emblems are renounced herein. So also are the conventional meanings, which refer to changes in the seasons, perpetual movement of life and even the combination of ideas. It is, moreover, untrue to say that the figure symbolizes the genius of the sun, though it is the analogy of solar light, realized in the third part of our human triplicity. It is called Temperance fantastically, because, when the rule of it obtains in our consciousness, it tempers, combines and harmonises the psychic and material natures. Under that rule we know in our rational part something of whence we came and whither we are going.

Card Nine

Nine of Pentacles from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Reversed

Roguery, deception, voided project, bad faith.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

Deceit, Bad faith, Artifices, Deception.

Card Description

A woman, with a bird upon her wrist, stands amidst a great abundance of grapevines in the garden of a manorial house. It is a wide domain, suggesting plenty in all things. Possibly it is her own possession and testifies to material well-being.

Card Ten

Eight of Wands from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Reversed

Arrows of jealousy, internal dispute, stingings of conscience, quarrels; and domestic disputes for persons who are married.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

Quarrels, Intestine disputes, Discord.

Card Description

The card represents motion through the immovable-a flight of wands through an open country; but they draw to the term of their course. That which they signify is at hand; it may be even on the threshold.

Card Eleven

Eight of Cups from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Reversed

Great joy, happiness, feasting.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

Gaiety, Feasting, Joy, Pleasure.

Card Description

A man of dejected aspect is deserting the cups of his felicity, enterprise, undertaking or previous concern.

Card Twelve

The Chariot from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Reversed

Riot, quarrel, dispute, litigation, defeat.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

Overthrown, Conquered by Obstacles at the last moment.

Card Description

An erect and princely figure carrying a drawn sword and corresponding, broadly speaking, to the traditional description which I have given in the first part. On the shoulders of the victorious hero are supposed to be the Urim and Thummim. He has led captivity captive; he is conquest on all planes--in the mind, in science, in progress, in certain trials of initiation. He has thus replied to the sphinx, and it is on this account that I have accepted the variation of Eliphas Levi; two sphinxes thus draw his chariot. He is above all things triumph in the mind. It is to be understood for this reason (a) that the question of the sphinx is concerned with a Mystery of Nature and not of the world of Grace, to which the charioteer could offer no answer; (b) that the planes of his conquest are manifest or external and not within himself; (c) that the liberation which he effects may leave himself in the bondage of the logical understanding; (d) that the tests of initiation through which he has passed in triumph are to be understood physically or rationally; and (e) that if he came to the pillars of that Temple between which the High Priestess is seated, he could not open the scroll called Tora, nor if she questioned him could he answer. He is not hereditary royalty and he is not priesthood.

Card Thirteen

The Lovers from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Upright

Attraction, love, beauty, trials overcome.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

Wise Dispositions, Proof, Trials Surmounted

Card Description

The sun shines in the zenith, and beneath is a great winged figure with arms extended, pouring down influences. In the foreground are two human figures, male and female, unveiled before each other, as if Adam and Eve when they first occupied the paradise of the earthly body. Behind the man is the Tree of Life, bearing twelve fruits, and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is behind the woman; the serpent is twining round it. The figures suggest youth, virginity, innocence and love before it is contaminated by gross material desire. This is in all simplicity the card of human love, here exhibited as part of the way, the truth and the life. It replaces, by recourse to first principles, the old card of marriage, which I have described previously, and the later follies which depicted man between vice and virtue. In a very high sense, the card is a mystery of the Covenant and Sabbath. The suggestion in respect of the woman is that she signifies that attraction towards the sensitive life which carries within it the idea of the Fall of Man, but she is rather the working of a Secret Law of Providence than a willing and conscious temptress. It is through her imputed lapse that man shall arise ultimately, and only by her can he complete himself. The card is therefore in its way another intimation concerning the great mystery of womanhood. The old meanings fall to pieces of necessity with the old pictures, but even as interpretations of the latter, some of them were of the order of commonplace and others were false in symbolism.

Card Fourteen

Six of Wands from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Upright

The card has been so designed that it can cover several significations; on the surface, it is a victor triumphing, but it is also great news, such as might be carried in state by the King's courier; it is expectation crowned with its own desire, the crown of hope, and so forth.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

Attempt, Hope, Desire, Wish, Expectation

Card Description

A laurelled horseman bears one staff adorned with a laurel crown; footmen with staves are at his side.

Card Fifteen

The High Priestess from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Reversed

Passion, moral or physical ardour, conceit, surface knowledge.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

Conceit, Ignorance, Unskilfulness, Superficial Knowledge.

Card Description

she has the lunar crescent at her feet, a horned diadem on her head, with a globe in the middle place, and a large solar cross on her breast. The scroll in her hands is inscribed with the word Tora, signifying the Greater Law, the Secret Law and the second sense of the Word. It is partly covered by her mantle, to shew that some things are implied and some spoken. She is seated between the white and black pillars--J. and B.--of the mystic Temple, and the veil of the Temple is behind her: it is embroidered with palms and pomegranates. The vestments are flowing and gauzy, and the mantle suggests light--a shimmering radiance. She has been called occult Science on the threshold of the Sanctuary of Isis, but she is really the Secret Church, the House which is of God and man. She represents also the Second Marriage of the Prince who is no longer of this world; she is the spiritual Bride and Mother, the daughter of the stars and the Higher Garden of Eden. She is, in fine, the Queen of the borrowed light, but this is the light of all. She is the Moon nourished by the milk of the Supernal Mother. In a manner, she is also the Supernal Mother herself--that is to say, she is the bright reflection. It is in this sense of reflection that her truest and highest name in bolism is Shekinah--the co-habiting glory. According to Kabalism, there is a Shekinah both above and below. In the superior world it is called Binah, the Supernal Understanding which reflects to the emanations that are beneath. In the lower world it is MaIkuth--that world being, for this purpose, understood as a blessed Kingdom that with which it is made blessed being the Indwelling Glory. Mystically speaking, the Shekinah is the Spiritual Bride of the just man, and when he reads the Law she gives the Divine meaning. There are some respects in which this card is the highest and holiest of the Greater Arcana.

Card Sixteen

Page of Swords from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Reversed

More evil side of these qualities; what is unforeseen, unprepared state; sickness is also intimated.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

That which is unforeseen, Vigilance, Support.

Card Description

A lithe, active figure holds a sword upright in both hands, while in the act of swift walking. He is passing over rugged land, and about his way the clouds are collocated wildly. He is alert and lithe, looking this way and that, as if an expected enemy might appear at any moment.

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Card Seventeen

Six of Cups from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Reversed

The future, renewal, that which will come to pass presently.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

The Future, that which is to come, Shortly, Soon.

Card Description

Children in an old garden, their cups filled with flowers.

Card Eighteen

Six of Pentacles from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Reversed

Desire, cupidity, envy, jealousy, illusion.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

Ambition, Desire, Passion, Aim, Longing.

Card Description

A person in the guise of a merchant weighs money in a pair of scales and distributes it to the needy and distressed. It is a testimony to his own success in life, as well as to his goodness of heart.

Card Nineteen

Four of Pentacles from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Reversed

Suspense, delay, opposition.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

Obstacles, Hindrances.

Card Description

A crowned figure, having a pentacle over his crown, clasps another with hands and arms; two pentacles are under his feet. He holds to that which he has.

Card Twenty

Seven of Swords from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Upright

Design, attempt, wish, hope, confidence; also quarrelling, a plan that may fail, annoyance. The design is uncertain in its import, because the significations are widely at variance with each other.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

Hope, Confidence, Desire, Attempt, Wish

Card Description

A man in the act of carrying away five swords rapidly; the two others of the card remain stuck in the ground. A camp is close at hand.

Card Twenty One

Wheel of Fortune from the Waite Smith Tarot Deck

Card Meaning When Upright

Destiny, fortune, success, elevation, luck, felicity.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

Good Fortune, Success, Unexpected Luck

Card Description

In this symbol I have again followed the reconstruction of Eliphas Levi, who has furnished several variants. It is legitimate--as I have intimated--to use Egyptian symbolism when this serves our purpose, provided that no theory of origin is implied therein. I have, however, presented Typhon in his serpent form. The symbolism is, of course, not exclusively Egyptian, as the four Living Creatures of Ezekiel occupy the angles of the card, and the wheel itself follows other indications of Levi in respect of Ezekiel\'s vision, as illustrative of the particular Tarot Key. With the French occultist, and in the design itself, the symbolic picture stands for the perpetual motion of a fluidic universe and for the flux of human life. The Sphinx is the equilibrium therein. The transliteration of Taro as Rota is inscribed on the wheel, counterchanged with the letters of the Divine Name--to shew that Providence is imphed through all. But this is the Divine intention within, and the similar intention without is exemplified by the four Living Creatures. Sometimes the sphinx is represented couchant on a pedestal above, which defrauds the symbolism by stultifying the essential idea of stability amidst movement. Behind the general notion expressed in the symbol there lies the denial of chance and the fatality which is implied therein. It may be added that, from the days of Levi onward, the occult explanations of this card are--even for occultism itself--of a singularly fatuous kind. It has been said to mean principle, fecundity, virile honour, ruling authority, etc. The findings of common fortune-telling are better than this on their own plane.

Details of this Tarot Reading

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