The Wicked Queen | Snow White | Villains in the Court

Published by Alison Cross on

‘Bring me back a Crunchie and a 99 cone’

In Walt Disney’s 1937 classic ‘Snow White’ the wicked Queen is the young princess’s step-mother.  Beautiful – in a glacial Hollywood Bitch sort of way – the Queen erupts into a jealous rage when her magic mirror tells her that she is no longer the fairest in the land.

Raven-haired step-daughter Snow White has become the most beautiful in the land! Which can only be bad news for Snowy.

The Wicked Queen charges her hapless huntsman with the job of taking Snow White into the woods and murdering her.  To prove that the job has been done, the Queen gives him an appropriately decorated box in which to bring back her heart!

Of course, her evil plan is thwarted and the Queen has to do the job her self.  Using her totally EBIL magic powers she transforms herself into an cackling hag and uses the same skills to poison an apple.

Using deception and preying on Snow White’s good nature, the Wicked Queen persuades the princess to bite the apple….

The dwarves who have allowed the house-work-mad princess to live with them rush home from their work in the mines to discover their lovely Snow White ‘dead’ on the floor.  Incensed they chase after the Wicked Queen who eventually plummets to her death, thanks to a judicious bolt of lightning.

-o0o-

But here’s the thing! Which Court Card would you choose to represent The Wicked Queen?  I initially decided on the Queen of Cups reversed.

This is because, according to my Ready Reckoner Guide to Villainy in the Courts, this crime would be committed by a member of the Cups family: After all, it is perpetrated on a family member (well, step-daughter) and caused by jealousy.

However, there is a cold and calculating side to this Queen – cruel plans (is there any other kind? lol!), a contract killing, a demand for proof, deception (transforming into hag, poisoning the apple) which makes me think that the Queen of Swords reversed is perhaps closer to the truth.

Add to this the skeletal remains in her dungeon and we see that she’s a heartless ruler.  And there is no sign of Snow White’s father either – so, for me, it’s looking weighted in favour of the Queen of Swords.

What do you think?


Alison Cross

The Tarot's Court Cards are my specialist area.Β  They talk to me. Not LITERALLY though ....

7 Comments

Bonnie Cehovet · 19th November 2014 at 5:56 am

Definitely the Queen of Swords! The fact that she is all over the place simply means that her energy is being blocked. IMHO, anyway. πŸ˜‰

Inner Whispers · 18th November 2014 at 3:58 pm

Yeah, I'll go for the Queen of Cups, too. For one thing, if she were a Queen of Swords you'd expected her plans to be a bit more effective πŸ˜‰ Too much emotion behind them to be strategically effective! lol
Cx

Joanne Sprott · 18th November 2014 at 2:37 pm

Now, there's your Queen of Swords villainess: Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty. She has no jealousy issues; just pissed off that the other fairies didn't include her at Beauty's christening. Although one could say she also had "family issues" with the fairy folk.

Maleficent turned into a dragon in the Disney version, though. Which Queen would be associated with the dragon, do you think?

    Alison Cross · 18th November 2014 at 3:19 pm

    Thanks Joanne! It's interesting the comments about Maleficent – I deliberately didn't choose her because of the recent Angelina Jolie film (which portrays her in a much more sympathetic light) πŸ˜€

    Dragons would need to be the Queen of Wands – all that fire energy πŸ™‚

Ania · 18th November 2014 at 12:33 pm

Cups, definitely. She's far too vain and hysterical, not to mention elaborate, to be Swords πŸ™‚ A Swords queen would just poison Snow White or shove her down the spiral staircase πŸ™‚

    Alison Cross · 18th November 2014 at 12:35 pm

    But she DID just poison her πŸ˜€ She had a terribly irritating singing voice; I would have shoved her down the courtyard well πŸ˜€

    Coral Bale · 18th November 2014 at 1:55 pm

    I'd say the Queen of Swords, infact the Queen of Swords on the Wheel of the Year deck is a dead ringer for Maleficent

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