Queen of Wands: leafy staff and sunflower

Start with the picture: a leafing staff, a sunflower and a cat at her feet

Under the Queen of Wands Waite leaves almost no description of the picture, only two statements. The wands of this suit are always in leaf, because it is a suit of life and animation. And emotionally and otherwise the Queen's personality corresponds to the King's, but is more magnetic.

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BaZiFlow original Queen of Wands with three labels

On the original RWS card the queen sits facing the viewer on a throne, wearing a crown with flowers and leaves, a yellow gown and a gray cloak. In one hand is a tall staff with a few leaves growing from it, in the other a sunflower. Lions are carved on the arms of the throne, and a red hanging behind her carries a lion design at the top. A black cat sits at her feet, with sandy hills far off on either side.

What Waite lists: friendly and honorable, with "love of money" and business success

The divinatory meanings run: a dark woman, countrywoman, friendly, chaste, loving, honorable. Then a condition: if the card beside her signifies a man, she is well disposed toward him; if a woman, she is interested in the Querent. One more line: also love of money, or a certain success in business.

A dark woman, countrywoman, friendly, chaste, loving, honourable. If the card beside her signifies a man, she is well disposed towards him...

The condition is worth a second look: her good will is not scattered evenly, and the neighbor sets its direction. That matches her magnetism, since a pull always goes toward some object. The extras, what other readers say, are brief: a good harvest, which may be taken in several senses; reversed, good will toward the Querent without the opportunity to exercise it.

Staff, sunflower, cat: who wrote it, who did not

Of the three most conspicuous things in the picture, only one is in Waite's words:

How to read it: split her good will into direction, visible signs and room to act

"Magnetic" and "well disposed" sound like conclusions, but they break into three small questions you can check, each with a root in the text:

1. 1

   Whom is she facing?

   The entry says her good will depends on the neighbor: toward a man she is friendly, toward a woman she is interested in the Querent. In teaching terms: see whom the neighboring card stands for, and the good will lands on that object.

2. 2

   What can be seen?

   "Magnetic" is the fact that others get drawn in. Turn it into something observable: who came, how often, why they stayed.

3. 3

   Is there room to act?

   The reversed extras separate the two: good will, but no opportunity to exercise it. Good will and opportunity are two things, one column each.

An example: a newly started book club whose host is warm to everyone and often says "do come along". Write that warmth out in three questions:

Reversed and neighboring cards: both faces side by side, and "the neighbor decides"

Waite's reversed main entry sets both faces side by side: good, economical, obliging, serviceable; and, in certain positions and near certain cards, opposition, jealousy, even deceit and infidelity. That line has two conditions (position and neighbors); it is not a verdict the reversal carries by itself. The extras reverse to good will toward the Querent but no opportunity to exercise it.