10 of Cups

thatnarrowfellow

Hello All,

I just posted an introduction in the new members forum, but, to reiterate a little I'm a long-time (often befuddled)m student of occult philosophy, but new to using the tarot as a divinatory tool. To educate myself I'm re-reading Crowley's "Book of Thoth," and reading for the first time DuQuette's "Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot." So far the divinatory meanings have made sense to me based on the Qabbalistic/Astrological attributions, but I am confused by DuQuette's discussion of the 10 of cups, which is very positive, "Matter settled; complete good fortune." This seems to fly in the face of Crowley's interpretation, "The work proper to water is complete, and disturbance is due." He attributes this, sensibly, to the influence of Mars in Pisces, besides which, we're still talking about Malkuth, here. So why is DuQuette so cheery?

Thanks in advance!

- C
 

Aset

Good question, and I'm quite curious why Crowley found Mars in Pisces to be so negative.
 

Flaminica

Probably because Mars is the planet of turmoil and Pisces is the Mutable Water sign. This is a formula for passive-aggressive tension. Pisces is gentle, peace-loving and sensitive and Mars is a boisterous troublemaker. I always get the mental image of someone tossing a big rock in a still pond.

Neither is good or bad, they're merely not well suited to one another. Despite all best intentions, something somewhere is going to give. Picture a squad of Marines on leave trying to have a good time at a vegetarian New Age folk music festival.
 

Aset

Probably because Mars is the planet of turmoil and Pisces is the Mutable Water sign. This is a formula for passive-aggressive tension. Pisces is gentle, peace-loving and sensitive and Mars is a boisterous troublemaker. I always get the mental image of someone tossing a big rock in a still pond.

I can see that, but one thing I never understood is how these astrological aspects differ in the cards than from, say, someone's natal chart. For example, I have Mars in Pisces (also Venus conjunct Mars, which may or may not make a difference.) There it's not a bad thing to have. Sure, they seem contradictory, but one way that I've heard it explained that I like is that it makes one an angler rather than a hunter; it gives one a passive way of achieving their aims. Like setting out the intention to have or do something and letting it come rather than going out and aggressively pursuing it. There are other things in my chart that may cancel this out (like Sag rising), and it may be irrelevant to how M in P plays out in cards anyway, but I don't have problems with passive-aggressiveness or not being able to harness my energy to get what I want, etc. It's just a different way of going about things. I actually tend to think of it as a really beautiful combination. But I'm open to more thoughts on the matter. 10 of C is one of my favorite cards.

Oh one "bad" thing I thought of in terms of the natal chart is that it leads to lower energy levels.
 

Grigori

The other uncomfortable thing is we're in the suit of water which is all about change and flow, but in the sphere or malkuth (10) all about fixity and stability. So things are not quite lining up all around I reckon. I don't see a big difference in Crowley and DuQuette's description. Seems both are saying "too much of a good thing".
 

Freddie

I wonder what he meant by "There is now no planetary attribution to consider" in reference to the four tens? This card is kind of passive-aggressive to me and it seems to reflect A.C.'s take on it...a person gets what he/she wants or wishes for, but in the end that dream might not live up to it's expectations. Satisfaction at a price...it can be lonely at the top......be careful what you wish for, because you just might get....it was fun when I first started out...


A.C. and L.F. Harris keeping it real.




Freddie
 

thatnarrowfellow

Thanks everyone for your thoughts! Glad I'm not the only one a little perplexed. :p

- C