When the Queen of Swords pops up in a Tarot read, she is an Air sign woman influencing the situation. Her main mode of operating is the mind. Think sharp and incisive logic, cutting wit – the light of reason or turbulence. When you hear Air, think Wind.
She is Gemini, Libra, or Aquarius and mentally super-agile. Expressed on the lower end of the spectrum, this vibe is incredibly careless with emotions – not merely indiscreet but actively information-brokering and meddling. But even if she is the less pleasant style of Air sign, the good news is that she’ll get bored with any stirring or vendetta and move on fast.
If the Queen of Swords is not a player in your current scenario – overtly or darting around performing more clandestine manipulations, she is either about to appear or she is you.
Another possibility: that breezy detachment is actually the best approach right now. Elevate your mentality. It’s okay to be bored with neurosis, a rut, or a socio-cultural take that has become calcified.
In older-style Tarot books and interpretations, the Queen of Swords was often referred to as being a widow or in mourning but that just reflected the time. Air sign women/the Queen of Swords are independent thinkers – gold to many people’s lead.
In the olden days, the only way most women could attain any sort of individual life was to be a widow – nobody expected them to marry again or they could plausibly avoid it.
But they’d proved their mainstream credentials by getting married and unless there was an inquisition or witchhunt in play, our Queen of Swords would have an unassailable social position.
Image: Roe Ethridge
And I just pulled the Queen of Swords in the 12th house – love those Scorpio moon readings.
The 12 Card Tarot is so ON right now
THANK GODDESS, today was my last day to work for the bitch from Hell boss! In keeping with tradition, she had one, final, giant screw job for me.
I did stand up for myself. Not that it mattered. But, several people overheard … it felt good.
Start new job tomorrow where I am valued & respected. Good-bye, bitch/shit job!
byeeee!!!!
I see the widow facet of her not so much negative but as simply being in line with one possible reason for her “aloneness” – she also shows up as a divorced woman at times, too. Sometimes when I read she’ll signify a woman who very much self-identifies as “divorced”; recently so in some cases.
Of all the Queens I care for her the least – she comes across to me as cold, cerebral, and a bit cynical. It’s the scowl on her face (RWS version). She reminds me of a dear friend’s mother who I’ve known since 8th grade – I do have a warm place in my heart for her because I’ve known her for so long and in some respects she’s almost like a surrogate maternal figure, but I would NEVER take her relationship advice as she’s one of those “men are all the same” types. I can’t help but wonder if maybe she weren’t so emotionally en garde all the time and cut off from the softer parts of her persona, she might get better results. People can only meet us where we’re at, after all….
I have found that when i come up with a king or queen swords in a reading, the cue is to specifically disengage from softness because this trait is essentially irrelevant to the person or question / issue (for better or worse, I guess, as you note).
My super-uranian thesis supervisor – swords of course, which because of my state of mind and the topic of my study was actually very distressing – while my work was obviously intellectual (academia), at its heart i was very much psychologically meshed.
Mother, also queen swords.
when i experience it myself, it’s often a blessing because it means ideas generation, cut through,… i can add the feelings back in later once I have the facts present and accounted for…
actually no it’s more wands where the ideas happen. swords is different.
Well I have just run my tarot with a broad current situation which is so complex and convoluted and has so many possible outcomes that I thought it nearly an impossible question to format.
But the answer is literally an imprint of the me I am in the office today. I have three of the queens and Justice Heirophant Hermit and High priestess. The queen of swords was present at 7th house. It is uncanny.
you’d better believe it.
a few days ago the 3 of swords showed up in 11th house. Betrayal. From a friend?? sigh.
then i find that Libran Virgo boss (who I do have a nice friend vibe with) did, via workplace arrangements, what feels like exactly that. The Taurus Accountant accidentally blabbed the info late last week to me which opened the Pi trapdoor of doom (the mercury chiron , uranus moon thing happening in my chart atm)
Madly scrambling for a platform on which to arrange my chaotic thoughts and feelings and get some respite. then thank fuq, the capricorn moon / year of fire snake / mars aquarius kicks in, everything frosts over, I can see my breath as fog, everything is deathly quiet and clear in my mind….finally I can see and think clearly
i went to a tarot reader who actually helped me to refocus this what-feels-like crisis moment. I saw the king of swords at the top of the spread and mentioned to her, “I guess that’s my boss.” and she said “I think it’s actually you.” sweet. king ftw.
there is no other way things would have happened at this gig: all’s fair in love and war…. and the office.
What does your last paragraph mean, Pi? I mean the first sentence.
i think i mean, that i am just as responsible for my position in this situation as anyone else is who chose to be in it.
hence my decision to keep a cool head I guess.
Also, making sure I relocate my desire to leave the place in a better position from when I arrived. being the better person. acting in the greater good. being petty serves no one. etc. fairly sure the virgo boss and toro accountant have eyes firmly fixed on the bottom line but whatever.
Leave with your dignity and standards intact: we know you will. Also, yes to relocating that loyalty. Leave with YOU in a better position. That will seem like a reference or such, but it is really just YOU.
King of Swords.
Haha the big little Piscean “whatever”. Here it comes. And there you are, beyond it already.
ha. you see it. x
I got the 3 of swords this wk but in 12h. Alongside a judgment in 11h. I realized it boiled down to disrespect in a romantic + friend scenario…and maybe most things in my life right now. On the verge of a new era, need to leave behind the old that didn’t totally respect or get me- maybe similar to your gig?
Uranus in Taurus #grounded in my weirdness!
yeah, …
i’m learning to pay more attention to the adjacent cards too.
i’m also wondering what is this mythical role or calling where suddenly our cohort ‘gets’ us. This isn’t throwing your idea back at you and i’m feeling a bit jaded so don’t take this personally, i’m just running with a thought process:: I’m thinking maybe this is part of the bullshit we call life and no one is meant to ‘get’ us and the idea is to just deal with it. I think the boss gets me (3rd decan virgos usually do) but the job/role doesn’t quite. I think i’ve just basically lost faith in the potential of working life to deliver any sense of satisfaction right now. the tarot reader mentioned i had a thing where i’m kind of determined to not listen to my heart, to make what are essentially unhappy decisions. So yes. now i come back to your point. and you’re right. another thing taken away that wasn’t right. it will keep happening until i finally work out what 2 + 2 equals on planet Pi. thanks darkstar for the process there
3 of swords in the 12th…a disconnection, a line unplugged. ‘qi leak’ ? your own beliefs betraying you? clarity in the friendo circle as you say. hmm
Interesting interesting…yes I don’t expect everyone to get me (in fact I would rather not bc then I would be a bland ppl pleasing unit). Goal is to be most authentic self. I do think I’m betraying my soul by staying in a meh situation and that is my qi leak. Almost out of it but heeding the lesson
Thanks for this post Mystic. I consult the Tarot often and the Queen of Swords often comes up, as it did today in my Third House too!
I also like the clutch of red roses by the Queen’s Sword hand in the picture taken from the Alchemy deck? Is this a reference to Rosicrucianism or Mary Magdalene?
That’s from the Aquarian Tarot.
I have the Alchemy Deck and it’s sparse, metallic, and highly symmetrical. You made me check! I thought i’d missed something! I rarely miss using that deck, and it’s one of the few i still use to hand.
Wonder who has my old Vodun set.
Sorry i cannot answer, though i hope it helped your deck explorations.
Sorry, i rarely miss the reading, when i’m using that deck.
Yuck sorry I named wrong deck. This might explain why I wasn’t really drawn to those Alchemy tarot images that I found on-line.
Thanks for checking though and posting the name of the correct deck as I can now take myself off to reading about the Aquarian deck. *sighs happily as she goes off to over-ponder the placement of red roses on the Queen of Air’s sword arm*
I did a Tarot reading last friday right in the flux of the Full Moon.
I had business meeting / possible prospect on thursday so I visualized it and pushed on the cards deck.
Most cards are so on point I thought they were reading my mind.
I got the Queen of Swords in the 2nd house: I was thining about how much money I want from the potential new job but I guess it can be (it actually HAS to be) applied on the every day sector.
Queen of Swords has become my most often drawn Significator in Tarot. She resonates with my Gemini Mars and my Aquarius Venus and Mercury. In a sense, I’m a widow too, after a divorce during Saturn’s time in Sagittarius. I mourned for a bit, sure, but the Queen’s sharp sword cuts out decay nice and cleanly and I have healed well. She’s not a negative force, she’s Wonder Woman or Xena! Back off Prince Charming, I’ll change my own lightbulb thanks.
Gem Mars, Aqua Venus Mercury is very much the Airy Sword. No decay, and clean healing must be your signatures. That’s quite a blessing in a harsh circumstance. I can almost see the comic strip image of “Back off…” and the guy in frozen erk mode. Iconic, archetypal. Keep her wisdom with you, if newly discovered. I imagine it can be kept playfully yet to devastating effect.
Which houses are they?
Just discovered the Goddess Lalita, and my soul fell to the ground with these words:
“Shiva, the ascetic god who had incinerated the force of lust, found himself melting like butter in the hot sun before the bewitching beauty of the Mother of the Universe, who embodied in herself the very essence of sexual power.
Smiling, Lalita announced, “Whatever I say or do is according to my own will alone. Whichever man accepts me as his wife must also accept my complete independence.” Saying this, she pulled the garland from her neck and tossed it into the sky. It circled the heavens before finally landing around Shiva’s neck. In this handsome, garlanded form Shiva became known as Kameshvara, “the Emperor of Love.” He and Lalita were immediately united in marriage, to the great delight of the assembled deities.
There was no honeymoon.”
Prior to this, for no reason at all, driving home this morning, i found myself saying aloud some kind of summary of my Venus in Aqua square Saturn in Taurus. Was a bit startled to do that, but i mentally shrugged. I wonder how many people speak in their cars when alone, because i sure hate to while driving passengers.
Ah, an air sign! A bird just gave me two full looks, turning both sides of its head, then killed a spider and ate it, sharpened/cleaned its beak after, just a few feet from me. It checked out my odour-protective incense at the threshold of my outdoor space, too, then turned and looked back at me 0_0 Speak, bird! What IS it?
Had a weird feathers rising in a gust of wind moment last week too, all through the car.
Look forward to your SINGLE CARD TAROT, Mystic. I know its imminent.
“There was no honeymoon” lol brilliant
I know! So unexpected in the tradition, but sort of perfect…something left unspoken, because no word or gesture, no dance could convey it.
I always talk out loud. Whilst walking or just sitting in my office and of course driving. I spend hours going through my statements, through stuff that needs said. I could win oscars for the performances of soul felt dialogue. Pity I am alone when I do it! Maybe not?!?!?!?
I totally get the Athena/wise woman vibe. But I can definitely see how if reversed or negatively aspected, the Queen of Swords’ thoughts (and words) can be as sharp as knives. Like Acquarian aloofness, but with intention.
Or rational to the point of coldness.
Hmmm. I wonder what’s the difference b/w Page/Princess and Queen of Swords when in imbalance. And in the different houses. Lol.
Thanks Mystic! Something new to feel into with my tarot cards.
Feel like the Page/Princess energy is less mature, and the Queen has more experienced power. Also, that a Page/Princess reversed mucks things up for others a bit more but on a superficial level, while the Queen represents mastery of the self. If relating, Queen is more direct one-to-one, while Page/Princess is still far more embroiled in the social whirl.
Would that make any sense?