The Queen of Wands/Brigid/Death
Jul. 3rd, 2004 08:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
qosI think I've already mentioned that on the Solstice I joined with three other woman friends and we had dinner and did tarot readings, and that each one of us had the Queen of Wands come up in a signficiant position. We discussed the fact that we all have these amazing talents and power, but we continue to feel blocked from using them in our lives. What is it that keeps holding us back? We didn't come up with any truly satisfying answers.
As I was leaving, I saw a couple of bats flying through the late twilight. I never see bats around here.
The next day, we all exchanged some emails about the Queen of Wands. I found this link after doing a Google search. It was the first time I had seen the Queen of Wands associated with Kali.
I sent the link to my friends with this comment: I like it because it addresses both power and fear.
There's also the element of creator/destroyer. We talk about transforming the world and systems -- but I don't know if we've addressed the fact that that transformation involves the destruction of the old. Are we comfortable with the destructiveness that walks in the shadow of our joyous creativity? Are we comfortable with the realization that becoming the Queens are meant to be means destroying the smaller selves we have been using to live?
One of the archetypal/mythic roles of the queen-priestess was to perform the sacrifice of the consort who had outlived his virility. Or at least to decree his death at the hands of the priest/esses. What do we need to sacrifice? What was once beloved (perhaps still is?) but must "die" if the realm is to survive and thrive into the future?
Something for me to think about, at least.
I also thought to look up what Bat signfies on the esoteric level. The one reference I have indicates that it is a herald of spiritual or shamanic re-birth. If Bat has appeared in your cards today, it symbolizes the need for a ritualistic death of some way of life that no longer suits your new growth pattern. This can mean a time of letting go of old habits, and of assuming the position in life that prepares you for rebirth, or in some cases initiation. In every case, Bat signals rebirth of some part of yourself or the death of old patterns.
It took me a couple of days to be awake enough connect this with the Queen of Wands interpretation I had read online.
A few days later, I found this picture on a favorite online art site. This is a Queen of Wands: serene, powerful, wise - with a dragon as part of her nature.
At my spiritual direction appointment on Thursday afternoon, Tom (my director) and I talked some about my need to move my faith from a position of being primarily about "belief" and more into the realm of "practice." As an intellectual and a Protestant, I haven't had much use for ritual, or for the 'doing' kinds of things that lie outside the realms of ethics and service. Ritual often seems non-sensical to me. (The fact that non-sensical can be a good and potent thing is an awareness that frequently escapes me.) We talked about the need for me to embody my beliefs more, to use body and practice to deepen them and deepen my connection to the Divine.
At the very end, Tom commented about the Brigid's Cross earrings I was wearing. These are a relic of a failed business venture and a now wounded relationship, and I hadn't worn them for at least a year. Tom started talking about Brigid - who we had invoked as the patron of our business venture - and I suddenly made the leap to the Queen of Wands. I told him about the readings, about the other places she had appeared. He encouraged me to dig more deeply into what this goddess/archetype/power/energy could be saying to me right now - since clearly I've been receiving messages.
Then yesterday afternoon I got to the gym early. I started to write in my paper journal about how the the Queen of Wands expresses wisdom and power in an active, embodied way that the often-detached Queen of Swords does not. Then I started browsing through earlier pages. Months ago I was writing about the Queen of Wands and the need to be more embodied. I wrote about the Dragon (my mythological totem) as a symbol of embodied wisdom.
Then there's the issue of the passion I've been hungering for and slowly re-kindling in my life -- also part of the Queen of Wands.
Passion. Embodiment. Death. Re-birth. The signals are coming in clear and strong from the universe. So now I need to actually do the work of becoming more embodied, and hopefully that will lead me to what needs to die - and what needs to be born or re-born.
As I was leaving, I saw a couple of bats flying through the late twilight. I never see bats around here.
The next day, we all exchanged some emails about the Queen of Wands. I found this link after doing a Google search. It was the first time I had seen the Queen of Wands associated with Kali.
I sent the link to my friends with this comment: I like it because it addresses both power and fear.
There's also the element of creator/destroyer. We talk about transforming the world and systems -- but I don't know if we've addressed the fact that that transformation involves the destruction of the old. Are we comfortable with the destructiveness that walks in the shadow of our joyous creativity? Are we comfortable with the realization that becoming the Queens are meant to be means destroying the smaller selves we have been using to live?
One of the archetypal/mythic roles of the queen-priestess was to perform the sacrifice of the consort who had outlived his virility. Or at least to decree his death at the hands of the priest/esses. What do we need to sacrifice? What was once beloved (perhaps still is?) but must "die" if the realm is to survive and thrive into the future?
Something for me to think about, at least.
I also thought to look up what Bat signfies on the esoteric level. The one reference I have indicates that it is a herald of spiritual or shamanic re-birth. If Bat has appeared in your cards today, it symbolizes the need for a ritualistic death of some way of life that no longer suits your new growth pattern. This can mean a time of letting go of old habits, and of assuming the position in life that prepares you for rebirth, or in some cases initiation. In every case, Bat signals rebirth of some part of yourself or the death of old patterns.
It took me a couple of days to be awake enough connect this with the Queen of Wands interpretation I had read online.
A few days later, I found this picture on a favorite online art site. This is a Queen of Wands: serene, powerful, wise - with a dragon as part of her nature.
At my spiritual direction appointment on Thursday afternoon, Tom (my director) and I talked some about my need to move my faith from a position of being primarily about "belief" and more into the realm of "practice." As an intellectual and a Protestant, I haven't had much use for ritual, or for the 'doing' kinds of things that lie outside the realms of ethics and service. Ritual often seems non-sensical to me. (The fact that non-sensical can be a good and potent thing is an awareness that frequently escapes me.) We talked about the need for me to embody my beliefs more, to use body and practice to deepen them and deepen my connection to the Divine.
At the very end, Tom commented about the Brigid's Cross earrings I was wearing. These are a relic of a failed business venture and a now wounded relationship, and I hadn't worn them for at least a year. Tom started talking about Brigid - who we had invoked as the patron of our business venture - and I suddenly made the leap to the Queen of Wands. I told him about the readings, about the other places she had appeared. He encouraged me to dig more deeply into what this goddess/archetype/power/energy could be saying to me right now - since clearly I've been receiving messages.
Then yesterday afternoon I got to the gym early. I started to write in my paper journal about how the the Queen of Wands expresses wisdom and power in an active, embodied way that the often-detached Queen of Swords does not. Then I started browsing through earlier pages. Months ago I was writing about the Queen of Wands and the need to be more embodied. I wrote about the Dragon (my mythological totem) as a symbol of embodied wisdom.
Then there's the issue of the passion I've been hungering for and slowly re-kindling in my life -- also part of the Queen of Wands.
Passion. Embodiment. Death. Re-birth. The signals are coming in clear and strong from the universe. So now I need to actually do the work of becoming more embodied, and hopefully that will lead me to what needs to die - and what needs to be born or re-born.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-03 12:56 pm (UTC)*hopes it's not a really stupid question*
(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-03 09:26 pm (UTC)At this moment, to me, it means to live more in my body, and be more in touch with the physical instead of primarily in my head, in the abstract. Some believe we are of three natures: body, mind and spirit. The "body" portion of my being is under-developed in all kinds of ways -- and this has affected my health and my spirituality.
To become more embodied means to pay more attention to my body in a positive, nurturing (but not indulgent) way, to experiment with ritual, chanting and gesture as part of my spiritual practice. . . To *do* more, instead of just think about it.
Stay tuned for more/better details. I'm making this up as I go along.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-04 02:10 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-04 10:06 am (UTC)Perhaps, for me, a big part of the task of embodiment is moving my emotions into my body: where I love my body and what I do with it, or in which I allow my body to participate in the passions of my mental and spiritual life, or to find the passions that are connected with what is in the body, everything from exercise to caring for my home to playing with my daughter.
Your questions are really helping me, Barry. Thank you.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-03 01:26 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-04 10:13 am (UTC)I think that Kali and the Queen of Swords both have many more problematic aspects to them than are usually attributed to the Queen of Wands. In tarot decks, she's almost always beautiful and desireable. Queen of Swords usually looks pinched and mean, like the classic version of the divorced woman or aging spinster. Kali and Queen of Swords are the women you have to watch out for because they can hurt you. Empathy is usually not part of their agenda. Queen of Wands usually looks like the woman you'd want for your lover: warm, passionate, loving, exciting.
That's why that version of Queen of Wands I referenced was so fascinating to me. Fire burns, it consumes, like Kali. And I believe Kali has a more gentle, nurturing side too, doesn't she? (I'm not an expert.)
I've found the beautiful, attractive aspect of the Queen of Swords. Now it looks like I need to find the dynamically destructive aspect of the Queen of Wands. Studying and invoking Kali as well as Brigid might be a good idea, since I'm not aware of Brigid having a destructive aspect.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-03 07:04 pm (UTC)yes... some of her hindu worshippers talk about her like she's the virgin mary. elizabeth harding's book on kali has a good discussion of that aspect of her.
all good
Date: 2004-07-04 01:50 am (UTC)I congratulate you!