The Queen sits on a throne, holding up a pink sword in her right hand and guarding her abdomen with her left hand. She looks off to the left side of the card, and two round gray mourning doves with pink breasts sit on top of her thone near her head. She wears a pink pleated dress and a matching gray jacket and crown with pink accents that resemble the mourning doves’ feathers. The ground is snowy and the sky is shades of pink and red. A black kettle hangs from a frame behind her throne.

While the Etteilla tradition associates the Queen of Swords with widowhood, her portrait in the Tarot de Marseille can be interpreted as a pregnant woman. Fittingly, the mourning dove’s call features in the motherhood-centric songs “Anecdotes” and “Time, As a Symptom.” Mourning doves are native to warm climates, but they will stay through the winter to hold their territory. They are monogamous and form strong personal bonds, and are one of the few birds that feed their young “milk.”

The Queen’s positive qualities are dedication and vigilance. Her negative qualities are overprotectiveness and inflexibility.