Queens are associated with inner and personal control, competency, maturity, introspection, self-awareness, nurturance, healing and fulfillment.  Cups are associated with the element of water, with emotions, love, pleasure in life, matters pertaining to the unconscious, intuition and inner planes.  The Queen of Cups may be devoted to the needs of family and friends, and at her best shows a radiant, compassionate heart.  She is intuitive and able to tune in to the emotional needs of others.  She's a dreamer who can turn her imaginings into creative activity.  Reversed she can symbolize someone who indulges in emotional outbursts and a martyr complex in a quest for sympathy.  She can also become manipulative on an emotional level if she is unable to channel her energies into a productive outlet.

"Your interpersonal interaction is highly evolved and fulfilling.  You experience your emotions deeply and allow others to feel theirs.  You are skilled at processing your feelings and understanding what is happening in your relationships.  You express a deep empathy and understanding toward others.  You have reached a strong level of maturity and depth with a relationship or emotion.

"Experience without reflection could be completely useless." - Spirit World LWB

When I looked at the Whispering Queen of Cups I was struck by the image of a woman almost completely submersed in the dark waters surrounding her.  She is immersed in this ocean of the unconscious, dreams and emotions yet she seem at ease and in control of the situation.  She is serene and comfortable.  This is a quality I would like to enhance in myself - the ability to be surrounded by emotional turmoil or even just surrounded by the emotional needs of others and not get swept up and overwhelmed by them.  I have often felt the reason I was resistant to pursuing a career as a therapist is because people in counseling are so emotionally fragile and vulnerable.  I always feared that I would hurt them even more or get so caught up in their drama that it would consume me.  The Queen of Cups is proof that one can be immersed in the emotional needs of others and not be overwhelmed or consumed by them.

What adds to this card's meaning for me is the image on the Spirit World Queen of Cups.  She sits before a mirror drinking from a chalice but does not look at her reflection.  In fact she almost seems to be shrinking from it.  The reflection shown on the mirror does not resemble the queen sitting before it.  Is this an idealized version of herself; perhaps her younger more idealistic self?  Or is this the self she actually sees when she looks in the mirror - detached from the reality of her appearance? 

While I pondered this card it struck me that both this queen and the Whispering Queen of Cups are not focused inward on themselves.  The Spirit World Queen of Cups drinks from her chalice but never examines her reflection.  Is she avoiding self-reflection because she fears what she will find?  Is she the type of person who searches her reflection in terror of finding a wrinkle or gray hair?  Perhaps she doesn't like the truth she finds reflected in the mirrors shiny surface.  Even the Whispering Queen of Cups does not seem to be very introspective.  She is surrounded by the water, the emotional needs and inner dreams of others, but she does not seem curious.  She is not really exploring the water or dipping her hand in it.  She bobs along on the surface careful not to get swept away.

Maybe that is the key to this card for me today.  I need to start really looking deep within myself, going beneath the surface to find the answers I seek.  I want to get to my inner truth; to my deepest emotional dreams and desires.  I also want to make sure that I am living in a way that is true to my heart.  I want to be able to face my own reflection in the mirror and genuinely like the person I see reflected back at me.  I never want to have to face myself or someone else and say that I didn't try as best I could to live an emotional honest and fulfilling life.  I want to reflect a genuine concern and caring for others as well as for myself.  As Jackie DeShannon once sang "what the world needs now is love sweet love".  Before I can love the world I need to be able to love myself and that is what the Queen of Cups can show me how to do.