Mary El Tarot - The Ace of Cups

[Bat Chicken]

http://www.mary-el.com/cups1.html

This card has the look of an angel. The body and head are of a human with, again, the features of both male and female. The element of water is in both the symbols and the cool blue background of the card. The belly has a pool of water further referring to the angel’s element. The water and the face of the Man represent the fixed sign of Aquarius.

The interesting features of this card are the repeated water symbol – there are two here – one on the chest and one on the forehead. I am also curious about the red cloak.

This card is calm and there is no restraint like the lion and the eagle. There is no wildness here. The serpent is held comfortably making me wonder if water, emotional balance is a key to uncomplicated kundalini awakening. Or perhaps the domain of the serpent is only water and earth in the next card, the Ace of Disks. It does not appear in the Wands or Swords cards.

There is a general commentary on the Aces as a group and their commonalities here.

Thoughts?

[RunningWild]

Originally Posted by Debra

The Ace of Cups seems depressed. I remember one day going to class and one of the students was simply a black hole. When you looked at him, you could almost literally see the deadness in and around him. He had fallen into a familiar depression and got medications that helped.

At first glance this card leaves me feeling flat. Maybe that's where the idea of depression fits in. But upon thinking about it, most people aren't all cheerful, smiley and jubilant all the time and this card represents only the potential.

What I do get from this card is that it's about an internal process. The angel's wings are furled inward in a protective manner. The card feels calm, not gushing.

I think the symbol on the angel's forehead is meant to signify the feminine? Which would fit the suit's usual designation of feminine, passive, and receptive. And there is a duplicate holding the red wrap on the angels chest near where the heart would be and may be an indicator of emotional receptiveness. The first symbol is over the area often spoken of as where the third eye is located and may represent psychic receptiveness.

The red wrap connects to, and is perhaps held in place, by the inverted triangle on the chest. It may allude to the masculine as it also covers the angel's external nether regions.

The snake/serpent confused me, but looking again at the card I see that it's head is directed toward the feminine symbol holding the wrap on the angel's chest, so perhaps it's another masculine symbol. However, the angel is holding it back, keeping it from reaching that symbol.

This may be completely off-topic for this card but it occurred to me that the snake might represent sperm being kept from reaching the egg. No fertilization. No penetration. No sex at all.

ETA: The symbol is the alchemical symbol for water. I don't think knowing that changes anything I've posted above, but I thought I should include the information just in case.