Today, I am deliberately drawing my signifier card, mainly because she’s so gosh darn cute in the Trick or Tarot deck.

Why is the Queen of Cups my signifier card, and what in hell is a signifier in the first place? Well, the signifier (or significator) is a card meant to represent the querent (or seeker–i.e., the person receiving the tarot reading). There are different ways to select a signifier for someone, but I personally follow Benebell Wen‘s approach, which uses court cards to reflect the querent’s age and gender and then selects the tarot suit (Wands, Cups, Pentacles, or Swords) based on the querent’s sun sign and its corresponding element. So, since my sign is Cancer, a water sign, I’m represented by Cups. And since I’m an adult female, I’m a Queen. 👑

I didn’t always use a signifier, but lately I’ve found that I really like anchoring a reading with one. It just sets the stage with the querent’s energy (which is why you could choose any card, really, that embodies a person in that moment, changing it from reading to reading as you see fit).

Anywho, I’m satisfied with the Queen of Cups, as I always have considered myself an emotional person. Not just in terms of my own feelings and moods, but also the compassion and empathy I try to offer others. I’m a pragmatist, too, but ultimately ruled by the touchy-feely. Relationships, creativity, and spirituality are what I live and breathe.

The Queen of Cups isn’t a flaky pushover, though. She can keep a lid on her emotions when necessary, maturely managing them like the King of Cups. Nonetheless, she also has the romanticism and imagination of the Knight of Cups and Page of Cups. She’s a compassionate, nurturing soul like the Empress, and she’s highly intuitive like the High Priestess. A comforter and counselor, this Queen is more sensitive than the Queen of Wands or Swords. As you can see from the flowing water and pale draping clothing in the traditional Rider-Waite-Smith depiction, she has an expressive nature and soft countenance, her love and gentleness echoed by the cherubs surrounding her.

Well, I’m sure not gonna pretend I’m sweetness and light all the time, nor that my river doesn’t rage more often than I’d like. That cup that she holds is quite elaborate like my complicated (and complicating) emotions, and those angels’ wings curve up like the horns I sometimes wear on my head. 😈 Yet I still humbly hail to this Queen as my tarot counterpart when seeking guidance for moody me. 😊

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Crystal pairing: mangano calcite for comfort and compassion.