The Sweet Queen of Cups appears in order to remind us to let our feelings flow. Our feelings are our greatest wisdom, and we have been lead to believe that we must hide or repress our feelings, in order to make others more comfortable around us.
For many years, I made it a habit to choke back my tears, to pretend that I wasn’t hurt when I was deeply wounded. I learned how to act as if I had no feelings of my own and that other peoples feelings were more important than mine. I thought that if I showed my true feelings, that I would be attacked in my most vulnerable places. I couldn’t bear the thought of it.
Learning to allow my feelings to be real has lead me into a sacred space with myself where my vulnerability and my pain is just real. The difficult part is not judging the feelings, especially if they are painful or difficult or a direct result of my choices. The Queen of Cups shows us how to give ourselves the unconditional love that we all crave. Feeling sad or alone or used or confused? Never beat yourself up for your feelings. Allow them. Be compassionate to yourself. Allow the tears to flow. Listen to your own heart cry out with its suffering. Acknowledge it, hold it and allow it to be.
Difficult feelings are hard for all of us to deal with. We have constructed elaborate avoidance techniques in order to get out of feeling all the stress and tension and sadness that is lodged in our bodies. Yes, there are pharmaceuticals that are effective in managing difficult emotions, and they have been very effective in alleviating suffering. Alcohol and marijuana can help but in the long run, pills and potions don’t solve anything.
Self care is an important component of allowing ourselves feelings. Healthy food, exercise, body work, aromatherapy, spiritual practices, creating art and being in nature all help to ease the challenge of being human. I like magic and divination when I am looking for clarity and support. Self care involves investment of time and energy and often our belief systems will not allow for that. The Queen of Cups shows us that self care is an important investment and that we should support ourselves in feeling all of our feelings. This will give us power to move to the next level of fulfillment and joy.
The Queen of Cups shows the beauty of feelings, and how when we allow our feelings to be real, we melt into oneness with all that is. Often, we can sink into our difficult feelings and imagine that we are all alone in the world. This is a false belief. Our suffering binds us to all that is. It is the one thing we all have in common.
The great thing about feelings is that they are always changing…
Margot Darling 