How A Single Card Can Reflect The Moment

Queen of Wands from The Everyday Enchantment Tarot.

The Queen of Wands presented herself to me the other day. Her arrival demonstrates how responsive tarot can be to current situations and how even the deck you choose to use is perfect.

Like most of the world, I’m horrified and anguished about the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. I’m also in awe of and inspired by the spirit and courage of the people, as demonstrated by the remnants of the Kyiv Classical Symphonic Orchestra performing the Ukrainian National Anthem and Beethoven’s Ode to Joy in Kyiv’s Central Square in spirited defiance of the brutal onslaught they are facing.

There’s something about music that rallies people and inspires the spirit to courage and joy. I remember watching in tears as Leonard Bernstein conducted a joint East German/West German orchestra and choir performance of Ode To Freedom/ Joy in 1989 when the Berlin Wall fell. I recall hearing about that same song, Ode to Joy/Freedom being played through speakers during the Tiananmen Square uprising in China in 1989. I remember hearing about the musicians in Sarajevo, that international city, who played while been bombed, and how an orchestra played while the Titanic was sinking. I pray that I have that strength of spirit if I am ever tested in that way.

Back to the Queen of Wands. In this particular deck, the different symbols on the card come together in a symbolic yet visceral representation of the passion, courage, and irrepressible joy that is possible in acute times. Looking at the whole image and how the pieces in it work together gives me a sense of how to BE energetically in this particular fraught moment. In my interpretation, today, the sunflower she wears in her hair is Ukraine’s national flower and is showing up everywhere in news from around the world. The fireworks can be the Russian bombs and shelling now raining down on Ukraine. The people show a fierce passion united in their dedication to freedom expressed by the music and announced to the world.

This particular Queen of Wands is demonstrating to me how to show up and direct my own energy in the face of trouble, rather than being overwhelmed and self-defeating in my despair and helplessness. I can also send my energy out to the people of Ukraine, and everywhere there is suffering, through any number of physical and energetic actions.

Yes, today the Queen of Wands is alive in me.