Twinn Swan

Of all the Queens, the Queen of Swords represents the ultimate career woman. Traditionally, though, this card represents the widow, although these days we can also include divorcees under this category. The marital status of this archetype is important as the Queen of Swords represents someone who has been through a loss or a breakup that significantly altered the way that she deals with the world.

This journey made her think that no one was going to look out for her and that she would have to look out for herself. While this can be true during certain phases of our lives, know that this state of affairs is not a permanent one. It is, indeed, possible to start again and find people who we can trust and who will, indeed, love us and cherish us. It all comes down to whether or not you can find it in you to trust again.

(While the Queen of Swords Archetype can refer to either a man or a woman, for the purposes of this article, I will refer to this archetype as a ‘She’.)

The Enemy Within

One of the biggest problems for this archetype is that they think it is a fatal flaw to have a heart. They find it hard to show compassion towards others. Due to this, they end up isolating themselves. These individuals are deeply lonely and will shut you out whenever you begin to see the truth about them.

They can keep secrets from you because they do not think that you will stick around once you know the truth. When the truth finally does come out, the people around them will be shocked as they will not be able to understand why they kept such a terrible secret inside them for such a long time. They will feel that they have been having a relationship with a completely stranger.

If you are doing or have done something that you feel needs to be secret, I suggest that you start by coming clean to a therapist. Even this might prove to be extremely difficult to the Queen of Swords archetype for they do not want to talk about it. While it may be difficult to speak about what is hurting you and those around you, know that if you keep it inside and keep it a secret, it will only come back to haunt you later.

When the Queen of Swords appears, she encourages you to own up to and accept the truth. For instance, if you want to put your career first, own up to it. If you are not interested in having a career, own up to that as well. This can be very difficult for a Queen of Swords to do. They will not want to reveal their true intentions and in some circumstances it is not even possible to know what their real intentions are.

When it comes to telling the truth, this Queen will not let her guard down. She can be her own worst enemy without realising. This is someone who desperately needs affection but is pushing away any and all opportunities to receive it in a genuine way. Due to these barriers that they have erected around their heart, they can even fall in love with the wrong person and stay in a harmful relationship for a long time.

During a crisis, this individual can be downright cold. They can serve up the hard truth without taking your feelings into consideration. They may say things and do things that will only cause further damage to the situation at hand. Empathy is very difficult for such individuals as they do not have the sensitivity to deal with an emotionally difficult situation. Instead of calming down, they can even overreact, causing a difficult situation to deteriorate even further.

WORKAHOLIC

In this current era, the Queen of Swords is one of the more empowering cards in the deck. As she represents the ultimate career woman, she reminds us that career can, indeed, come first. We, as women, do not have to put our families, our spouses and their needs first. We should not be too giving can and can even endeavour to put ourselves first.

At the same time, however, do exercise caution that this ‘Me First’ attitude does not end up isolating you from your friends and family. Queen of Swords archetypes sometimes fail to understand that not everyone will prioritise work above all else. Many may only see work as something to do in between weekends. For them, a job is a source of income and not a life purpose. Not everyone is going to make their career priority number one.

When the Queen of Swords appears, she is reminding you that you already have all that it takes to succeed in your career. You do not have to sacrifice everything to get there. In fact, you must learn to have some balance in your life. Your concept of success is not the only concept of success.

So what if you were a successful career woman? You still need friends, a family, hobbies and so on. At the end of the day, a job may just be a job. You could get retrenched, your job may become redundant and so on. If you have built your entire life around work, what in the world will you do once you retire?

THE TRUTH

When the Queen of Swords appears, she signals that you must speak your truth. Mean what you say. Express yourself in a way that is authentic. At the same time, do not be harsh in the way that you express yourself for you can cut the more sensitive types the wrong way.

When this Queen appears, she asks that you step forward and speak your mind. Say what you think and how you feel. Don’t hold yourself back anymore. Put your truth out into the world, but make sure that you are doing it with confidence and love. Love is the key ingredient that will free you from the prison that your heart is in.

The Queen of Swords only ever appears to be full of compassion to those who have the chance to know her superficially. Once you get to know her, you may find her merciless, unrelenting and cruel. This is the sort of person who will donate to a homeless shelter and allow her loved ones to starve. Their selfishness can know no boundaries and yet their need to be seen as magnanimous will lead them to perform public displays of charity.

If love is absent in your heart and in your words, work on having compassion for your fellow man and woman. You can come across as cold and ruthless, especially to people who are close to you. Learn to read the emotional cues of others for if you don’t, you will make many mistakes and have to pay dearly for your hard-heartedness.

Be careful not to become a hypocrite and remember to use your heart as well as your head.

PAIN

If this Queen shows up in your readings, it represents that others may be intimidated by you. Your strength and your intelligence are clear to others, but what is even more clear to others is the empathy that you lack. Be mindful that you are not too cool and distant when you deal with others.

The Queen of Swords can be someone who can cause far more harm that what she initially intended. She may have meant to give someone a scratch, but ended up beheading them instead. Learn to be nicer and more compassionate towards others. It is not a flaw to be intelligent, but it is a flaw to hurt others in a way that cannot be repaired. There are some losses we simply cannot recover from.

The Queen of Swords can show up to signal that someone has allowed themselves to get carried away in their quest to be ‘right’. Do not get carried away with imposing your view if others have a view that is different to yours. All ideas and opinions have validity and it all comes down to perception.

If you do not know what your truth is–or if you are unable to understand what another person’s truth is–spend sometime in meditation discovering it. Be by yourself or go and see a counsellor. Give yourself permission to go beyond concepts of right and wrong and communicate how you feel. This Queen encourages us to speak without fear or second-guessing.

In the end, people will discover the truth for themselves. When they find out, what will you do? Perhaps the person you will cause the most amount of pain to will be yourself.