Queen of Wands
Reine de Bâton (Tarot de Marseille) · Queen of Rods · Queen of Wands (Golden Dawn, Thoth)
A queen with a sunflower and a black cat sits on a lion throne: the Queen of Wands is read as warmth, confidence and magnetic self-possession.
Upright confidence · warmth · courage · independence · vivacity · determination · magnetism
Reversed jealousy · temper · insecurity · domineering · burnout · self-neglect
- Astrology
- 20° Pisces – 20° Aries (Golden Dawn Queen)
- Element
- Water of Fire
- Golden Dawn title
- Queen of the Thrones of Flame
- Yes or no
- Yes
Upright
The Queen of Wands is fire held with assurance. In the Waite–Smith tradition she represents a warm, confident, independent person — or that quality in the querent — who can lead, nurture and inspire at once. Waite judged her more magnetic than the King and gave her divinatory meanings as a dark woman, a countrywoman, friendly, chaste, loving and honourable, adding love of money, or a certain success in business.
Love and relationships: an attractive, generous and self-assured partner; loyalty and passion together; feeling at home in one's own skin.
Work and money: leadership by example, handling many things with energy and charm, success in business, sound judgement about people.
Advice: step into the sun. Trust your warmth and competence, speak plainly, and let your confidence give others permission to shine.
Reversed
Reversed, the queen's warmth can turn into heat. Readers describe jealousy, quick temper, a need to control, or insecurity hidden under bravado; alternatively, a capable person so busy keeping everyone else warm that her own fire burns low. Waite's inverted meanings were good, economical, obliging and serviceable, but in certain positions also opposition, jealousy, even deceit and infidelity. Many readers do not use reversals and would read her shadow side from the surrounding cards. Where the reversal is used, it asks for honest self-assessment: is confidence lifting others or dominating them — and who looks after the one who looks after everyone?
The image
The queen sits on a stone throne facing the viewer, her knees apart in a frank, open posture. In her right hand she holds a tall wand in leaf; in her left, a large sunflower. Lions are carved on the arms of the throne, and its high back is decorated with lions and sunflowers. At her feet sits a black cat, looking straight out of the card. She wears a yellow gown and a crown, and the sky behind the throne is a clear blue. Waite noted that the wands of this suit are always in leaf, as it is a suit of life and animation.
History
The queen was already a regular figure of the Italian and French tarot courts; the Marseille Reine de Bâton is a crowned woman holding a large club. Smith's Queen of Wands of 1909 is far more individual, and the black cat in particular has no clear precedent in earlier decks. Commentators have offered many readings of it, from the witch's familiar to a domestic companion signifying independence and a hidden, intuitive side. Waite's own description does not dwell on the cat, which suggests that the detail was largely Smith's contribution.
Symbolism
The Golden Dawn made the Queen of each suit the water of its element, so this is Water of Fire: fire made fluid, receptive and sustaining. Her title in the order was Queen of the Thrones of Flame, and her zodiacal span runs from 20° Pisces to 20° Aries, bridging the last watery sign and the first fiery one. The lions point to Leo and to the major card Strength; the sunflowers turn toward the Sun, emblem of life and fidelity; the cat suggests a nocturnal, intuitive depth beneath her sunny manner. Her open posture is unusual among the court cards and is often read as confidence and a lack of pretence.
In a reading
She is frequently read as a person — a mentor, a friend, a confident woman in the querent's life — or as advice to adopt her qualities. With the Sun her warmth is doubled; beside the King of Wands a well-matched partnership is suggested. Paired with the Empress she points to creative and domestic abundance; with the Seven of Wands she must defend what she has built.
Some readers use her as a significator for a querent who is starting a business or taking public responsibility, since she combines warmth with assurance. The cat at her feet, in particular, is often taken as permission to keep something of oneself private: confidence does not require that everything be on show.
Sources and further reading
- The Pictorial Key to the Tarot — A. E. Waite, 1910
- The Book of Thoth — Aleister Crowley, 1944
- Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot: The True Story of the World's Most Popular Tarot — Marcus Katz & Tali Goodwin, 2015
- Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom — Rachel Pollack, 1980