The Queen of Swords is AOC

Recently I compared a video of AOC absolutely coldly grilling the EPA over water contamination in Morgan County, Georgia, allegedly (ugh) from AI data centers being built there to the Queen of Swords card. Holding up jars of brown well water, she was about to secure a commitment from them to investigate these impacts.

While some people commented to tell me that “AOC was the easy one ☺️” there was more than one person had questions and takes and so I wanted to respond to 2 of the main questions here: “Why not the Justice card?” and “Is the Queen of Swords just someone who speaks their mind /genuine?”

The Queen of Swords vs. Justice Tarot Card

As a commentor put it, “I love the Queen of Swords for this one but the video instantly made me think of the Justice card!” Yeah, ditto. If you’re familiar with my fun little Tiktok to Tarot Card videos, just know that I also often think of more than one card for the videos I choose to share. Certainly there are a lot of card in the deck that overlap in energy, meaning, and, well, vibes.

So why did I ultimately name AOC the Queen of Swords and not Justice? Because I don’t feel like we’ve gotten any kind of justice yet when it comes to the human and land impacts of these AI or these data centers.

While a lot of what I read on the Justice card talks about being painfully neutral and objective about what’s happening (again, of which I don’t think AOC is, thank you dearly!) when I watch the Justice card play out in someone’s life as their calculated yearly card or a particularly strongly placed card in a reading, I have found it comes with some pretty big course corrections. Some pretty big amends to the situation at hand. And a whole lot of time spend inside our “systems” - legal, medical, education, tax.

For example, a woman I know began a Justice year with a breakup that sent her into the hospital, in and out for months, to finally deal with the underlying health conditions she didn’t realize were as bad as they were, because she was trying to keep up with this person who was judging her energy levels (ick). From an outside objectivity, we can think of how unfair and unjust that person was being to her, and how unfair and unjust she may have been treating her body because of it. The course correction didn’t bring immediate healing, but a process of getting back on a course where it could be dealt with, though again she faced a lot of injustices within our medical complex.

Does this sound like AOC’s moment from that congressional hearing? Maybe the government still not being able to rectify the injustices, sure. But her grilling the EPA? It didn’t quite fit enough for me.

The Queen of Sword and Speaking Your Mind

Now, a lovely commentor asked me this, “So is queen of swords just someone who speaks their mind /genuine?” JUST?! Just!? (No shade, this commentor was so thoughtful with this insight).

Do we know the kind of grief and anger we have to alchemize in order to speak out mind in such a clear, cutting, and emotionally centered way? How many of us dream of not breaking into tears in every hard conversation… or not to have our voice rise and our blood boil as we lash out our words, and later be instantly regretted and shame-filled?

This is what I told that commenter: “I feel like one (just one) embodiment of the Sword Queen is being able to clearly percieve the grief and suffering of herself/her people and alchemize her empathy into advocacy- like a clear, cool, biting defense of true suffering and what needs to stop / be protected. In our own lives, this may be on our own behalf, while in relation to community, it's on behalf of them. That's how I see this aspect of the Queen ⚔️”

See it takes a huge emotional, let alone somatic, capacity for someone to fully take in, digest and use the grief and rage of injustices, unfairness, abuse, pain, oppression, trauma, and sadness inflicted upon ourselves and others as fuel for deeply clear calls for justice. For course corrections. For better boundaries or protections. For naming the abuser in the room. And do so from an anchored place, a place where they can mean what they say, say what they mean, and cut through all the bullshit dynamics that swirl around those situations.

In a way, the Queen of Swords is just as emotionally tuned in as the Queen of Cups. But while the Queen of Cups feels deeply as they hold space and witness the victims (or the part of themselves that has been treated unfairly), the Queen of Swords will feel deeply this treatment (of others or themselves), and in processing it, come to a point of seeing the stark truth, or if not, desiring the truth: meaning she will advocate, protect, and seek out truth, vs. hold space, witness, and seek out care the way the Cup Queen does.

It kinda comes down to this question: Are you translating suffering and pain into clear communication, in order to get to truth and justice? If Justice is now correcting your life’s course or you’re starting to realize the objective truth of the situation, no matter how painful that process (I am so sorry how true that often is), then the Queen’s words have done their work to move you into the Justice card.

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