Queen of Swords by Elizabeth Weaver-Krieder, Lower Windsor Township There it is, the key to the door of this story: I will sit in my hut with the fire burning, light to shine out on the wintry world. My heart is here, and you are welcome. I will write my name on a stone, and drop it into the pond where the golden carp is waiting. I will whisper it into the feathers of the rusty screech owl who huddles in the hollow of the sycamore. I will of course tell the toad who watches from her litter of leaves. All I can do is to learn my own name. All I can offer you is the reason I chose it. I cannot give you springtime, and I cannot be your chalice. You have your own lonely road across this frozen tundra. But come, sit by my fire. My heart, I think I said, is here, and yours is welcome in this circle.
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From the author: The Queen of Swords is a Tarot card that I have been pondering for some time. Her character brings the watery nature of her intuition and feeling life to the crystal clear and airy realm of her thinking life. She can appear to be aloof and distant, but inside herself she is making sense of the world of the soul, sorting out emotions, envisioning possibilities. I was doing some pondering of my own recently about the meaning of loyalty and support in the context of a friendship with someone whom I love dearly, but which was experiencing some distance; the Queen of Swords gave me a sense of how to position myself, to hold the heart space while not living in a constant state of unease.
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