Two of Cups Analysis

Weekly Tarot for Mar. 2. 2008

Card: Two of Cups
Deck: Universal Waite Tarot (Pkt)
Key words: Union (two persons or of self), Self-Development, Balance, Resolution of conflict, Reconciliation

Okay, this is just getting ridiculous now. I draw dozens of cards for myself every week and the only time I draw this one is when I am writing these weekly contemplations.

Obviously, I’m either not getting something about myself, or I’m not getting something about how I should be presenting this card to you. I’m going to go with the latter since I never get this card any other time.

I am going to analyze the crap out of this card.

When I analyze a card, the first thing I do, & this is a good thing for you to do in your tarot journal if you have one, is to objectively describe everything you see in the card.

I see two people here, each holding a cup. What hovers over them is an orange winged lion with a caduceus beneath him. The woman wears a white garment, cloaked in blue, with a green wreath on her head. The man wears a yellow/brown garment, with a pink wreath on his head, yellow tights and brown shoes.

In the background are green rolling hills, with scattered trees, and a red roofed house in the distance. The sky is blue.

Once you’ve described it objectively, then assess what the symbols mean.
We can put this together like this:

Depending on the reading and the interpretation, as in any card, this may be positive or negative. We are not sure whether the man is taking the cup from the woman, or whether the woman has just received the cup from the man.

Her blue cloak tells us she may be ‘wearing her heart on her sleeve.’ She wears a green wreath that tells us she has gone, or is going through, a growth period. Her white clothing may denote a process of reflection or her innocence in the relationship, if this relates to a relationship with another person. (It may also indicate a relationship between two opposites of the self.)

The man is wearing yellow and brown, maybe indicating he is approaching this relationship from a more intellectual and grounded viewpoint, whereas her blue cloak indicates an emotional one. Or it may mean, in positive terms that he is feeling carefree about the relationship, or in negative terms, feeling some fear about it. He also wears brown boots: it appears to be a grounded person, and he feels that his groundedness protects him. His pink wreath may indicate that no matter how he presents himself, his purpose is pure.

Hovering over them, in front of a blue sky, is an orange winged lion attached to a caduceus. This tells me that the relationship (either with this other person or with one’s self) is charged with “Mana” or “life force” which comes from solar energy. It may indicate that this relationship is in a healing, communicative stage, which may carry it from one level to another, in a higher sense. This healing energy hovers over them and protects them during a process of change, which can always be difficult.

The fact that there are two cups may indicate that there is a decision to be made, or steps to be taken, in order to achieve the balance and unity these people, or this person, is seeking.

In the background we see a red-roofed house in the distance, nestled in a grove of trees on some green rolling hills. This may indicate the desire of these people to open themselves up to one another (or to one’s self) by revealing the deepest darkest secrets that reside in their hearts.

They do this knowing that it may be a step towards growth or reconciliation (if appropriate) in the relationship, that it may nourish the relationship, and that this ability to bare one’s soul in such a way, to self or to another, may only be possible by the wisdom we accrue from our own contemplative and meditative process about our lives, our purpose and our life experiences.

The Two of Cups is a card of relationships. One with another or with one’s self. The process of choosing and change can be difficult, but without it, we would be unbalanced and off center. There is a positive and negative aspect to all cards, just as there is to all life. One without the other would be unnatural. If we choose to center our selves, it can only work towards ‘a more perfect union’ of body, mind, and spirit. The more perfect the union within ourselves, the more chance we will have a that ‘perfect union’ with another.

Symbols

— Boots: Protection
— Caduceus: Healing, Communication
— Cloak (Blue): Love, loyalty, devotion, emotion, ‘Wearing heart on sleeve’
— Cups: Emotions, relationships, fulfillment
— Rolling Hills: Ancient wisdom, nourishment
— House: Deepest secret, tender part of heart, protection, value, security
— Sky (Blue): Overseeing spirit, heaven
— Trees: Regeneration, growth, life-process, element of air (thought, intellect)
— Two: Duality, balance, union, decision
— Wreaths: Victorious Spirit (Green: growth, Pink: Purity of purpose)
— Winged Lion: Transmutation from lower self to higher self

Colors

— Blue: Communication, justice, melancholy, spiritual wisdom, creativity, sub-conscious
— Brown: Groundedness
— Green: Regeneration; Growth
— Orange: Solar Energy, The Changing Process
— Pink: (Cross Red/White:) Purity in purpose. (my interpretation)
— Red: Life-force, action, purpose will, willpower, might, force
— White: Light, process of reflection, spirit, truth, innocence purity
— Yellow: Intellect, sunlight, carefree, light-hearted, fearful (cowardly)

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If you have found value in this, more than the reflections I’ve been writing, please leave a comment, or email me and let me know. This site is rather new and I would love suggestions about the things which would help you most, as I am building it.

Thanks,
Caat

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References:
“Pictures from the Heart: A Tarot Dictionary” by Sandra A. Thomson
“Tarot Teachings”

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New Possibilities

Card of the Week
Tarot Lessons by Example
For the week of Feb. 24. 2008

Card: Ace of Wands
Deck: Illuminated Tarot
Key Words: Developing ideas, initiative, creativity

If you look hard enough, you can see gifts being offered from a higher source. Those gifts come from within you. Now is the time to look inward to see where your inner guides can take you.

It’s time to look at the creative endeavors you envision with eagerness and excitement, rather than fear and trepidation.

Whatever negative messages given you in the past, that may prevent you from having the courage to act on your ideas, are far removed from your current life. The safety and security you sought from other people are now things you are capable of giving yourself.

In seeing that you have too much growth between the past and the present, you can discard those messages and seek out advice from your own inner guides.

By looking inward, you can develop courage to develop your ideas, and the confidence to understand you are capable to complete any endeavor you embark on with resounding success and purity of purpose.

Once you open yourself to your ‘self,’ you open yourself up to new possibilities and a different way of looking at things. The next time you get an ‘epiphany,’ seemingly out of nowhere, you will be able to act on it, and manifest it, with excitement and purpose.

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Symbols Used
— Castle: Safety, security (left side: may be influenced by family of origin)
— Clouds: Epiphany, bright idea ‘out of nowhere’, messages from the divine
— Budding Leaves (10): Potential to complete task
— Yods (8): Channelling divine energy to organize and manifest ideas

Colors Used:
— Green: Regeneration, Growth
— Purple: Spiritual insight & knowledge
— Red: Action, purpose, will
— Pink (cross between red & white): Purity in purpose

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References:
— “Pictures from the Heart: A Tarot Dictionary” by Sandra A. Thomson
— A. Venefica’s Tarot Teachings

Romance Yourself for Valentine’s Day

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Tarot Inspired Reflections
Learn to Read Tarot by Example
For the week of Feb. 10. 2008

Card: King of Pentacles
Deck: Universal Waite (Pocket Edition)

The same cards — over and over — Well, last week I spoke about repeating cards, so I’ll leave that alone today. Today I’ll mention how different the meaning of a card can be with relation to each card having both a positive and negative connotation, depending on the reading.

The last reading with this gentleman was less than positive, today he tells us this:

Indulge yourself this Valentine’s Day. Whether you are in a relationship with another person, or not, this is a day to honor your relationship with yourself.

So often this card presents us with a down to earth, practical message. But there’s more to this card than meets the eye. Both pentacles and green, which stand out to me here, are ruled by Venus. Did you know that every 8 years, Venus completes a cycle that moves in the symbol of a pentagram? What this tells me is that this day, as is everyday, is a day to honor our whole self: to bring it into balance.

And one of the ways to do that is by making Valentine’s Day as special for ourselves as we try to make it for others. So often we take care of ourselves only minimally. We make sure that our basic needs are secured, we live in the material world with what we need.

Too often, however, we fail to allow ourselves to indulge. We fail to look at ourselves as people who deserve to feel the sensuality and tactile response of beauty in our lives. Romance yourself as well as your partner, if you have one in your life.

Know that by doing this you open up your life to greater growth and potential because you bring all of the elements into balance: groundedness, communication, emotion & intuition, energy, and spirit.

So stroke your cat and really appreciate the softness of his/her fur. Indulge yourself with a chocolate covered strawberry and appreciate how decadent you can be. Put on soothing music and light candles, soak in the meditative quality of the flickering of the flame. If you have someone to share these things with, do so by allowing yourself to become enveloped in the refuge of their emotion. If you are alone on this day, do all of these things and romance yourself, because — you’re worth it.

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Symbols Used

• BULL/TAURUS: Material, tactile & sensual
• PLANET:VENUS: Love, romance, sensuality & beauty, indulge your senses.
• PENTACLES: Our body & the material world. What we perceive with our senses: Spirit (higher self), Earth (health, touch, stability), Air (communication, thought), Water emotions, intuition) & Fire (energy, creativity, love of life)
• CASTLE: Refuge, safety, protection.
• GRAPEVINES: Abundance, subconscious.
• GREEN: Growth, potential, hope, healing. Ruled by Venus: Love, romance

Spirituality of Communication

Tarot reflection for the week of Feb. 3, 2008

Card: Two of Cups
Deck: Universal Waite (Pocket Edition)

Well how fascinating. This is my 7th ‘weekly reflection’ and 3 times out of those 7 times I have drawn the Two of Cups.

There is a lesson here. Every week, before drawing a card, I ask my guides and the universe to let me draw a card which will give me information which all who read it will relate to.

I see this card about relationships. In “Christmas Contemplation”, I spoke about appreciating family over commercialism during the holidays. In “The Power of Mana” I spoke about how bettering ourselves, in turn, will improve our relationships.

Today goes along with that, it’s about communication & our relationship with our inner-self. But before I go on, I want to make the point about recurring cards. Twos indicate duality, choice and decision. How many times do we see a sign time after time but ignore it? We simply pass it off as ‘coincidence.’

But these things are not coincidence. It is the universe’s way of giving you a subtle message about something. By using the tarot, we have a symbolic tool at our disposal to keep after us about something we need to be looking at. In that way, it can be not only a spiritual tool, but a therapeutic one, as well.

Now, I could easily look at this card and say, “Well, this is trying to tell me something about my life, and that is indeed part of it — but only part. I say this because the only time I’ve been re-drawing this card is when I sit down to write a reading for you — my readers. I actually have had a recurring card for myself in the past couple of weeks, and that card has been “The Hermit,” not the Two of Cups.

So, I feel that the universe is trying to tell me something that I need to express to you, as well as myself, or I would be pulling this card in my personal readings, as well. Obviously this comes through my own filter, but I have made the decision to write these contemplations for the benefit of all who read them.

Today blue is standing out to me. Not only is the sky blue, but the woman in the card has a brilliant blue cloak on. Blue is the color of the 5th chakra, the throat chakra, which represents communication. And that what the theme of this card is today: “Communication.”

The importance of communication cannot be underestimated. We have an orange winged lion hovering overhead, attached to a caduceus, the symbol of health. What this is saying to me is that for far too long in this sometimes emotionally stunted society of ours, we have downplayed the importance of interpersonal communication to the point where it affects not only our own health, but the health of others. (In some cases, it affects your health because others are unwilling to communicate with you. — I will write on psychic vampires [those who suck your emotions dry] at a later time.)

Think about how many of the world’s problems could be solved with healthy communication. Think about how many of your own problems could be solved by healthy communication. Ah, but there’s the key word there — healthy communication.

We all communicate, it’s how we communicate which is the issue. How many people do you know (are you one of them?) who refuse to speak to someone because of their pride, or because they don’t want to get into a “confrontation.”

But not all communication to work out problems wind up in ‘confrontation.’ Some people just — talk. Who in your circle would you have a better relationship with if you were able to more effectively communicate with them if ego would allow? Your parent, child, friend, spouse, co-worker? How much better would you feel? How much would airing things out help your own health and well-being? How much more would it allow you to effectively meet the challenges of everyday life if you didn’t have emotions inside you simmering like a pressure cooker or if you weren’t in a constant state of battle?

Certainly not everyone is capable of win-win communication, but chances are if you are capable of healthy communication, you will eventually run into someone close to you who is not. The question is how do you handle it?

The answer can only be found by your own introspection, but that introspection is a start. Getting in touch with your own spirituality has a healthy and calming effect on your life. Resolve to meditate, play, relax. Giving to yourself in a loyal, loving and devoted way can open up a communication process within yourself that may well protect you from psychic vampires as well as preventing you from becoming one.

Communication. It’s fundamental. It’s how we operate. By communicating with our own higher being, we can become more content, better equip ourselves to rise to the challenges of our everyday lives, and better communicate with others &/or understand how to deal with it when they won’t.

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Symbols Used

• Blue: Communication, calmness, introspection, spirituality
• Blue Garment: loyalty, love, devotion, compassion
• Caduceus: Healing, Communication
• Orange: Determination, well-being, contentment
• Sun (rules orange): Meets the challenges of everyday life
• Two: Duality, choice, decision
• Winged Lion: Transmutation from lower self to higher self

Tend to your Garden

Tarot Inspired Reflection
For the week of Jan. 27. 2008

The King of Pentacles is a person who has become defined by nothing more than his or her earthly existence. S/he is so focused on material wealth that, in the vein of “Chauncy Gardniner” (a character in the film “Being There”) s/he has ‘left the garden untended.’ It has become overgrown and instead of growing, it is dying.

Unfortunately, (and ultimately) this is what happens in relationships when someone becomes so obsessed with work, and the prestige that the appearance of having money provides, that they may forget that it is relationships that are the true meaning and joy of life — not money — not work — and with that obsession the relationships they value the most begin to die.

The very people in their lives who are suppose to represent ‘refuge, safety and security’ in their lives are no longer there because a wall has been erected between them. Some people may try in vein to ‘buy’ love, but only do so because they don such a coat of armor that no other person can penetrate it. That armor will eventually begin to rust from the inside out so that no one can see the torment from the outside. And because people on the outside can’t see it, it’s easy to pretend it doesn’t exist.

In fact, people may become so bullheaded in their own view about money, they will actually stamp out any obstacle that gets in their way. This might be any obstacle, no matter how logical, which might require them to not only think about their own lives, but to feel their own lives, which may free them from the subconscious sludge they have created for themselves.

There is hope, however. If the tattered relationship is important enough to them — human beings will search for a sense of direction, knowledge and wisdom to know that there indeed is a problem, and what to do about it. If that love and desire for that relationship is strong enough, with mental awareness, insight, and determination to work for what is really important in life, a more balanced life and truly satisfying relationships are possible.

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Symbols Used:

• Yellow: Sense of direction. Logic over emotions or intuition. Search for knowledge and wisdom. Mental activity and awareness.

• Pink Flowers: love

• Pentacles: Material world. May indicate distress of the soul.

• Castle: Refuge, safety, protection.

• Bull’s Head: Stability, inflexibility

• Grapevines: abundance, subconscious

The Power of Mana

Tarot Reflection for the Week of Jan. 20, 2008

Once again we have the two of cups. Things are so divisive in the world, the fact that we are all connected, on some level, can’t help but affect us. It affects our relationships with strangers, our co-workers, our family, but most importantly — ourselves. Sometimes the negative energy in the world just starts to bleed into all of these things.

But there are things we can do about it. We have the power to not only transcend the negative energy coming at us, but in communicating with ourselves, to bring ourselves to a higher plane, we have the ability to put a little positive energy back out towards the world.

It seems small, but think about it. If everyone in the world just worked on themselves and their own spirituality — through reflection, meditation, or by turning inward to heal the parts of our selves that need healing — if every single person in the world did that for just a few minutes a day, think of how the world would change.

Well, not every person will, but that doesn’t mean that those of us that do won’t make a difference. Little by little, by bettering ourselves, we emit positive energy and do our small part to better the world. Little by little, by creating a more positive relationship with our ‘selves’, our relationships with strangers and co-workers and family will evolve into something more fulfilling.

Little by little, by your relationship with others becoming more positive, that positive energy will spread and their relationships with others will become more positive. It’s a domino effect. Positive life force — “mana” as they call it in the practice of Huna — has a way of spreading.

Because whether we like to admit it or not, we are not all separate entities on this earth, we are a unified whole. Our energy passes from one to the other, and if we can make just one small difference in the life of one other small being – whether it be another human by complementing her on something that she’s wearing to brighten her day, who then goes home and has a pleasant night with her husband, who’s had a bad day; or picking a stray cat up to find it a safe and happy home, thereby becoming a lifelong companion for a lonely person in need; or watering a tree that looks thirsty from a long drought, which then goes on to make the air we breathe — if we can make just one small difference in the life of another living entity on this earth, how can we not feel that we have a relationship with that entity and have helped not only them, but ourselves, in a much larger way, because it always comes back around to us.

Isn’t it nice to know how much of a difference we can make in the lives of others, merely by taking care of us.

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Symbols Used

• Caduceus:Healing, Communication
• Cups: Emotions, relationships
• Orange: Solar Energy, The Changing Process
• Winged Lion: Transmutation of lower self to higher self

Universal Waite® reproduced by permission of U.S. Games Systems, Inc., Stamford, CT 06902 USA. Copyrights © by U.S. Games Systems, Inc. Further reproduction prohibited.

Spiritual Retreat

Tarot Reflection for the week of Jan 13, 2008
8 of Pentacles

Life is tough. Sometimes we need to step back, take a break and assess what we have accomplished in our lives. It may not be everything you had hoped for, but at some point you need to understand that you are a productive human being.

We get so caught up, many times, in what we’re "suppose" to do, that we forget that we already are doing what we’re suppose to. We are on a life journey, from which to learn, that our souls have chosen for us.

Certainly our decisions can lead us down varied paths on that journey, but it’s the learning that takes place on those paths that is the important thing.

Yet, we cannot learn without work. And no matter what path we are led down, or we choose, our hope is that all of them lead to the same place — a place of spiritual enlightenment and retreat.

What we don’t realize, however, is that spiritual retreat is within us all the time. All we have to do is turn around to realize it’s there. It’s easy to get so focused on our jobs and our bills and our everyday lives that we forget to take time for ourselves. We forget to take care of ourselves. We forget to use our creative talents, or do something fun for ourselves to energize us.

It’s time to understand the life you’ve built for yourself is your path, and your imagination, hopes and dreams are your retreat. Wear your emotions, don’t weary of them. Let them speak to you in a language that’s personal to you. Know that they are leading you on an educational journey: an educational journey of your soul.

Be well. Be happy.
Caat

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Symbols

• BLUE: Emotion, throat chakra
• GREENERY: Growth, productivity
• MOUNTAIN: Attainment, spiritual goals, spiritual retreat
• PENTACLE: Work, security, practical matters
• ORANGE: Solar energy, creativity
• SEVEN: Imagination, self-reflection

Universal Waite® reproduced by permission of U.S. Games Systems, Inc., Stamford, CT 06902 USA. Copyrights © by U.S. Games Systems, Inc. Further reproduction prohibited.

Vision of the Past, Vision for the Future

Tarot Inspired Reflection for the week of Jan 6, 2008

It’s a new year, time for not only looking towards where you are going, but reflecting on where you have been. For, without knowing and learning from the past, how can you make your future the most fulfilling it can be?

At times, we find ourselves on the cusp of completing one aspect of our lives and moving onto another — not only physically, but spiritually. This cusp is the dividing line between that which has run it’s course and being reborn into a new vision for our lives. How is your energy affecting — and being affected by — that vision?

To know that our lives are a never-ending cycle is one way to have the strength and courage to face whatever we are leaving behind, and to move forward towards what lies ahead. We wear the robe of that renewal, knowing that by allowing our spirituality to shroud us, we can lead happier and more productive lives.

So look not only to the future, look to the past, as well. Look to see how far you have come. Look to your mistakes to see how you have grown. Look to your times of difficulty and strife, to see where it has led you and how life has a way of renewing itself.

Stay focused on your future goals with an eye on how you got to where you are. Because without the conscious knowledge of that experience, instead of using that life cycle to renew and grow, you end up just chasing your tail.

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Symbols

• Green: Growth, productivity
• King: Completion
• Lion: Courage, strength
• Lizard: Spirituality, cycle/renewal, vision
• Orange: Happiness, well-being
• Wand: Spirituality, growth

New Years Reflection

Taking Responsibility

Like Juliet, at some point you will wake from a long sleep. Let 2008 be the year in which you do that.

We tend to go through life, sometimes unsatisfied, sometimes unaware: unaware of our surroundings and our own mental state. Now is the time for transformation.

Like the butterfly, we only have a limited amount of time on this earth. Why waste it mired in self-pity and denial? If you have unfinished business buried in your subconscious, finish it. Not only does it affect you, but there are other beings in the world who are affected by it, whether you know it or not.

And, whether you know it or not, we are all connected. You may think that by retreating into your own little world, you are bothering no one. But your psychic energy affects everyone around you: your friends, your family, your animals. As you stumble through your fog, you may wind up driving away the people who you love the most, and once they leave, it may be too late.

Of course, you may have worn your suit of armor so long it may be difficult to get it off. If so, ask for help, in whatever form necessary. Keep in mind, that suit of armor doesn’t only keep others away, it keeps you away from yourself. This is the year to allow your heart to see the light of day.

Make this the year you come out of your cocoon, whatever that cocoon may be. Be it retreating into your own world, drinking or doing drugs, gambling, making work more important than family, eating too much, eating to little, over-compensating by constantly and inappropriately demanding to be the center of attention, constantly and inappropriately refusing to be the center of attention (ie: co-dependence,) inability to effectively communicate with others (ie: continual fights with your spouse, friends, family; continual problems at work) or any one of the other myriad of dysfunctional social behaviors, it’s time to change. It’s time to start honoring your own boundaries as well as others. Your life can only become more enriched by it.

This goes beyond making a New Year’s Resolution by saying "I’m going to lose weight," or "I’m going to stop drinking," — resolutions usually don’t work because people are trying to treat the symptom rather than the disease. This year, treat the disease. In other words, don’t just look at the problem and resolve to rectify that, resolve to rectify what causes the problem. That way, you’ll never have to make another New Year’s resolution — ever again.

Happy New Year,
Caat

Tarot of the New Vision © Lo Scarabeo