“Off With Their Heads!”

“Off With Their Heads!”

In the recent post titled “The Heart of Kings,” the author points out that the King of Hearts is the singular part of the Emotional Center – or any of the four lower centers – that “has the possibility to value self-remembering above all else.” Consequently, in the Fourth Way we refer to it as intelligent emotion or the gateway to higher centers and we spend time and energy intentionally developing its capacities. Undeniably, it is still part of the lower centers, though extremely valuable as a starting point – a seed planted in us which can be nurtured and grown and its usefullness explored and studied for many years.

In contrast to the King of Hearts, the Queen of Hearts is a part of the Emotional Center which – left unrestrained and uneducated – is often times emotionally out of control, overreacting, determined not to reason, and ready to pounce on the next dramatic office intrigue in order to launch into action. It is identified with people and relationships and is emotional about emotions – the stronger the emotion, the more real the Queen of Hearts feels. You may recall in Lewis Carroll’s story of “Alice in Wonderland” the Queen of Hearts shouting at her innocent subjects, “Off with their heads,” only to have the King of Hearts quietly pardon them.

All of the Queens in each of the four lower centers have a tendency to flip between their positive and negative halves. The Queen of Clubs (the emotional part of the Instinctive Center) flips between pleasant and unpleasant sensations; the Queen of Spades (the emotional part of the Moving Center) flips between physical movement and rest; The Queen of Diamonds (the emotional part of the Intellectual Center) flips between intellectual curiosity and disinterest. It is in the nature of the Queen of Hearts to flip from loving someone to indifference (or worse) in a short span of time. It has tremendous energy and its vacillations are often times very loud and public. This part of the Emotional Center is one of the chief energy leaks in the human machine and, in sleep, depletes us of the energy needed for consciousness. Many of us know the energy of the Queen of Hearts and steer clear of its wrath when that card is unhappy and active.

Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her: but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game. — Voltaire

Like all of the parts of the lower centers, the Queen of Hearts, too, has its place and strengths. It can emotionally sense or “read” a room and know that someone is having a difficult time and offer concern. The Queen of Hearts is interested in philanthropy, charity, noble or religious experiences and is genuinely interested in the well being of others. Whether in its positive or negative halves, the Queen of Hearts couples its actions with overwhelming emotional intensity. This intensity is captured in the following poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:

“There was a little girl,Who had a little curl,Right in the middle of her forehead.When she was good,She was very good indeed,But when she was bad she was horrid.”

It is hard to write about the Queen of Hearts without evoking a judgment of it in myself or perhaps in you, the reader. I can say that I have had some of the most devoted friends and relatives whose Center of Gravity was in the Queen of Hearts. It is certainly a difficult energy to harness and work with but when this seemingly endless emotional energy is focused into the service of the King of Hearts, it is a marriage of fuel and direction that can lead us to and sustain higher centers. Observing the power and energy of the Queen of Hearts and harnessing that jet fuel toward a higher purpose is another important aspect of our work in the Fourth Way.

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Cheat with the Ace of Clubs, Georges de La Tour, 1630-1634