Greetings, wise ones, welcome to this week’s Sage Leaves.
On the heroine’s path through transgenerational healing, the Queen of Wands is the woman who claims her fire without apology, and she arrives as Samhain opens the veil on Saturday and the ancestors draw near. The Last Quarter Moon in Leo, Mercury retrograde in Scorpio, and Venus retrograde in Libra ask what you are willing to keep and what you will release. Alongside this exploration, you will also find the Tarotscope for October 27-November 2, 2026, offering guidance for the days ahead.
The Role of The Queen of WandsCard in the Heroine’s Journey:
The Return of the Fire
Maureen Murdock’s map of the Heroine’s Journey ends not with a quiet resolution but with what she calls the integration of the masculine and feminine: the moment when the heroine stops choosing between her fire and her feeling, between her ambition and her depth, between her creative power and her relational warmth, and discovers that she never had to choose in the first place. This is the Queen of Wands’ moment. She is the living proof that the integration is possible, that the fire and the warmth can occupy the same throne at the same time, and that the result is something more powerful than either would be alone.
She does not appear at the beginning of the arc. She is earned.
The early stages of the Heroine’s Journey often involve a woman discovering that the fire she was told to suppress or redirect is actually hers, is actually real, and is worth developing. The Page of Wands is that discovery. The Knight of Wands is the first ride into new territory on the strength of that discovery, full of genuine passion and variable direction. The Queen of Wands is what happens after the Knight has ridden hard enough, long enough, and honestly enough to integrate what the fire has taught her about herself.
“The Queen of Wands shows the heroine what the fire looks like when it has finally stopped fighting itself: warm, sovereign, generative,
and entirely, unapologetically hers.”
What the Queen of Wands brings to the return stage of the Heroine’s Journey is the specific quality of sovereign creative authority that does not require an audience to sustain itself. Earlier in the arc, the heroine may have needed external validation to feel that her fire was real and her presence was legitimate. The Queen of Wands has moved past that need. She knows what she is. The sunflower in her hand and the black cat at her feet are not props; they are the natural furnishings of a woman who has made peace with both her brightness and her shadow.
Her role in the return is also relational. The heroine who has integrated the Queen of Wands can bring her creative fire back into her relationships, her family system, and her community without burning anyone, without depleting herself, and without the apologetic dimming that characterized the earlier stages of the arc. She has learned that genuine warmth and genuine power are not in competition with each other. They are, in fact, the same thing expressed in different directions.
The shadow question she poses at this stage is honest and important: is the confidence she is radiating genuinely integrated, or is it a performance of arrival that is covering a wound that has not yet been fully examined?
The Queen of Wands sits on her throne with the sunflower and the black cat and the wand and the warmth, fully integrated and fully present: where in your own healing arc have you arrived at a genuine version of that sovereignty, even briefly, and what would it take to stop treating that arrival as temporary and start treating it as the new address?
Sage Leaves Weekly Tarotscope:
October 27-November 2, 2026
This week carries three Major Arcana, one court card, and a spread built around the number four, which appears three times among cards that otherwise swing between forceful motion and sudden collapse. The Chariot opens the week at full speed and The Tower closes it with a lightning strike. Between them come a rest, a lesson in patience, a sovereign decision, a stubborn refusal, and a celebration. Mercury retrograde in Scorpio, Venus retrograde in Libra, and the Last Quarter Moon in Leo supply the dominant astrological pressure, and Samhain arrives on Saturday. Pentacles are entirely absent, so the week offers very little ground to stand on.
The Cards of the Week
Tuesday: The Chariot | Moon in Taurus square Jupiter in Leo
Wednesday: 4 of Swords | Moon in Gemini sextile Saturn in Aries
Thursday: Strength | Moon in Gemini trine Venus in Libra
Friday: Queen of Swords | Mercury in Scorpio square Mars in Leo
Saturday: 4 of Cups | Moon in Cancer square Venus in Libra
Sunday: 4 of Wands | Last Quarter Moon in Leo
Monday: The Tower | Moon in Leo sextile Venus in Libra
Daily Story
Tuesday – The Chariot
Tuesday opens with The Chariot as the Moon in Taurus squares Jupiter in Leo. The driver faces you directly and asks you to watch the road, since the two sphinxes pulling the chariot are not headed in the same direction without his steering. The Moon in Taurus wants to move slowly and protect what it has, while Jupiter in Leo wants to expand loudly, and that friction makes overreach tempting on a day built for forward motion. Steer deliberately rather than simply going fast.
Wednesday – 4 of Swords
Wednesday brings the 4 of Swords as the Moon in Gemini sextiles Saturn in Aries. The figure lies on a stone tomb with the swords set aside, a reminder that rest between battles is part of fighting well and not a failure of nerve. Saturn lends the pause a disciplined quality, so you can stop without feeling that you have given anything up. This is the first of the week’s three fours, and it shows stability in its most restorative form.
Thursday – Strength
Thursday delivers Strength as the Moon in Gemini trines Venus in Libra. The woman looks down at the lion and the lion looks back, and the whole card rests on the idea that patience and calm can steady what force would only provoke. Venus retrograde in Libra invites you to reconsider how you treat the wild or difficult parts of yourself, and the easy trine suggests that gentleness will work better than discipline this time. Let your wild parts see that you are not afraid of them.
Friday – Queen of Swords
Friday arrives with the Queen of Swords as Mercury retrograde in Scorpio squares Mars in Leo. She raises her sword and gestures toward the future, speaking with the clarity of someone who has paid for her knowledge through loss. The aspect behind her is a sharp one, because a backward-moving Mercury squared by Mars can reopen old arguments and put an edge on words that would otherwise have been softer. Her example is to say only what you would still stand behind a week from now.
Saturday – 4 of Cups
Saturday brings the 4 of Cups as the Moon in Cancer squares Venus in Libra, on the night Samhain begins. The man beneath the tree studies his three cups and ignores the fourth being offered from a cloud, and the card does not tell you whether he is wise or merely stubborn. With the ancestors said to stand close and the Moon square Venus pulling feeling and relationship in different directions, it is a good night to ask honestly which of the two describes your own refusal.
Sunday – 4 of Wands
Sunday offers the 4 of Wands under the Last Quarter Moon in Leo, the week’s dominant astrological event. Two figures raise their arms beneath a canopy of flowers and invite you into a scene of shared joy, and Leo is a sign that loves a celebration. The Last Quarter Moon is a phase of evaluation and release, so enjoy the party fully while noticing what the canopy is actually built on, because a festive structure still needs a sound frame.
Monday – Knight of Swords
Monday closes with The Tower as the Moon in Leo sextiles Venus in Libra. Lightning strikes the crown and the figures fall, and the change is sudden and impossible to bargain with. It would be easy to read this as payment for Sunday’s pleasure, but a better reading is that the Last Quarter evaluation has exposed something that was already unsound. The gentle sextile with Venus suggests that what collapses may be what you no longer truly valued.
Overarching Themes
The week moves from direction through rest, patience, clarity, stubbornness, celebration, and collapse, and the three fours show stability taking a different shape each time: restorative, closed, and festive. The retrogrades pull attention backward just as The Chariot demands that you look ahead, which makes the week feel like driving while checking the mirror.
Suit Composition and Absence
Pentacles are entirely absent, meaning that no money, property, or practical routine stands behind any of this. The security on offer comes from rest, patience, and community, which suits the Nodal Axis in Leo and Aquarius, but it also leaves The Tower with nothing material to cushion its fall.
Numerology and Recurring Cards
The numbers present are 7 (The Chariot), 4 (4 of Swords), 8 (Strength), 13 (Queen of Swords), 4 (4 of Cups), 4 (4 of Wands), and 16 (The Tower). Two primes appear, 7 and 13, and both belong to the figures most clearly turned toward the future, which suggests that the parts of this week that resist simplification are also the parts that point forward. The sixteen of The Tower reduces to seven, so the week opens and closes with the same number: one driver chooses his direction on Tuesday and on Monday the lightning chooses for you. Five even numbers and two odd ones give the week a receptive, steady surface over a very abrupt ending. No cards recur this week.
Conclusion
The retrogrades and the Last Quarter Moon in Leo spend the week asking you to look at what you have built, and the cards answer in three different tones. The 4 of Swords shows that rest can be a strength, the 4 of Cups shows how easily comfort turns into refusal, and the 4 of Wands shows that celebration is best when the frame is sound. The Tower ends the week by removing whatever could not carry the weight, and Strength and the Queen of Swords remind you how to meet it: with calm, with clear speech, and with a steady hand on the reins.
Final Reflection
The 4 of Cups looks only at the three cups in front of him while the 4 of Wands celebrates and The Tower waits on Monday: which structure in your life are you decorating or defending that you have not yet honestly checked for cracks, and what would it cost you to look at it before the lightning does?
The Queen of Wands on the heroine’s path is the woman who stays warm while the year turns cold, and Samhain asks exactly that of her on Saturday. She has already done the hard work of claiming her fire, so she can sit with the ancestors without being frightened by them, and she can honor what has died without letting it put out her own flame. This week’s sky supports that work. The Last Quarter Moon in Leo asks what you are ready to release, Mercury retrograde in Scorpio turns your thoughts back toward those who came before you, and Venus retrograde in Libra asks which of your bonds still serve you and which have become habit.
In clinical herbalism, apples are the fruit to gather now. Their pectin and gentle tannins soothe the gut, and stewed with a little cinnamon they make a sturdy, warming autumn food that suits a body moving into the cold months. The harvest is a small lesson in itself, because you keep what will nourish you through winter and let the rest return to the soil.
I will offer free Lenormand readings in Second Life over Samhain weekend, first come, first served: Saturday, October 31, from 10-11 am ET (7-8 am PT), and Sunday, November 1, from 4-5 pm ET (1-2 pm PT). I would love to see you there.
Take care, be well, and good-bye for now,
Until next time,
—Dr. Winkler