Queen of Chalices
Chalices
How This Card Is Derived
Papus gives no separate description of this card. It is derived from his system: Chalices is He (ה), the passive, receptive principle, acting in Briah, the creative world; the Queen is He, the suit's passive principle embodied — it receives and reflects. The meaning below is that combination read out, not a quotation from him.
Upright
The passive principle of a passive suit, embodied — Papus's most concentrated receptivity. The Queen of Chalices holds feeling without acting on it and reflects it back undistorted, which is a far more demanding operation than it sounds. She is the person others tell things to. Her authority is not over anyone; it consists entirely in the accuracy with which she receives.
Reversed
Reflection that has taken the colour of whatever it reflects — receptivity with no boundary, until the Queen has no position of her own left. Or a surface kept smooth by refusing to take anything in at all.
Correspondences
- Suit
- Chalices — He (ה), Briah, the creative world
- Suit principle
- the passive, receptive principle
- Rank
- Queen — He
- Rank role
- the suit's passive principle embodied — it receives and reflects
In a Spread
At the commencement, the matter begins in someone's understanding of it. In opposition, a person who sees the querent clearly and has no intention of intervening. At equilibrium she is the still point everyone else's feeling is measured against. As the result: the matter is understood rather than settled — which in Chalices is the settlement.