--by Hyperion Night of Beanblossom's Tea and Tarot
The Queen of Cups
In the flow. Intuitive. Compassionate. Caring.
I met a man, once, who was completely in the flow. It's difficult to describe the sense of peace I felt in his presence. He'd studied Gestalt and had some sort of credential in the system. We were staying at the same B&B, and one afternoon in the garden he taught me a simple meditation technique. Eyes closed, for one minute, he had me concentrate on what I could feel—the clothing on my body, the pressure of my body in the chair, the breeze on my skin—but without labeling any of those feelings. Then, for a minute I focused on what I could smell, again no labels. Then what I could taste, then hear. Finally, he asked me to open my eyes, and note where I saw the color red, but again, not to label anything. And that was it. He never explained it, and I never asked. Years later, I realized he was teaching me to be aware and out of my head, and so in the present moment.
He reminded me of the Queen of Cups on her best days—compassionate, caring, intuitive, and in the flow of life. He told me a story of consulting at a company where everyone was resisting. Unruffled, he told them he got paid whether they learned the lesson or not, and he sat there calmly, waiting. They grudgingly came around. The Queen is like that. She's a queen, so she's in charge. But she doesn't order or command. She simply is, and because of her benign presence, people have a hard time not falling in line around her.
I'd like to be more like that, but the truth is I spend too much time in my head and not enough just being. Too often, I'm the Queen of Cups on a bad day, too busy staring into her cup navel-gazing. And sometimes her compassion can turn smothering, though I believe I've managed to avoid that element of evil queen.
This Tarot card asks us to consider how we can bring the positive qualities of the Queen of Cups to bear on a situation. Do we need to go with the flow? Be more compassionate and caring? Follow our intuition? Or is the card warning about her negative aspects at play?
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