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Well, that's a nice card to start this off with. (I signed up for a tarot course and part of it is that you draw one card a day and write/meditate about it, so that's what I'm doing, although this probaby isn't going to literally happen every day... we shall see). Just as a note to myself, how I'm going about this is:
1) Draw a card off the top of the Osho Zen Tarot deck, which is the one I've been reading from for the past 8 years or so.
2) Find the approximately-corresponding card (this isn't going to work 100% of the time) in the Daughters of the Moon deck that The Moderatrix gave me[1], and then looking up the corresponding Wildwood Tarot image on the internet[2]. I'd be doing this with the Next World Tarot cards as well, but they're still a work in progress and my deck won't be turning up until about August 2017, so I'm leaving that go for now (unless I pull one of the half dozen or so cards that are available as images online, in which case I will most likely include them). I'm also looking up the drawn card in my two Little Books, for added information (I may also draw on the Biddy Tarot website and one or two other sites, as they've been known to have insites that I didn't know about before), but the written work is going to be secondary to what I come up with on my own.
3) Write about how I understand the card in question, using the images (and, later, if I feel the need, some secondary sources / written work) to add to my original impressions.
Ready? Here we go!
~*~
The Queen of Earth:
In the Osho Zen deck, this is Flowering. A very Lakshmi image of a lady on a lotus, spilling seeds and being super-sensual. In the DotM deck, it's Great Corn Mother, a woman planting seeds in a rich field, the sun overhead, a baby on her back, and a field of maturing corn in the background. In the Wildwood deck, it's Bear, standing on her bac legs in the mouth of her cave, looking out at the world beyond (possibly to the east, where the sun is coming up). In my first, long-gone, deck (for-which I still have the Little Book), it's a crowned lady on a thrown, looking to her right (to the west?), and holding a giant gold coil with a five-point-star on it (that deck was super-simple in its artwork and its suggested interpretations, but I'll get to that in a minute).
I always forget that the suit of rings/diamonds/pentacles/stones/
When I look at Flowering, or consider the suit of Earth more generally, what I think of is "security" and "abundance" and, in some cases, our deep-rooted Feelings about same (although I get that Feelings is more the suit of water's pervue).
The Queen of Earth is an out-pouring card (if I look at the queens, Earth and Fire push outward, while Water and Air draw inward... although in very different ways). She is so confident of her wealth, she has so much that she can give things away without worrying that she'll run out or suddenly not have enough. The Queen of Earth is mellow and relaxed because she knows she, and everyone she cares about/for, are going to be okay. She knows she can take care of people, she knows she's got it covered and will continue to have it covered ('cause she's also good at planning and has her feet on the ground, so to speak).
I tend to view the Queen of Earth as a "coming into your own" card - very, very much the physical-security (money/career/housing/food/land) counterpart to the Queen of Fire, as it happens. When this card shows up in a present or future slot, it means good things are happening and/or in the works. Think: steady employment with a real paycheque. Think: Roach-free living space. Think: Qualified for Assistance (although rather less so than the Real Paycheque... I hope).
The queens in the tarot seem to be a bit like the queens in chess, to be honest. Like the Kings are a lot more passive and the queens are a lot more active. (So the Queen of Earth is all: "Don't worry, y'all, I've totally got this". Whereas the King of Earth is all: "Relaaaaaaaaaax. Have some munchies, maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan. It's all gooooooooooooooooood". The king says "Help yourself to everything in the fridge". The queen says "Here, have some food that I grew, harvested, processed, and cooked into a variety of delicious meals" - not that she'd be super-gauche about it or anything, just that she actually did do all of that. She worked for the abundance that she's got and now she can sit back and enjoy the fruits of her vast labours.
I see this in my mind's eye when I look at Flowering, but it's in sharper relief when I look at Great Corn Mother, who is literally planting a field one seed at a time, while a previous crop approaches ripeness.
Something else that Great Corn Mother shows, that Flowering doesn't (not directly at least), is the "mother" part of the situation. The suit of Earth has a lot to do with faaaaaaaaaaaamily. Lineage, ancestors and descendents, "When are you going to give me grandchildren?"... that kind of thing. Having the Queen of Earth turn up in a reading might mean there's parenting or (more broadly) family matters involved.
With that in mind, I turn to Bear, the Queen of Stones.
Once upon a time I sketched out a story that involved a ritual marriage between a bear and a human monarch that stood for the bond between the crown and the Land itself. (As it happened, the bear was a shape-shifter who could take human form - big, strong, broad-shouldered woman with dark hair and dark eyes) - but that's beside the point). Seeing the Queen of Earth portrayed, in this deck, as a literal bear, made me smile and felt quite familiar.
That said, while the Queen of Stones pulls most strongly on the "Mama Bear" aspect of the Queen of Earth, I don't think I've ever seen a Queen of Earth depicted so specifically as a defender before. It makes sense and fits with the card, for sure. You don't sock away six months worth of food, that you spent the other six months panting, tending, harvesting, and preserving, if you aren't planning on making for damn sure everyone in your care makes it through the winter. You don't put your labour and your planning and your resources into a home without making sure it has a sturdy foundation. The Queen of Earth is very much "pie in the oven" and "pie on the table" rather than "pie in the sky". None the less, the defensive posture of Bear in her cave leads me towards questions about "do you feel like something bad is going to happen" and "what are you afraid about in terms of poverty/enemies at the gates/physical dangers/instability".
Typically when I read tarot, the "reversed" cards are talking about stuff going on inside - inside your head, inside your body, inside your meta-naratives, you name it. They have to do with how you relate to yourself rather than how you relate to the rest of the world (upright meaning).
Stuff I've extrapolated from written stuff:
If the Queen of Fire is passion, the Queen of Earth is compassion.
The Queen of Earth (reversed, depending on the reading, or in a "hopes/fears" position) may be talking about work-life balance.
May be prone to smothering (rather than mothering, so to speak), or doing unasked-for favours in order to get "you owe me" points in the bank. Sometimes generocity and care-taking can back-fire, or it can be abused in an "after all I've done for you" way OR a "keeping someone dependent" way. Is there a power imbalance in the querant's life with regards to keeping food on the table or the roof over head (or body and soul together, for that matter).
Security can be about trust-worthiness. Confidence in terms of "being a confidant" as much as "being sure of herself".
Queen of Earth maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay be about needing to remember to do self-care (you can't mother everybody all the time, put your own oxygen mask on first... that kind of thing).
Enjoys her creature-comforts and likes to share them around.
But also: Resourceful. This is more about money vs stuff (in a way). She can fix things. She doesn't go in for superfluous Stuff but tends to keep a useful (if comfortable and sensual) home where everything has a purpose. She wants her home to be beautiful and welcoming, but NOT full useless crap. If she shows up in a reading, it may be a call to get rid of things (or inter-personal relationships) that don't make you happy.
May suggest that the querant needs to get out more (like Bear, who may have just woken up from hibernation) and/or may be feeling/getting isolated... though that isn't usually how it comes across when I'm doing the reading.
Not pretentious - take her as you find her, she'll do the same for you.
If the Queen of Fire is all about show-stopping dinners, splashing out, being Glamourous in her generocity, the Queen of Earth is much more chill. She'll invite you in and feed you a thrown-together (but still awesome) meal when her house is a mess, her clothes and hair need washing, and you're not at your best either. The Queen of Fire is the Hostess With The Mostess. The Queen of Earth is the Mama you can always come home to.
So there you go. The Queen of Earth.
TTFN,
Amazon.
[1] It's a weird deck. It started as a reimagining of the traditional tarot, but a lot of things have been moved around, conflated, or otherwise switched up. So the Knights and Pages of each suit have been combined to become the Maidens in this deck, a lot of the suit of swords has been redistributed among the four suits, and a number of the Major Arcana cards have been combined (Emperor and Empress are one card now, for example) or out-right removed so that each suit (MA included) has 13 cards. It's not really a tarot deck anymore, but something else entirely. None the less, I'm bringing it into play because I want to be able to read with all of my cards, not just some of them.
[2] In theory, my Wildwood deck will show up about a week from tomorrow, at which point I'll start pulling the cards physically, but until then: Interwebs.
1) Draw a card off the top of the Osho Zen Tarot deck, which is the one I've been reading from for the past 8 years or so.
2) Find the approximately-corresponding card (this isn't going to work 100% of the time) in the Daughters of the Moon deck that The Moderatrix gave me[1], and then looking up the corresponding Wildwood Tarot image on the internet[2]. I'd be doing this with the Next World Tarot cards as well, but they're still a work in progress and my deck won't be turning up until about August 2017, so I'm leaving that go for now (unless I pull one of the half dozen or so cards that are available as images online, in which case I will most likely include them). I'm also looking up the drawn card in my two Little Books, for added information (I may also draw on the Biddy Tarot website and one or two other sites, as they've been known to have insites that I didn't know about before), but the written work is going to be secondary to what I come up with on my own.
3) Write about how I understand the card in question, using the images (and, later, if I feel the need, some secondary sources / written work) to add to my original impressions.
Ready? Here we go!
~*~
The Queen of Earth:
In the Osho Zen deck, this is Flowering. A very Lakshmi image of a lady on a lotus, spilling seeds and being super-sensual. In the DotM deck, it's Great Corn Mother, a woman planting seeds in a rich field, the sun overhead, a baby on her back, and a field of maturing corn in the background. In the Wildwood deck, it's Bear, standing on her bac legs in the mouth of her cave, looking out at the world beyond (possibly to the east, where the sun is coming up). In my first, long-gone, deck (for-which I still have the Little Book), it's a crowned lady on a thrown, looking to her right (to the west?), and holding a giant gold coil with a five-point-star on it (that deck was super-simple in its artwork and its suggested interpretations, but I'll get to that in a minute).
I always forget that the suit of rings/diamonds/pentacles/stones/
When I look at Flowering, or consider the suit of Earth more generally, what I think of is "security" and "abundance" and, in some cases, our deep-rooted Feelings about same (although I get that Feelings is more the suit of water's pervue).
The Queen of Earth is an out-pouring card (if I look at the queens, Earth and Fire push outward, while Water and Air draw inward... although in very different ways). She is so confident of her wealth, she has so much that she can give things away without worrying that she'll run out or suddenly not have enough. The Queen of Earth is mellow and relaxed because she knows she, and everyone she cares about/for, are going to be okay. She knows she can take care of people, she knows she's got it covered and will continue to have it covered ('cause she's also good at planning and has her feet on the ground, so to speak).
I tend to view the Queen of Earth as a "coming into your own" card - very, very much the physical-security (money/career/housing/food/land) counterpart to the Queen of Fire, as it happens. When this card shows up in a present or future slot, it means good things are happening and/or in the works. Think: steady employment with a real paycheque. Think: Roach-free living space. Think: Qualified for Assistance (although rather less so than the Real Paycheque... I hope).
The queens in the tarot seem to be a bit like the queens in chess, to be honest. Like the Kings are a lot more passive and the queens are a lot more active. (So the Queen of Earth is all: "Don't worry, y'all, I've totally got this". Whereas the King of Earth is all: "Relaaaaaaaaaax. Have some munchies, maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan. It's all gooooooooooooooooood". The king says "Help yourself to everything in the fridge". The queen says "Here, have some food that I grew, harvested, processed, and cooked into a variety of delicious meals" - not that she'd be super-gauche about it or anything, just that she actually did do all of that. She worked for the abundance that she's got and now she can sit back and enjoy the fruits of her vast labours.
I see this in my mind's eye when I look at Flowering, but it's in sharper relief when I look at Great Corn Mother, who is literally planting a field one seed at a time, while a previous crop approaches ripeness.
Something else that Great Corn Mother shows, that Flowering doesn't (not directly at least), is the "mother" part of the situation. The suit of Earth has a lot to do with faaaaaaaaaaaamily. Lineage, ancestors and descendents, "When are you going to give me grandchildren?"... that kind of thing. Having the Queen of Earth turn up in a reading might mean there's parenting or (more broadly) family matters involved.
With that in mind, I turn to Bear, the Queen of Stones.
Once upon a time I sketched out a story that involved a ritual marriage between a bear and a human monarch that stood for the bond between the crown and the Land itself. (As it happened, the bear was a shape-shifter who could take human form - big, strong, broad-shouldered woman with dark hair and dark eyes) - but that's beside the point). Seeing the Queen of Earth portrayed, in this deck, as a literal bear, made me smile and felt quite familiar.
That said, while the Queen of Stones pulls most strongly on the "Mama Bear" aspect of the Queen of Earth, I don't think I've ever seen a Queen of Earth depicted so specifically as a defender before. It makes sense and fits with the card, for sure. You don't sock away six months worth of food, that you spent the other six months panting, tending, harvesting, and preserving, if you aren't planning on making for damn sure everyone in your care makes it through the winter. You don't put your labour and your planning and your resources into a home without making sure it has a sturdy foundation. The Queen of Earth is very much "pie in the oven" and "pie on the table" rather than "pie in the sky". None the less, the defensive posture of Bear in her cave leads me towards questions about "do you feel like something bad is going to happen" and "what are you afraid about in terms of poverty/enemies at the gates/physical dangers/instability".
Typically when I read tarot, the "reversed" cards are talking about stuff going on inside - inside your head, inside your body, inside your meta-naratives, you name it. They have to do with how you relate to yourself rather than how you relate to the rest of the world (upright meaning).
Stuff I've extrapolated from written stuff:
If the Queen of Fire is passion, the Queen of Earth is compassion.
The Queen of Earth (reversed, depending on the reading, or in a "hopes/fears" position) may be talking about work-life balance.
May be prone to smothering (rather than mothering, so to speak), or doing unasked-for favours in order to get "you owe me" points in the bank. Sometimes generocity and care-taking can back-fire, or it can be abused in an "after all I've done for you" way OR a "keeping someone dependent" way. Is there a power imbalance in the querant's life with regards to keeping food on the table or the roof over head (or body and soul together, for that matter).
Security can be about trust-worthiness. Confidence in terms of "being a confidant" as much as "being sure of herself".
Queen of Earth maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay be about needing to remember to do self-care (you can't mother everybody all the time, put your own oxygen mask on first... that kind of thing).
Enjoys her creature-comforts and likes to share them around.
But also: Resourceful. This is more about money vs stuff (in a way). She can fix things. She doesn't go in for superfluous Stuff but tends to keep a useful (if comfortable and sensual) home where everything has a purpose. She wants her home to be beautiful and welcoming, but NOT full useless crap. If she shows up in a reading, it may be a call to get rid of things (or inter-personal relationships) that don't make you happy.
May suggest that the querant needs to get out more (like Bear, who may have just woken up from hibernation) and/or may be feeling/getting isolated... though that isn't usually how it comes across when I'm doing the reading.
Not pretentious - take her as you find her, she'll do the same for you.
If the Queen of Fire is all about show-stopping dinners, splashing out, being Glamourous in her generocity, the Queen of Earth is much more chill. She'll invite you in and feed you a thrown-together (but still awesome) meal when her house is a mess, her clothes and hair need washing, and you're not at your best either. The Queen of Fire is the Hostess With The Mostess. The Queen of Earth is the Mama you can always come home to.
So there you go. The Queen of Earth.
TTFN,
Amazon.
[1] It's a weird deck. It started as a reimagining of the traditional tarot, but a lot of things have been moved around, conflated, or otherwise switched up. So the Knights and Pages of each suit have been combined to become the Maidens in this deck, a lot of the suit of swords has been redistributed among the four suits, and a number of the Major Arcana cards have been combined (Emperor and Empress are one card now, for example) or out-right removed so that each suit (MA included) has 13 cards. It's not really a tarot deck anymore, but something else entirely. None the less, I'm bringing it into play because I want to be able to read with all of my cards, not just some of them.
[2] In theory, my Wildwood deck will show up about a week from tomorrow, at which point I'll start pulling the cards physically, but until then: Interwebs.
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