What Card? 5 Cups

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 31 May 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

firemaiden	31 May 2003
Woe! I am stripped of my eight-petaled gown, my white wind-torn veils, engulfed in the stagnant Nile. How empty and dry is the world! Mourn then, oh Padma, that the river may yet flow! and then, look up! Behold your heritage! Of my number, are the magic star, and the stigmata.

Silverlotus	31 May 2003
The Eight of Swords?

firemaiden	31 May 2003
really good guess! but ... nope I am going to edit my clue above to add one more line

Marion	31 May 2003
Eight of cups?

firemaiden	31 May 2003
good guess too, but .... nopes maybe I need to add one more clue... hmmm... thinking. I can't possibly make my clue as watertight as jmd's. He should be punished for being such a hard act to follow! okay, I am going to now edit my clue above to add a third part

emily2otters	31 May 2003
hanged man?

firemaiden	31 May 2003
nope, sorry, Emily two otters. I love otters by the way. My favorite animal. (Do you have two otters?) The third line of my clue is meant to give you a clue to the number associated with the card.

jmd	31 May 2003
5 :OL ?

allibee	01 Jun 2003
If not jmd's 5 Coins, perhaps the 5 Cups... seems to be talking about regret and self pity and lingering in the past. I have no idea about Padma or stigmata, nor eightpetaled gowns, but it comes across as that the river might yet flow? er, lost me again, thought for a mo about a river of tears. Look up, see your hertitage??? Could be look up at two cups still available, or it could mean the RWS church window.... Maybe jmd is right, probably is ....these clues lose me... and probably a few other 'players' not so learn'd in the ways of esoterica/Thoth. Rambling, ranting, lol A.

firemaiden	01 Jun 2003
My dear Alibee, you won!! The five of cups is it. You are right, the river was reference to the river in the picture of the 5 of cups. The first words "Woe" and "mourn" were clues to the RWSC meaning of the card as defined by the ubiquitous Joan Bunning, especially the acceptions of "grieving, and sorrow." See Joan Buning's Five of Cups The idea of heritage comes from Waite's Pictoral Key to the Tarot -- I supposed it refers to the castle one sees awaiting across the river, if the mourning gentleman would only look up : here is what Waite says about the Five of Cups: Quote: It is a card of loss, but something remains over; three have been taken, but two are left; it is a card of inheritance, patrimony, transmission, but not corresponding to expectations; with some interpreters it is a card of marriage, but not without bitterness or frustration. Reversed: News, alliances, affinity, consanguinity, ancestry, return, false projects. The Stigmata are the five wounds of Christ. The Pentacle is the five pointed star, considered magical. Alistair Crowley's Book of Thoth onine, is partly the source of my description: The eight-petaled gown was meant to refer to the lotus flower, Padma means lotus. Here are the words of Crowley for the Five of Cups - Disappointment that I simply rephrased it a bit. Quote: The Lotuses have their petals torn by fiery winds; the sea is arid and stagnant, a dead sea, like a "chott" in North Africa. No water flows into the cups. I was also reflecting on Margarete Petersen's Five of Cups, which stresses that tears allow one to return to the ocean, i.e. = allow everything to flow again. You would not need to have known that, although I posted my translation to her five of cups the same day :) IN case of frustration, I hear you, and I appologize to any who felt excluded. I must tell you however, I know absolutely nothing about esoterica myself, nor do I know anything about numerology, or tarot history, or vitually anything about tarot, but I do enjoy surfing on the internet, and find there are tremendous resources here at our fingertips. A simple search, for example of the word "stigmata" would reveal far more than you ever wanted to know. Thus I was able to crack jmd's code in the last clue, with no previous knowledge, but only by doing searches on the internet, which was, I thought, what made it fun. But I am not as clever as le grand jmd, and am afraid my clues were not as water-tight. Alas.

allibee	01 Jun 2003
I did search for padma and eightpetaled gowns...honest guv'nor...but only got back tibetan herbs and a never heard of it LOL I shall be working on a teaser for you all A

firemaiden	01 Jun 2003
Ah well, Alibee, as I said, I am not as clever as le grand jmd, and am afraid my clues were not as water-tight. Alas. But anyway, you got it!

allibee	01 Jun 2003
no, no, oh Volcanic Angel.... your clues were very good. I just didn't understand them.... and I totally didn't understand jmd's at all, LOL A.

The What Card? 5 Cups thread was originally posted on 31 May 2003 in the Tarot Games & Fun board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Tarot Games & Fun, or read more archived threads.