Meaning what you Say, and Saying what you Mean

Unlike a lot of the depictions of the Queen of Swords that I have seen, this one appears approachable. Often, deck designers turn these queens into cold and wounded women. In some packs, they might even come across as spiteful, but this is not how the Queen of Swords is for me. Of course, she is smart enough to never be seduced by naivety or swayed by emotions, but generally, I see her as someone who simply has her head screwed on. Take a look at this one from The China Tarot. She holds her hand to her head and fixes her crown. This is where the importance is for her, since she works mostly with her mind. As she holds her sword of truth in her left hand, she covers her heart. Even though she understands pain, that is not her muscle of choice.

I might have mentioned that my boyfriend and I sat through the entire seven series of Prime Suspect recently. I loved the show when I was younger and had wanted to show it to him for a while. I eventually found a box set of ten DVDs in a charity shop and we worked our way through the lot. I love the main character, Jane Tennison. Helen Miren plays her beautifully, and in her portrayal, I recognise the Queen of Swords. There is such a coolness to her, and due to the nature of the character's job, there's a need to find out the truth and work out things with her mind. You can almost see her brain ticking as she works her way through the scenes, sorting out the puzzles in the story and sifting through the clues.

I have heard that Tennison was based on a real-life female detective chief inspector called Jackie Malton, who was used as an advisor throughout the seven series. One of the things she told Miren was that in her position, she must never let those she works with see her cry. This is something I noticed in a few of the episodes. In one scene, Tennison is overwhelmed by emotion, but when one of her team comes to her office, she quickly pulls it all together, raises her head, and doesn't let on how she feels inside. This is an important part of the Queen of Swords for me. Many would have you believe that she is cold and has no emotion running through her at all, but really, I think she just knows how to control it in the right situations. You could call her emotionally private, as she protects her emotions with a cage. Unfortunately, in many tarot decks, we unfairly see no more than those bars which surround her heart.

The Queen of Swords is about directness and straight-talking today. She means what she says and says what she means. She could suggest a friend of mine, who is thinking rather than feeling in a specific situation. She came to mine at lunchtime and we popped across the road for a coffee and chat. Even though she didn't really ask for advice, I gave her my own opinion about a predicament in her life, which bypassed my heart and was born in logic. I guess that is what the Queen of Swords would tell me to do.

The weather doesn't know who it wants to be today. I went for my run early this morning and the sun was shining. However, it was laced with a chill and my jogging partner and I were quite cold after our third lap of the wreck. Even though it tired us out, I felt much more alive afterwards. We are going to try and do it another two times this week, if not more.



Illustration from The China Tarot by Der Jen