August 10-12, 2014: Queen of Wands

Danica

THE QUEEN OF THE THRONES OF FLAME
The Queen of Wands – Queen of the Salamanders
WATER of FIRE

Meditation pattern: Place 10 of Cups, 2 of Wands, and 3 of Wands side-by-side, with the
Queen of Wands above them. Below the two Wands, place Atu IV, The Emperor.

Traditional Description: A crowned queen with long red-golden hair, seated upon a throne,
with steady flames beneath. She wears a corselet and buskins of scale-mail, which latter her robe
discloses. Her arms are almost bare. On cuirass and buskins are winged leopard’s heads; the
same symbol surmounts her crown. At her side is a couchant leopard on which her hands rest.
She bears a long wand with a very heavy conical head. Her face is beautiful and resolute.

HEH of YOD (WATER of FIRE): This card expresses the idea of the Scarlet Woman. She
is the Heh, or Binah, idea within the realm of Fire and within Atziluth, representing that feminine
quality of Understanding wherein all power is received, held, and nurtured. She is DOMINION,
and the ESTABLISHED STRENGTH by which that dominion is brought to term. As Heh, or Binah,
within Atziluth, she also expresses an aspect of Neshamah. She is, the Sacred Fire, the Shin of Shekinah,
the anointing chrism or Sanctifying Fire known to adepts. Similarly, she is the Supernal
aspect of subconsciousness wherein True Will has established itself, and wherein circumstances
are prepared for its execution.

She rules the heavens from 20° Pisces to 20° Aries (thus including part of Andromeda). From the
fiery decanates we derive the titles DOMINION (Mars+Aries) and VIRTUE or ESTABLISHED STRENGTH
(Sun+Aries). “Virtue” is used in its older sense, meaning, simply, “power.” The Aries, martial, and solar
attributions admit that there is much masculine energy in her. Furthermore, the letter Tzaddi (corresponding
to Aries) refers to meditation, or in-turned reflection. She is ecstatic in her meditation;
and it is by her inner fixedness that the fiery instinctual energies are drawn up from their reproductive
purposes (Yesod), to express as a fiery higher desire and will-force (Netzach). This
“fiery feminine” is very much her quality. It is by her inner reflection that she transmutes instinctual
energies to be the source of her magnetic and effective power. The Mars decanate shows
strength, dominion, boldness, courage, love of freedom, fierceness, pride, ambition, etc. The solar
decanate shows similar traits but with greater regality and nobility. Her flames are steady,
while those of the Knight were wavy and volatile: As Heh, she adds a steadying influence.

Her shadow aspect is the Mars decanate of Pisces. SATIETY – fulfillment – would undermine her
nature. Mars/Pisces is indirect, deceptive, dissipating, wanton, undisciplined – everything she is
not. But, as a consequence of her strength and focused dominion, she could, at times, wish utterly
to surrender her control. The fantasy of doing so is always present.

In divination, the character shows dominion and established strength, boldness, courage,
love of freedom, fierceness; pride, ambition, regality, nobility; adaptability, steady force applied
to an objective, steady rule and governance; magnetic with great attractive power; successful in
business, imbued with power of command, yet personable and attracting the affection of others.
Kind and generous when not opposed. If ill-dignified: obstinate, revengeful, domineering, tyrannical,
and apt to turn against another without a cause.

Danica

I feel so much energy in this card! It bursts and flares!! But there is stability in it, and it is not of a sudden type, like that of the Knight.
She is the decision-power; the motherly aspect of Fire: passionate and gentle at the same time, although not soft nor very adaptable.
With her, the Will-impulse appears in its first Form: as Virtue and Dominion.

This is the Fire that gives birth, and also which purifies; the “speech” of the Intuition inside my heart: it’s powerful and steady flame, that burns without words, recognizable as silent enthusiastic inner sense of Direction.
The impetus that comes from her appears in human heart as aspiration toward virtue and self-discipline.

She commands and directs the flow of one’s energy (in accordance to the essential Will).
10-of-Cups as her shadow side: satiety which drowns the initiative, dissipates the power of will.
NB: The sequence of decanates may be understood as a process, which the Court Card represents in a personified manner.