The Queen of Cups is the embodiment of keen intuition and altruism. This queen is commonly associated with water signs (Cancer, Scorpio or Pisces) so you may be dealing with a woman who is one of these signs or exhibits their traits.
She is often shown gazing in contemplation at her covered chalice. This archetype’s feelings run deeply but, as alluded to by the covered cup, she tends towards introversion and may well not let you know the things she broods over.
Brood she does, both literally and figuratively, as she is known to be solicitous to the point of anxiety for those worthy of her attention. The Queen of Cups is the most loyal of friends and can always be relied upon to lend a kind ear to your troubles.
The Rider Waite deck shows the cliffs in the background of the card echoing the Dover shoreline, a welcome sight for arriving refugees. Thus we can intuit that this is a queen who ministers to the outcast and misfortunate. Above and below her throne are sea nymphs known as Undines. The mythology of these creatures is that they remain in their mermaid form until they fall in love with a human, at which point they metamorphose into a human. Their fatal weakness however is that should their human lover break their heart, they perish. The presence of the Undines hints that this queen’s flaw is that she can at times be a victim of her own kindness. Once she has been taken advantage of, she finds it difficult to regain her emotional balance.
The white colour of her attire is indicative of her purity of thought, heart, and spirit, while her cloak has patterning on it reminiscent of ocean waves. This imagery on her outer garment displaying the water element, and hence emotions, can be interpreted as someone who quite literally “wears their heart on their sleeve.”
In a love reading, the Queen of Cups is a sign that your partner considers you to be loyal and devoted, that you are never slow to lend a helping hand, and that you consider them a priority.
Negatively, this card may indicate that you are investing more effort into a relationship than the other party. You ought to remember that good deeds and intentions are not always returned. As previously mentioned, the Queen of Cups symbolises an empathetic person, but it is important to note that this can tend towards naivety and a propensity to blindly overlooking glaring faults in people. In a future outcome of a reading, this card can forewarn you that you will forgive someone of their transgressions and the two of you will heal a rift.
In a career reading, this card can show that you need to pay attention to the needs of your customers and that you ought to be able to listen as well as you speak. It can also indicate that your work involves tending to the emotional concerns of others. This card can often be seen when reading for nurses, counsellors, or even professional psychics. The Queen of Cups can also tell you that you will have a trusted colleague who will watch over you in a maternal way and “show you the ropes.”
Positive Aspects: Empathetic, kind, intuitive, altruistic, emotional, maternal, loving
Negative Aspects: Naïve, neurotic, self-involved, gullible, obsessive, emotionally unhinged
