Queen of Swords

by Shelly Corbett

Via jalkr and others:

You are The Hierophant

Divine Wisdom. Manifestation. Explanation. Teaching.

All things relating to education, patience, help from superiors. The Hierophant is often considered to be a Guardian Angel.

The Hierophant's purpose is to bring the spiritual down to Earth. Where the High Priestess between her two pillars deals with realms beyond this Earth, the Hierophant (or High Priest) deals with worldly problems. She is well suited to do this because she strives to create harmony and peace in the midst of a crisis. The Hierophant's only problem is that she can be stubborn and hidebound. At her best, she is wise and soothing, at her worst, she is an unbending traditionalist.

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The Robin Wood deck calls the 9 of Swords "Night Terrors." It represents the fears that rise to prey on us when we're vulnerable and tired. Very often they don't represent real threats or issues. They cause needless pain and suffering.

The 9 of Swords is closely related to the 8 of Swords. It represents being limited and confined by one's own thoughts and beliefs rather than the oppression of others.



( Last night, during a conversation with my teacher, I realized that I'd been faced several issues in my life where I was experiencing unnecessary grief and pain due to my thoughts, and was successful in changing them. )

The interesting thing about this kind of work -- for me, at least -- is that overcoming the challenges of Swords cards requires the use of a Sword. The phantoms of the mind, the self-defeating patterns of the mind, are best met and conquered by the use of the mature, rational, perceptive mind.

A lot of what's been moving in my life since my ordination has involved power: as energy, as potency, as authority. It started with B in the encounter at Pantheacon, where we moved into a space where he started addressing me as "Mistress" as he gave me a massage, and I accepted the power with a sense of pleasure and ease that was entirely new, and then enjoyed exercising the power. And I had a very strong sense that both the sensuality and power elements of that encounter were a direct gift from Ereshkigal and Inanna, and the interaction with B was an essential step in integrating the energies I'd received.

One of the challenges I've dealt with my entire adult life has been feeling that I can't claim and exercise authority -- and by that I mean the authority of knowledge or skill as much or more as the authority of holding a position of privilege over others -- if I haven't been given some kind of stamp of approval by an outside institution or established authority. This has made starting my spiritual direction practice problematic, since by definition my path is outside of such structures.

I grew up middle-class, the daughter of a man of significant authority, both personal and institutional. The more I became aware of the way my secret thoughts were falling outside of what was labeled safe and proper and appropriate, the more intent I became on blending in and achieving recognition through the proper channels.

And now. . . to quote Elphaba, Something has changed within me. Something is not the same. I'm feeling my power in a way I never have before -- and a big part of it is because others have been spontaneously deferring to it, even reveling in it. I've been afraid that if I claimed authority and/or exercised power past a certain limit of perceived safety that I would be wrong, that I would cause harm, that I would be rejected for arrogance. So far, none of that has been happening. I've been feeling my energy, my potency, coursing through me, and it's been very, very satisfying for me -- and evidently helpful and/or pleasurable for others.

It's also made me aware of how quickly and easily I could burn out from the intensity of the energy coursing through me, especially when combined with the high of the interpersonal dynamics I'm experiencing -- not to mention that I'm now vulnerable to the temptation to abuse of power, something that hasn't been an issue before.

So yesterday morning as I stood before my marriage altar and shared my morning cup with LM, I asked him for help, for insight, for advice. His response was to flash the image of the Emperor from the Robin Wood tarot into my mind. Things started crystalizing immediately, the first of which was the need for me to be solid and secure and appropriately protective of my own resources, to exercise some of my power and authority in setting my own boundaries for self-care.



The Emperor seems to be a problematic card for many (like the Queen of Swords!). His four-square, conservative energy is often portrayed as oppressive patriarchal structure and/or arrogance. I've seen very few attractive Emperor cards. But when LM (who partakes strongly in this archetype -- as does my father) showed this to me, what I saw was the way his square throne grounded him. He wasn't automatically responsive to every desire or supplication directed to him.

That doesn't mean he's lacking in generosity. My experience of the Emperor includes the positive aspects of 'rule by the father': nurture, providing bounty, shelter, and protection, and abundant love as well as discipline. But he's not a pushover. At his best, his structure provides a framework within which others can flourish in their own way. (At his worst, he punishes or prunes anything which goes outside that structure -- but every archetype has its dark side.)

Historically, Emperors are land-grabbers, but I don't see that in this figure. His solid energy speaks to me of knowing what is appropriately his and holding it as a sacred trust, leaving what is outside his sphere alone. What is inside his sphere is his to rule -- but he is answerable to the gods for the fruits or consequences of that rule. If he abuses his power, not only does he sacrifice the legitimacy of his title, he will have a massive karmic debt to pay.

I'd been trying various grounding techniques to try to work with the energy that's been flooding me -- but it was this image and the combination of intellectual and intuitive responses to it that seem to have helped me the most. I feel more centered than I have in a couple of weeks, more in control of myself. And that's the first task and responsibility of power: to properly rule yourself.

I've created a new community: me_and_my_tarot to run the class, which will be easier, I think, than spreading the lessons through my journal. It also removes being a friend to my journal as a restriction.

If you would like to join the class, please go to me_and_my_tarot and request membership. (Membership will be closed, and all posts will be friends locked to members of the community.)

I hope to have the first post up within the week.

The 8 of Swords card is one which has haunted me for a long time. The traditional image is that of a blindfolded woman with bound hands standing within a thicket of swords. At first glance, it looks like she's a helpless prisoner. . . but in most traditionally drawn decks, the Robin Wood included, it becomes clear that the bonds are not tight. At the very least, she is surrounded by swords which could easily cut through them. There would be some risk, as she is blindfolded, but her remaining a prisoner is largely a consequence of her own choice.

The Ancestral Tarot (which I discovered through queenofhalves) puts an interesting slant on the usual imagery. In that card, a Japanese woman stands in a doorway at one end of a bridge with swords on each side, her face half-hidden by a fan. The way out is clear -- but the swords are a warning of the consequences she will face if she ventures beyond her assigned boundaries.





I've been living with these images -- and those of other 8's of Swords -- for the past week, as I take a closer and closer look at the ways I have been my own greatest opponent, my own persistent oppressor. Whenever I feel myself cringing back from a step I know I should take in order to advance my goals and dreams, I think of this card and try to be very, very clear with myself about what exactly I am afraid will happen if I go forward.

Most of the time the fears are phantoms, and facing them is enough to make them dissolve. Sometimes it takes a bit more work, but I have yet to find a situation in which the "threat" some part of my mind is afraid of has its roots anywhere but in my own issues.

My mind is both what holds me back and my tool for escape. It all depends on whether or not I'm willing to take responsibility for cutting through the bonds of illusion.

For all you magically-inclined Jane Austen fans: The Jane Austen Tarot


According to the product blurb: This well-researched deck seamlessly links the literary works of Jane Austen—characters, conversation, themes—with Tarot symbolism—a provocative convergence flavored with profound meaning.

The Tarot of Jane Austen is the result of an exhaustive research, concerning the links between literature and the symbolic world of the Tarot. Characters, dialogues and customs converge to create a meaning that is at the same time erudite, intuitive and profound.

( Card images behind cut )

In addition to simply being a gorgeous piece of artwork, the 6 of Swords in the Gilded Tarot differs in a very important way from the 6 of Swords of the Robin Wood tarot.






The Robin Wood card shows a person as a passenger in a boat being moved forward by a spiritual guide of some kind. The Gilded Tarot shows a person poling her own boat. The large moon in the background suggests openness to intuition and spirit, but she is still making an effort and taking responsibility for getting where she needs to be.

Both cards speak of journeys and progress under the influence of spirit. Only one shows the person doing something to advance the journey.

I've always loved the RW 6 of Swords. It spoke to me of my own Journeys -- but it's also a vivid image of how I've let myself be moved by outside forces (not always Spirit!) more often than by my own will.

I'm going to be using tarot in a consultation this morning, so I got out my beloved Robin Wood deck (the source of my former default userpic), and started dividing it into Major Arcana and suits to be sure I hadn't pulled one for meditation and forgotten to put it back.

As each card fell, I realized it looked faded and stale.

The once-vibrant images that have spoken so clearly to me over the years aren't going to work now. Not like before.

So I went upstairs to my tarot stash and started looking through the decks I've collected to see if any of them are speaking to me in a new way.

The Osho deck (not actually a "tarot") wanted to come downstairs. It may be the one I use this morning with my friend. It's an "outside the box" kind of oracle.

The Gilded Tarot has stepped forward to be my new default deck. It has gorgeous images that suggest the traditional Rider-Waite, but are fresher and more vibrant to my eyes. I'll have to actually work with it to see if there's an authentic connection, but right now it feels better than the Robin Wood.

I may have to find a sample of the Druidcraft Tarot (the source of the lovely Queen of Cups in the previous entry) and look through it to see if it will work.

Or. . . It may finally be time to create my own deck.


My skins just keep shedding. . .