Queen of Swords
Upright meaning
Clear judgement shaped by experience. Honesty, independence, and boundaries without unnecessary cruelty.
Something to consider
You can be direct without being cruel. Say what you can offer, what you cannot, and what would need to change.
What is on your mind? Begin a reading →Historical texts
Waite: the card
Her right hand raises the weapon vertically and the hilt rests on an arm of her royal chair; the left hand is extended, the arm raised; her countenance is severe but chastened; it suggests familiarity with sorrow. It does not represent mercy, and, her sword notwithstanding, she is scarcely a symbol of power.
Source: The Pictorial Key to the Tarot — A. E. Waite (1922) · Public domain
Waite: divinatory meaning
Widowhood, female sadness and embarrassment, absence, sterility, mourning, privation, separation.
Source: The Pictorial Key to the Tarot — A. E. Waite (1922) · Public domain
Waite: reversed
Malice, bigotry, artifice, prudery, bale, deceit.
Source: The Pictorial Key to the Tarot — A. E. Waite (1922) · Public domain
Mathers: meaning
51. Queen of Swords.-Widowhood, Loss, Privation, Absence, Separation; R. A Bad Woman, ill-tempered and bigoted, Riches and Discord, Abundance together with Worry, Joy with Grief.
Source: The Tarot: Its Occult Signification, Use in Fortune-Telling, and Method of Play — S. L. MacGregor Mathers (1888) · Public domain