What's with the mitt????

Diana

I suggest everyone goes back and reads lark's last post....

Absolutely wonderful. A nice refreshing break from the set-in-stone Rider Waite interpretations that people seem to get stuck on, thinking they're the beginning and the end.

I own this deck (for reference purposes) and I have looked long at this card since this thread started. Quite frankly, there is nothing there that even proves that flowers are being offered. The guy could be the gardener, receiving orders from someone who, to me, doesn't look like a child. She looks to me like a woman who is not very tall. I don't see a child at all.

Her mitten is the same colour as the flowers - there is obviously a link there. The flowers are five pointed - like Stars. And there are six of them (Six of Cups).

I think one should never forget that this card is linked to The Lovers card - which is a card of choice.

If I see any dialogue here it would be: "Madam, where would you like me to put this pot of flowers?" (I mean, if this guy is offering the flowers, he's a bit of dumb-head 'cos the pot, with the earth in it, must weigh a ton! Have you ever tried carting around your potted garden plants without getting backache? If he wants to offer flowers, he would have picked them, no?)

Honestly, I am not trying to be funny here or argumentary for arguments sake. I just don't see any flowers being offered.......

And the mitten probably is, like firemaiden says, a "pot" holder. Far easier to garden with gloves. So they're probably gardening together. The woman is even wearing a kind of over-dress to protect her clothes.
 

firemaiden

LOL, Diana, I was too scared to say it, but the little lady never looked like a child to me either. She looks to me rather like a "little old lady".
 

gloria

Maybe she was called to take a look at the planter of herbs, and rushing from the kitchen had forgotten she still had her oven gloves on.

G.
 

catlin

To me the lady looks like a mature but dwarvish woman and the "boy" looks like a kind of juggler or jester with his fool's cap.

Maybe the card tells us not to forget our "playful" side, the inner child most of us have long forgotten.
 

firemaiden

gloria said:
Maybe she was called to take a look at the planter of herbs, and rushing from the kitchen had forgotten she still had her oven gloves on.

Now we're getting somewhere :D :D
 

spoonbender

I'll repeat this again: I'm perfectly willing to interpet 6/Cups as sinister if other cards suggest that interpetation. My only qualm is interpeting the card that way if it's on it's own--or not supported by other card. I have this qualm because I don't think such a strong interpetation ought to be offered to a querent without being sure.
Thirteen, I fully agree with you. I read my previous posts and I indeed didn't make myself very clear, and now that I've read the thread again, it appears that I didn't read some of your posts very well. I just felt a little insulted when you said that so many people go overboard, putting sinister spins on things without a reason. So I wanted to show that there was a reason here and that I didn't instantly think of the sinister interpretation. I still think that there's something fishy about the Six of Cups (and I'm talking about the card is the RWS-deck then, not the Six of Cups in general!), but I was by no means saying that you should always see the Six of Cups as meaning child abuse or something sinister. I even think the interpretation of Mary K. Greer is a bit far-going.

I hope I made myself a little clearer this time! Must have been a bit tired because of the first months of the schoolyear--thank god it's the Fall Vacation here now! :)

Spoonbender
 

Moongold

Originally posted by Moongold in Aoife's earlier thread "Symbolism and the Six of Cups"

Tracy Porter comments in "Tarot Companion" that the items in the cups are flowers but to me they look more like stars. I cannot see any other flowers in the RWS that look like this. They are five pointed stars and I cannot find right now an explanation of the symbolism of this. The six pointed star means as above so below and is generally a positive symbol. Could the missing point mean that all is not right

Just another thought. Although I have by choice moved away from my negative stance in the earlier thread. If one gets too deeply into a nagative analysis then everything has the possibility of another meaning. There may be flowers which do have five petals and which look like stars. Or it could be the artist's quirky sense of shape, form, perspective. :)
 

firemaiden

But isn't the five-pointed star quite a commonly occuring in nature pattern?
 

Moongold

You could be right firemaiden.......there could be a perfectly simple explanation :laugh:

And probably there is!
 

gloria

Another aspect of 6/Cups is someone from the past returning into your life.
Maybe there was a rift in a relationship, (mother – son for instance) and he now feels the need to make amends?

Ah, but doesn’t this lead us back to square one? :)
Mum can’t accept offer of love (oversized mitten etc.)

Not so if you see the planter containing herbs. Herbs are well known for their healing qualities. So looking at the card in this light I would see the mending of a relationship and feuds well and truly in the past. :)

Posted by SongDeva on 23-10-2003 14:42:

Seems to me the meaning changes with each reading.
And that different symbols will jump out for each reading, indicating a meaning for that querent.

__________________

I think SongDeva hits the nail on the head perfectly here.