Queen of Cups (Agatha theory P7)

Rest in Peace, Lovely Lilia!

Let’s hope you’ve all seen the 7th episode of Agatha All Along, cause SPOILERS AHEAD! I absolutely loved the arc they gave Lilia in this show and wish we could have gotten to know her better before they killed her off. Sad panda.

But alas, we must go on.

The card that confuses everyone! Why does Lilia’s card look like the Four of Wands? It makes no sense! Lilia’s card actually has the exact same castle from the Four of Wands, and the four pillars are in the same location as the four wands. How weird!

The Queen of Cups embodies the emotional realm, the balance of feelings and thoughts. She is compassionate, nurturing, and deeply intuitive, acting as a mirror to help others see their true selves. The Four of Wands hosts a celebration in a joyful atmosphere, depicting a couple dancing under a floral canopy. It represents harmony and stability in home life, encouraging gatherings with loved ones.

How do these two cards combine to create Lilia?

Not A Queen

In the original image, the queen is sitting on a throne at the edge of the sea, head bowed, offering the ornate chalice with angels on each handle. She is looking into the water, the mirror by which she sees others. The Queen of Cups is a vessel for others to process and reflect on their lives. Lilia, who has the ability to slip in and out of personal timelines, would have naturally developed an intimate understanding of how emotions are influenced by one’s past, present, and future.

In Agatha All Along Episode 7, Lilia and the other witches find themselves in a tower on the Witch’s Road, each wearing a classic witch costume. Agatha is the Wicked Witch of the West, while Lilia is dressed as Glenda, the Good Witch.

Marvel shows Lilia as a teenager in a yellow frilly French Renaissance dress. This youthful depiction gives a timeless quality to Lilia’s character, as it contrasts with her extensive life experience revealed later.

After a series of traumatic encounters, she realizes, “I’m the Traveler,” illustrating her awakening and acceptance of her unique abilities. This moment highlights Lilia’s journey of self-awareness as she grapples with her emotional understanding and the power of time travel.

After a hallucination where her younger self guides her to her Maestra with Death looming behind her, Lilia begins speaking Italian. This suggests Lilia’s European roots, most likely from Italy. She was possibly alive during the first wave of Italian witch trials in the 1300s. The scarlet fever (ahem) outbreak in the 1500s, referenced by Lilia, fits this timeline.

In the comics, Lilia is known as the Witch-Queen of the Gypsies and guards the Book of Cagliostro (the guy from Dr. Strange who studied time magic). The Book of Cagliostro also contained spells from the Darkhold, adding to its notoriety.

Interestingly, Alessandro Cagliostro was a real Italian adventurer and self-proclaimed magician who traveled through major European cities, peddling elixirs while posing as an alchemist, fortune teller, spirit medium, or magical healer.

Castle Background

The appearance of the castle on the Queen of Cups card raises several intriguing possibilities. While traditionally this card doesn’t feature such a structure, its inclusion prompts a deeper look into the symbolism of castles within Lilia Calderu’s backstory and magical world. This castle ties Lilia’s divination directly to her sense of “home” in time, suggesting that to stabilize herself, she must maintain her sense of self amidst her temporal shifts. This is something Lilia struggled with her entire life, constantly moving through different timelines without a lasting foundation.

In the episode, the witches face immediate danger when swords begin to fall from the ceiling, representing the looming threats in Lilia’s life. Each witch embodies a different tarot card, reflecting their struggles and strengths as they confront the encroaching chaos. The swords falling symbolize the obstacles they must overcome together, emphasizing Lilia’s longing for her coven’s support.

In the comics, Lilia was raised in the Carpathian Mountains, a range known for its historical associations with witches and sorcerers. These mountains stretch from the Czech Republic to Romania, which is home to several famous castles. One notable castle in this region is Castle Russoff, where Lilia lived alongside her coven, including fellow witches Margali Szardos and Maria Russoff. This is important, as Lilia’s ties to her coven, which is intricately linked to prophecies of the Scarlet Witch, reflect her connection to multiple magical events.

The inclusion of the castle from the Four of Wands could symbolize Lilia’s foundation of power and the legacy passed down to her through generations of witches. Castles often represent protection, endurance, and a fortress for guarding ancient secrets, much like how Lilia guarded the Book of Cagliostro and led her people. In a broader sense, the presence of the castle signifies the enduring strength of women’s intuition and magical wisdom, particularly within the Romani traditions that Lilia represents.

This legacy of strength and wisdom is reflected in Lilia’s role as a temporal wanderer, bridging the past, present, and future.

Different Cups

In the Rider-Waite tarot deck, the Queen of Cups holds a highly decorated chalice adorned with angels, lions, eagles, and a ruby. It’s kind of gaudy, but that’s just the style of the time period it was drawn.

If you look extremely closely, you can spot a lion and an eagle on the cup, along with a ruby. Not sure what the third one is. The angels, one male and one female, represent duality, balancing energies like masculine and feminine, earth and water, thought and action. This embodies the Queen’s ability to harmonize opposing forces within her realm, acting as a guardian of emotional and spiritual equilibrium. The lion and eagle are regal symbols associated with nobility, strength, and wisdom, signifying that the Queen possesses not only emotional intelligence but also the fortitude to lead and protect. The ruby symbolizes vitality, power, and passion, reinforcing the divine strength imbued in the chalice she holds.

Young Lilia’s cup seems to draw more inspiration from Da Vinci’s Last Supper, where simplicity reflects humility and the mundane. Very simple and small, probably made out of clay or wood. The absence of grand symbols in young Lilia’s cup could signify a grounding in ordinary existence rather than divine rituals. This aligns with Lilia’s transformation throughout the series, as she moves from the royal witch-queen persona to a more humble, yet powerful, figure. (In episode 7, we learned that the cup is actually for reading tea leaves, another form of divination.)

The dynamic we saw between Lilia and her Maestra reinforces the idea that Lilia has been longing for connection to her coven while struggling to embrace her identity as a witch.

Poor Lilia. She had finally found peace only to be skewered by swords on the Witches’ Road moments later. What I find truly interesting is that Lilia was the one to say “the Road is a death sentence” and she was the last to die. Hm.

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Queen of Cups (Agatha theory P7)