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The above-linked Introduction page will give you an overview of what this series is about and provide a course contents listing.

The Queens is the fifth of seventeen videos in this series, “Tarot Card Meanings with Benebell.”

Egads! An even longer one!

You know what? Sorry, not sorry.

Yes, on the surface, this video is about the tarot Queens, but I hope it can serve as an hour of your day set aside for philosophical and spiritual contemplation. This isn’t just about the card meanings for the Queens. Subconsciously you are also picking up on how to spot patterns in this world, what to make of the patterns you spot, how to process your own emotions and feelings about what you’re being presented with, and a sprinkling of mythology and history just for kicks.

I hope as you progress with these video lectures, you’ll find that this is not as much about tarot card meanings as it is about setting aside time each week to reflect on metaphysics, ontology, and to fine-tune your own spiritual outlook on life.

Download the Illustrated Video Transcript

The Tarot Queens

Full-Color PDF

Please Help with the Timestamps

In the comments section of a previous video in this series, someone recommended including timestamps for each separate card section in the video. It’s a GREAT idea. I want to do that and I may in future installments, but I gotta tell ya. By the time I’ve finished producing one of these long ass content-saturated videos, I’m wiped out. The last thing I want to do is go through the uploaded video again and log timestamps.

(The uploaded video is typically 1-2 seconds “off” or different from the timestamps of the actual video on my computer prior to upload. I have no idea why. So that’s why I can’t log the timestamps while I’m checking the finished file on my computer. Timestamp logging is more accurate if you work with the uploaded YouTube video.)

If any of you good Samaritans would be willing to log the timestamps and comment with them, wow, that’d be an amazing public service.

For each video, the following timestamps are needed:

• Queen of Wands
  • In the TdM
  • In the RWS
  • In the Thoth
  • In the SKT
• Queen of Cups
  • In the TdM
  • In the RWS
  • In the Thoth
  • In the SKT
• Queen of Swords
  • In the TdM
  • In the RWS
  • In the Thoth
  • In the SKT
• Queen of Pentacles
  • In the TdM
  • In the RWS
  • In the Thoth
  • In the SKT

When you type in the timestamps in your YouTube comment, it gets hyperlinked, so in the future, anyone who wants to jump just to that section can click on the timestamp you’ve typed out and the video will go straight to that section.

Actually, you probably need more titles than that. In the beginning of this video lecture, I do overviews of all four queens per how certain iconic tarot thought leaders have described them, like Papus, Paul Foster Case, and Eden Gray. So, I mean, I don’t need to tell you what to do. If you’ve volunteered yourself to log timestamps, then let’s just be real with each other here: you’re so nerdy and smart, you already know how to organize the timestamp listings. What the heck do I need to instruct you for. =)

If I see a comment with the timestamp log, I’ll pin it to the top of the comments section so anyone and everyone can benefit from that public service.

Memory Retention of Card Meanings

I’ve designed this video course series for the total tarot beginner (or any reader of one specific tradition who now wants to learn and master one of the other traditions covered in the course, e.g., you’re an RWS reader now working on learning the Thoth).

Although the objective seems ambitious, I believe this presentation of the tarot card meanings will help you achieve familiarity over the Tarot de Marseilles, Rider-Waite-Smith, Crowley-Harris Thoth, and my deck, the Spirit Keeper’s Tarot.

Invest the time and when you are through with the entire video series, I hope I will have helped support your work in achieving a level of understanding for the four tarot systems that you yourself are impressed with. I hope through the seventeen videos, we’ll cover a lot of ground in terms of numerology and astrology in the tarot, tarot and the Kabbalah, and tarot and the I Ching.

Yes, you absolutely can learn all four systems at the same time and no, it will not confuse you, not if you are working through these video lectures in order. I did a lot of research into pedagogy and educational modalities just to structure the content of these videos. Maybe you’ve already noticed how certain visuals repeat, or how much we review of a previous lecture in the present lecture.

I believe that for many, memory retention of card meanings is a lot easier when we’re experiencing the information through many physical senses at once. That’s why I like this book reading + note-taking + video + audio + more note-taking approach to learning the card meanings.

You don’t have to undertake rote memorization. Instead, understand the cards to such depths and breadth that card meanings become experiential knowledge.

Nonetheless, I still like to begin with propositional knowledge. That’s book-learning. Work with a tarot book keyed to the deck you’re learning and start by reading the pages corresponding with the cards that any video in this series will be discussing. For example, before watching Video #5 on the tarot Queens, read the entries about Queens in your selected tarot book. Take some preliminary notes.

Then watch the video, which will bring you the card meanings as both visual and audio feeds simultaneously. Take more notes during the video lecture.

And then practice. If you’re watching these videos in order, then at this point, take out just the four Aces, four Twos, four Threes, four Kings/Knights/Archangels, and four Queens from your tarot deck. That’s a total of 20 cards you’re working with.

Shuffle just the 20 cards and do practice readings with just those 20 cards. When you’re stumped and forget a card meaning, return to your notes or even rewatch videos. Fast forward and backward through the videos to get to the spot addressing the specific card of interest.

Also, take time on a routine basis to cycle through the 20 cards. Study the imagery of each card and explain to yourself what that card means. Again, when stumped, return to your notes or rewatch videos.

When you’re really comfortable with those 20 cards, continue on. To the total beginner, do not continue with the course series until you feel absolute confidence in your understanding and operation of those 20 cards.

By building your knowledge in this way, piece by piece rather than trying to handle all 78 cards at once, your foundation will be rock solid and there is almost no way you can “forget” card meanings.

Previous Video In the Series

The Kings

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To support free content like this video installment on the tarot Queens, consider purchasing one of my independent study courses. A listing of all online courses offered is provided here: Independent Study.