Barbara Walker Tarot - Queen of Wands: Hel

[EmpyreanKnight]

 

 

Queen of Wands: Hel

 

The Queen of the Dead, with her serpent, reveals her underground fire pit that used to be likened to the boiling Cauldron of Regeneration. The Viking’s fiery Mother Hel, or Holle, wears a sprig of her sacred holly, which was displayed each year at the Yule midwinter solstice to signify the rebirth of the sun from her deep infernus. As Queen of Wands she stands for fiery qualities: warmth, ardor, illumination, benevolence, comfort, accompanied by danger of destructiveness if she is not treated respectfully.

 

[Grizabella]

I find this card really interesting. I have some animals that have always been what some might call "totem" animals and one of them is snake. I don't like snakes at all and never could figure out why in the world that would be one of mine. In most decks, three cards usually represent me at various times----one is the Queen of Wands,  one is Temperance and then the High Priestess is both my soul and personality card.  This Queen of Wands with her serpent in this deck is what I find interesting.

[Raggydoll]

I find it interesting to see her depicted as blonde and beautiful. Usually she’s shown as having one side of her face being beautiful and the other side as a bare skull. But in the pre-Viking era she would have been a mother goddess more than anything and the few statuary that still exists are  supportive of that theory. “Hel” means “whole” in Swedish, and “Hela” means “to heal”. It was only with the dawn of Christianity and the patriarchal era that the word “Helvete” (Hell) became a thing.