Queen of Cups

What the card means

Upright

Feeling deeply without drowning. She holds a closed cup - the only lidded one in the deck: what is inside stays inside, and is no smaller for it. She understands without asking, which is why people come.

Reversed

Carrying the whole room's weather until you lose your own. Feeling for everybody and no longer able to tell whose is whose. Sometimes a grievance held silently in the hope of being guessed.

As a person

A perceptive, caring woman who understands without being told: the one people come to when they need to talk - a mother, a friend, a therapist. Feels deeply and gives a great deal. In shadow, dissolving into other people's feelings, and self-sacrifice.

Love and relationships

Upright

A relationship where you are understood without explaining. Depth, acceptance, a quiet closeness. Often a woman near whom things get easier.

Reversed

Dissolved into a partner. Or expecting to be understood without words and hurt when you are not.

Work and business

Upright

Work with people, where your read is more accurate than the method. A good time for anything that depends on listening.

Reversed

Bringing other people's moods home. Or being the only person holding the atmosphere, and nobody counting that as work.

Money

Upright

Money comes through relationships and trust. Not a time to haggle - a time to be the person who is believed.

Reversed

Lending out of sympathy and not asking for it back.

The card's advice

Trust what you felt before you began reasoning. And check whose feeling it is: half of what you are carrying today does not belong to you.

As the card of the day

A quiet, perceptive day. Good for talking and for being with people close to you. Poor for hardness and for large gatherings.

What is depicted

A queen on a throne of mermaids at the water's edge, gazing into an ornate closed cup. Her feet are on the stones, not in the water. The only cup in the deck with a lid - and she is looking into it rather than holding it out.

Zodiac sign and correspondences

Water at depth. By zodiac sign, Cancer (the queens are usually given the cardinal signs); more broadly, all the water signs: Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces.

With other cards

• Queen of Cups + King of Cups — feeling deep and feeling governed - a rare balance.
• Queen of Cups + The High Priestess — they know and say nothing; both are right.
• Queen of Cups + Queen of Wands — two different warmths; both real.