Queen of Cups, Wheel of Change

This card features an Inuit woman dressed in tradition sealskin jacket and trousers, her feet in mukluks. She sits on a simple wooden bench outside amidst a snowy, icy landscape, her infant warmly wrapped in a sealskin papoose.

Behind her are snowy mountains and what looks like glaciers; flakes of snow seem to be falling. At the right a sun rests on the horizon sending orange rays over the mountains, reminding one that the sun barely appears in the far North as winter comes, soon to disappear altogether if the latitude is high enough.

In the lower left corner of the card, a seal pokes its head into the scene, looking at the viewer. The sky is dark shades of green and blue – but it seems to have three seals swimming in it.The two “Cups” are an amphora-shaped woven basket by her feet and a bowl (woven perhaps) she holds on her lap.

Book:
“The northern world of the Arctic represents the limits of our planet… Summer never really arrives when the sun is always low on the horizon and the plant life is forced to hurry along… before the long night returns to the poles… There is little wood and little vegetation in these tundra lands, but the vast sea is full of life…

“The suit of Cups is connected with the ties to our ancestors and to our family that provide the emotional, feeling connections to the human world around us. The Queen of Cups is a symbol of the family woman. She is the mother who loves and nurtures her children, giving them the emotional security that enables them to grow into respectful, contributing members of the larger society…

“The Inuit dependence on the watery world of the ocean was central to their existence…  Many careful rituals were enacted before a hunt to ensure that the spirit of the animal who was taken would return to the sea happy and alive. In the Queen of Cups the seals surround her and frame her head. Their watery ocean has been elevated so that it appears over the snowbound earth and starry sky… The three seals also represent the family, and their placement at the top of the card indicates the paramount importance of one’s human relationships and community.

“The sun may be seen as rising and represents the warmth that love brings to the family and community… Alternatively the sun may be seen as the setting sun that… represents the return to the indoor life and the hearth of the family and the inner life of feeling and intuition that develop in the tight closed spaces of the winter home. The snowy hills of the landscape illuminated by the sun remind us of the breasts of a nursing mother. The white snow, as pure and clean as the milk of the mother, is a symbol of her care blanketing the land…

“The warm clothes protect the woman from the cold temperatures and symbolize the ability of the Queen of Cups to remain warm and caring, even in the presence of difficulties… the power of the Queen of Cups lies in her ability to genuinely feel the deep connections to family, friends, and the world she lives in…

“[T]his card may represent yourself in your reading or may indicate someone else who is involved in your situation. The card may indicate deep feeling or the need for nurturance in a difficult situation. It can also indicate a need to honestly and confidently discuss your feelings in order to develop important relationships…”