Emotions & Subconscious

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 03 Jan 2005, and now archived in the Forum Library.

ros	03 Jan 2005
Would someone explain this to me please???LOL Summing up the water on the cards. Would it be correct to say that the water on the Major Cards mean that we are working with our subconscious? The water on the Minors would mean we are working with our emotions. Thanks for any replies, ros

Teranar	04 Jan 2005
I will be taking guess on this, but maybe it might have some worth? I like using water as compare between concious and subconcious, water and dry. We like dry, we can't live in water, we spend most of our time not in water. But we must have water. And swimming often feel good! We like awake, we can talk, think, and do things, but we cannot spend all time awake. We must sleep. Sleep can be good, relax, and we are alone with whatever happens to be in our sleep. Whatever enters our sleep comes from things we saw awake, or thought awake, just like everything in water comes from dry, things that were out of water can go in, things in our awake can go in our sleep. That help or make any sense? .Zeromage

Thirteen	04 Jan 2005
ros wrote: Would it be correct to say that the water on the Major Cards mean that we are working with our subconscious? The water on the Minors would mean we are working with our emotions. I can see where you would think this as the cups are most often about romance--i.e., emotion, rather than say, the instincts or subconscious of the Moon and/or High Priestess--watery cards in the majors. However, the cups in the minors can also relate to psychic abilities and the unconscious. Cups can signal not only those emotions which move us--get us all misty eyed and soft--like the nostolgia of 6/cups or the joy of 3/cups, but also hint at things like over-indulgence or drug/alchohol abuse (4/cups), and, yes, the subconscious. This includes, like the Moon, hallucinations, visions and dreams (7/cups), depression (5/cups) and psychic abilities (Queen/cups--staring into her scrying bowl). The primary difference between majors and minors is always that the majors are, well, major. They imply something larger, more spiritual or powerful. They imply that the ripples from an event will reach out beyond the querent or reach in from the outside to the querent. The Minors are more localized. For example, the 5/cups, deep regret, depression or obsesson, may keep the person at home, devistated, miserable...but they can get over it, recover. And it's not likely to effect more than them and whoever's living with them. But something like the Moon, if it signals insanity, can really destroy not only the person, but a whole family. The person could end up in and out of hospitals for years, and have a damaging effect on their children. Likewise, on the positive side, an 8/cups--heading after one's dream, artistic vision, is certainly something that will change the querent's life and those close to them. But it's nothing like, again, the Moon in that context which is all about an artistic vision/dream that creates masterpieces and consumes the artist while doing so. That's going to affect not only those who have to live with a Picasso, but all the people who see his paintings. Does that help to clarify?

SunChariot	06 Jan 2005
For me and for what it is worth, I take an image of a body of water, ie a lake, ocean...as the unconscious. And the cups in the Cups suit as the emotions. But lets say if there were a body of water in a Minors card, a lake, that would still be the unconscious to me. Water in a cup is easy to access, easy to drink it all in one shot. A body of water has more depth to it. Parts you cannot see beneath the depth...THat is my take on it. Bar

SunChariot	06 Jan 2005
[quote=Thirteen] The primary difference between majors and minors is always that the majors are, well, major. They imply something larger, more spiritual or powerful. They imply that the ripples from an event will reach out beyond the querent or reach in from the outside to the querent. The Minors are more localized. For example, the 5/cups, deep regret, depression or obsesson, may keep the person at home, devistated, miserable...but they can get over it, recover. And it's not likely to effect more than them and whoever's living with them. But something like the Moon, if it signals insanity, can really destroy not only the person, but a whole family. The person could end up in and out of hospitals for years, and have a damaging effect on their children. [quote] PS What Thirteen said:-) Bar

Fudugazi	06 Jan 2005
Thirteen wrote: The primary difference between majors and minors is always that the majors are, well, major. They imply something larger, more spiritual or powerful. They imply that the ripples from an event will reach out beyond the querent or reach in from the outside to the querent I don't agree with that statement at all. I have seen some pip cards show powerful effects in combination. And Major cards show nothing more than a holiday. There is a difference, but it is not so simple as "Majors are about major events that go beyond the querent, minors are for localised events". It is more in the subtle way minors slip into our unconconscious, whereas a Major is a big bang. Sometimes we get blinded by that bang when we should pay far more attention to the minors. They exist all around us, they are the little tune you just can't get your of your mind, and which you realise one day is the one that you spent most time with and accompanied a whole part of your life and beyond - touched others through you. I still remember when an Ace of Cups blinded me with a spiritual truth - it went so deep I'll never forget it, it stays with me still, almost 3 years on. It changed something major in me, that cup I was handed from the sea. And it was a 3 of swords that brought me to Tarot. A major embezzlement scandal that touched many people in several countries was heralded by the 7 swords. And in a 5 of cups together with a 6 of pentacles and an Ace of cups, I once saw for a friend of mine a valuable contribution she would make to humanity in getting over a disappointment (she and her boyfriend split up - she left her job and went back to unversity to study medecine with the intention of serving the mentally ill). It's like the minor key in music - it is not more circumscribed than the major - they make different sounds and a have different effect (the minor key often sounds more melancholy or slightly strange, the major more positive), but it's not possible to say that one is "big" and the other is "small" in its effects. It all depends on how the notes are arranged...or the cards ;) I could go on. Tarot is a subtle, strange and wonderful book of life! Let us not stay prisoner to this "major is subconscious, minor is emotion thing" or "major is large, minor is local". Yes and no and vice-versa. Every reading is different, and speaks to different parts of you or the querent, in a never ending shifting patterns of cards.

Nina*	06 Jan 2005
Helvetica wrote: Tarot is a subtle, strange and wonderful book of life! Let us not stay prisoner to this "major is subconscious, minor is emotion thing" or "major is large, minor is local". Yes and no and vice-versa. Every reading is different, and speaks to different parts of you or the querent, in a never ending shifting patterns of cards. I really like this :)... I often sit with a reading and feel that a minor is VERY important to me. But as I've also learned that the majors are 'larger' I seem to concentrate on them and 'put' the minor 'aside'.

Fudugazi	06 Jan 2005
Ninamagic wrote: I really like this :)... I often sit with a reading and feel that a minor is VERY important to me. But as I've also learned that the majors are 'larger' I seem to concentrate on them and 'put' the minor 'aside'. Yes, I think we all learn that way, but it's very limiting, I have found. It's some kind of legend that goes around the tarot world. You should go with your gut on what kind of cards (singly or in combination) are important at any one time - or over a long period of time, even.

The Emotions & Subconscious thread was originally posted on 03 Jan 2005 in the Using Tarot Cards board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Using Tarot Cards, or read more archived threads.