The Suit of Cups: Eros and Self Presenting Love / A User Guide to R.M. Place’s Tarot of the Saints
A User Guide to R.M. Place’s Tarot of the Saints
Meditations for Pulp Spiritual Direction Through Applied Contemplative Prediction
Major Arcana Introduction: Balance and Development
Major Arcana: Card by Card Analysis
The Suit of Cups: Self Presenting Love
The Suit of Swords: Love Considered
The Suit of Staffs: Love Made Real
The Suit of Coins: Sacramental Engagement
Keyword Guide to Tarot of the Saints
Transversal Theology: Technical Glossary
The Suit of Cups: Eros and Self Presenting Love
Cups: General Introduction
Standard Resonance
The Suit of Cups becomes the suit of hearts in the standard modern playing deck. The transition from Cups to hearts makes sense when one knows the basic interpretation of Cups when using Tarot decks for contemplative purposes. Generally, a card displaying Cups will lead the director to focus on intuition, emotion, and the unconscious, considering how these factors play out in the situation. The general narrative and pictorial focus of the cards in various decks tend to gear emotively and relationally to help contemplation consider these elements. Oppositional Cups tend to imply uncontrolled feelings, flights of fantasy, and a disconnect with one's inner voice or sense of spirituality.
Apart from the general meaning, there are a host of thematic implications that can at times be used to make connections in contemplation. Cups hold liquids, so it makes sense that water, the universal solvent, often plays a large role in the imagery of the cards. If well lit land is the field of conscious engagement, there is a “flip” reality that exists underneath the surface of the water. That place is dark, beings float instead of walk, and any land dwelling creature that seeks to go into the other realm cannot survive long. They can only bring a glimpse back to the other realm. These two alternate worlds imply the conscious and the unconscious. As water shows up in images, this interplay can sometimes be made use of.
The Suit of Cups is traditionally paired with the Suit of Coins as the two “feminine” suits, balanced by the masculine suits of Swords and Staffs. This resonance may appear sexist, but the presentation takes femininity as a force “yin” and then uses the nature of Cups and things associated with them to convey that force artistically and intuitively. Female work is, like the unconscious, the background work that is unnoticed, unrecognized (and unfortunately often unrewarded) that allows the public masculine to create the order that it does. Water is a life giving element, and blood is a life sustaining element. The life giving nature of the feminine body can connect vaginally to the water and blood and create a profound association between femininity and the Suit of Cups with femininity. The water gives life by drinking and becomes the blood of humans. Also the chalice is used to hold the Blood of Christ, the ultimate life giving liquid.. The vacuous, vaginal, nature of a cup, as well as the emotive intuitive interpretation all place Cups in alignment with the feminine. Femininity can also be drawn from the fact that Cups are generally at a home table, the home being the domain of feminine order and control.
The suits are also related to the social structure of medieval society, and in that framework, Cups are related to the Sacerdotal because clergy are traditionally given a cup at their ordination. For the suit, this implies a fundamental spiritual connotation to the cards. Priests are traditionally given chalices at their ordination and it is a symbol of their particular sacrificial role in the Church. The Cup holds water, a life giving element, wine, an emotive element, and at the sacrifice of the mass, water, wine, and blood. As we shall see in the Scriptural Resonance section of this introduction, in the scriptures there is a direct line between these.
Scriptural Resonance
We pointed out in Pulp Spiritual Direction the necessity of knowledge of myth and scripture. The successful director will know the myths employed by the given deck and be able to salvage them for use as they apply to salvation history. This takes application of mythic-existentialism. “The director must be able to deconstruct the existential backdrop of any given mythic genre according to standard Jungian archetypal construction and work with that meaning in real time as cards and narratives unfold.” The advantage of the Tarot of the Saints is the step of “translation and fulfillment” from an alternative myth to Christian Salvation history can be skipped because the deck uses Christian scripture, history, symbology, and aesthetics as its mythic backdrop. With that in mind, this section is meant as a spark of inspiration to begin considering avenues one can take as the conversations develop during direction. Cups resonate profoundly in the Scriptures. The association with the elemental aspects of water, wine, and blood will give great insight into how one can draw on scriptures in pulp spiritual direction. In the treatise Sacramental Cosmology, we discussed the complex interrelationship between these three elements in detail,
Water does become blood according to natural alchemy, as living things spring from it over the millennia of evolution and all reality is drawn from it in the mythic first creation story. It also becomes blood according to natural alchemy when you drink it. Yet the Exodus story is extraordinary in its time frame, timing, and circumstances. It changes immediately, it changes at the invocation of Moses and it changes without the circumstances necessary for natural alchemy. One purpose here is to call to mind the sacral nature of all reality, not that God can break the most seemingly impossible rules to break, but that the rules are a beauty in and of themselves and we have a lot to learn about them. The absurdity of the comic example noted earlier, “if a fish crawls out of water and talks, there’s no God” is indicative of the same temporal trope. Blood and water are signs of life. ... Water and blood symbolize and effect life. Both water and blood are signs of life, they “symbolize” it, yet they also affect it and we owe our existence to their mediation of the power of God.
The same dynamic plays out in the change from water to wine as well as the change from wine to blood. These miracles are quite common according to natural alchemy. Water falls from the heavens is drunk by the vines and becomes grapes, which, by the work of human hands, becomes wine. Wine is consumed by the human and becomes blood when the blood absorbs it and causes drunkenness. Again the water to wine at Cana and the changing of wine to blood at the last supper were miracles of divine alchemy, but the miracles were not instances of complete uniqueness. Rather, they were miracles of time frame, timing, and circumstances. They happened immediately, at Jesus’ command and outside of the normal circumstances required by natural alchemy.
Again there are lessons to learn here, and one is that life is amazing in and of itself, but there is more, there is extasis. When water becomes wine and wine becomes blood in appropriate circumstances ecstasis is what we get. That water becomes wine is the sign that God is willing to provide the avenues for extasis. It also shows that we have a part to play in that process according to natural alchemy, wine is from “fruit of the vine and work of human hands” which must then be drunk in order to provide the experience. In the entire set up God provides all that is necessary and we do our small part to “buy in”. The natural and divine alchemy of water to wine and wine to blood are signs of grace, will, their appropriate union, and ecstasy. The alchemic changes symbolizes these things, yet at the same time they effect them by the ecstatic enjoyed under the right circumstances.
The extasis discussed in the quote is a spiritual experience beyond cognition and control. Typical of the suit it is emotive, not volitional or rational. In scriptures water is life because one drinks it to live, one is born out of it (uterine fluid and the “water break”) the cosmos is born out if it (in Gen 1 the wind sweeps over the water), we are reborn in the spirit through the water of baptism. Blood is a life symbol because it courses through our veins. Its monthly issue from the female body (the gender of the cup) signifies renewed opportunity for life. After birth, it issues from the body en masse. We are given new life by the Blood of the Lamb, which resides in the chalice at mass.
With these associations in mind, one can look to scripture and begin to make the connections between blood, water, and life, between wine and extasis, and start to see how often these elements are used regarding such mystery and extasis. The cup becomes a symbol of these mysteries, the life of baptism or the blood of the lamb, leading to the ecstatic joy of the Eschaton. When engaging in pulp spiritual direction the Suit of cups is easily relatable to any stories where there are priests, cups, wells, water (baptism), blood, or wine, or particularly emotive stories and works, such as the Psalms.
Oppositional water and blood are also clearly death symbols. In reverse, the cup is the blood unjustly spilled and water that drowns instead of offering life giving drink and life giving baptism. In reverse the cup is the wine of Noah, causing a second fall, drunkenness, and scandal.
Expanded Resonance
Since this deck is particularly Chrisitan, we have decided to apply an extra level of interpretation to apply during pulp spiritual direction. This extra resonance will be extremely helpful in the evangelical aspect of pulp spiritual direction. Regarding the three loves, we are going to apply the lens of eros to the Suit of Cups. Eros or erotic love is the desire that draws you to another. This type of love is desire based, emotive, and immediately self presenting. There is no willful or cognitive cooperation necessary for erotic love, it simply abides in a person as a result of external stimulus. The only participation necessary for an individual is to allow erotic love to abide. From this one can see how eros particularly, relates to the emotive, intuitive nature of the Suit of Cups.
When Cups present in pulp spiritual direction it is helpful to remember that there are important and extremely effective ways that one utilizes eros in their relationship with God. If one wants a healthy understanding of eros, one needs to look no further than mystical theology. Mystical love of God seeks to shed will and cognition (indicative of Suits of Staffs and Swords) and allow for the action of God. Again, one sees the intuitive and emotive at play. In the mystical process, one disavows any knowledge of God and relies solely on their desire for or attraction to God. In that desire, they wait for God to come to them. The mystical love of contemplative and monastics such as John of the Cross, Meister Eckhart, Teresa of Avila, etc. is erotic love of God. Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite believed the mystical (erotic) path to God to be superior to the rational path of understanding.
Since eros presents as an aspect of love that is less controlled, it reflects aspects of the self that are “less controlled” such as the emotions and the unconscious. The unconscious represents those parts of our self that work symbolically as opposed to causally, and are expressive as opposed to observing. The unconscious is a deeply integral part of who we are, yet it is not rational or subject to conscious will. The same is true of eros, a love we feel, whether we like it or not.
When reverse Cups appear in opposition to eros the general interpretation is lust or wrath. Lust is a violence based on objectification of a person’s body for the purposes of dominance or objectifying pleasure. It is easy to equivocate eros with lust, but not all attraction or desire is objectifying. Well ordered eros speaks to harmony and mutuality, whereas lust speaks to one sided dominance, control, and exploitation. Wrath is an uncontrollable urge to exert dominance, often through violence. If eros is an attraction to be with the other, wrath at its worst is the urge to neutralize or destroy the other.
Ace of Cups: The Blood of the Lamb
Scripture Passage
One of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. The lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has triumphed, enabling him to open the scroll with its seven seals.” Then I saw standing in the midst of the throne and the four living creatures and the elders a Lamb that seemed to have been slain. (Rev 5:5-6)
Visual Symbolic Analysis
In this image, the lamb stands on an altar with its front right leg raised. The lamb is looking back and its head is haloed. The Lamb’s side is pierced and blood trickles down into a chalice set on a pedestal in front of the altar. The image connects the scripture passage conveying the Lamb of God, a title ascribed to Jesus by John the Baptist, to the sacrifice of the Mass, where the sacrificial effect of the paschal mystery is presented across time through the sacred ritual. For the Catholic, the image generally evokes the paschal mystery as present in the sacrifice of the mass. It inspires themes of sacrifice, integration of nature, and self giving.
Meditation
The Ace cards generally present a new beginning of some aspect of the suit. For the Suit of Cups, this is a new emotive beginning or an intuition that hints at a change. Emotions are reactive to stimulus and less “controlled” than other aspects of the psyche. New beginnings in this way can be brought on regarding the future or the past. For example, news of change, such as death or new love, forces one to recalibrate one's vision of the future. The process of this recalibration will employ emotions. Even news of events of the past one was unaware of can change the relationship one has to the future and thus spark an emotive response. This emotional stimulus is spiritual or cognitive in its stimulus. For example, one may eat a certain food, walk into an environment that visually or olfactory relates to a past experience and experience an emotive shift. Sometimes the subject does not even know what these types of emotive changes happen, but the unconscious mind is making the connection. The Ace of Cups presents the confluence of sensory experience as an emotive evocation and informational experience as an emotive evocation as well as a confluence of emotion evoked by the past and toward the future. This portrayal of the Ace of Cups shows a sensory stimulus that conveys news of change. These two realities are tied to the liturgy, which through sensory engagement connects us to the reality of the paschal mystery in the past and then demands that we change our lives to conform to the reality of the gospel. Each of the “ends” of emotive change are present. Christ’s sacrifice was offered for our sake and we experience it as a past event that evokes emotion in the present. The liturgy is sculpted with an array of sensory experiences that are meant (among other things) to evoke these emotions by connection to the past. This connection involves both one’s personal past, having attended the liturgy as a formative spiritual experience, and the deep past as many of these elements are instituted as far back as the Passover itself, thus tapping into the collective psyche of emotive stimulus. The Ace of Cups as well as the liturgy queues into our emotive response to this and reminds us that every failure of ours is covered by this great sacrifice, and begs us to change. That disposition to the future, is also a stimulus for the future. We can draw on these emotions and intuitions in order to recommit ourselves to a life of virtue and good relationship with God, our neighbors, and the cosmos. In many ways, the card presents a continual renewal of motivation from an emotive connection to Christ’s sacrifice, the sacrifices made by others and ourselves, and the commitment to a future that will continue to strive for sacrifice.
The Scripture passage chosen seeks to present all of these emotive and temporal confluences. The image in the scripture is the lion and the lamb. They are the same reality, the lamb connects to the past sacrifice and the lion to the future effect. The sacrifice of the lamb and its effect is the ritual by which these emotions are enlivened, the Eucharist. It is good to understand how this connects to the Eucharist as much as one can in order to fully appreciate the Ace of Cups. Ritual sacrifice is a communication system that is specifically postlapsarian in nature. It was originally an attempt to make peace between humans and God from the human end, and ultimately it becomes the work of the God/man who himself by his life presents all aspects of the sacrifice, priest and victim, God and man. Throughout scriptures, the lamb is the summative form of sacrifice. This is first displayed in the Cain and Abel story, the first story of sacrifice in scriptures. The lamb in the story garners favor, where the plant based sacrifice is rejected. The lamb is an extremely valuable animal. It offers continual sustenance through milk, continual shelter through its wool, and occasional celebration through its sacrifice and the subsequent banquet. The sacrifice kills the lamb, but the event is done out of gratitude to God and to demonstrate trust, that God will provide, and humility toward God against self reliance. The result is a banquet, which is a celebration. Jesus as the Lamb of God is the self sacrifice of his life in order to bring salvation and rectify the relationship between God and humanity. This sacrifice is made present to us, including emotively, through participation in the Eucharist.
Concerning our expanded resonance, the Ace of Cups presents our desire for rectification as it meets God’s action through the paschal mystery. The rhythm of the Eucharistic ritual is born out of our continual need to reconnect to this. Through the physical engagement of the sacrifice, the sacred space, the elements of the sacrifice as fundamental sacral matter, the auxiliary sacral matter that invests one according to one’s culture. Rhythmic participation in the Eucharist is meant to evoke a baseline of eros for union with God and eros to inspire us to do his will. If one gives over to the ritual it can purposefully summon the otherwise indiscriminate presence of these feelings.
Application
Pulling the Ace of Cups in contemplation is generally an invitation to consider employing one’s emotions for new motivation in the situation. It can be a chance to assess the foundational things in the situation the actors should have gratitude for and how the joy of that gratitude help in the situation. The Ace of Cups can be used to consider stimulus, whether news or physical, that emotively orients one toward the past or future. Or lastly, the Ace of Cups can be used to consider new emotive spiritual longings connected to the situation.
In Reverse the Ace of Cups presents as despondency, especially concerning the sacrifices others have made. It can be a chance to check in on ingratitude or dread. Polar Ace of Cups can also indicate an unnecessary sense of guilt or hesitancy to seek reform or reconciliation. Lastly, oppositional Ace of Cups can help the querent look to where emotions have already led to action in the situation.
Two of Cups: The Loving Bond
Scripture Passage
One day toward evening Isaac went out to walk in the field, and caught sight of camels approaching. Rebekah, too, caught sight of Isaac, and got down from her camel. She asked the servant, “Who is the man over there, walking through the fields toward us?” “That is my master,” replied the servant. Then she took her veil and covered herself. The servant recounted to Isaac all the things he had done. Then Isaac brought Rebekah into the tent of his mother Sarah. He took Rebekah as his wife. Isaac loved her and found solace after the death of his mother. -Gen 24:63-67
Visual Symbolic Analysis
The Two of Hearts presents two cups floating over what looks like a primal altar of passion. The cups most certainly represent the union of two persons in the love of desire and passion. The scene below the hearts consists mostly of various flowers arranged around a heart. This “altar” consists of two roses, two lilies, and a cluster of grapes, which appear to be offerings of beauty, life, and potential joy. The offerings recall the transitory nature of romantic or erotic love from attraction to physical beauty, which fades over time represented by the flowers, the masculine lilies, and the feminine roses. The offering of grapes conveys the maturity of intimacy over time which transforms from simple sustenance to wine, which provides joy, ecstasies, or cruelty depending on how one “handles” wine. In the center of the arrangement is the heart. Out of its top shoots a tall flame reaching up between the cups. This is the flame of passion and represents its dynamism, illumination, warmth, life, and also the suffering that can come with both well used and ill used passion.
The flaming heart also immediately connects to the holy family, as each member has a devotional “signet heart”, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and the Pure (or Chaste) Heart of Joseph. The devotional representation of each of these hearts has a flame ascending from the top. The presence of such a heart on the Two of Cups connects passionate romantic love to the passion of familial and divine love and forces the observer to harmonize these into a cohesion.
Meditation
The “two cards” generally present duality and compatibility. For the Suit of Cups, this often comes down to Gender compatibility or complementarity as expressed in romantic love. This card is the terrestrial manifestation of The Lovers, and usually presents two people who appear to be romantically engaged, but often there is a slight discomfort in the presentation. This discomfort is indicative of the imperfect execution of the harmony sought between the lovers, especially if they rely only on passion and eros. For this presentation, the discomfort is known through the fire, which can be a passionate, purgative, or destructive aspect in the relationship. Humans have an intense desire for interpersonal emotive connection. We are drawn to connect emotionally to others in an almost irresistible way. We seek to share our joys and sorrows with other persons. Thus Christian vocations always connect one to another person. The fundamental and natural vocation is marriage, where one bonds to one other person. This keeps emotion focused and the relation simple to complex in terms of how emotions must be interpersonally dealt with. The vocation to consecrated life connects to a group, where a rule orders action and emotive connections to fellow members develop from the rhythm of life together. Since, presumably, one would have to manage a more complex emotive network, the pre established rule helps. Christianity does have its Anchorites as well. But even they are grounded in a personal relationship, one with the personal God alone. This does simplify variables, but that simplicity can facilitate self deception, and thus this path is difficult to engage. However, it is a path of almost complete emotive investment and often eschews rational cognition. The anchorite usually invests in the mystical path. As we noted above, this path is almost exclusively emotively founded on interpersonal connection to the divine. These three structures help satiate our alienation as humans, but more importantly, they give us safe spaces to practice our experience of emotion as a binding agent of humanity. This binding is not simply the initial eros that draws two strangers together. It may also include eros and emotive attachments as they develop through a relationship. Such eros is tempered by all the hardships and sacrifices the two have had and how they expressed philia and agape through them. This integration changes the experience of our emotions and our attractive eros.
The scripture passion chosen is one of the few instances of romantic passion portrayed in the scriptures. It is clear that Isaac has lingering needs from the trauma of his father almost killing him during a ritual sacrifice. He seems to have clung to his mother until her death, and Rebekah is now helpful for him to continue healing and get his bearings as he makes his way in life. He loves her, but the text never explicitly says she loves him. They struggle as a couple because of mixed allegiances regarding their twin sons Jacob and Esaw. The longitudinal family dynamics that play out in Genesis present a constant concern for progeny as well as a contractual approach to marriage. Such displays of affection are rare and often overshadowed by more practical concerns revolving around survival. But this passage is one of the few examples where eros is employed and patriarch and matriarch connect as a unit. Their subsequent divisions or struggles are the playings out of the initial eros as it develops into real time circumstances and acquired a history and a context.
Concerning our expanded resonance the Two of Cups presents eros as an ideal incarnate. Desire needs an object. For interpersonal eros, the ideal is that the “object is a person who experiences reciprocal eros. If the two can successfully work in the other varieties of love over time, the fire is light, warmth, comfort, and the grapes turn to intoxicating wine of lasing love. If they cannot, the flowers die, the fire burns and blisters and the wine is a blackout exhibiting cruel wrath. This eros lingers from Eden, where the emotive bond was present in the way that the First Parents perfectly signified trinitarian love. In Postlapsarian reality a new eros is born out of that loss, the desire to re connect and be able to experience union and express the image and likeness of God in our communion as we once did.
Application
To draw the Two of Cups in contemplation is generally interpreted as an opportunity for exploration of the impact of romantic love in the situation. The querent may want to consider mutually attractive desire and how it effects the situation. Or one may want to explore how interpersonal emotive stimulus is being worked out in the situation. One may also use the Two of Cups to consider how interpersonal emotions and desire are developing in a relationship. One may want to explore how the emotive bonds in the situation operate, whether through suffering or joy. Lastly, the Two of Cups can be a chance to explore gender compatibility.
In Reverse Two of Cups shows dissolution of eros or accentuates the struggle of eros over the joy of communal eros. It could be an invitation to explore filial and agapic love in interpersonal relationships in the situation. Oppositional Two of Cups offers an opportunity to consider how past trauma has effects current loving relationships. Lastly, oppositional Two of Cups could indicate unrequited emotions or desire.
Three of Cups: Mary Magdalene, Mary, the Mother of James, and Salome at the Tomb
Scripture Passage
When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary, the Mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go and anoint him. Very early when the sun had risen, on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb. They were saying to one another, “Who will roll back the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” When they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back; it was very large. Mark 16:1-4
Visual Symbolic Analysis
The image of the Three of Cups draws a stark contrast to the standard image in tarot decks. Often the Three of Cups has three people, unusually women, holding cups in a gesture of communal celebration. The card evokes community bonding. The bonding portrayed in the Place deck is not so jovial. The card shows three women, Salome and the two Marys, huddled together in distress. Over their heads float three chalices. In the background one sees the silhouette of Calvary hill with the three crosses of the crucifixion still standing. The communion in the image speaks less to the extasis of intoxication and more to the communal suffering which we bind to the sacrificial blood of Christ. The looks on the women’s faces are anxious, but their interconnective physical touch shows an emotive tenderness and compassion that is more than simply trauma, it is a communion and love in sorrow that will soon reconfigure to joy in hope attained through resurrection.
Meditation
Generally, the Three of Cups is interpreted as a joyous communion of intoxicating emotive elation. The cups are assumed to hold wine, grapes, and water fermented to form wine. In this case, the community is born out of a common experience of witnessing brutality. The cups hold the blood of Christ’s sacrifice. The emotional bond we see portrayed in the Tarot of the Saints is the bond of trauma. The connection between the general presentation and this particular presentation helps one understand the rollercoaster of emotional communal bonding. The cup holds wine, so in a non-Catholic deck, it would naturally celebrate the communion of ecstasis. But the Communion cup holds wine changed to blood. This transubstantiation presents such an emotional rollercoaster in one sign. There is the wine, the intoxication of the world, that one must vacate and leave behind. This wine is blood, the suffering of the lamb which is a bitter drink, but yields salvation, a differing “intoxication”. It is the common experience of witnessing a summative act of sacrificial love, which binds them together. Therefore the image on the Three of Cups seeks to encapsulate the journey of the emotive rhythm between sorrow and joy and how it unites us as human communities. The image shows a point at which the ultimate effect is not known. In these times of grief, it is wise to turn to others for support. Our micro community gives us assurance of the macro communion which brings the world into existence and orders it, the trinity. Communal consolation also fosters hope and helps neutralize despair. It also shows another important methodology for relating to grief, which is rest. At this point, just before true justice was to be made known, they had rested for the sabbath and spent time consoling one another.
The scripture passage shows the cooperation of the community and a general disposition of seeking help. Certainly, the women had expectations of the messiah. It is doubtful that those expectations included him being arrested and summarily executed by civil authorities. We know that the end result is cosmic justice and the rectification of God and humanity. But the means were not expected. Now they were on the way to continue the rituals that are meant to help them cope with loss, the preparation of the body for rest. This was expected to prove difficult. But instead, they are met with an empty tomb and the entire narrative changes from sorrow to triumph. The process they go through is a microcosm of the emotional roller coaster of life that binds us together through compassion and joy. The card cleverly catches a moment of sorrow because the standard portrayal of the Three of Cups generally catches a moment of joy and lends to an interpretation of community in joy only, not in emotive bonding generally. This representation has the sorrow and assumes the joy, thus we are queued into the entire gamut of emotive bonding, as these women experienced it in a rollercoaster of emotions over a short time.
Regarding our expanded resonance, the Three of Cups offers a sense of eros as grief for what was lost and a longing of hope against all hope as well as the joy of hope realized. This emotive dynamic is an interplay of beatitude. “Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.” This emotive experience in its entirety is the beatitude that helps us navigate the harshness of postlapsarian reality while fostering faith and hope through expressing love. When we experience loss or grief we desire the company and comfort of those we love. When we see those we love grieving, we desire to be there for them and give them comfort. When we receive news of joy, we desire to share it with those we love. These desires are erotic love driving us to communion through compassion and through sharing of joy.
Application
Drawing the Three of Cups in contemplation allows the querent to consider the entire gamut of emotions and how they bind communities in the situation. It could also be a chance to consider evolving emotion in the situation and how it effects community dynamics. The querent will want to consider the emotive bonds of both joy and compassion. The Three of Cups could also be an opportunity to specifically notice how a community is reacting to an act of sacrificial love.
In Reverse Three of Cups present emotions that cause social discord that works against communal harmony and allow divisive reactions. Polar Three of Cups could imply a situation of communal emotional manipulation happening. Or oppositional Three of Cups could speak to despair in grief and lack of proper beatitude of sorrow. Lastly, polar Three of Cups could speak to a more calculating binding, a pragmatic alliance.
Four of Cups: The Annunciation
Scripture Passage
In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, “Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you.” But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” But Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?” And the angel said to her in reply, “The holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for nothing will be impossible for God.” Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her. -Lk 1:26-38
Visual Symbolic Analysis
The Four of cups shows the scene of the annunciation, with four chalices forming a square floating over the scene. In the middle of the chalices is the haloed dove of the Holy Spirit radiating grace downward on the scene below. The scene itself does not seem to be taking place in objective or physical history. The figures are standing among clouds and perhaps present an eternal archetype of human fiat presented as Mary’s “yes” to God.
The Angel Gabriel looms over Mary holding a longleaf stemmed flower in his left hand with one flower open and two buds pointing upwards. The open flower may be an indication of the development of character already present in Mary to make the choice she needs to make, full of grace that she cooperated with her whole life. The two buds are the act of choice, on the cusp of happening now and the further cooperation of grace and will it will take to progress into the future. Gabriel extends his right hand forward toward Mary with his index finger pointing toward her head, seeming to indicate God’s choice of a perfect tabernacle.
Mary for her part kneels among the clouds. Her posture is humble and demure. Her hair flows long down her back as her head is tilted down looking accepting. She holds an open book in her right hand as if she had just been reading it but now it is cast down, its open face in opposition to her line of sight. This can seem to indicate that she was taking knowledge on her self, just before this theophany, and implies a radical change in understanding God’s plan for one that shifts from an anthropocentric focus of will and understanding to a divine focus of grace and gift. Her left hand seems to be grabbing her outer garment and pulling it up to her chest as one would do in an act of covering one’s self when one has been caught exposed. This gesture does not seem anxious and brings to mind a reversal of the Garden, where nakedness brought shame, but now clothes are utilized in a manner that signifies proper humility, modesty, and generation of human life without biological sexuality.
Meditation
The Four of Cups card is usually a card concerning choice. The Fourth cup offered is often unnoticed as the subject of the card contemplates the other three. In this card, the four cups square off drawing the symbol closer to the numerology of the four corners of the Earth and symbolic of a world impacting choices, such as Mary’s fiat, or a choice that involves one’s whole experience of emotion. Both of these can be true of Mary’s experience in the scripture passage. Her major initial emotion is shock, because, even though Mary’s virginal conception is the culmination of a trajectory of barren matriarchs in the Old Testament, the choice offered by the angelic being is still one that is unfathomable. But contrary to the standard presentations of the Four of Cups, Mary is perceptive enough to see the angelic being. She is initially confused by his proclamation and there is a hint of fear of the consequences of being with child while still unattached. But upon his reassurance she consents and buy the time she sings the magnificat to her cousin Elizabeth, she has appropriated the mission of the incarnation. This emotive process is not one that is learned in school or by syllogism. Indeed, syllogism would say, virgins do not conceive children, and the choice would remain unobserved, as is portrayed in most cards. This card implies the process of not only recognizing the choice but emotively developing into compatibility with it.
Another possible meditation from the scripture passage sees the scene as the beginning of Mary’s special priesthood. In the treatise The Manifold Priesthood of the Catholic Church we discussed the reality of baptismal priesthood, and how Mary participates in this priesthood by means of her immaculate conception. Through the grace available she is able to see her choices say yes, sacrifice out of her life, and bring Christ into the world. “ Her body, as fundamental and receptive sacral matter, begets (or “administers”) the incarnation. The body of Christ, which her body prepared and sustained, is the summation of what it means to be an outward sign of an invisible grace. By her ministry of this outward sign, the world receives all of the effective sacramental graces in the Church.” This same series of actions are available to us all. We can all carry Christ and bring Christ to the world, unleashing him through our sacrifices and mediations. Whereas Mary does this physically through her body, we do it as actors in the Body of Christ, a benevolent cancerous element of humanity that seeks to infect the world with sanctity. As we make ourselves and the world holy, through participation in his church we bring Christ to the world anew.
Concerning our expanded resonance, The Four of Cups best displays eros in the desire for renewal of humanity toward perfection and our small part to play in it. So it is eros from the individual to the world. Any “yes” we can say that positively impacts the world and brings the liberation of the gospel is the result of this desire. Again it is a desire to effect for the positive, not simply negate the wrong doping of others. This desire for a better world understands three key things, first, that development must happen, not simply restriction. Second, that the subject’s part is participatory with divinity, not self realized or self enacted. Lastly, that one is only part of that plan, a catalyst at best. Mary’s role in the Church looms large, but all her actions lead to Christ.
Application
To turn the Four of Cups in contemplation does lead the querent to examine choices before one and especially consider the seeming impossible steps one can take for good. The querent may want to ponder bold or small choices that help in bringing goodness to the world. One can especially check in on how one desires the world to be a better place. This card can also be a chance to step back and look at the situation and seek to apply the most dynamic aspects of one’s baptismal priesthood. One could also use this card as an emotive check in for developing emotions over impactful choices one makes.
In Reverse, the Four of Cups begs the querent to ponder missed opportunities for good. Has one taken the standard option at the expense of dynamic development? Oppositional Four of Cups could indicate a development connected to a choice that has played out. It could also imply emotional stagnation in the face of needed emotional development. Lastly, the polar Four of Cups could imply a need to accept a lack of good choices.
Five of Cups: The Expulsion from Eden
Scripture Passage
The Lord God made for the man and his wife garments of skin, with which he clothed them. Then the Lord God said: See! The man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil! Now, what if he also reaches out his hand to take fruit from the tree of life, and eats of it and lives forever? The Lord God, therefore, banished him from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he had been taken. He expelled the man, stationing the cherubim and the fiery revolving sword east of the garden of Eden, to guard the way to the tree of life. -Gen 3:21-24
Visual Symbolic Analysis
The Five of Cups Shows the cups arranged on the card, four in a square, with one cup seeming to break into the square from the bottom. That breaking cup has a tree growing out of it into the square. If the four cups are the four corners of the Earth, then the rupture is the choice of the first parents reconfiguring the world with the presence of Original Sin and the subsequent knowledge/experience of evil. The tree could be interpreted as either the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil or the Tree of Life depending on how one interprets the card. Either way, the tree is growing into the world and symbolizes development of a choice. If it is the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil the focus is on the choice of the parents. If it is the Tree of Life then its intrusion into the square is the development of that tree into postlapsarian existence. Once in this world, reconfigured by Original Sin, the tree of life ultimately takes on the form of the Cross.
Below the cups, the scene of the expulsion plays out. To the left one sees the Angel with the “fiery sword that goes this way and that”. He holds the sword aloft in his right hand while gesturing authoritatively with his left. He stands among shrubbery and growth. Walking away from him the first parents head into thistle and thorns. They are clothed in basic loincloths. Their poster suggests dejection. Eve clings to Adam’s shoulder with her head down, but Adam seems to move forward resolutely looking ahead.
Meditation
The Five of Cups often portrays the consequences of harsh choices and especially the emotive weight of such choices. The portrayal in the Tarot of the Saints is no different. The expulsion from the garden represents the move away from one type of ideal, but also the move toward another. This choice and consequence is the opening gambit of the Bible, and breaks an established harmony. But the rest of scripture is about how reality is reconfigured toward a new harmony, the Eschaton. If the first two chapters imply a marriage of Adam and Eve, then the last bookend with the marriage of the people of God and the Lamb. The motion between the two is what we have often called the cosmological paradox. As we noted in the treatise Paradoxes and Disorders
Here we have the simplicity of humanity and the absolute complexity of humanity which form a unit through the process of reordering we are calling salvation history, the process we abide in. The motion of this process at the extremes is the process of a communion of two persons who form the basic unit of humanity, the First Parents, splintering into multiple billions of self regarding sentient beings that must first self regard (alienation) then turn from that splintered selfishness back to a relationship of oneness. It is a motion from dyadinal mutual appropriation to seeming infinite self regard to maximal mutual appropriation at every level.
This development from Eden to the Eschaton, from agrarian to Urban (the Garden to the New Jerusalem), from personal intimate to multifaceted communal cohesion, the process of salvation history. But as we exist in the process, we feel the emotive pain of the Five of Cups, which we trace back to the choice of the first parents. The choice they made invested humanity with “original sin”. This is a category of Ancient Western Christianity that has become very technically defined. Original sin is not “the original sin”. That is to say, it is not the instance of the first sinful choice by Adam and Eve in the garden to eat the fruit. Rather it is better understood as the “origin of sin” in each individual person. That origin is something awry with humanity and each of us individually, but it is not completely our fault, because humanity was made good. Therefore we have an origin story that involves a snake, an outside factor that facilitates the sinful choice but also mitigates the culpability. The story is about two individuals, Adam and Eve, and how they choose and act, or neglect to choose and act. But in the circumstance of the story, they are also the only people in existence, they are “humanity”. This is important for the ancients because they are keenly aware that humanity is an agent in the cosmos as much as individual humans are. Original sin is the “sin of humanity”, its guilt is the guilt of humanity, and most importantly its effect is effected on humanity. From the expulsion from the garden on original sin is the preexisting condition that facilitates sinful choices. From that point, our inner life became disorganized and disordered. This condition makes good choices seem bad and bad choices seem good. The choices are our own. The preexisting condition either condemns or mitigates our choices, depending on how we cooperate with them.
The scripture passage begins with an interesting fact that often goes overlooked. God makes the First Parents’ clothes before he expels them from the garden. They had already formed coverings from the leave around them because they felt shame. They constructed berries as signs of their alienation. Before he expells them he fashions durable clothes for them. This seemingly insignificant act holds a lot of meaning. First, the clothes are durable compared to what the First Parents fashion for themselves. This shows us that God’s patience for working with our “condition” far outlasts our own. Broken as we are, giving by making clothes for us, God shows that he can work with our brokenness. The goal is not to “get us back to where we were”, but to create all things new. The perfection of the eschaton will involve “clothes”. That is to say, whereas in Eden clothes would never have been a consideration, now, they are not simply a crutch, they become a gift from God and help us communicate, express, and reveal rather than hide. The nature of clothes here extends to many aspects of postlapsarian reality that will create a different perfection in the Eschaton that existed in Eden. There is no going back to the Garden.
The expanded resonance of the Five of Cups is one effect of concupiscence. In the traditional Augustinian understanding, an ordered soul has reason controlling passions and appetites. Augustine believed the effect of concupiscence was that appetites and desires now ruled reason and our rational capacity was simply a mechanism of justification for our base desires. This view in exclusivity is why eros as a variety of love gets such a bad rap. But even with a better developed view, one still must realize that there needs to be harmony between the capacities of the psyche. They each must play their part in human life and in how humans show love. The Five of Cups demonstrates desire run amuck, eros rules exclusively, untempered by reason, concern for the other, or concern for the world. The card itself symbolizes the fallout from Eden on two emotive fronts. First the concupiscent warping of desire to something more than eros. Desire becomes self focused and drives us to destructive ends. Second the painful desire we have for perfect communion which is impossible due to the effect of original sin. This desire is good but involves the suffering of striving for communion.
Application
To draw the Five of Cups in contemplation is a chance to reflect on choices and consequences. It is also an opportunity to investigate how one is seeking communion, especially in hardship. Five of Cups could also lead one to inquire about any concupiscent dispositions that are at play in the situation (a ready list of concupiscent dispositions is the seven deadly sins). One may want to pay close attention to how these dispositions are developing into the situation.
In Reverse Five of Cups speaks to choices that develop to beauty. The querent may want to inspect the situation for patterns of positivity resulting from choices. Oppositional Five of Cups could also play one of two ways, a break of communion, the splintering of humanity from Eden, or a particular type of communal relationship, the bonding of compassion (fellow suffering). Polar Five of Cups could indicate a functioning well ordered psycho-spiritual reality. Lastly, the reversed Five of Cups may speak to an aspect in the situation where it seems that someone made poor choices, but is experiencing no negative consequences.
Six of Cups: The Washing of the Feet
Scripture Passage
Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father. He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end. The devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand him over. So, during supper, fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God, he rose from supper and took off his outer garments. He took a towel and tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel around his waist.
He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Master, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing, you do not understand now, but you will understand later.” Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well.” Jesus said to him, “Whoever has bathed has no need except to have his feet washed, for he is clean all over; so you are clean, but not all.” For he knew who would betray him; for this reason, he said, “Not all of you are clean.” So when he had washed their feet [and] put his garments back on and reclined at table again, he said to them,
“Do you realize what I have done for you? You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do. Amen, amen, I say to you, no slave is greater than his master nor any messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you understand this, blessed are you if you do it. I am not speaking of all of you. I know those whom I have chosen. But so that the scripture might be fulfilled, ‘The one who ate my food has raised his heel against me.’ From now on I am telling you before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe that I AM. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.” -Jn 13:1-20
Visual Symbolic Analysis
The Six of Cups shows two ascending lines of three cups up the top half of the card. In between, the two rows is an ornate processional cross. The cross seems to be placed in such a way as to imply the emotive impetus for service as action.
Below the cups and cross, one sees an apostle sitting on a wooden bench stooping to pull his garment up, exposing his foot and calf. Kneeling before him is Jesus, holding his foot with both hands over a water basin with a towel handing over the edge. Jesus is clothed in a red tunic but does have the towel tied around his waist. The halos of the two figures touch in the center of the scene. The faces of the two show solemnity and concentration. The image conveys the beauty and gravity of Christian power dynamics in action.
Meditation
The Six of Cups usually seeks to portray a relationship involving the innocence and purity of youth, especially as wisdom is passed on. This passage often happens between two youths and is seen as a conferral through a sign of beauty and caring in a relationship of intimacy and innocence. Many of the same resonances can be seen in the Tarot of the Saints image, though the figures are not children. The sign of washing of feet is the service of Christian power dynamics, where the greater serves the lesser. The intimacy involves physical touch. The innocence is the belief that such a power dynamic could exist and thrive is the world we live in. With all the cruel oppressive operations of Rome and other human empires, to think that humans could organize systems of leadership where the proclamation to action takes place by example rather than decree, and the enforcement is conveyed by example rather than law and brutality seems nieve. At this point in human history, it can only seem to succeed in micro communities, such as families or a small fraternity of friends. Exhibition within this intimacy is the best way to instill a tradition of Christian power dynamics. Christian power dynamics are pivotal for understanding the washing of the feet and they are actually first displayed in the creation story as we noted in Inversal Unity and The Divine Triple Descent,
God sets the environment for humanity to be sustained and in which humanity experiences love. The Christian power dynamics is driven home by the fact that in the second creation story, “The Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and placed there the man whom he had formed.” This is the role of a servant, to plant a garden for someone else. The man is then placed in a position of service as well, “The Lord God then took the man and settled him in the Garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it.” This is interesting because the animated being, Adam, is caring for is the “lower life forms”, the plants, and those plants sustain him.
When the order of the Garden was thrown awry, God continued his demonstration of this service immediately by making clothes for the First Parents, even though they now viewed God as a tyrant. The Six of Cups offers a reinvestment in that power dynamic. It had been present from the beginning from God’s end. Now with the incarnation, the God/man is allowing the grace to make it effective from the human end and to restore proper relationships.
The scripture passage offers a valuable lesson on how to be taught valuable lessons. Initially, Peter does not Christ to wash his feet. He respects Christ as his teacher and that respect extends a certain type of dignity that disallows subservience from a superior. Since the student aspires to one day be the teacher, Jesus’ lesson is not one Peter initially wants to Learn. Peter’s desire for the Master is that he wields his authority “like the Gentiles” because then Peter can learn that this is an acceptable framework. But Christ’s lesson is that the greatest serves the least, and when he tells Peter of the import, Peter is willing to learn the lesson. We must allow people to serve us when necessary and we must be willing to serve others according to our position as servant and as master.
Concerning our expanded resonance Six of Cups speaks to a bond of intimate desire between Christ and his follower. True leaders desire the good for their followers. This emotive drive is what makes students want to learn from particular instructors and is sparked by charisma that inspires people to want to follow a leader. True disciples desire to learn from, imitate, and ultimately aspire to be who their leader is. When functioning in synchronicity, these desires allow for a deep bond of love between the two parties tantamount to the best of a learning relationship between parent and child or older and younger sibling.
Application
To turn the Six of Cups in contemplation offers the opportunity to consider Christian power dynamics and leadership. The querent may want to analyze people in leadership in the situation and how they make choices or give service to those in their charge. One may want to probe the situation for intimate relationships that pass wisdom by example. The querent may look for communicative signs of tenderness or communion in the situation. The card can also bring to mind leadership by example.
In Reverse Six of Cups allows one to probe the situation for tyranny, heavy handedness, or even usurpation of power. Polar Six of Cups is a card that evokes alienation between leader and follower. It could also indicate a clear but abstract relaying of information or instruction.
Seven of Cups: The Ciborium among the Chalices
Scripture Passage
Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee approached him with her sons and did him homage, wishing to ask him for something. He said to her, “What do you wish?” She answered him, “Command that these two sons of mine sit, one at your right and the other at your left, in your kingdom.” Jesus said in reply, “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink?” They said to him, “We can.” He replied, “My cup you will indeed drink, but to sit at my right and at my left [, this] is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.” When the ten heard this, they became indignant at the two brothers. But Jesus summoned them and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and the great ones make their authority over them felt. But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” -Mt 20:20-28
Visual Symbolic Analysis
The Seven of Cups usually portrays the seven cups in an array, each with some tantalizing or possibly dangerous object in it. Often there is a subject on the card seeking to choose between them. The card is all about choice, but in the Tarot of the Saints, the Chooser is the observer. There are six chalices neatly lined in two rows toward the upper third of the card. On a table at the bottom of the image sits a large ciborium with the lid placed on it. The standard image for the Seven of Cups is a dream-like or dazzling mystery of choices. This image evokes mystery and implies an interplay of fullness and emptiness. Whatever is “in” the six cups at the top, they truly have no meaningful content in comparison to the seventh cup at the bottom. The meaning of the empty may rely on understanding that usually in this card they are filled with the “fantastic” and the manifest goodness of those options as ends in themselves is a fantasy. But the closed Ciborium also contains an unknowable mystery. We understand that the true presence of divinity is there, and by choosing we can be effected by it and cooperate with it. But we never get an exact visual in the card to remind us that God’s ways are mysterious to us.
Meditation
When facing the choices of the Seven of Cups, it must be remembered that the emptiness of the six cups does not necessarily make them bad choices. Some of them may be objectively bad. But any of them may become such when they are chosen as an end in and of themselves. Even good choices must be ordered to the ultimate goal of sanctifying union with divinity. If this order is not present, the “object” of the choice, which may be a literal object, a mode of being, an action, an identity etc, becomes an idol that takes precedence over one’s relationship with God. The Ciborium is the calibrating choice, the choice that orders all other choices. The moral or existential underpinning of a series of choices in many ways relies on whether one has priorities properly ordered. If one, by their life, is first and foremost seeking right relationship with God, and then with neighbor, then they are in many ways free of restriction. As Saint Augustine said, “Love and do what you will.” But if those priorities are not aligned, the quest for sanctification becomes secondary, a distraction, or inauthentic, and disorder reigns.
The scripture chosen for the card relays the mother of the Sons of Thunder coming to Jesus to make a request that her sons sit as his right and left hand when he comes into his kingdom. Her request seems to line up with well ordered priorities until you understand that she perceives of Jesus as a “worldly” king, not as the Lion of Judah who is also the sacrificial Lamb of God. This is why Jesus checks in with the Sons of Zebedee, “can you drink of the cup I drink of?” In the Gospel Jesus’ “cup” is resonant of the Ace of Cups, his sacrificial death. When they demonstrate their willingness to do whatever it takes, Jesus assures them the resolve to do it, even though they do not seem clear on what it will take, a martyr's death. However, Jesus does not promise them any position in the kingdom, because acting out of love for God means one acts out of gratitude for existence, not out of a sense of commerce. Hence what is in the ciborium, is “Eucharist”, that is, thanksgiving. It is an integration of divinity and self by an experience of ingestion. Reception sparks a thankfulness for life (without food we die) and an appreciation that the elements of food are “fruit of the earth [and vine] and work of human hands”. Further in the same way the ciborium is a gift and a choice of cooperation with our own divinization.
Concerning our expanded resonance, there is a deep emotional connection and drive to be one with God and love God with all our being. This eros drives us toward the ultimate but also, when disordered, leads us to worship false gods and idolize creation over creator in our life. This desire often outweighs even our desire to “run our own lives.” We are built to live in harmony with God. The erotic desire to be one with him and live according to his plan for us is so deep seated it outstrips our own pride. The problem becomes concupiscent expressions of this desire that create ideologies that are contrary to God's plan for the world but become structures we try to fit ourselves and others into in order to mitigate free loving choice and implement our desire for such harmony. When desire is aimed at the ciborium, we are aimed at the fundamental mystery of love, and our desire is reordered toward erotic longing for the Eschaton, where all is properly ordered. In that desire, we can be aware that we want to drink the cup of Christ, that he will give us the strength to drink it, but even now, we are not sure exactly what drinking that cup means in our life.
Application
To meet the Seven of Cups in meditation is usually seen as an invitation to contemplate the choices. This particular manifestation reminds us of priorities among the multiple choices we may need to make in life. Further, it can be an invitation to seek sanctification by means of the situation and how one organizes their choices. One may also want to focus on the desired one has to “give oneself over” in choosing sanctity.
In Reverse the Seven of Cups allows one to look at poor choices or choices poorly prioritized in the situation. It can also be an invitation to contemplate the emptiness of all being when it is chosen over God. Oppositional Seven of Cups could also be an invitation to consider the effect of grace over the exercise of volition. One may want to investigate the situation of desire to idolize aspects against their proper place.
Eight of Cups: David the Poet
Scripture Passage
The spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul, and he was tormented by an evil spirit from the Lord. So the servants of Saul said to him: “Look! An evil spirit from God is tormenting you. If your lordship will order it, we, your servants here attending to you, will look for a man skilled in playing the harp. When the evil spirit from God comes upon you, he will play and you will feel better.” Saul then told his servants, “Find me a good harpist and bring him to me.” One of the servants spoke up: “I have observed that a son of Jesse of Bethlehem is a skillful harpist. He is also a brave warrior, an able speaker, and a handsome young man. The Lord is certainly with him.”
Accordingly, Saul dispatched messengers to ask Jesse to send him his son David, who was with the flock. Then Jesse took five loaves of bread, a skin of wine, and a young goat, and sent them to Saul with his son David. Thus David came to Saul and entered his service. Saul became very fond of him and made him his armor-bearer. Saul sent Jesse the message, “Let David stay in my service, for he meets with my approval.” Whenever the spirit from God came upon Saul, David would take the harp and play, and Saul would be relieved and feel better, for the evil spirit would leave him. -1Sam 16:14-23
Visual Symbolic Analysis
The image on the Eight of Cups shows two rows of Six chalices lining the top of the card with two chalices forming the third row, but the middle space is blank. The bottom of the card is taken up by King David. He is adorned in royal robes and a crown. He is kneeling as he looks up to the heavens clapping his extended hands. His arms are around a large eight stringed harp. The typical initial impression of David is a warrior who defeats Goliath, a giant man who is better armed and trained than David. But this image shows David’s balanced persona, that of the poet musician. The emotional extremes could not be different. This image portrays David as transcendently focused, bringing to mind the harmony of the cosmos, his upward glance indicating he is synchronizing his music with the music of the spheres and the divine harmony of creation.
Meditation
The Eight of Cups generally seeks to portray some sort of emotive motion, usually aways from the eight cups and often toward a physical height (mountain), symbolizing a spiritual height or a difficult journey. The portrayal of Tarot of the Saints is strikingly different. The “motion” is musical, which speaks directly to an emotive development. Music has a unique ability to move emotions in a systematic and controlled way, which is good for emotions. The ability to manipulate them is usually more of an art than a science, but there are two kinds of musicians, the inspired artists, and the technical mathematicians. Each has a differing methodology, but both maneuver emotions by their craft. Thus the emotional journey is gotten across in the portrayal of David does not seem “arduous” as the standard portrayal, or if it is it is a spiritual emotional struggle more than a “strenuous” one. The struggle, joys, hopes, fears, etc. of what such a journey could be are all visible through the spectrum of emotions portrayed in the psalms.
The scripture passage chosen portrays many emotional maneuvers that are affected by music. Sometimes the Eight of Cups indicates an emotive break with the past. We see this in a temporary sense with Saul. God has sent him a demon to torture him, and when it seizes him, he raves in his house. The music David plays seems to calm his irrational wrath and bring him peace. But is only a catalyst, and all long as Saul remains otherwise unchanged, his deeper issues will continue to manifest. This is different than David, who does change over his life, from goat herder to vassal warrior, to king. David Toggles between warrior and poet, two emotively different experiences. David diversifies his emotive bonds between his comrades, such as Joab or Benaiah, and his wife Abigail, his concubines, such as Bathsheba, and his curious bond with Johnathan. He toggles his emotional relationship to his children such as the differing regards between Absolom, Adonijah, and Solomon concerning succession. Lastly, he maneuvers well in his relationship with God. He knows the emotions of temptation, such as seeing Bathsheba on the roof, the grief of regret and repentance, such as when he lay on the floor in the temple pleading for his child’s life, and the emotional devastation and subsequent acceptance of consequences such as when the child dies. David presents a complex array of emotions that harmonize into one person, sometimes the harmony is simultaneous, sometimes it is developing, music does both in the course of a song. But what makes David the greatest king is that he directs his rather messy harmony and trajectory toward the glory of God. Even in the fits and starts of the song of his life, his direction is what makes the song beautiful. “The Lord is certainly with him.”
Regarding our expanded resonance, eros is present in the Eight of Cups in how we are driven by desire for God, but our emotions must be harmonized. Some of our desires tend to steer us away from God, but there are ways to bring them into harmony with desires or develop them in ways that lead us back into harmony with God. This eros directs us ultimately to God, but well trained will also bring our various emotive attachments to others into concert and grow these relationships to fulfillment.
Application
To encounter the Eight of Cups in contemplation is to encounter emotive development or emotive harmony. The querent may want to consider ways to stimulate or evoke emotions, and how that evocation can serve the situation. The querent can look to the ways the emotions have changed in the situation along a trajectory. Or the querent can look at the ways different spheres of emotive investment harmonize to effect the situation. It could be a time to pay attention to how one’s emotional attunement works toward their relationship with transcendence.
In Reverse the Eight of Cups could indicate emotive manipulation. This may not be a negative thing. Music can manipulate emotions in harmful and useful ways. Polar Eight of Cups could indicate emotional discord or stagnation. Lastly, oppositional Eight of Cups could indicate a physical or intellectual development as opposed to an emotional one.
Nine of Cups: The Accompaniment of the Celestial Humans
Scripture Passage
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us -Heb 12:1
Visual Symbolic Analysis
The arrangement of the Nine of Cups is the same as the Eight, even with the image that peaks into the empty space of the bottom row of chalices. But there is one extra chalice starting the fourth row. At the bottom of the page, we see two women, a terrestrial human and a celestial human (saint). They are walking together toward the right edge of the card. Their upper frames penetrate the space in the third row of cups. The last cup in that row and the cup of the fourth row (behind the two people) conform to the slope of a rocky incline they are about to ascend. In the background, there is a body of water visible. The slope is an ascent that speaks to a struggle for positive spiritual development. Typical of the Tarot, the presence of a shoreline is the divide between the conscious and unconscious mind, in this case as it relates to Spiritual development. The motion runs from unconscious to conscious contemplative to ethereal extasis (the mountain top).
In this image, the journey has just begun. The terrestrial human walks arm in arm with the saint. They both stare straight ahead and their footing seems synchronized. The Terrestrial woman’s hair is covered and her right arm hangs at her side. The saint has a staff in her left hand to steady their journey. Her hair is uncovered and her head is crowned with a halo. The saint is obviously offering support that allows the terrestrial human to complete the journey. Without the accompaniment of the saint and the skills she has, the terrestrial human alone would not make it.
Meditation
Numerologically, the Nine cards are unusually indicative of the personal fulfillment of that suit. This is as opposed to the Ten cards which symbolize the communal fulfillment. Generally, the images of the nine pips involve a single person who is pictured surrounded in by the examples of the suit. The image usually portrays contentment, peace, or joy. For Tarot of the Saints these themes do apply, but unique to a Christian cosmology. The first striking difference is that the subject, the terrestrial human, is not alone. This speaks to the nature of Christianity, there is not solitary only solidarity. We all relate to Christ. We all relate to each other. The card presents an interesting pairing because as our celestial companions accompany us, though, to the uninitiated observer, we do appear to be alone. It is only the believer who knows the great cloud of witnesses that accompany us on our journey. Their accompaniment shows that even the Christan hermit is not in isolation. Their aid is an expertise of example, a tradition of thought, a power of intercession, and a sharing of grace. The card generally represents the emotive development to a crescendo of spiritual awareness or joy. But Christianity is not a religion of cosmic stasis, rather it is one of cosmic development from Eden to the Eschaton, so the card pictures the journey rather than the fulfillment.
Pairing with the scripture, the presentation of the Nine of Cups also offers a nice meditation on Christian ontology. And the unity and diversity or simple yet manifold nature of humanity, especially how that unity transcended even death. The “communion” of saints binds beyond either simply the pilgrim church or the celestial kingdom. The two are united in love and therefore form a oneness. The scripture passage from Hebrews demonstrates this by a classic Christo-ontological analogy, “a cloud of witnesses”. Of course, the cloud has seemingly infinite dew drops, but to the observer, it is “one thing”. This ontological unity of humans AND humanity is what allows for celestial companionship.
Concerning our expanded resonance, the Nine of Cups offers a meditation on loving eros as the desire for unity between the various “spiritual localities” of the Church. The Catholic church has a well developed system of mutual help that happens between the localities and it speaks to compassion and a desire to support and be supported. We discussed the interplay in detail in the treatise Ecclesiological Orientation,
Even among those institutionally minded (so focused on objective action), there is an older hierarchical model of the Church that extends into the afterlife. It is based on how the Church is a trans-terra-celestial reality with trans-terra-celestial relationships. When an institutionally minded person focuses on this it generally comes down to “who can help who”. The focus regards how we can ask the intercession of the saints, who can help us. It also regards how we can help the souls in purgatory by praying for them and offering sacrificial acts for mitigation of their suffering. This great economy of companionship points to the complex nature of the Church.
The flow of help from the heavens is one way for each part. The saints help us but we cannot help them. We can help those in purgatory, but they cannot help us. But here on earth, we can all help each other. There is a deep desire to be helped and not feel isolated and alone. The Nine of Cups speaks to that desire especially as we begin the effort of effecting change in our life.
Application
To turn the Nine of Cups in meditation allows the querent to inquire about companionship in the situation. This especially applies to true but unseen companions. They may be celestial, geographically distant, or simply unnoticed. One could interpret the card such that it leads to inquiry concerning the draw of eros toward supportive companionship. Or the querent may want to focus on the journey itself as a new path of emotive spiritual development or an invitation to explore stimuli that entices us to begin an “ascent”. Or, lastly, the Nine of Cups could be seen as the end of the journey, emotive spiritual fulfillment. What is at the top of this mountain considering the situation?
In Reverse the Nine of Cups could imply a feeling of isolation in the situation. Or it could be a relationship that appears to be supportive but is actually detrimental. Or oppositional Nine of Cups could imply the purgatorial relationship, a reversal of the traditional perception of helper and helped in the situation. It could also imply a very obvious helper who is ready at hand. Lastly, polar Nine of Cups could imply a desire for passive solitude and reflection.
Ten of Cups: Jesus Welcomes the Children
Scripture Passage
Jesus said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.” And people were bringing children to him that he might touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this he became indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.” Then he embraced them and blessed them, placing his hands on them. Mk 10:11-16
Visual Symbolic Analysis
This Card shows ten chalices. There are two rows of four down the sides of the upper card, and one connecting them at the top in the middle. Centering the upside down U, is a large Calice that takes up the entire center. This configuration seems to imply that the emotive bond portrayed, the emotive bond between Christ and Children, is of central importance as a relationship, as the scripture passage says. Not that any other, master/servant, king/subject, savior/ saved, are not important, but the intimacy of this relationship is a pivotal lens because it is so personal and tender.
Below the configuration of cups is the scene of Christ blessing the children. The apostles are nowhere to be seen. Rather one sees Christ engaging children as a woman brings them to him. There are three children, one on the left facing away from the observer toward Christ. The other two are to the right in profile and are looking up a Christ. The girl stands just in front of him looking up attentively with her hands crossing her heart. The boy seems more hesitant. His hands seem crossed in front of him and his posture leans away as the maternal figure urges each of them toward Christ. Jesus is looking down at the children and expressly teaching them his hand striking a gesture of pedagogical resonance. The image conveys a tenderness towards children coupled with an awareness that they need guidance.
Meditation
Ten cards usually portray the communal fulfillment of the suit. The Ten of Cups usually images the emotive joy of family bliss. This is seen in the Tarot of the Saints but the father figure is Jesus, and the emotive joy is tempered with teaching and guidance. It is interesting that there is even a slight indication of hesitance by one child, which speaks to true communal relationships rather than idealized ones. Authority is scary and seeks to change us in ways that we often do not want or do not understand. But this card seems to revolve around the best examples of emotive relationship between one in authority and of under authority. The introduction of children implies an innocence and potential not present in the relationship between Jesus and the Apostles. The child like quality that Jesus extols is not ignorance, immaturity, or naivete’. Rather it is an attitude of absolute trust that authority seeks one’s best interest, the taking for granted of goodwill, and the absolute assumption that the authority is the authority. This is the relationship the humans should have with God.
Scripture passage helps us better understand why the chalice in the middle is so large. This relationship, adult to child, especially parent to child, is a fundamentally calibrating relationship for humanity. The cultural relationship between parent and child shapes generations of humanity, just as the individual relationship between parents and children deeply forms the children of the household for life in ways that boss/worker, politician/constituent, teacher/student, etc relationships never could. From the adult end, there is a care and an urge to protect that extends far beyond other relationships. One will notice that the passage about divorce is included. In each gospel where Jesus blesses the children the passage prohibiting divorce directly proceeds this blessing. This repeated narrative sequence shows that children are not raised in isolation. They need multiple influences, especially those of their parents, and in the ideal, those influences are working in coordination. At the same time, there are those, like the apostles, who see children as not really counting, and not worth the time of investment. Jesus has harsh words for these people, “better that a millstone be tied around your neck than to lead one of these little ones astray.”
Concerning our expanded resonance, the Ten of Cups presents the duel loves of desire that urge both parents and children into these relationships. From the adult end, they care about these children and deeply desire their success and ability to one day be independent. This is born out of a deep desire to bond and form a legacy through children. From the child’s end, a bonding desire forms that springs from a deep cosmological trust in safety that parents can provide by the care they give. There is a deep desire for approval for the child’s action and attention to their needs. These are the relationships we want (via eros) in our relationship with God and anyone in authority over us. This is a primal eros that humans have that allows us to seek God and seek an ordered society.
Application
To draw the Ten of Cups in contemplation is to be given the opportunity to explore authoritative relationships in the situation especially as they impact the emotive bond reflective of children and caregivers. Are there situations of intimate passing on of knowledge? The mode implies innocence, and naivete on the part of the student that is respected on the part of the teacher. It may be present in the situation or it may be from the deep past of childhood and the modes, methods, and knowledge applied then are effecting the situation now. Thus this card may invite an inquiry in foundation relationships of childhood.
In Reverse The Ten of Cups may indicate that the priority of relationships spheres is disordered. Or it may imply an abuse of power, an authority that is objective or detached, or a lack of necessary attention from superior to inferior. Lastly, it could imply the manner that the lessor teaches the greater, that children can teach adults profound lessons.
Page of Cups: Saint Eligius
Hagiography
Saint Eligius was an extremely skillful metalsmith. After his apprenticeship, his skill led him to a career as treasurer at Marseilles, France, and master of the mint under King Clotaire II in Paris, France. Saint Eligius was a close friend of and advisor to Clotaire. Noted for his piety, hard work, and honesty, Eligius was generous to the poor, ransomed slaves, built churches, monasteries, and convents. It was said that you could easily find his house by the number of poor people there that he was caring for.
Eligius was ordained and became a Bishop. As bishop, he built the basilica of Saint Paul. He won many converts, generally brought to the faith by his example of charity and work with the poor and sick. A friend and spiritual teacher of Saint Godeberta. Encouraged devotion to the saints and reverence for their relics; he discovered the relics of Saint Quentin, Saint Piaton, and Saint Lucian of Beauvais, and made many reliquaries himself. Miracle worker with the gifts of clairvoyance and prophecy; he foresaw the date of his own death.
Visual Symbolic Analysis
Typical of most images for the Page of Cups, Eligius is seen looking into his cup. Most images have a page standing in the center and looking deeply. Sometimes there is something visible in the cup and sometimes its contents are mysterious. Where Eligius differs is that the image employs his career as a metalsmith. Young Eligius is seen standing over a work table steadying a chalice on its surface as, with the other hand, he works the base of the cup with a hammer. He is dressed as a craftsman wearing an apron and a cap. Around the base of the table is a tool belt with an extra hammer and set of pliers in it.
The major variance is the image of Eligius sculpting the cup. It speaks to the beginning of the Christian call and process of synchronizing aspects of the self; knowledge, the passions, volition, emotions, and intuitions. It is not that any of these need to be neutralized or subdued. Rather they are to be sculpted and formed together to serve a purpose. The will and reason help shape, discipline, and especially direct the emotions, passions, and intuitions in ways that they can be brought to bear in life toward healthy ends.
Meditation
The Page of each suit represents engagement in the significance of that suit at an exuberant, but novice or sophomoric level. To meet a page in contemplation evokes consideration of zeal but also a lack of experience in persons involved in the situation. Generally, the Page of Cups implies discovery of one’s self as an emotive intuitive being. Children are born and grow as concupiscent beings. The proverbial “temper tantrum” of a child is not a personal guilt, simply an indicator of how emotions, like reason and knowledge, need to be developed as one matures in life. The Page of Cups is a card of discovering that which seemed so uncontrollable, emotions and intuition, can be regulated and crafted. If something is inside the cup, it is content springing from the unconscious that presents as emotive stimulus. It is surprising once one noticed it consciously, but at that moment, the recognition gives an ability to account for it. Once one notices an emotive stimulus as such, one has an avenue of working with emotions. This is the first step toward emotional maturity.
For Eligius this discovery comes in the form or raw material that is shaped and formed into usefulness. The miracle he is most known for implies an overabundance of flowing emotional and intuitive material to work with. According to The Life of Saint Eligius, Clotaire II, king of the Franks, is said to have commissioned him to make a throne of gold adorned with precious stones.
And from that which he had taken for a single piece of work, he was able to make two. Incredibly, he could do it all from the same weight for he had accomplished the work commissioned from him without any fraud or mixture of siliquae, or any other fraudulence. Not claiming fragments bitten off by the file or using the devouring flame of the furnace for an excuse, but filling all faithfully with gems, he happily earned his happy reward.
The card implies this raw material of emotions is ever flowing like the waters of the sea, and it takes a craftsman to shape them into usefulness. Saint Eligius himself was such a craftsman. His ability to channel compassion to the impoverished as well as his reported clairvoyance and prophetic abilities show exuberance of youth honed into well shaped instruments suited to his call. Eligius, as the Page, takes the time to get to know his material and work it to the maximal effect, in content, quantity, quality. The relationship he is crafting between reason, will, and emotion is a synchronicity more than a hierarchy. The emotions themselves, if well crafted, become a valuable ally in spiritual life. In the end, well tempered, these are directed appropriately and useful, rather than whimsical or dangerous. The raw material becomes a chalice, the chalice holds the water that becomes wine that becomes the Blood of Christ. But without the first process (making the cup) the second process cannot be held and consumed.
Given our expanded resonance of the Suit of Cups, Eligius is the first onslaught of eros one experiences toward a person, or God (who is personal). That self presenting eros is surprising, the desire to be with this person and enjoy their company is a very good and exciting experience. But since eros often comes and goes as it pleases, one must take it as it comes and tempers it with reason, discipline, and careful attention the other, lest the Eros get out of control and turn to lust, where the relationship is one sided and expectations are calibrated toward the self centered expectations. This lust to possess the other as one would have them/it would invariably lead to suffering and wrath, and a discordantly excited emotive state.
Application
When one encounters Saint Eligius as the Page of Cups, one has the opportunity to ponder skilled discipline as it interacts with one's intuition and emotion. The querent may want to look for a person in the situation who has an ability to merge and coordinate these useful emotions and intuitions. Or the querent may look for a person who can teach such skills to another in the situation. Or Eligius as the page could lead one to look for a new rush of eros into the situation, remembering that eros is not all sexual. It is any desiring attraction to self share.
In Reverse Eligius leads one to ask if emotions are running roughshod over the situation or intuition is off or used without tact. It could be that someone in the situation is regarding eros as an end in and of itself. Or oppositional Page of Cups could indicate the presence of a well healed and mature emotional influence in the situation.
Knight of Cups: Saint John the Apostle
Hagiography
Son of Zebedee and Salome. Fisherman. Brother of Saint James the Greater, and called one of the Sons of Thunder. Disciple of Saint John the Baptist. Friend of Saint Peter the Apostle. Called by Jesus during the first year of His ministry, and traveled everywhere with Him, becoming so close as to be known as the beloved disciple. Took part in the Last Supper. The only one of the Twelve not to forsake the Saviour in the hour of His Passion, standing at the foot of the cross. Made guardian of Our Lady by Jesus, and he took her into his home. Upon hearing of the Resurrection, he was the first to reach the tomb; when he met the risen Lord at the lake of Tiberias, he was the first to recognize Him.
During the era of the new Church, he worked in Jerusalem and at Ephesus. During Jesus’ ministry, he tried to block a Samaritan from their group, but Jesus explained the open nature of the new Way, and he worked on that principle to found churches in Asia Minor and baptizing converts in Samaria. Imprisoned with Peter for preaching after Pentecost. The fourth Gospel, and three Epistles are attributed to him, as well as, possibly, the Book of Revelation. Survived all his fellow apostles.
Visual Symbolic Analysis
Typically the knights are pictured arrayed in armor and mounted on horses carrying an example of their suit. John is pictured seated and barefoot. The vulnerability of this contrast strikes the observer and reminds one that to express or employ emotion often leaves one vulnerable to a less controlled aspect of the self. Saint John is holding a chalice on his lap with his left hand and his right is held out in benediction displaying the twofold nature of Christ with his ring and pinky finger and the Trinity with his thumb, fore, and middle fingers.
Most strikingly, John’s regard for the cup seems to be that which is generally portrayed in a Page card. He stares down into the cup with a look of either great concentration or contemplation. Emerging out of the cup is a coiled snake with its head and its tail thrust upward toward John’s face. The posture and gesture almost make it appear as though John is summoning the snake from the cup. The symbol of the snake in Christian Symbology is usually foreboding, for example, the snake is the tempter of the garden. But the snake is also lifted up in the Desert in Exodus and brings healing. In this image, the snake forms an incomplete or broken ouroboros and John seems to have control of the situation through his emotive relationship to the snake.
Meditation
The Knight of each suit can be thought of as the employment or good use of that suit’s significance. To encounter a knight in contemplation allows the querent to reflect on how the suit the knight represents is best employed, or how it is being employed by someone in the situation. Generally, the Knight of Cups is the active use of the emotive or intuitive. The card carries the implication of a diplomatic idealist who is charming, artistic, graceful, tactful. The card evokes mediation or negotiation. A Gift of the Spirit that relates to the Knight of Cups would be the Gift of Passion known as “Wonder or Awe” of God, what in older days was called “Fear of the Lord”. This is an overwhelming sense for the greatness of God which inspires and frames our gratitude for existence, and thus gives us deep and intuitive moral impetus bereft of any sense of “commerce” in rewards or p[unichment. Awe of God also fills us with the humility that begins beatitude.
One can see the mediation of the Knight of Cups in the image portrayed of Saint John. The mediation is between the contemplative and the Serpent. The serpent can be taken to mean the “exterior” influences of the world. That is thought systems, cultures, temptations ect. This is certainly the foundational role of the serpent in the garden. If humanity had been the sole cause for the fall, then humanity is irredeemable. Though the choice of sin implies culpability, there is also the exterior factor of temptation. But all of reality is made good, so how do we consider these temptations? They cannot be “wholly” evil. And if they are not wholly evil, then they are redeemable themselves. In the treatise Calculated Demonic Attunement we discussed how even if the demons won’t ultimately repent, their temptation and torture are redeemable for humans. If that is so, the other more “neutral” temptations are certainly redeemable. The serpent John Summons out of the cup seems to be a redeemed ill that has been brought into submission to Christ. If that seems far fetched remember it is John who likens Christ himself to the serpent. We discussed his reference in the treatise The Three Tiered Integration of Self
“just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” So for John, the bronze serpent of the desert is some sort of typology of Christ’s healing power. Christ is the serpent, but only in the lifted up position, the ascent so to speak. The tree is not the spine and mind (internal) but the tree of life (the cross), counterposed to the tree of knowledge tempted by the previous serpent in the lower position. Each of these trees are part of the third tier of experiential knowledge because Christianity works from the outside in. What one gets from the lifted up “serpent” is a healing of the way one encounters suffering, however the solution is not knowledge, but salvation and redemption.
Though he initially rejected the synchronistic Samaritans Christ Taught Saint John the importance of an expansive approach to the gospel. Thus the snake he summons can be inculturation, or the method often seen throughout scriptures of taking the weakness (even moral) of a character and making it a strength for expression of Love.
The knight cards are easily interpreted as the employment of the meaning of the suit. Thus the Knight of Cups generally implies how one utilizes one’s emotion or intuition, or how one is in touch with one’s subconscious as a generator of these things. In this, the Knight of Cups can imply the practices of somnium spirituality, especially the methodology of lucid waking. Lucid waking is the skills and processes of bringing the dream world to the waking world. It is the mirror of lucid dreaming. As we noted in the treatise Somnium Spirituality it is a skill that is helpful for engaging in ritual life, a form of activity that, like the dream world, operates by symbol rather than efficiency or causality. One can see this confluence in John himself where his book of Revelations makes eloquent use of dream and vision as a symbolic converter. Thus we have a situation where there is great suffering of the Church expressed in acute symbolic language. In the end, there is a collapse of the Church and then all of reality is made anew. In the “dream” the Church signifies the mystical body of Christ and the persecution is Jesus’ corporeal passion played out across Christian history as “the Church”. But the dream world is “significant”, that is to say, the symbols effect what they signify, so this vision is in a real way a presentation of the paschal mystery, the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ, but as signified by the Church. It is Saint John who employs this skill of bridging the dream world and the waking world in his writing.
In terms of expanded resonance, the eros expressed in the Knight of Cups is eros as it blends an urge toward the problematic (concupiscence) with an urge for the harmony and goodness of creation. These resolve to transform the problematic to the good and useful; the charlatan Jacob becomes the negotiator, the wrathful murder Moses becomes the champion of Justice, the tax collector Matthew becomes the evangelist, the oppressive gentile nations become the Alter Isrealis. The successful alchemic integration of these contrary desires is a difficult trick to pull off. It takes serious guidance, discipline, prayer, and contemplation. It should not be undertaken lightly. The danger is that the urge to do evil is so strong, and disorder eros draws us to objectify reality and treat it in ways harmful to others and ourselves. On the contrary, to totally reject any aspect of reality as “evil” is to totally reject Genesis 1:31 “God looked at everything he had made and found it very good.” And humans do have a longing for the perfection of the Kingdom where Heaven and Earth are made new and all operate in perfect harmony. Saint John is showing the power of the Saint to bring about these realities through proper channeling of intuition and eros.
Application
To Saint John in contemplation is an invitation to seek the good in things perceived in evil. This is tricky and urges caution. Though Saint John has mastered this maneuver, the querent is in peril of falling into temptation by it. The querent may want to analyze the situation for unhealthy disharmonies or harmful urges that can be brought to a good use. One could probe the situation for things that seem attractively evil but that can be used to convey the healing of Gospel. One may want to analyze the situation for the presence and use of a sense of Awe in the situation. The Knight of Cups urges one to employ the emotive in the situation and a study of the application of Ignatian discernment, which is emotive based, may also be of help.
In Reverse the card may prompt the querent to consider dangerous temptation to be avoided. Or it could be an indicator of over idealized spirituality or emotive debauchery, each of which could lead to discord in the situation. Lastly, polar Knight of Cups could lead one to consider a more Apollinarian approach in the situation.
Queen of Cups: Saint Clare of Assisi
Hagiography
Saint Clare of Assisi: Clare’s father was a count, her mother the countess Blessed Orsolana. Her father died when the girl was very young. After hearing Saint Francis of Assisi preach in the streets, Clare confided to him her desire to live for God, and the two became close friends. On Palm Sunday in 1212, her bishop presented Clare with a palm, which she apparently took as a sign. With her cousin Pacifica, Clare ran away from her mother‘s palace during the night to enter religious life. She eventually took the veil from Saint Francis at the Church of Our Lady of the Angels in Assisi, Italy.
Clare founded the Order of Poor Ladies (Poor Clares) at San Damiano, and led it for 40 years. Everywhere the Franciscans established themselves throughout Europe, there also went the Poor Clares, depending solely on alms, forced to have complete faith in God to provide through people; this lack of land-based revenues was a new idea at the time. Clare’s mother and sisters later joined the order, and there are still thousands of members living lives of silence and prayer.
Clare loved music and well-composed sermons. She was humble, merciful, charming, optimistic, chivalrous, and every day she meditated on the Passion of Jesus. She would get up late at night to tuck in her sisters who’d kicked off their blankets. When she learned of the Franciscan martyrs in Morocco in 1221, she tried to go there to give her own life for God but was restrained. Once when her convent was about to be attacked, she displayed the Sacrament in a monstrance at the convent gates, and prayed before it; the attackers left, the house was saved, and the image of her holding a monstrance became one of her emblems. Her patronage of eyes and against their problems may have developed from her name which has overtones from clearness, brightness, brilliance – like healthy eyes.
Toward the end of her life, when she was too ill to attend Mass, an image of the service would display on the wall of her cell; thus her patronage of television. She was ever the close friend and spiritual student of Francis, who apparently led her soul into the light at her death.
Visual Symbolic Analysis
Clare is pictured standing garbed in the habit of a Poor Clare. She has her left hand clasped over her heart signifying the emotive nature of the card. With her right hand, she extends a chalice, and hovering within the chalice is a host marked with the Chi Rho. The presentation of the image is striking. Usually, Clare is pictured with a host but it is not in a chalice. Rather she generally carries a classically sculpted monstrance. The monstrance is a vessel for displaying the host for adoration. They were originally Ciborium which had cylinders of crystal in their elongated sides so that people could see the host during processions. As the devotion of adoration became more common the monstrance took the shape of reliquaries first, then the commonly used solar pattern today. In her iconography, Clare usually carries the reliquary variety, but this image takes the receptacle back to the deep beginning of the tradition.
What is most striking about the image is that to hold up a chalice with a host over it is a gesture specifically related to the ordained priests, who are exclusively male. The ordained priest would hold the chalice with one hand and the host with the other above the chalice for the second elevation during the liturgy of the eucharist. Though Clare’s gesture is reminiscent of this, it is not exactly the same. She is not holding the host, only the cup. The host “floats”. This seems to be significant of a major theme is Clare’s life, that of passivity. As we noted in the book A User’s Guide to the Voices of Saints Deck
Her parents sought a life of engagement in the intrigue of nobility, but Saint Clare’s response was to flee to a mendicant cloister where she did not even have means of an income. When she desired to go to the foreign missions her stance remained stability and passivity. Most dramatically when her monastery is besieged by Fredrick II her response is not to hire a mercenary force or even to negotiate, but simply to present herself as the contemplative before the monstrance. Toward the end of her life, she cannot even attend mass, so the ritual is miraculously presented to her vis tele-vision. Saint Clare is a powerful woman.
She does not grasp at the host (the fruit of the tree of life) the way Eve grasped at the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This would be grasping for masculine dominance over God in the same way the first mother did. Rather, she grasps the intuitive emotion and passively allows God to act in the same way Mary does by her fiat, and what appears is the second person of the Trinity.
Meditation
The Queen of each suit is generally interpreted as the mature feminine manifestation of that suit’s significance. Queens are the suit manifest as nurturing, protective, emotive, compassionate, giving, and caring manifestation of what a suit symbolizes. The Queen of Cups as such generally implies a person who is compassionate, warm, and kind. The King and Queen cards of a suit also represent the spectral extremes regarding the gender resonance of the suit itself. A queen card of the masculine oriented suits is going to present as the nearest one can get to the center of the gender spectrum regarding that suit. Whereas a queen card of a feminine suit is going to present the best manifestation of what that suit symbolizes as it is presented by masculine principles.
The Suit of Cups is a suit that generally aligns with the feminine so the king and queen will align appropriately on this gender spectrum. Thus the Queen of Cups is a starkly feminine emotive maternal figure with a deep connection to intuition and is at peace with her unconscious self. This person is an intuitive healer of the soul and knows the skills of connective and intimate interpersonal relationships. Clare seemed to yearn to spread her ability to relate on a mass scale via missionary activity like the Little Brothers, but her biological status as a female prohibited her. Rather she remained in her convent and fiercely developed interpersonal love there. She had such ability in the intuitive that she was able to relate to mercenary soldiers in such a way that her communication was not with words, but deeply impactful ritual signs. She was granted the ability to see mass even though her body was not able to be at mass. Her abilities offer clarity to the dark recesses of the unconscious that taps into the flow from somnium spirituality, to myth, to ritual and use the synthesis to communicate in ways beyond the analytic.
Like Saint Francis, Clare was a devotee to lady poverty and saw poverty as a privilege. She is also known for her love of beauty, joy, music, and nature. These synthesize to portray a personality of the maternal emotive that seeks an environment that is dynamic yet in the strictures of comfort, passivity, and personal closeness. Her embrace is extremely intimate and includes those immediately at hand rather than those far off and abstract. Claire’s visionary experience of remote viewing mass syncs well with the intuitive transportation of the dream world into the waking world, but this time the vision is not a dream recorded in symbols of literature, rather it is an experience of the waking world presented in the symbols of ritual.
Considering our expanded resonance, Clare portrays an unrequited desire for adventure, to be “manly” and go off to the missions. Yet she is able to channel that desire into an extremely feminine ability to communicate via the deeper desires of the people around her. Her ability to bring calm and stability within her order and when confronted with threats to her convent or to her leadership of it demonstrates a person who can intuit the desires of others and work with the material there to get a job done.
Application
To meet Clare the Queen of Cups in meditation offers the querent the opportunity to probe the situation for an emotive maternal influence. The querent may want to probe the situation for a person who has this effect and what is the good result of those who would accept this person’s help. Clare also extols the beauty of patience and passivity, but not in a way of negation, rather, in a way that finds communication to a deeper aspect of the person.
In Reverse Clare the Queen of Cups is one who manipulates emotions for selfish gains, perhaps not even consciously. The querent may want to investigate aspects of emotive manipulation in the situation especially the ones motivated by lust or wrath. Or the querent may look for presence of a masculine balance to Clare, an analytical organizer who tempers emotion in order to seek resolutions through dialogue.
King of Cups: Saint Andrew
Hagiography
Saint Andrew the Apostle: The first Apostle. Fisherman by trade. Brother of Simon Peter. Follower of John the Baptist. Andrew went through life leading people to Jesus, both before and after the Crucifixion. Missionary in Asia Minor and Greece, and possibly areas in modern Russia and Poland. Martyred on a saltire (x-shaped) cross, he is said to have preached for two days from it.
Visual Symbolic Analysis
The image of Saint Andrew King of Cups displays him standing on a shore. The shore is rocky with large boulders rising from the ground to the saint’s right. Behind him, the water stretches to the horizon. The shoreline is indicative of the divide between the conscious world and the unconscious worlds of the psyche. At his left foot is a basket of fish, brought from the deep recesses of the sea. The basket is filled with aspects of the unconscious brought to the waking conscious realm. That the fish are dead shows that the transition “crystallized” them. But in the deep, they are operable in a way that is inaccessible. The basket represents the conscious process of analysis of the unconscious, an imperfect but necessary skill for the intuitive.
Saint Andrew stands in relation to the saltire cross hugging it with his right hand while he cradles a closed book (again, the unknown unconscious) in his left. He is barefoot, his close connection to the earth and the rhythms of the sea come off as primal and simple. Above his head, the divine hand descends from the heavens with a cup and pours water into Saint Andrew’s head.
The hand with the chalice most readily represents baptism, the gift of the Spirit, and communion with God. It is important that it comes from God’s hand. Andrew does not “grasp” at this grace like the first parents did. According to classical tarot interpretation, the chalice would be pouring intuition or emotion into his being. Again, this is also indicative of a lack of will and control and an acceptance of a gift.
Meditation
The King in each suit is generally interpreted as the mature masculine manifestation of that suit’s significance. In contemplation, the presence of a King card invites the querent to consider aspects of traditional masculinity, father figures, social order in the situation. The King and Queen cards of a suit also represent the spectral extremes regarding the gender resonance of the suit itself. A king card of the feminine oriented suits is going to present as the nearest one can get to the center of the gender spectrum regarding that suit. Whereas a king card of a masculine suit is going to present the best manifestation of what that suit symbolizes as it is presented by masculine principles. The Suit of Cups is a suit that generally aligns with the feminine so the king and queen will align appropriately on this gender spectrum. The King of Cups implies the personal embodiment of masculine emotion or intuition. On the emotive end of the gender spectrum, this card presents the nearest to the middle one can get and remain on the feminine side. The well developed emotions are brought to balance by the reasonable capacities and intuition is applied in practical and focused ways. Traditionally the King of Cups is generally interpreted as a person who is wise, diplomatic, but in that diplomacy is able to marshal empathy and compassion. This balances the practical with the emotive in a way that is task and result oriented. The King of Cups provides the balance between head and heart from the heart’s point of view. This makes the King of Cups a good counselor and adviser, especially regarding general relationships and use of emotions.
As the King of Cups, Saint Andrew plays a background role. If Peter is the face of the Apostles, Andrew, his brother, is the behind the scenes operator. He is able to operate as an apostle, but in no way takes the status of Peter, who becomes the public face of the ministry. Because of this, it has become the “go between” for people who want to connect to the movement. This happens twice in the Gospels, when Saint Phillip wants to introduce some Greek outsiders to the company he initially comes to Andrew to introduce them. Also, it is Andrew who brings up the nameless boy during the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. Andrew serves as the unconscious processor of the twelve, taking them outside and internalizing it before introducing it to the public (conscious) aspects of the group. Saint Andrew exemplifies such balance in the particular way he manifests as a character according to one of the Second Son typologies. Andrew seems to be a “first son”, Peter’s older brother. As a first son, he would be the one who is rejected because he is too reliant on his own advantages. It is Andrew who first sought inspiration as a follower of John the Baptist, a ‘first cousin’ who is supplanted by the Messiah himself. These two together demonstrate noble ways to invest in the first son role of the Second Son Typology. They are humble and by their guidance let the second son thrive according to God’s plan. The unconscious is primal and more deeply primary to the self. It has a role in how it interacts with the conscious self, but its intrusion therein must be subtle and guiding, not a usurpation of terror and anxiety. The same is true of intuition to thought and emotion to reason. These primal aspects of the self are less controlled and more self presenting, thus we often want to “just run with them”. Instead, the psyche must allow these first sons of the self to guide and bolster the second sons, conscious thought and reason, to achieve the higher goal.
Regarding our expanded resonance, Saint Andrew the King of Cups exemplifies eros as a burning desire to love God. His desire on the matter drives his intuition in choosing a master, first John the baptists, next Jesus the Christ. Even as King of Cups Saint Andrew continues on to find the higher authority. His emotive passion and desire for union with God drive him from pedagogue to teacher to messiah until he can rest in God’s love. This lack of analysis does present more of a haphazard trial and error, but at the same time, it is driven by eros that seeks a true and beautiful target.
Application
To meet Saint Andrew the King of Cups in a reading is to meet the sure harmony of the Conscious with the unconscious. The presentation of this card is another good time to reflect on one’s dream life and check in on what good goals one’s desires can lead one to. Saint Andrew is a student leader, and the card may evoke a quest for a good instructor in the situation. It could also indicate a humble person of persuasion in the situation, heretofore not considered as an ally.
In Reverse Saint Andrew betokens anxiety that has usurped the conscious realm. Or oppositional King of Cup can imply repression of subconscious intuitions or emotions that should be brought to light. Polar Saint Andrew could indicate a prideful assertion of privilege happening in the situation. Lastly, the card reversed could beg someone in the situation to take a public leadership role.
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